[BROCD]

Hello everyone, I have narrowed my programming software down to Esprit and mastercam for horizontals, verticals, 2 axis lathes and millturns with robots. I am leaning somewhat heavily toward Esprit but Mastercam is about half the price. Just wondering if Esprit is that much better or just overpriced. Not knocking either one, just confused by the disparity in pricing between the two. I'm sure both are competant.

[The Wolf!]

in to see the responses.

sorry i dont have any insight for you. are you going to do all your drawing in the cam system???

[jvangelder]

Have you had a demo of mastercam? I highly suggest it if you havent.


-proud gibbs user

[PGMR_42]

Hello everyone, I have narrowed my programming software down to Esprit and mastercam for horizontals, verticals, 2 axis lathes and millturns with robots. I am leaning somewhat heavily toward Esprit but Mastercam is about half the price. Just wondering if Esprit is that much better or just overpriced. Not knocking either one, just confused by the disparity in pricing between the two. I'm sure both are competant.

I have been programming with ESPRIT since '08 and have found their software to be the best due to it's open API. I extensively use their KBM along with some custom macros.

[BROCD]

Thank you for the replies. Won't be using the CAD side much, if at all, we use Inventor for design. Yes, we have demo'd Mastercam and they are our second choice. I don't have much experience with CAM but I felt Esprit's interface was more intuitive and the look and feel was much cleaner. Another thing I liked was the Mori certified posts as well as the help I recieved during the trial period.

[The Wolf!]

hows the price compared to mastercam?????

[BROCD]

Esprit came in 20K higher.

[JohnWLMT]

Most dealers will compete on price. May be a little difficult now since Mastercam seems to be hurting lately. Lots of specials.

Go to the Mastercam forum and go back to the release of X6. Not very many happy people. Also Mastercam has only released six new versions in more than ten years. That's ten years of maintenance bills with only six new versions.

Also consider how long after a new Inventor comes out how long do you have to wait for a current translator.

Do yourself a favor and get Esprit. Especially if you have Mori's.

John

[Vulin]

From my experience, they are both equally priced. This is 3 axis Milling prices, no lathe, or 5 axis. Esprit is supposed to be superior the more complex you get. It basically comes down to what you find easier to use. I found Esprit's format very friendly, and not full of a bunch of misc pop up windows, and other such items.

[Dean0017]

Hello everyone, I have narrowed my programming software down to Esprit and mastercam for horizontals, verticals, 2 axis lathes and millturns with robots. I am leaning somewhat heavily toward Esprit but Mastercam is about half the price. Just wondering if Esprit is that much better or just overpriced. Not knocking either one, just confused by the disparity in pricing between the two. I'm sure both are competant.

I see you have a mill/turn on your list... Go with Esprit. You get full post support and full simulation.

If I'm too late with this reply and you already purchased Mastercam... All I can say is that I'm very very sorry...

[BROCD]

Thanks everyone. We went with Esprit.

[Dean0017]

Thanks everyone. We went with Esprit.

FYI

If you take into account the extras that you get standard with Esprit, I would say Esprit costs less.

These are standard options:

Solids
Translation for Solidworks, Inventer, CATIA
etc...

regards,

Dean

[Dean0017]

FYI

If you take into account the extras that you get standard with Esprit, I would say Esprit costs less.

These are standard options:

Solids
Translation for Solidworks, Inventer, CATIA
etc...

regards,

Dean

Sorry... Not CATIA

[cbr_speedster]

So, how do you like Esprit after owning it for a year? Just curious.. I've used Esprit for 7 years at 5 different companies and think it's tops for programming every type of machine from EDM to Swiss lathes. I'm sure it's what you get used too but in my book Esprit is hard to beat when it comes to support. I'm very picky when it comes to machine simulation and in Esprit I can build machine files that work and look exactly like the machine. Pretty cool stuff. E-mail me and I'll send some picks of what I'm talking about.

[BROCD]

cbr, after close to a year with limited use I realize I still have a long, long way to go in realizing the full potential of this software. Having programmed manually for years this was quite a change for me. First off let me say that Esprit's customer service is fantastic! I have never had to wait more than an hour for someone to assist me with an incident and everyone at DP has been extremely friendly, knowledgeable and professional! They are far and away the best customer service team I've ever worked with. I have yet to find something Esprit can't do. Getting the posts to output efficient code has been a bit of a hassle but that is just the way it is. The only complaint I had is with my reseller and he's out of the loop now and I deal directly with DP. Keep in mind I don't have a fair comparison to any of the other major CAM packages but having a good knowledge of software in general I am very pleased.

[Tolyatti]

I use both Mastercam (reluctantly) and Esprit (happily). We compared prices for a 5-axis Mori, and Mastercam, Gibbscam and Esprit came in at about the same price. The Esprit demo left the Mastercam demo far, far behind. Mastercam has a bunch of add-ons they call C-hooks. These are features that better CAM packages include, completely integrated. We went with Esprit. In my opinion there's no comparison between Esprit and Mastercam. The learning curve with Esprit is very steep, and self-teaching is a long and inefficient proposition whihc I don't recommend, but once you begin to master it, you appreciate its power. I agree with BROCD that the Esprit tech support is responsive, (patient!) and prompt. Unfortunately, Mastercam leaves tech support up to the reseller... Need I say more?

[Dan B]

Getting the posts to output efficient code has been a bit of a hassle but that is just the way it is.

It shouldn't be the "way it is". We had a helluva time with a post for our Integrex. Our Esprit experience was not good.

Dan

[moldcore]

We have a local shop with Esprit that nobody can figure out and they can’t find anyone to hire who knows anything about it. Seems that the previous owner who purchased it and was the only one trained to use it died. I do all their 3D programming in Surfcam for them. Fortunately for them they don’t have to do much in the 3D world.

[Tolyatti]

(dupe)

[Tolyatti]

It shouldn't be the "way it is". We had a helluva time with a post for our Integrex. Our Esprit experience was not good.

Dan

I had forgotten that in 2009, when we first got the Mori 5-axis, there were problems with the post from ESPRIT, but it has been pretty good for a couple of years now.