[CAMCRASH]

I am a curent Master Cam 9 user.
I have been trying to follow there progress but have seen little on there progression.
I know that they have gone through several BETA stages.
Is it close to being complete and are they going to hold off for a show or event to release it?

[Rekd]

We're on beta 7 right now. We don't know when the release will be. It definately WONT be until it's ready. It would be bad for CNC Software to release this without full testing/bug-removal first. (They'll NEVER get them all of course.) I believe it's already been shown at a show or 2. You can contact your dealer and possibly arrange for a private viewing if you want.

I know it's annoying, especially for the Maint. customers, but it would be even more annoying if they released it full of bugs. They're doing the right thing.

It'll be worth the wait, trust me... It's gonna turn the CAD/CAM world upside down, again, and leave the so-called competition realing.

[meconer]

If they are at beta 7 as you say. How far do you think they have come? Is your experience that many bugs are left? Or does it seem fairly ready? I'm very eager. Also I am very anxious to get their MATS lathe software that I've been told is the next big project after X. Strangely it's named after me. I wonder why.

Mats

[CAMCRASH]

you mentioned MATS software for lathes
Is mastercam X a mill only program or will it be like the previous
where you can get
X Mill
X Lathe
X Wire
X Router
What is the MATS software and where will it different from mastercam Lathe

[meconer]

From what I've heard MATS will be a new lathe cam program which will be able to handle modern swiss type lathes and stuff like that. With synchronizing between different channels. Like our new TRAUB TNL 26 with 4 different programs running simultaneously. I've never heard of any software able to handle that. Mastercam X will probably have the "regular" lathe software. If you have bought that part of course.

[gddcj]

We're on beta 7 right now. We don't know when the release will be. It definately WONT be until it's ready. It would be bad for CNC Software to release this without full testing/bug-removal first. (They'll NEVER get them all of course.) I believe it's already been shown at a show or 2. You can contact your dealer and possibly arrange for a private viewing if you want.

I know it's annoying, especially for the Maint. customers, but it would be even more annoying if they released it full of bugs. They're doing the right thing.

It'll be worth the wait, trust me... It's gonna turn the CAD/CAM world upside down, again, and leave the so-called competition realing.

6 Years in development = pathetic [obviously a low priority for CNC software]
Windows came out in the early 90's
Most cam systems completly moved to windows by the late 90's
And yet in 2005 Mastercam is still a DOS program.[only hype about V10 ..er X]
Face it, MC is years behind any other windows cam system.

"leave the so-called competition realing"
I doubt it!

[clarry]

Hey have you seen it?, our dealer let us have a real good go with it (I can't say how long we had it for) and well to tell you the truth I dont know what all the hype is about. Its certainly nothing to get excited about. Even has the same junk verify in it from the same third party guys as our 9.1 or so it appears. We tries some files that we know are bad in 9.1 and they are the same here still bad. Six years (or so someone claims which it obviously a loose statement) and they have not even done that. Totally different than the present one now all icon driven but not proper windows and right click idea. After all this time and they dont even seem to follow the windows standard convention of microsoft and bugs well I suppose you have to consider it is still beta but its still full of them. I think they will be upside down if they release it soon as it has a long way to go. My guess its a long way off yet.

[jonbanquer]

Hey have you seen it?, our dealer let us have a real good go with it (I can't say how long we had it for) and well to tell you the truth I dont know what all the hype is about. Its certainly nothing to get excited about. Even has the same junk verify in it from the same third party guys as our 9.1 or so it appears. We tries some files that we know are bad in 9.1 and they are the same here still bad. Six years (or so someone claims which it obviously a loose statement) and they have not even done that. Totally different than the present one now all icon driven but not proper windows and right click idea. After all this time and they dont even seem to follow the windows standard convention of microsoft and bugs well I suppose you have to consider it is still beta but its still full of them. I think they will be upside down if they release it soon as it has a long way to go. My guess its a long way off yet.

I'm very excited about MasterCAM X because MasterCAM is used by so many shops and because MasterCAM has some very nice features. The more user friendly things like MasterCAM's post constructor get the better AFAIC.

As for it's verification, MasterCAM uses MachineWorks just like FeatureCAM, DP Esprit, Gibbs, SURFCAM, etc. Even full featured CAD/CAM programs with *Powerful CAD* like VX use MachineWorks :>) I'm not sure why CNC Software has had so many problems implimenting MachineWorks ?

It's not like delaying MasterCAM X is going to cause CNC Software to rapidly lose market share. CNC Software's competitors cause most of their own problems because they are not very good at marketing. If they were, MasterCAM would be history by now and this is certainly not the case. Far from it !

As far as I can tell, it's in CNC Software's best interest to kill as many bugs as possible before releasing MasterCAM X no matter how much existing customers scream for release of MasterCAM X before it's ready.

jon

[Matt Berube]

It's rumored to be out in August.(2005)

[moldman7]

Matt,

Don't you mean the LATEST rumor is it will be out in August 2005? The previous rumor was February 2005. They MIGHT beat the next generation windows release. Let's see - Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, ......... I guess they were waiting to see if it would really replace MS DOS.

[Rekd]

Rumor is it will be out when we're done beta testing it.

[psychomill]

+1 Rekd...

[Matt Berube]

Don't shoot the messenger... LOL

I believe this to be accurate, though... I know how you feel...

[Rekd]

6 Years in development = pathetic [obviously a low priority for CNC software]

6 years in development while STILL making huge improvements in existing modules, as well as releasing several other products, including Router and Art.

..
Most cam systems completly moved to windows by the late 90's
And yet in 2005 Mastercam is still a DOS program.[only hype about V10 ..er X]
Face it, MC is years behind any other windows cam system.
..

Um, yeah, years behind.

Isn't it funny how, even as a dos based program, it STILL beat the crap out of the competition, windows based or not? :cheers:

and well to tell you the truth I dont know what all the hype is about. Its certainly nothing to get excited about.

You obviously haven't used it even semi-extensively, or at least didn't know what you were doing when you DID use it, else you would have seen many features that have not been done before, (but WILL be done by the competition when they find out Mastercam is doing it.)

Even has the same junk verify in it from the same third party guys

With this statement it's painfully obvious that you didn't do much with it when you 'used' it, or you would have seen huge improvements. It's more than twice as fast as 9.1 which is twice (or more) as fast as 9. Also, as Jon pointed out, the same third party verify is used by many other "top" cam systems.

Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But it's definately better than anything I've ever used before, including Gibbs, Virtual Gibbs, GibbsNC/CAD/CAM (mac version), Surfcam, Esprit, Geopath, Cimitron, Delcam, EZMill, Bobcad and a few others.

[Matt Berube]

Rekd,

What are you using for verification ? I use the one that's built into MCAM9.1

Am I missing out on something ? People keep referring to a "third party verify"...

Is that the one I am using ? Or is everybody using Meta-cut utilities or something ? (I never played with that extra software on the CD...)

[Rekd]

Matt,

The verify shipped with Mastercam is developed by a third party, Machineworks, and is implemented into Mastercam. It was not created by CNC Software.

It also has nothing to do with Metacut Utils, which I promptly removed from the 9.1 install, partly because it didn't work out for me and they way I use Mastercam, but mostly because they stuffed it into the install program without telling me they were going to install it on my computer. (I don't think CNC Software will do that again, as it caused a pretty big stink with much of their user base who felt the same way I do.)

HTH.

[HomeCNC]

Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But it's definately better than anything I've ever used before, including Gibbs, Virtual Gibbs, GibbsNC/CAD/CAM (mac version), Surfcam, Esprit, Geopath, Cimitron, Delcam, EZMill, Bobcad and a few others.

Delcam PowerMill beat out MasterCam at my company's benchmark testing. Even though the shop is now all Delcam products, I keep MasterCam around so I can use it

[jonbanquer]

Jeff,

"Delcam PowerMill beat out MasterCam at my company's benchmark testing. Even though the shop is now all Delcam products, I keep MasterCam around so I can use it"

Last I saw DelCAM PowerMill it was great with 3 axis toolpath surfacing and very weak with 2 1/2 axis milling. Has this changed ? If not and your doing 2 1/2 axis mill work I would hate to rely on DelCAM PowerMill for 2 1/2 axis mill work if it's still similar to what it was when I looked at it a few years ago.

Perhaps this is yet another reason why DelCAM purchased EGS FeatureCAM.


jon