Jay, i'm sorry i forgot to mention the comparation was based on Mastercam v9.1 sp1 and Proe wildfire v2.

Pro's and con's? let me see. pro's material removal better surface tools similar to moldplus but better. you don't have to worry about gaps between surfaces when doing 3d toolpath. support family table part. better 4 axis mill toolpaths. better 4axis edm toolpaths. more advance surface roughing since you can define any shape of volume to remove. better Associativity between toolpaths and model. compare to mastercam and solid. supports min-max tol setting machining if using proe model. better developement tool when combine with proe and intralink compare to mastercam + other cad model. you can roll back any changes or go forward . almost never lose anything. better tooling design tool when use with pro/e since it has advance assembly and drawing compare to mastercam solid. there are more but i leave that to other pro/nc users in here. con's too expensive training classes are limited and too expensive. high maintainance hard to find pro/nc programmer not friendly to use to most people. again there is more. all of this is just my own opion based on my experience as a Mastercam and Pro/nc user. Hope this helps. ps: you can use any 2d, 3d curve or sketch to drive the tool. we use Posthaste for post processor. we recently bought our 4 axis Charmilles Edm machine post for $650. it outpouts Iso and Cmd file with no hand editing needed. The mill full 4 axis post was around $1000.

quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't know anyone rich enough to own ProE... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- all the pro/e contractors i know work on site. they don't bring work home so i don't know if there is any need for a proe license. last time i checked there was a package for around $5000. but of course it's not full blown.

you can purchase a student edition package for around $300 and take a course or 2 at your local university. your customer request proe for a good reason. let say you get a proe model, design you fixture or whatever reference that model. spend hours on designing and detailing. right before you are about to hand over the work they tell you there is a new rev. do you want to see your design and drawing update after bring in the new model with minimal or no work at all? or do you want to start over again? well almost always. most of the time any references to a non native file won't regenerate if that file is changed.

quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i should receive the STEP access codes in a couple days and so I think I'm going to shoot them over a parasolid file and see if they can read that in the mean time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i'm sure they can read parasolid from mastercam. i do it all the time.

Murlin, if they're using pro/man they don't need a solid to create a toolpath. if they still want a solid they can create one from the surface file you provide. if there is any gap they should know how to "heal" it. i haven't seen a proe station that didn't have step read-in option.

check in where you install mastercam. c:mcam9

Hi, the gcode file you want to look is junoir-punch.iso. the file extension is iso instead of nc. i hope this is what you're looking for.

Rick and Gcode, thank you for your input.

Rich, the future box will have: mobo: gigabyte ga-8knxp cpu: 3.2 ghz memoy: 2 gig video card: wildcat vp880 pro the one will be replaced is a 2.4 ghz dell workstation 2 gig memory. 900 xgl quadro i have a dualview set up. when i have mastercam open in one monitor and 2 sessions of proe open in the other one, i can see the decrease in graphic performance. the assembly can't hardly move. hopefully an extra 128 mb of video ram will solve the problem. i could be wrong. that's why i'm seeking all of your input. Rich, thank you for the reply.

Hi gurus, i'm getting a new box and this video card is my 1st choice. i'd like to have your input. the box is mainly for proe and mastercam. the quadro 900 xgl i have right now can't handle the load. i'm running dualview. thank you in advance for all your input.

Chris, Thank you for your help. i did tried to call the number you gave. only answer machine. i'll give the phone number from Anthony's to my admin. hope he'll get some luck this time. i love cimco product. i'm using cimco edit and filter right now. once again, thank you.

Hi, we're trying to get cimco to do the comunication connection for all of our cncs(around 20). they just won't answer our email or phone calls. Are they still around?? i hope they read this and give us a call or something because we need this done. the reason we want them is because we bought the cimco software. oh, the company name is printronix.

Hi Kathy, we have mastercam and pro- v2001 here. they won't upgrade to pro-e wildfire until intralink v3.3 up and running. i am a wildfire beta tester and having a hard time with it. i guess i'm so used to the old interface.

1/ bring a solid model in as stock. 2/ stock material being removed as you apply toolpath to it.

hi badcam, here is how u can change part tol. in proe. go into setup, accuracy, absolute then enter the value u want. the lowest no. u can enter in is .0002". hope this help.