[BGORDON]

I have been using Feature Cam for the last 10 years and I have had very little training at all on it. We have two machine shops in my company but we are 100 miles apart. The other machine shop uses Master cam. Management would like us both to use the same software so that our programs are interchangeable from shop to shop. So I have been given two days training on Master cam level 1. The trainer keeps telling me to stop comparing it to Feature Cam but if I can do something with Feature Cam in 15 minutes and it takes 3 hours with Master cam why shouldn’t I compare it.

Has anyone ells had this trouble going to Master cam. :drowning:

[cadcamwiz]

thats because the trainer knows his software is not nearly as friendly as FC. ask him if he whants to have a challange and see how fast he backs down. I will give MC credit for trying to come out of the dos days and make the software more user friendly but they still have a long way to go.

[BGORDON]

That’s about the best way I have found to compare the two. It's like going from windows (Feature Cam) to Dos (Master cam). The instructor keeps telling me that if I build all the macros, then it will do almost what Feature cam can do.

So that means we spend all this money for Master cam and then spend all this time on creating macros just to almost have Feature cam., which I already have?????

[Dean0017]

What type of machines are you programming??? 3-axis, 5-axis, mill/turns?

Dean
In-Source Technical Solutions

[cadcamwiz]

I use it to program 15 axis cinci planer mills (triple spindle 100 HP 5 axis with a 180 foot bed) And 5 axis turn/mills. and trick the Mill side to do wire with a cutom post I built in FC's Xbuild in about 15 min. give mastercam and gibbs about 15 years and they may halfway catch up, not likely though.

[BGORDON]

We have 9 3-axis machining centers. One of them has a rotary table. I am the only programmer and we do a lot of prototyping. We have a few jobs that we run on a regular basis but for the most part we are a quick turn job shop. I just can't see me being able to keep 9 machines making chips if I use Mastercam

[txcncman]

What is your turn over per machine per 8 hour day? 1 per day per machine means you have to be able to output 9 new programs per day. This means you have to make a new program every 53 minutes. How are you accomplishing that now?

[BGORDON]

Allot of what we do is rouged enclosures so if a cabinet has 25 items usually the sides and top base are the most involved. The rest of the items are not to bad (bars or angle with a bunch of holes). I can knock out 10 to 15 of the easier items in one day but the the more involved ones take a few hours. Plus like I said some work is repeat as well. I am able to do this with Feature Cam but with Master cam it takes me hours to do the easy stuff.

[txcncman]

Where are you finding a hang up? Are you importing models or drawing in MasterCam? If working from an existing model, assigning a work zero and tool paths should be relatively fast and easy. I would guess less than 5 minutes per tool/tool path. 1 to 3 minutes sounds even more reasonable. Or are you having problems with the output code does not match your machines and you are doing manual edits?

[BGORDON]

Right now I am drawing in Master cam and then programming from that. Even that seems to take longer then Feature cam. The main problem I have with Master cam is that to make one tool path it requires you to go through 8 pages of redundant settings and then you still have to calculate all the depths and step overs. With Feature cam it takes about 6 mouse clicks and the software does all the calculations for you.

Here is a good example: In feature cam to make a Spot drilled, drilled, countersunk, and reamed hole takes about 9 mouse clicks and typing in the countersink diameter and degree and then the hole depth. With Master cam to do the same thing takes 4 separate tool paths and a crap load more time.

[txcncman]

Actually in MasterCam you can make the first drill operation and then copy it and only change the tool and depths. I know I am probably over simplifying the explanation. But it really is not that difficult to do. I know. I did it about 12 times today to add a chamfer tool to an existing file.

[BGORDON]

But that seems to be the answer to a lot of the issues I have...... "All you have to do is".

All I have to do is make one feature with 9 mouse clicks which took me 32 seconds to do. Count the mouse clicks and how much time it takes to do the same thing with Master cam. I bet its a lot longer.

I'm really not trying to bash Master cam. It just seems to be way way more time consuming and not as user friendly as feature cam.

[BurrMan]

But that seems to be the answer to a lot of the issues I have...... "All you have to do is".

Well:

I have been using Feature Cam for the last 10 years

And then:

So I have been given two days training on Master cam level 1.

Kindof answers itself........

[BGORDON]

Oh, I understand now. Since I have used Feature cam for ten years and only had two days training on Master cam, thats why Master cam REQUIRES you to make four separate tool paths instead of one simple feature. My bad, thanks for clearing that up for me.

[BOATDUDEGUY]

I went the opposite, going from master to feature, and as ive stated in so many posts already, ill never go back
and ive used master for 5yrs v8 to x6,