MC2026 Level manager

[MIL-TFP-41]

am I the only one who thinks this is a huge step in the wrong direction?

My habit for years is to make non-sequential levels. The bottom dialog box that was there in 2025 and earlier is now replaced by a little plus sign. So now you gotta hit the plus sign, name your level, then right click on the level, then renumber? MUCH slower (and less intuitive) than just typing in a level number and then hitting tab to get to the dialog box where you name your level.

The grouping function is nice, but the creation function sucks balls.

[JParis]

but the creation function sucks balls.

It is taking a bit of getting used to.....for me, jury is still out

[gcode]

I'm liking the Groups, but still getting used to the rest of it.
They are fixing the slooow double click for renaming/ In the meantime, F2 works well.

[jstell]

So now you gotta hit the plus sign, name your level, then right click on the level, then renumber? MUCH slower (and less intuitive) than just typing in a level number and then hitting tab to get to the dialog box where you name your level.

The grouping function is nice, but the creation function sucks balls.

The plus sign has been there forever in levels just like it has been in planes.  You just never used it because the way you describe is how we create levels, but now you are forced to use it because they took away the way we have always created levels.  It is so frustrating when they port stuff to a new layout and leave functionality behind!  And not being able to move columns around, or just click the header to sort by a different column - oh, because no column headers!  You have to use the little list icon to open a menu to sort, so once again more clicks!

There are multiple discussions of this on my.mastercam and emastercam.  They need to do what they did for planes and give us back the bottom properties function.  Planes also didn't have this in beta, and they brought it back before RTM.  Keep complaining and maybe they will give it back for levels too.

[Jeff]

am I the only one who thinks this is a huge step in the wrong direction?

No, in fact I think you're in the majority.
It's terrible.
Changing icons just for the sake of change is on top of my list of useless changes.
I'm officially porting over to 2026 as my daily driver next week.... I'm sure they'll be hearing a LOT more of me on the official forums.
Wish me luck.

[Zoffen]

Its no surprise that they screwed up such a simple upgrade.... I think i am going to stay at 2024 for a while.....

[CNCAppsJames]

T-minus 4 days and counting for me on Mastercam 2026. That's when my new laptop arrives.

Bugs, no bugs. Enhancements, no enhancements. Garbage, or greatness. None of it matters to me. I have to find the issues so I can help my customers that all there is to it. 

I would have made the plunge this week, but I didn't want to do it twice. My new laptop was approved last week so I'll wait a few extra days. 

[JParis]

T-minus 4 days and counting for me on Mastercam 2026. That's when my new laptop arrives.

Bugs, no bugs. Enhancements, no enhancements. Garbage, or greatness. None of it matters to me. I have to find the issues so I can help my customers that all there is to it.

I would have made the plunge this week, but I didn't want to do it twice. My new laptop was approved last week so I'll wait a few extra days.

There are those of us who live on the bleeding edge and always have

[Dylan Gondyke]

I'm not the PO for the new manager but I have a vested interest in this area of the software as.....well, it's kind of hard to avoid. Slow or frictious workflows also drive me nuts. So, some updates from some of the comments here:

-Levels properties pane, like planes: In development
-Ability to type a number, tab, type a name, and have that sequence create a new level: In development
-Ability to rename with double click- Done, should appear in Update 1 or 2
-Filters list- should grow over time to present more useful sticky filters
-Columns reordering- Haven't heard anything specific but I have to imagine we'll approach it at some point. I'd love to be able to move the visibility column to the left side.

The interface and some of the workflows, if you saw them early in the tech previews or even a bit earlier than that, had a different take on bringing the properties to the user and it was reverted late in development to align it back to more traditional interactions, but the levels properties was a more complicated lift.

[CNCAppsJames]

It's always nice to hear from the dev dungeon....

[jstell]

I'd love to be able to move the visibility column to the left side.

Glad to hear there is work being done to restore previous functionality with creating levels by typing a number. It's funny that it's "in development" since it had been there for twenty (thirty?) years!  There ought to be a poll sent out to users, when the young code jocks don't understand a thing and are about to take it away from us, so we can tell them how we use that function every day all day.  Might save the trouble of having to rebuild it after they bulldoze it.

And glad to hear you're in the camp of having that stupid black eye back to the left, and moving columns in general.  It amazes me that time was spent to develop the eye to toggle visibility when the x to toggle was totally functional for decades.  Oh I'm sure there was a design review to clean up the look of the interface, but it doesn't change the function one bit.  Just workflow changes because it's stuck over on the wrong end of the row.  It would be nice to have column headers back (so you have something to drag to reorder columns) especially to be able to click them to sort by that column, instead of having to use yet another dropdown menu to sort.

[neurosis]

I'm officially porting over to 2026 as my daily driver next week.... I'm sure they'll be hearing a LOT more of me on the official forums.

I've followed you on there occasionally. I believe you. 

Thank you!

[Newbeeee™]

I'm not the PO for the new manager but I have a vested interest in this area of the software as.....well, it's kind of hard to avoid. Slow or frictious workflows also drive me nuts. So, some updates from some of the comments here:

-Levels properties pane, like planes: In development
-Ability to type a number, tab, type a name, and have that sequence create a new level: In development
-Ability to rename with double click- Done, should appear in Update 1 or 2
-Filters list- should grow over time to present more useful sticky filters
-Columns reordering- Haven't heard anything specific but I have to imagine we'll approach it at some point. I'd love to be able to move the visibility column to the left side.

The interface and some of the workflows, if you saw them early in the tech previews or even a bit earlier than that, had a different take on bringing the properties to the user and it was reverted late in development to align it back to more traditional interactions, but the levels properties was a more complicated lift.

TBH, There's two things here.
#1 that's great, the list of enhancements are actively in the pipeline.
#2 the insertion of this upgrade into the software has been premature, because the list of enhancements is too long....

[neurosis]

I'm not the PO for the new manager but

Thank you for coming on and answering questions. 

We're a very small fish in a big pond and its appreciated. 

[Zoffen]

Thank you for coming on and answering questions. 

We're a very small fish in a big pond and its appreciated. 

He's a brave soul venturing into these parts....