So it's official

Started by gcode, May 26, 2022, 09:20 AM

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gcode

The end of Mastercam for SolidWorks


QuoteMastercam for SOLIDWORKS is a product that combines Mastercam's innovative CAM technology with SOLIDWORKS' CAD tools. It is available for the Mastercam Mill, Lathe, and Router products. The product will be retired and will sunset with Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS 2023 on December 31, 2022.

Sorry to see it go..
That's a whole lot of blood sweat and tears down the drain  :sad:
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Jeff

Not enough people using it to justify the development costs?

JParis

Quote from: Jeff on May 26, 2022, 11:36 AMNot enough people using it to justify the development costs?

From what I've been told from inside, this^^^^

Just not enough users to continue to justify the cost...

neurosis

I would use it but we dumped our Solidworks maintenance when we purchased TopSolid. I liked it for programming fixtures.  :shrug: 
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"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

mkd

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neurosis

Quote from: mkd on May 26, 2022, 03:29 PMI wanted to like it.

Incog wanted to like that crackhead girl who needed bailed out of jail, but I digress.  :lol:
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"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

gcode

#6
Quote from: neurosis on May 27, 2022, 06:01 AMIncog wanted to like that crackhead girl who needed bailed out of jail, but I digress.  :lol:


He did like that sketcher girl, but he couldn't raise bail, so it was love denied... or maybe just postponed  :whistle:
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YoDoug

Quote from: neurosis on May 26, 2022, 12:08 PMwhen we purchased TopSolid

You made the right choice, IMO.

neurosis

Quote from: YoDoug on May 27, 2022, 09:11 AMYou made the right choice, IMO.

TS had some short comings compared to SolidWorks when we purchased it. It's gotten a lot better over the years.

The machining side of it is hands down better than MC in almost every way. Except that they charge a fortune for pre-developed posts and machine definitions and want to charge a fortune for the privilege of developing your own.

I have a feeling that MC will do the same eventually?   
"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

gcode

Quote from: neurosis on May 27, 2022, 09:17 AMI have a feeling that MC will do the same eventually?   

That would be a terrible mistake IMO

I have heard they want to move to  M/T style posting, tied to a machine and totally locked down.
However, I don't think they have enough post gurus to support that.
They already struggle to support a limited number of machines and MT users now.

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neurosis

Quote from: gcode on May 27, 2022, 09:42 AMThat would be a terrible mistake IMO

Being able to develop our own posts is the single thing that keeps us tied to mastercam.  If they ever change that then we would rethink that for sure. Not to shit on MC in any way. I used to hate, it but over the years, developed a love/hate relationship with the software. There are better choices out there depending on your needs.
"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

gcode

#11
Quote from: neurosis on May 27, 2022, 09:46 AMBeing able to develop our own posts is the single thing that keeps us tied to mastercam.


agreed.. my employer hired a boy genius manager several years ago who pissed away north of $300k trying to turn this place into a Catia house.
The effort failed miserably. There were many reasons for the failure but the cost and trouble of developing posts
was a big factor.
By a rough count, we have 30+ mill posts and 20+ lathe posts. Most are mpgen and mpmaster derived posts but a dozen
or so came from Postability.
We purchased IMS Posts to develop CATIA posts In House. One very smart young man worked on posts for three years
Some were pretty good and others were a wreck.
We had to purchase several posts because he could not get good code.
Our Okuma HMX 5X machine for example.
Our Postability post produced good code right out of the box, though it did need some tune ups
The Catia post cost 3X the price and 6 months later was still not producing useable code.
One of our programmers and the post developer spent a month on the phone working that post.
I'll bet we had $50K into it when boy genius got fired and it still didn't produce safe code.
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neurosis

I don't want to throw ts under the bus, but our posts have never been sound. Some of that could have been miscommunication.  All I can say, is that every post I worked on foe our shop produces code that doesn't need modified and I was able to do it for a fraction of the cost that ts was charging. Some of that is apples to oranges if you know ts so I'll leave it at that.
"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

YoDoug

Quote from: neurosis on May 27, 2022, 10:47 AMI don't want to throw ts under the bus, but our posts have never been sound. Some of that could have been miscommunication.  All I can say, is that every post I worked on foe our shop produces code that doesn't need modified and I was able to do it for a fraction of the cost that ts was charging. Some of that is apples to oranges if you know ts so I'll leave it at that.

Must be communication. We have 7 TS posts that all produce edit free code. They include custom settings capability for tool break checks, spindle monitoring, lathe load monitoring, spindle oscillation, High speed commands, etc. 2 - 5X mill posts, horizontal, VMC, and 3 flavors mill turn including B axis head and multi-channel. We do pay a hefty yearly maintenance fee for the posts, but they are always very quick with edits and updates when needed.

neurosis

Quote from: YoDoug on May 27, 2022, 11:38 AMMust be communication. We have 7 TS posts that all produce edit free code. They include custom settings capability for tool break checks, spindle monitoring, lathe load monitoring, spindle oscillation, High speed commands, etc. 2 - 5X mill posts, horizontal, VMC, and 3 flavors mill turn including B axis head and multi-channel. We do pay a hefty yearly maintenance fee for the posts, but they are always very quick with edits and updates when needed.

Our posts were started by J. I'm sure you remember him? 

It was a labor getting them fixed.

Not shitting on J.  He was awesome to work with. Bill having to fix his shit took forever. 
"I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"