CAM software

Has anyone out there had experience with both Surfcam and Mastercam? I currently use Surfcam but have grown very frustrated with it over the last six years or so. The company doesn't seem to make any effort to improve the product and the problems that are fixed are accompanied by a bunch of new ones. I have a feeling it is really hurting my productivity but I don't know for sure that Mastercam (or anything else) is any better. Any advice from a non partial source (no dealers, please) would be appreciated.

Most of my programs are 2D milling and turning with some 3D contours and an occasional surface to mill.

Thanks,

Mike

I've never used either of the programs above, our shop uses a program called
G-Zero by Rapid Output
http://www.g-zero.com/
It is a very good program and can do most normal programs easily, it takes a lot of time to get good with it but it does the job, they have good tech. support and seem to have new versions every few years.

I use FeatureCam by EGS, great product! They offer 2-1/2D, 3D milling, turning, 4/5-axis, solids, wire e.d.m. Excellent product support, very easy to learn and use, comes with posts for almost every machine made. Go to www.featurecam.com and download a demo version. Good luck.

I use both of the packages and I can say that they both have shortcomings but I would stay with the Surfcam. Mastercam has some glaring problems that make the price of the software ridiculous. I am also finding allot of problems in surface creations that Surfcam accepts but MasterCAM just hangs up on and I have to do a restart of the program. Surfcam's processing of mill toolpaths is much faster. On my computer I notice a difference. My biggest grip about Mastercam is the 100% CPU usage when the program is idle, Thank YOU !!!!! MasterCAM for burning up one of my processors so far. Winter is not a problem but when summer in Arizona arives again it becomes a huge problem. I am considering liquid cooling my computer just to keep from locking up all the time or hitting the thermal shut dowm alarm. The problem exists in version 7.2 and 8.0 I am not sure they fixed it in 9.0. There are many things that I find wrong with Mastercam I say stick to Surfcam unless you find something better than that.

mike k
yes i use both. i find surfcam a complete pain in the ass to manuver around and mastercam is quite a bit more user friendly.
i also use gibbscam and edgecam and others. both of these packages are very easy to use but for 2-1/2d giibs takes the cake. it is extremely easy to use (once you figure out the drawing part) and editing paths is even easier.
i do sell the cracked versions of these and more softwares to those who "claim" they are already registered users of that software.

mike pratt
check out the zalmantech heatsinks and fans at directron. i build alot of high performance cad computers to resell and i use these exclusively. my computers do not run above 45 deg C with these awesome heatsinks.
http://www.directron.com/cnps6000.html
i am not sure what kind of system you have but directron has low prices on alot of excellent items.

Mike Pratt-I'm using Mastercam 7.2. I am not having any of the problems you describe, as I'm posting this, I have Mastercam open, Musicmatch Jukebox playing, two instances of Explorer open-and my processor usage is 51%. I suspect that there is either something wrong with your software installation, or with your computer-I've got a Dell 4100 PIII 1gHz,512meg RAM. I've used Mastercam on systems down to Celeron 400mHz and never seen the type of problem you describe-and have never had a problem with the surfacing hanging up, and I do a lot of complex 3D surfaces.

Mastercam is probably the most versatile overall, and the strongest for millwork, of any of the programs out there. Esprit and PEPS are better for wire EDM, but only marginally.