If you aren't all that familiar with CAM software, Mastercam is a Windows-based CAD/CAM software that is generally used for two- to five-axis routing, milling and turning, as well as two- and four-axis wire EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining) and 2D and 3D design. Built by CNC Software, Mastercam is also used for surface and solid modeling and Swiss machining.
You can program any CAD file (it accepts every 3D file format) and perform operations like dynamic roughing and precision finishing. In a nutshell, Mastercam 2017 Lathe was primarily designed to help streamline turning operations.
Align Solid Body
The align solid body function was improved by engineers at CNC Software in the hope that it will be a bit easier to align your solid models for turning. By defining the center of the rotation for the part and selecting the appropriate geometry, Mastercam proceeds to switch to an isometric view where you can alter the origin.
Chip Break
Chip breaks happen more often than not when you are working with materials like plastic and aluminum. Mastercam 2017 was designed to incorporate a new option with a dialog box added to lathe rough and lathe contour rough toolpaths when chip breaks happen. You can set length and time conditions as well as retract and dwell options.
New Options in the Tool Angle Dialog Box
The tool angle dialog box has new options that were only previously available for mill turn operations. The options tell Mastercam in which quadrant you began using your tool. This means that if you are creating a toolpath and your control point is not in the right spot, you can swap it.
Selecting the tool plane, origin and display mode in lathe operations has been simplified a bit. The new axis combination/spindle origin dialog box filters available tool planes. What the filter does is show you just the planes with the correct orientation for whichever axis combination you’ve selected. Lathe stock model operations let you move the lathe stock boundary by utilizing mill operations.