[toaren01]

I teach at a high school and we currently have MasterCam but it is only available on one computer because of the cost per seat. I can get an educational license for Aspire that would give me up to 40 seats for the cost of one. For the money it is a no brainer. I have never used Aspire so I was wondering how it compares to MasterCam as far as ease of use. I find MasterCam to be very powerful but hard to use and can't imagine having students use it. Is Aspire more user friendly especially to High school students? Thanks for any insight.

[ger21]

Yes, Aspire would be much more user friendly. But it's very different from MasterCAM, and depending on which level of MasterCAM you have, it could be somewhat less capable. But for a high school, Aspire is more than adequate.
And with Aspire, there is a lot of free learning material available, in the form of tutorial videos.

[toaren01]

I have MasterCam '18 and MasterCam Quickpart. I only let the students use the Quickpart because it is easy to use. The problem is you are limited to only the art that comes with the program. It is great for showing them the process but limits them on what they can create. My hope is with Aspire they will have the freedom of MasterCam without the overload. Thanks for the response.

[toaren01]

Also, does Aspire have the ability to use a 4th axis? For example, could you mill a CO2 car with aspire?

[ger21]

Yes and No. It doesn't support true 4th axis, but does support wrapping, and 2 sided machining. So, you can do it, but maybe not how you would normally think to do it.

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They do have a free demo that you can download and play with.