Improvements Needed In Mastercam

I’m a Mastercam user. I use Mastercam X2 MR2 SP1 pretty much everyday. Mastercam is easily the market leading CAM system in the U.S. and yet its technology and user interface are third rate in many regards. Mastercam X was supposed to be rewritten from the ground up. Mastercam started as a DOS application. The following are areas that show where I feel Mastercam badly needs to be improved:

Make Mastercam Non-Modal:

Examples:

You should be able to Regenerate a toolpath while a toolpath Parameters dialog box is open.

You should be able to change Levels at any time while a toolpath Parameters dialog box is open.

You should be able to Backplot or Verify a toolpath while a toolpath Parameters dialog box is open.

You should be able to Chain, Rechain or modify Chains while a toolpath Parameters dialog box is open. *Fixed in X4*

Levels:

No ability to set the color for all entities on a Level. Instead you have to control an entities color by its attributes. I find Mastercam’s Entity Attribute Manager to be very limiting.

No ability to make all Entities on a Level be viewable but non-selectable.

I’d like a tab in the Machining Operations Manager for the Level Manager  so that I can dock it there. I’d also like to be able to undock the Levels Manager from the Machining Operations Manager so I could move it to a second monitor if I wanted to.

Ability to easily delete a *single Level* along with all the geometry on it. In X4 you can now delete the geometry on a Level but you still can’t delete individual Levels only a group of all empty Levels can be deleted.

Why should a Mastecam user have to refresh the Level Manager Level list? This is a waste of time and not required in other applications. Worse, X4 sometimes doesn’t refresh the Level Manager so what you see isn’t what you have!

Backplot:

No ability to select backplotted toolpath on the screen. Backplotted toolpath is a dead entity. It sure would be nice to be able to select  toolpath and have the operation that created it highlight in the Operations Manager.

Ability to use the Backplot user interface to graphically edit your toolpath and do things like change your feed, speed, add dwell, etc.

An option in Backplot to verify G code instead of just the internal CAM file.

Ability for Backplot to show Dwell when I add Dwell using Change At Point.

I’d like a combined Backplot and Verify interface where a users could easily switch back and forth between Backplot and Verify.

Solid Cut Part Verification:

It’s horrible and very slow, yet other CAM programs use the exact same solid cut part rendering component (MachineWorks) and in their applications solid cut part rendering is much better and much faster. I don’t know how this can be but it’s been the case for many years. *Now much faster in X4 but user interface still totally sucks.*

It would be nice to be able to step forward and step backward like you can in Backplot using hotkeys. If you can do this in Backplot you should be able to do it in Solid Verify.  Use the same hotkeys Backplot does… “s” to step forward and “b” to step back.

Ability to use solid cut part verification on multiple disjointed solids.

Mastercam’s User Interface And Machining Operations Manager:

It’s so bad that a dual monitor setup is mandatory. Even when you have dual monitors you can’t do something as basic as moving the WCS View Manager dialog box to the second monitor and leave it open.

If you move the backplot dialog box to the second monitor it disappears behind other dialog boxes. Same with the Chaining Manager dialog box, etc.

Have a tab in the Machining Operations Manager that would hold the choices that All and Only now have as well as all the Quick Mask options. Maybe call this tab the Selection Manager. In my opinion this would be preferable to what exists now with a glut of toolbar icon choices.

In addition to All and Only and Quick Mask being put into a tab in the Machining Operations Manager and possibly called a Selection Manager the solid selection toolbar buttons could also be moved into this Selection Manager.  Better yet eliminate the need for a solid selection toolbar. I know of no other CADCAM system that is so dumb that you have to tell it ahead of time that you wish to pick items on a solid such as  faces, edges, loops, the entire solid.

Have a WCS icon for each machining operation be shown in the Machining Operation Manager. Click on this icon and be taken directly to that operations WCS. I’d also like the ability to be able to drag and drop, copy and past the WCS icon between machining operations like you can do with the Parameters, Chains, Tool and Geometry icons.

Have tabs for Entity Attributes, Verify and Backplot in the Machining Operation Manager with the same dock and undock functionality as the Level Manager I described earlier.

The following CAD applications are now or will be moving to Microsoft’s Ribbon Bar user interface: Solid Edge with ST2, IronCAD 2009, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, SpaceClaim. SolidWorks basically has created something very similar to Microsoft’s Ribbon Bar user interface. In my opinion when this style of user interface is implemented right it can offer significant advantages. I’d like to see Microsoft’s Ribbon user interface implemented in Mastercam because for sure it’s going to get better and for sure CNC Software has proven they’re not any kind of industry leader when it comes to creating better user interfaces. Mastercam X’s user interface is already totally dated and CNC Software only redid it a few years ago!

View Sheets:

While I don’t use View Sheets much right now I really like the View Sheet interface with its tabs on the bottom of the Mastercam graphics screen. What I think would make View Sheets much more powerful is the ability to attach a WCS to a View Sheet. When a Mastercam user clicked on a View Sheet the WCS that was assigned to the View Sheet would becomes the active WCS.

It would also be helpful to me to be able to run multiple sessions of Backplot and Verify that could be tied to View Sheets.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with the power that Views Sheets could be given.

Change At Point:

In my opinion it takes too long to use Change At Point and after you make changes it’s very hard to manage them. How about split the Mastercam graphics screen like this when using Change At Point:

http://www.camplete.com/truepath/truepath.htm

A spreadsheet with all your points could load into the bottom area like is shown in the link above. Now a Mastercam user would be able to edit multiple points at once, instead of one at a time.

Graphics:

Mastercam has the worst graphics of any CADCAM application I have ever used.  If you’ve ever used an application like say SolidWorks you know how bad the graphics in Mastercam really are. If CNC Software would license Techsoft3D HOOPS as the graphics engine for Mastercam this would make a huge difference.

http://jonbanquer.wordpress.com/why-you-should-know-and-care-what-techsoft-3d-hoops-is/

The graphics are so bad in Mastercam that you often have to remove the shading from a solid and only show its wireframe in order to be able to Chain or see what you have already chained! Further, the thin wireframe chaining direction arrows in Mastercam often completely disappear from the screen.

When you add a chain using the Chaining Manager the direction arrow for what side the tool will be on doesn’t show up until you close the Chaining dialog box. Additionally, if you rotate the part the Chain will disappear completely from the screen.  To see the Chain again you have to close and reopen the Chaining dialog box. This is just one of the many ways Mastercam X4 wastes a users time.

When you use Rechain All from the Chaining Manager all your chains stay on the screen instead of being removed. This bug has existed since at least Mastercam X2 and probably before.

Solids:

Ability to change the color of a solid face. *Suppose to be in X5. Why did it takes so long?*

Ability to select solid face by color. *Not sure but hopefully this will also be in X5*

Why do you have to tell Mastercam what you want to select on a solid model by pushing down toolbar buttons before you select it? This is a waste of time and it’s also beyond stupid.  Do you have to do this in other CADCAM systems? Not that I’m aware of.  Why not have Mastercam give feedback to the user on possible items (faces, edges, loops, etc.) that Mastercam sees as available choices? This pushing down toolbar buttons user interface does one thing and one thing well…. it wastes the users time and it needs to be shit canned. I strongly suggest Mastercam should do what other applications like SolidWorks do for deciding what it is that the user wishes to select.

Mask On Arc:

Often when you import a file from a system like Pro/E or SolidWorks Mastercam’s Mask On Arc function won’t select all your arcs. This is yet another example of the poor architecture of Mastercam X4. To get around this import limitation you must use Screen/Combine Views. No other CADCAM system that I’m aware do you have to do this.

Tool Library:

Ability to easily change any parameter on any tool without having to open and close dialog boxes / make changes one tool at a time.

High quality pictures of tools where you can actually make out what the tool is without the need for a “tool tip”. Written labels above or below the tool.

Contour Toolpath:

Ability to change feed and speed on a finish pass just like you can do for a Pocketing toolpath finish pass.

Fillet Chains:

Ability to change the radius value of the fillet after you enter the command and before you choose the chain. Why do I have to close the chaining dialog box first, then enter the fillet value I wish to use and then reopen the fillet chaining dialog box? This has been broken for how many releases now and still isn’t fixed?

Regenerate Toolpath:

Ability to Regenerate toolpath from the machining Parameters Dialog box.

Adjust Feed On Arc Move:

This should not be a Machine Group setting and be applied to every toolpath.  Adjust Feed on Arc Move should be operation specific.

Operation Libraries:

Need a template style user interface. This would make managing Operations Libraries easier to do on the fly.

http://www.solidcam.com/templates_en,44854.html

Lead In – Lead Out:

I’d like a chain to graphically reflect what I add when I use Lead In / Lead Out. This also should apply when I choose to use the Extend or Shorten options in the Lead In / Lead Out dialog box.

http://www.solidcam.com/new_geometry_options_en,44857.html

Surfacing Toolpath:

Virtual fillets:

What are virtual fillets?

http://www.solidcam.com/linear_en,47293.html

Cross Finish Option for Surface Rough Parallel and Surface Finish Parallel. What is a Cross Finish option?

http://www.solidcam.com/linear_en,47293.html

Various Other Improvements:

Ability to copy and paste / drag chains or drill points into a machining operation before I define what that machining operation will be or anything else about the machining operation. Maybe call this a machining container.

Ability to change a contour operation to a pocketing operation. *Fixed in X4.*

Ability to be able to attach an shaded axis gnomon to a part and drag the part with precision in the X, Y or Z axis. I’d also like Mastercam to allow me to rotate the part in this manner. *Added in X4 but often causes Mastercam X4 to crash*

Ability to dynamically interact with the WCS gnomon.  *Added in X4*

Ability to dynamically change the chaining direction and chaining side.

Ability to dynamically change the start point of a chain without the need for a dialog box.

Ability to have thick shaded chaining arrows and WCS axis gnomons.

Ability to lock feed and speed in operation parameters so if you later adjust the tool that is used in an operation(s), that have been previously defined, the feed and speed in those operation(s) doesn’t change.