CNC Software spent a ton of time and effort creating Feature Based Machining for Mastercam X3. FBM and new 2 axis mill high speed toolpaths are the focus of Mastercam X3 yet there is no real discussion yet of Feature Based Machining on the e-Mastercam forum.
After playing with Mastercam X3 FBM a little after work on Friday I have a pretty good idea why. Seems to me this is something that was added to Mastercam so that CNC Software can say we have it too and try not to lose sales to products like CAMWorks.
Does Mastercam X3 FBM really work well and is it developed enough… well that’s another story, for another day.
It’s new features first that’s CNC Software’s priority rather than fix a long, long list of basic functionality that is and has been badly broken for years.
I completely agree with this comment. I have been using MasterCam for 6 years now, 99% has been figuring it out and the other 1% has been from reading articles and tutorials.
I do not understand much of the mechanics for the software, but I know that the FBM side of X3 is a flop. We have an old seat of FeatureCam(2005) where I work, which I don’t use or understand much, but the guys that do use it show me many different features that would be great in MasterCam.
And furthermore, I believe the X3 release and the new update MU1 are just not a great product. I believe it’s all sales hype driven so people continue their maintenance contracts in fears that they will miss out on a “Ground Breaking” release or update.
I know I was excited about the FBM addition to X3, but have been greatly disappointed.
Not too excited about the up coming X4 release.
Mike in MN
http://www.cncbasics.com
http://www.cncbasicsforum.com
Comment by cncmike — March 6, 2009 @ 3:02 pm