CNC Software released Mastercam 2017 recently and I wanted to take a look at the benefits and improvements the company has been working on and see what it implies about the CAM industry at large. There are typical taglines about improving the efficiency of workflows, ease-of-use, and so on, but what does it really amount to?
New Ribbon Interface
Obscuring tools and functions that empower the user in a poorly designed or unnecessarily complex human-computer interface is never a good idea, nor is it intentional. Users of Mastercam let CNC Software know that they weren’t able to find features they were excited about using, which is a major design flaw. The sign of a healthy company is to admit mistakes were made and bugs exist, then try one’s best to fix them. According to CNC Software President, Meghan West, “We spent a lot of time with users determining the best way to simplify this and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.”Incorporating customer feedback, the revamped ribbon interface now groups similar functions together and designates each with a difficulty level, from simplest to most complex. Whether you’re working on wireframe geometry or generating toolpaths, you will also have access to editing functions, which are now on the same tab as creation functions. This makes it easier to switch between them as needed.
Less Travel and Simplified Repositioning
Mastercam’s Dynamic Motion technology cuts machine time by maximizing material removal rates, reduces cycle times, lengthens tool lifespans and helps keep maintenance costs low while giving the user a helpful boost when cutting through hard materials. That’s good news, but old news. In Mastercam 2017, micro-lifts utilize a line-of-sight approach to position the tool through open areas. Reposition moves are simpler, travel through shorter distances and produce faster travel times.
Maximum Stock Engagement for 3D High-Speed Finishing Toolpaths
What on earth does this mean? It sounds complicated, but really what it does is allow you to protect smaller tools from taking a beating during heavy cuts by limiting the depth of the cutter as it moves into uncut material. Perpendicular raster motion is used to fill in steeply sloped geometry to get a clean result from a given toolpath.
Multi-station tool locators for turrets, half index positions are now supported in Mastercam Mill-Turn, which allows users to set up jobs and tools a bit more quickly without nosediving in quality to help keep workflows optimized and efficient.
Next, let’s look at what’s new with toolpath actions and actions for different tasks.
Toolpath Improvements
- You can now use a preview function when generating or regenerating a 2D high speed toolpath, which is visible in the graphics window. This allows you to make sure you’re on the right track.
- You can now dock the Level and Plane Managers, which the company claims also got a boost in terms of intuitive ease-of-use, but I haven’t checked it out yet. It’s the same story for the Tool Setup Manager in Mill-Turn.
- You can use some useful new features for Multiaxis Drill, including the ability to use a line length for drill depth. It also can now recognize the stock model, which comes in handy for top of stock and depth activity and analysis.
- You can now use a new 4-axis toolpath in Multiaxis called “Rotary Advanced”. This gives the user more control of the tool motion through selection of shroud surfaces, hubs and walls.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/_LBHgu8AY44
CNC Software announced that it was signing up beta testers for the current release back in February and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to incorporate feedback from users about making the next version of Mastercam even more powerful and user-friendly.