Mastercam speed

[TERRYH]

We keep all our files on our network here at work and it sucks speed wise, we open stuff from it save to it and our tool library is on it. will this effect how fast mastercam operates as far as simply turning stuff on and off and processing programs? My PC is a little over 4 years old and was towards bottom of the minimum requirements when they got it, I know it is not the fastest but it should work. It is a Dell precision T7500 Xeon X5690 @ 3.47 GHz with 12 GB RAM and Windows 7 professional. And has an Nivida Quadro FX3700 video card. Is there something we can do to help speed things up. Network wise. or is this PC the issue? Almost forgot we are still using MC X6

[CJep]

. Is there something we can do to help speed things up. Network wise. or is this PC the issue? Almost forgot we are still using MC X6

 

Yes, running files across a network will sometimes slow processing down.

Network wise? Is fiber optic option?

Moving your machine/control defs, posts, tool libraries, op defaults etc to the local install will help.

Working with the file locally then saving it back to the network will help also.

[Guest]

I agree with Cjep...

 

Work locally as much as you can and back up to the network...

 

All networks are NOT created equally......

 

I had an issue in one place where EVERYTHING, including configs were on the network........

 

After 2 hrs of slow, unresponsive and weird behavior.....I moved everything locally and saved onto the network

[TERRYH]

This is the way they want it, and they are not very easy to convince stuff needs upgraded or fixed if it still runs there is no problem according to them. We used to save everything to our PC's and they no longer want that for some reason. I was really looking for settings or something we can change to speed stuff up if possible, or if they are unwilling to change anything is it just something we have to live with.

[Guest]

This is the way they want it, and they are not very easy to convince stuff needs upgraded or fixed if it still runs there is no problem according to them. We used to save everything to our PC's and they no longer want that for some reason. I was really looking for settings or something we can change to speed stuff up if possible, or if they are unwilling to change anything is it just something we have to live with.

 

Simply then, you're stuck living with it......

[?Mark]

Make sure you're on a 1gbps switch when connected to the network.

We have everything on the network except config stuff. Works really well and our files are considered big, 5-120meg

Once you open the file, everything is running off your local pc....opening and saving is mostly the only thing affected when working off the network

[Guest]

Mark,

 

I have had 600meg files that even on a fast network can be painfully slow.....

 

Honestly, it may depend on what you're doing, but I don't consider the size files you have to be large, for me large files that start getting over 300 megs are getting big  

 

120meg file can be a 3D file with a 4 or 5 operations and a decent use of stock models

 

5 megs is run of the mill  2D op with a solid and several operations

 

Heck, a 4th axis file with only 2d  milling all around, about 50 ops, can easily surpass 10 megs  

[?Mark]

Ok, I've stock models/stl files in the 250 meg range all by themself ...still, once open it should not be an issue working on them unless I press "file save" too often....it really bogs everything down then.

 

 

I'd think that those file sizes are rather an exception for most users. :-)

[TERRYH]

thanks for the replies guys, I found out today when I told the IT dept. that the network was bad slow that they are going to upgrade my PC with a SSHD and more Ram, so that will help some but wont solve any of the network issues. And most of our files range from 300 KB and up.  

[Todd Tracey from Fastech]

Good morning Terry. Tell Carl I would be willing to discuss with him. I'm retired, but, still care about some of my former customers.

 

Todd Tracey, formerly of FASTech.

 

 

[guitar]

"This is the way they want it, and they are not very easy to convince stuff needs upgraded or fixed if it still runs there is no problem according to them."

 

Sounds like you work with the same IT people I am forced to deal with. They think they are the best of the best, yet everything runs like crap.

[guitar]

thanks for the replies guys, I found out today when I told the IT dept. that the network was bad slow that they are going to upgrade my PC with a SSHD and more Ram, so that will help some but wont solve any of the network issues. And most of our files range from 300 KB and up.  

 

 

Tell them you should have a separate server just for mastercam. It can be done cheaply.

[BBprecise]

I put a 2nd internal 150GB SATA6 drive that I had laying around in my tower and shared it (tried having everything on my SSD, but I was loosing space and extra read/write cycles are bad for SSD's). It contains everything in the MC shared folder along with all our MC files. The default file locations and such on the 2nd programmers pc are linked to the files needed in the shared folder. He creates solids, stock models and uses stl's for stock and he doesn't have any speed issues. Most of our MC files are under 10MB, some are close to 20MB, but a few push 100MB as well as stl files that are close to the same size. We both have 1GB network cards connected through a 1GB switch.

I do all the IT here so I can do as I want as long as it doesn't cost money.

 

The only hitch I have doing it this way is when going to new version of MC and setting the defaults on 2nd pc MC wants to copy the contents of the local shared folder in to the shared folder (and overwrite existing files and you can't say no or it wont change folder location) so I have to upgrade mine 1st, update all of the files in the shared folder, copy them to another location, change defaults on 2nd pc and allow MC to do what it needs, then move the files I copied back to their original location. Seems like a lot of work, but it's not really.

 

You have network issues (could be configuration issues) and no amount of ram or a SSD are going to help you there. You could try for NAS or a specific MC server, but then you still have to deal with another O/S and security permissions. Even on a 10/100 network with CAT5E cable you shouldn't have much of a problem.

[JBowman]

Can you make the files on the network "Always available offline"?  I have all the CAD-CAM directories and files synced locally and force a sync a couple times a day to update the files on the server.  With the files local you shouldn't experience any lag.