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Mastercam for Solidworks - final impressions


Bob W.
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So I have been running Mastercam for Solidworks for some time now and I just wanted to pass along some impressions after running the software for a while and really getting used to it.  It works well and is pretty stable for the most part though there are a few bugs that are annoying,  After modifying a part and regenerating the dirty Mastercam toolpaths I often run into the issue of contour operations reversing.  I have to go in and manually reverse the chains in each operation and it is a real time waster.  

 

Since this is running in Solidworks it seems to be a little bloated.  Large files are a real bear to deal with and this is on a water cooled first class computer that is a real screamer (8 cores @ 4GHZ, 32 Gb ram).  My initial goal was to standardize molds and program the lions share in Solidworks but I gave up on that long ago.  Even with the time needed to import geometry into Mastercam it is much faster to reassign chains and geometry within Mastercam than with a standard file in Solidworks.  It is slower to chain and crunch the toolpaths than to import, chain, and crunch toolpaths in Mastercam for anything with complex surfaces or geometry.  The multi-threading is also quite a bit less efficient during toolpath calculations as they seem to peg at ~70% whereas Mastercam will have all threads at 95-100%.  This is very noticeable when crunching several opti-rest operations or high speed surfacing toolpaths.

 

Overall I am still glad I bought it.  There are several utility parts that are at the simpler end of the scale and it works well to have these ready to go after design changes are made.  It will not revolutionize the mold making process for us as I hoped it would, but I do see benefits from owning it.  I hope CNC continues in invest resources into making this a solid product because I do feel it has potential.  The ability to dynamically rotate WCS is a HUGE improvement in X8 and it has increased my programming/ program adapting efficiency in Mastercam dramatically.  This has sped up the process in stand alone Mastercam so much it makes the gains from working in Mastercam for Solidworks narrower.

 

Thought some folks would find this interesting and informative.

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Thanks, I was just thinking about MC4SW, as compared to HSMWorks / HSM Express and Delcam for Solidworks.  Do you have to buy a whole new Mastercam licence for MC4SW?  I'm considering using the free 2 1/2 axis HSM Express or Delcam for the "Mill Level 1" type programming on our families of parts.

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Hi Bob,

 

"After modifying a part and regenerating the dirty Mastercam toolpaths I often run into the issue of contour operations reversing.  If you happen to have a reproducible example of this we would really like to take a closer look at it. I did some digging around on similar type issues and could only find one that has yet to be addressed. So I would like to make sure your issue is either covered under that same defect or submit a new one if needed. So if you do have a reproducible example please send it in to [email protected] and put atten: Ryan on the subject line and I'll jump right on it. You also mentioned you ran into a few other bugs, please feel free to send those in as well. We are always looking for more feedback from actual users, good or bad.

 

Thanks

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Hi Bob,

 

"After modifying a part and regenerating the dirty Mastercam toolpaths I often run into the issue of contour operations reversing.  If you happen to have a reproducible example of this we would really like to take a closer look at it. I did some digging around on similar type issues and could only find one that has yet to be addressed. So I would like to make sure your issue is either covered under that same defect or submit a new one if needed. So if you do have a reproducible example please send it in to [email protected] and put atten: Ryan on the subject line and I'll jump right on it. You also mentioned you ran into a few other bugs, please feel free to send those in as well. We are always looking for more feedback from actual users, good or bad.

 

Thanks

It appears to be random.  Here is my process.  I created a part in Solidworks that has all of the characteristics of the parts I need to machine.  I then put this part in an assembly.  This part (the generic) is programmed using Mastercam for Solidworks within the assembly so I now have a generic Mastercam program.  When a new part comes along bring it into the assembly along with the generic.  I then move the features around on the generic so it matches the part I need to machine.  Once they are a match I regenerate the Mastercam program in the generic and it should be ready to go.  What often happens though is the contours get reversed.

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Typically these types of issue are very step specific but I was able to come up with a work flow that sounds similar to your and was able to reproduce the issue. I logged this as D-16550 and will bring it up at our daily MCfSW team meeting. Thanks Bob and again if you run into any other issues in the future please send them in to [email protected]. The sooner we can get them logged the sooner we can get them addressed for a future update.

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Hi Bob,

 

"After modifying a part and regenerating the dirty Mastercam toolpaths I often run into the issue of contour operations reversing.  If you happen to have a reproducible example of this we would really like to take a closer look at it. I did some digging around on similar type issues and could only find one that has yet to be addressed. So I would like to make sure your issue is either covered under that same defect or submit a new one if needed. So if you do have a reproducible example please send it in to [email protected] and put atten: Ryan on the subject line and I'll jump right on it. You also mentioned you ran into a few other bugs, please feel free to send those in as well. We are always looking for more feedback from actual users, good or bad.

 

Thanks

I have this problem quite a few times. I am using Solidworks 2014 and have been using MC4SW with X6, 7 and now 8. It will also get a dirty operation at times if you add a sketch independent of what was used in a toolpath. Then you go back and hit regen on it, and most of the time, it will rechain correctly, other times have to go in and flip the arrows.

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Hi Leo,

 

I've been messing around with different work flows along these lines and so far I haven't been able to reproduce this one. As I mentioned above these types of issue are typically very step specific which would explain as you mentioned most of the time it works correctly but other times not. So even though this  may appear to be random when it happens there's always some root cause. Even the smallest difference in work flow could be the key for reproducible steps. I know it can be a bear to track down in some cases but once we get steps to reproduce an issue we can get development to addressed.

 

One other thing to keep in mind is when these types of issues are addressed, the fix in some cases involves collecting additional data at the time the chains are selected and the settings set. This is important to know because while in a newer version creating new toolpaths will be able to take advantage of the fix, opening a file created from an earlier release may not until the geometry is reselected.
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  • 4 weeks later...

I used an evaluation version of MCX for Solidworks and was pleased for the most part.

 

One problem I ran into was units.

 

If you program in imperial and the model is metric you cannot switch later with out re-chaining all ops.

 

I just learned to be careful and check before I programmed anything.

 

This could be a major problem in many company's. Here at least we are switching units to imperial from metric most of the time. The point of MCX for solidworks in our case is the ability to upload models and cam data to pdmworks for tracking, but if the units are changed after programming it nukes the chaining, making almost useless for us to upgrade the 8 seats here.

 

Lets hope this is one problem that can be fixed. 

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