mastercam 2018 freezing

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04-10-2019, 02:35 PM
Michael82

mastercam 2018 freezing

Hey guys , I recently installed mc 2018 and after about 5 to 10 mins of working mastercam locks up , freezes up, there is nothing in the event log and there is no msg on the screen from windows or mc2018. So this is what I have done so far and none of this has worked.... called the dealer and they walked us thru a step by step and nothing worked they are just as baffled as I am . He checked the customer feedback to make sure it wasnt on and trying to get online causing it to freeze but that was on I do not want to participant. There is another place where it asked to check for updates automatically( if you are offline with no internet connection and it is trying to access the internet ) both boxes were unchecked and that didnt work . So after he did all this it still locks up after 5 or so mins , I also deleted the install and reinstalled to make sure it wasnt a bad install ... the install was done a new computer so they told us to bring that computer back and get a new one and try again .....well that is a bit much and it sounds like that was their way of putting us off because they didnt know what was wrong..... so here we are trying to fix this on our own. Can anyone help out I thought it may have something to do with the graphics card but when it locks up it is doing random tasks.... it may be making a tool path or I may be drawing a line or an arc there is no set thing that makes it happen and it is different times it may go for 8 minutes then after restarting the program it may only go for 4 mins before it freezes . PLEASE if you can help all suggestions are welcome
04-10-2019, 06:08 PM
machinehop5

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

try Monitoring Winblows......hold down "Ctrl" and "Alt" then hit Delete key...then select "Start Task Manager" >Performance tab. This might help see whats going on just before crash.
04-10-2019, 08:02 PM
Michael82

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Quote:

Originally Posted by machinehop5

try Monitoring Winblows......hold down "Ctrl" and "Alt" then hit Delete key...then select "Start Task Manager" >Performance tab. This might help see whats going on just before crash.

Ill give it a try and post what I see

- - - Updated - - -

I also forgot to mention it ran mc2017 great no crash no freeze nothing !!
04-11-2019, 12:27 PM
Michael82

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

After watching windows monitoring I seen nothing out of the norm. So for now I'm back to running 2017 until I come up with something else to try
04-12-2019, 12:31 AM
CadCamSam

what are the specs on your PC?
04-12-2019, 12:04 PM
Michael82

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

[QUOTE=CadCamSam;2282759]what are the specs on your PC?[/QUOT

Hp laptop

Processor- AMD Ryzen 3 2200U with Radeon Vega mobile Gfx 2.50 GHz

Installed Ram - 4.00 GB

Windows 10

@cadcamsam I had mc2017 on this same machine and it worked fine I wouldnt have thought they would have changed that much for 2017 to 2018 do u?
04-12-2019, 01:55 PM
CadCamSam

As much as MC would like to claim that their software runs on most PC's, it does not. First of all, MC has ALWAYS had problems on Radeon cards. You really need an nVidia Quadro card. I would recommend K2200m or better. Secondly, you do not have enough ram. 8 gig minimum. I would recommend 16. Ram is cheap. I just bought an HP Z17 laptop, on Ebay, pulled out all the drives and replaced them with Samsung SSD's, Firecuda hybrid drives and a K4100m. It runs beautifully. The price I paid for the laptop was $350, plus an extra &00 for the upgrade parts I installed. Unfortunately, I do not think you can put an nVidia card in your laptop. I could be wrong. But, if you want to keep that system, I would start with a clean install of windows and more ram.
04-13-2019, 04:37 PM
Michael82

Quote:

Originally Posted by CadCamSam

As much as MC would like to claim that their software runs on most PC's, it does not. First of all, MC has ALWAYS had problems on Radeon cards. You really need an nVidia Quadro card. I would recommend K2200m or better. Secondly, you do not have enough ram. 8 gig minimum. I would recommend 16. Ram is cheap. I just bought an HP Z17 laptop, on Ebay, pulled out all the drives and replaced them with Samsung SSD's, Firecuda hybrid drives and a K4100m. It runs beautifully. The price I paid for the laptop was $350, plus an extra &00 for the upgrade parts I installed. Unfortunately, I do not think you can put an nVidia card in your laptop. I could be wrong. But, if you want to keep that system, I would start with a clean install of windows and more ram.

Thanks for the pointers I will start over with a better machine

But y do u think 2017 worked fine??
04-17-2019, 02:48 PM
1 Infinite Loop

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

I totally agree with CadCamSam about hardware support from MC and IMO CNC Software has really dropped the ball on this. Rather than having a proper Hardware Compatibility List of tested configurations, CNC Software decided to let users be beta testers. Their hardware recommendations are a joke and look like what you see on the side of a video game box lol. We have a mix of Nvidia and AMD workstation cards but we have less issues with Nvidia for sure.

If you build/buy a new computer...
Don't bother with any mechanical hard drives at all.
Go SSD all the way, preferably M2 over SATA.
If you do more small or prisimatic work then 16GB of ram is probably enough.
For larger work or heavily 3D using stock models then you may need 32GB.
(our MC computers have 32 but if crunching two stock models at the same time they run out.)
Get an Nvidia Quadro card. All workstation cards tend to be pricey but you will be better off with a low end workstation card than a fast unsupported card.
If you have to go low end on video cards then one trick you can do is buy two or three cheap cards so you can do SLi or Crossfire for better performance.
I have three 1080's in a grid computing/gaming computing and it's a beast. They are gaming cards but are fast. NX looks ****ty on it but the performance is there.
I don't know if AMD has changed but they used to really suck at floating point processing which is mainly what cad cam uses. (I think their cpus shared a FP proc between two cores)
Intel is typically better for cad cam, especially the Xeons but I have heard the new i9's are really good.
This is a lot of info for some people so stick with the basics if you're unfamiliar with all this.

Okay now, here's another occasional problem with MC. Sometimes installs go awry and if it does then good luck trying to fix it. Sometimes re-installs work just fine but other times no matter how many attempts are made you will never get it working without manually removing certain registry entries. We have had to this on a few workstations and if a dealer instructs you to do this, you have to be extremely careful. A mistake when editing the registry can render your PC un-bootable. MC seems very bad at cross communicating with different versions and breaking things so sometimes it's best not to remove old versions when installing a new version. Which really isn't a bad idea since MC routinely breaks the ability to post old files in a new version. So completely dumb on CNC Software's part.
04-17-2019, 03:48 PM
cadcam

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Mastercam recommends the Intel or Xeon Processors as one thought. As for the Radion that as stated has always been an issue. Now I always suggest the Quadro cards the 2000 series or higher. but I also say you can use a 1070 or higher Nvida card and have seen great results.

Now using SLI Mastercam does not take advantage of SLI so I suggest not wasting money on that. Did your dealer on that computer have turn of hardware Acceleration to see if this helps.I am figuring you are running the latest drivers. I also figure moving to 2019 is not an option?

Now as for adding new versions with old versions is not a common issue. I have always ran multi versions for years and done a lot of support and have not found this to be an issue. usually with this type stuff is usually rights on the computer that can cause issues.
04-17-2019, 06:16 PM
1 Infinite Loop

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadcam

...Now as for adding new versions with old versions is not a common issue. I have always ran multi versions for years and done a lot of support and have not found this to be an issue. usually with this type stuff is usually rights on the computer that can cause issues.

It might have to do with shared MC libraries so everyone is using the same ones in conjunction with security possibly being an issue as you mentioned. We are using a secure domain network, not your typical mom and pop shop networking. Unfortunately we have to deal with how MC behaves because everything is secondary on a domain.

This is a common problem at our site and these issues are apparently somewhat common in general because CNC Software has published a number of white papers on the subject as well as white papers for cleaning up the registry which typical cleaners such CCleaner fail to remove when installs go awry.
04-17-2019, 06:46 PM
cadcam

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

If you read some of our Knowledge base with newer version so come from using Tech previews and Betas. I am not stating that we are perfect but not as much as you would expect. I am sorry for the issues at your location. Do you use Mastercam or just NX?
04-17-2019, 09:05 PM
1 Infinite Loop

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadcam

If you read some of our Knowledge base with newer version so come from using Tech previews and Betas. I am not stating that we are perfect but not as much as you would expect. I am sorry for the issues at your location. Do you use Mastercam or just NX?

Not trying to portray a dim situation and everything is running fine now that we know what to be careful of. I mainly do programming but also assist in domain administration, hardware/OS admin and cad systems administration. I use NX for programming, fixture design and machine simulations and support the MC computers and programmers.
04-18-2019, 04:19 PM
Michael82

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1 Infinite Loop

I totally agree with CadCamSam about hardware support from MC and IMO CNC Software has really dropped the ball on this. Rather than having a proper Hardware Compatibility List of tested configurations, CNC Software decided to let users be beta testers. Their hardware recommendations are a joke and look like what you see on the side of a video game box lol. We have a mix of Nvidia and AMD workstation cards but we have less issues with Nvidia for sure.

If you build/buy a new computer...
Don't bother with any mechanical hard drives at all.
Go SSD all the way, preferably M2 over SATA.
If you do more small or prisimatic work then 16GB of ram is probably enough.
For larger work or heavily 3D using stock models then you may need 32GB.
(our MC computers have 32 but if crunching two stock models at the same time they run out.)
Get an Nvidia Quadro card. All workstation cards tend to be pricey but you will be better off with a low end workstation card than a fast unsupported card.
If you have to go low end on video cards then one trick you can do is buy two or three cheap cards so you can do SLi or Crossfire for better performance.
I have three 1080's in a grid computing/gaming computing and it's a beast. They are gaming cards but are fast. NX looks ****ty on it but the performance is there.
I don't know if AMD has changed but they used to really suck at floating point processing which is mainly what cad cam uses. (I think their cpus shared a FP proc between two cores)
Intel is typically better for cad cam, especially the Xeons but I have heard the new i9's are really good.
This is a lot of info for some people so stick with the basics if you're unfamiliar with all this.

Okay now, here's another occasional problem with MC. Sometimes installs go awry and if it does then good luck trying to fix it. Sometimes re-installs work just fine but other times no matter how many attempts are made you will never get it working without manually removing certain registry entries. We have had to this on a few workstations and if a dealer instructs you to do this, you have to be extremely careful. A mistake when editing the registry can render your PC un-bootable. MC seems very bad at cross communicating with different versions and breaking things so sometimes it's best not to remove old versions when installing a new version. Which really isn't a bad idea since MC routinely breaks the ability to post old files in a new version. So completely dumb on CNC Software's part.

1st off thanks for the in depth reply. What gets me is that 2017 ran just fine . I have done some talking with the owner and he is willing to do what it takes to get things right so I will start by building a machine to the specs listed in your comment .
04-18-2019, 04:32 PM
cadcam

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Is your boss against getting a computer from Dell. if not look at getting a Dell precision Series. now you want one setup for Mastercam for example go to Solid Box https://www.mysolidbox.com/ For me these days al I run is Dell Precision series laptops and Desktop.
You also find most computers at CNC software aer the dell Precision Series to.
04-19-2019, 03:50 PM
1 Infinite Loop

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadcam

Is your boss against getting a computer from Dell. if not look at getting a Dell precision Series. now you want one setup for Mastercam for example go to Solid Box https://www.mysolidbox.com/ For me these days al I run is Dell Precision series laptops and Desktop.
You also find most computers at CNC software aer the dell Precision Series to.

I second that. Dell Precisions with Xeon cpu's are the only hardware we use.
04-20-2019, 09:41 PM
Michael82

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1 Infinite Loop

I second that. Dell Precisions with Xeon cpu's are the only hardware we use.

Thanks for the info ....does anyone happen to know y mc2017 works flawlessly but 2018 does not
05-01-2019, 04:59 PM
cadcam

Re: mastercam 2018 freezing

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael82

Thanks for the info ....does anyone happen to know y mc2017 works flawlessly but 2018 does not

what is the issue you say that 2018 does not work.
PS 2019 update 3.1 is the latest for about another month.