Less daunting cad/cam than Mastercam for milling?

maritimesbob · Nov 20, 2018

Hi All,

Can any of you good folk suggest a cam software that s a little less overwhelming to use than Mastercam for a beginnner in Cam?

I have a little experience in using cam, and just recently I started working for a company that mostly uses Mastercam 9. However it's down to the machinsts themselves to decide what cam or how they wish to program the machines.

I have mostly programmed machines at the controller, Fanuc G&M is my area that I am used to. Now I want to move to Cam and start learning that as I appreciate the benefits.

I find Mastercam is incredibly full of options, too many for a beginner it seems. Quite overwhelming!

I apologise for asking as this question no doubt gets asked many times before. I am looking for a Cam package where I can create the geometric drawing, create the toolpath and post the NC to a USB or whatever.

I spend most of my time on Haas VMC's, so I would be using the package for milling.

Thank you.

Chazsani · Nov 20, 2018

Biased input: GibbsCAM

Sent using CIMCO Edit DNC

DavidScott · Nov 20, 2018

Fusion 360? If you are just making drawings/sketches to program from then it is not very complicated. The cam side is fairly straight forward, although narrowing the learning material down to just what you need will be an issue. And the price can't be beat if you say you are just playing with it at home.

gkoenig · Nov 20, 2018

maritimesbob said:
I spend most of my time on Haas VMC's, so I would be using the package for milling.

Fusion 360.

- It's cheap ($500/yr)

- The CAM side is from HSM Works, a top tier 3+2 package that is extremely easy to use.

- There are literally thousands of hours of training, from beginning to very advanced, on YouTube. Plus a very active set of forums where any crazy question will get an answer.

- Autodesk has worked with Haas to create very dialed-in posts that utilize every feature of Haas controls. All the canned cycles are integrated, multi-axis milling, as well as complete in-process probe programming.

Larry Dickman · Nov 20, 2018

They use "Mostly" mastercam 9? So what other software have they stolen?

Kevin Fast · Nov 20, 2018

I have used and learned many different brands of cad/cam over the years and you are accurate that mastercam has too many options available and it is daunting to learn how to use each feature let alone trying to remember everything you can do.
With that said I would suggest this thought process of learning Mastercam has far has you need to and ignore what you do not need or use, Creating multiple template files that are close to the type of work you need to do often was useful to me.
I like the option of always being able to revisit parts of Mastercam at a later time to learn about some options that are valuable to your current needs. You may not have those options in another software?

Kevin

gkoenig · Nov 20, 2018

Kevin Fast said:
I have used and learned many different brands of cad/cam over the years and you are accurate that mastercam has too many options available and it is daunting to learn how to use each feature let alone trying to remember everything you can do.

That's because MasterCAM's UI is shitty.

Lots of options available is a good thing! If you vomit all those options all over the UI in a way that makes it unintelligible, that's the problem. The UI should default to the most common/standard way of doing things, and if you wanna go down the basement and futz with the details, that option should be there - but away from the standard stuff that gets tweaked 85% of the time.

Mike1974 · Nov 20, 2018

gkoenig said:
That's because MasterCAM's UI is shitty.

Lots of options available is a good thing! If you vomit all those options all over the UI in a way that makes it unintelligible, that's the problem. The UI should default to the most common/standard way of doing things, and if you wanna go down the basement and futz with the details, that option should be there - but away from the standard stuff that gets tweaked 85% of the time.

I don't understand .. :confused:

Don't want/need a toolbar? Close it out. Don't like the default toolbars, just change them. You only need to do it once, or until you find what you like and where you want to see it. They even have profiles so you can set up separate design/mill/ turning.

Yes, there are lots of options, and to this day, I'm sure I don't use most of them. But it doesn't hurt my workflow.

goooose · Nov 20, 2018

maritimesbob said:
I find Mastercam is incredibly full of options, too many for a beginner it seems. Quite overwhelming!

Are far as too many options in Mcam, what toolpaths are you looking at? If you're just learning CAM I would expect you in the simple paths like drill/contour/pocket. The options in those paths are fairly straight forward and typically common across all CAM systems. If you could expand perhaps we could help.

gkoenig said:
Autodesk has worked with Haas to create very dialed-in posts that utilize every feature of Haas controls. All the canned cycles are integrated, multi-axis milling, as well as complete in-process probe programming.

That's because MasterCAM's UI is shitty.

You can't pass up the chance to pump those pom poms eh?

Name one CAM company that does not have a dialed in Haas post. A 3x haas is basically a easy as it gets, its pretty much the same as any other Fanuc based control. From what I've seen, Autodesk is yet to update their post to NGC. Its been out for what, a year at least now?

UI is shitty? Its the same interface Office uses, with the ability to customize it. How is this bad? Or right, cause it's not made by Autodesk.

gkoenig · Nov 20, 2018

goooose said:
You can't pass up the chance to pump those pom poms eh?

The dude is asking for cheap/simple CAD/CAM. Name a truly better option out there right now... you can't.

If I was a pom pom pumper, you would see me answering threads about mold work, or hardcore 5 axis simultanious milling on a Yasda/Hermle with "You know, Fusion can do that!"

But I don't.

As it stands, MOST questions about what CAD/CAM package to buy on here often cite cost and simplicity as primary drivers. And the clear answer for that set of questions today is Fusion. Zero debate on that unless you're pumping some bullshit Bob/Gibs CAM junk, or hate AutoDICKS.

Name one CAM company that does not have a dialed in Haas post.

Esprit. Real shitty Haas post, at least a few years ago. From personal experience.

UI is shitty? Its the same interface Office uses, with the ability to customize it. How is this bad? Or right, cause it's not made by Autodesk.

I like lots of UI's that aren't Autodesk. I prefer SolidWorks. I even like NX better (though it's structurally very similar to a Fusion, but with a hell of a lot more tools).

Just using the Windows toolbar features (part of the OS any developer can plug into) isn't the problem. It's how they lay those options out, how they present menus, how they do windows and option layouts that sucks. MasterCAM is kind of a shit sandwich in this regard because they do very little interface prioritization.

Mtndew · Nov 21, 2018

maritimesbob said:
it's down to the machinsts themselves to decide what cam or how they wish to program the machines.

So your company will just buy any cadcam software that the operator wants to use?
Just how many illegal copies of software does your company have?

Bluechip · Nov 21, 2018

Do you need the CAD? ... if not just think CAM and conversational has a lot of upside.
Easy to learn ... easy to use.
Conversational is designed to get you to G code without the need for CAD or having to make a drawing first.
If that makes sense ... please check ours out here ; Kipware CNC PROGRAMMING Software

Mtndew · Nov 21, 2018

gkoenig said:
The dude is asking for cheap/simple CAD/CAM.

I don't think he never mentioned price.

Larry Dickman · Nov 21, 2018

I think it's funny that a spammer moves in to try to sell his product to a bootlegger.

kellings · Nov 26, 2018

goooose said:
From what I've seen, Autodesk is yet to update their post to NGC. Its been out for what, a year at least now?

Incorrect. They have had a NGC post for a long time now. It can be found at http://cam.autodesk.com/posts and then filter by mill and Haas Automation and you will find it. It was updated 18 days ago in fact.

goooose · Nov 26, 2018

kellings said:
Incorrect. They have had a NGC post for a long time now. It can be found at http://cam.autodesk.com/posts and then filter by mill and Haas Automation and you will find it. It was updated 18 days ago in fact.

Thanks for the info Dwight K. Shrute.
I only looked at the posts included with the install, but yes, there appears to be a NGC post on their website. The main point of that post was the fact that having a Haas post is not a big deal. Every CAM company has one.

Esprit. Real shitty Haas post, at least a few years ago. From personal experience.

The fact that our resident AD pompom pumper stated that the Esprits Haas post is bad further shows how full of shit this guy is. The programmers at Esprit make posts for some of the most complicated machines out there and yet you think they are going to struggle with implementing a canned cycle in a fanuc based language? lol ...and yes, I have used their Haas post as well.

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