ModuleWorks Announces GPU Simulation

[neurosis]

Cimmatron... holy smokes! There's a blast from the past. I haven't seen a seat of that in the wild since the late 1990's.

Isn't Ghuns still using Cimatron?

I was using it up until about 2007ish. No offense to MC, but I remember thinking that Mastercam was like using a broken toy compared to Cimatron back then.

[JParis]

but I remember thinking that Mastercam was like using a broken toy compared to Cimatron back then.

Yet Cimatron is mostly gone at this point and Mastercam rolls on....

[neurosis]

Yet Cimatron is mostly gone at this point and Mastercam rolls on....

Proof that you don't need to be better than the rest to succeed? You just have to know how to market yourself?

We were doing a lot of rotary molds and large assemblies back in those days. I tried to program some of the same parts in mastercam, and the part files would get to the point where you would open them and they would just crash. I remember people saying that MC had a memory leak back in those days? 

I took one of the files in to our local reseller and he told me that what I was doing, just wasn't going to work in MC. Which was keeping all the parts of the assembly, or mold, in a single file. Something that Cimatron did flawlessly.

That, and the toolpath was cleaner.

[Jeff]

I remember people saying that MC had a memory leak back in those days? 

It still does. Even though they've denied it in the past.
After opening up and programming multiple parts, the menus slow down to a crawl and take about 5 seconds to open.
Restarting Mastercam fixes it, for another hour or so.

[neurosis]

It still does. Even though they've denied it in the past.

It's been a long time since I've had that problem. I typically have TopSolid and Mastercam both open at the same time. Sometimes I'll have Solidworks open as well if I'm looking at an older file. I am still running 2025 right now.

[gcode]

After opening up and programming multiple parts, the menus slow down to a crawl and take about 5 seconds to open.
Restarting Mastercam fixes it, for another hour or so.

I haven't had this problem in years

[Dylan Gondyke]

2025 fixed a consequential one related to multiaxis paths, where the more multiaxis paths you opened in a session, the slower it got. High multiaxis toolpath count in a single part file also exacerbated this. That's the biggest one I can remember in years, though I'm sure there are other workflows out there that can trip over undiscovered memory consuming behavior.

[Zoffen]

2025 fixed a consequential one related to multiaxis paths, where the more multiaxis paths you opened in a session, the slower it got. High multiaxis toolpath count in a single part file also exacerbated this. That's the biggest one I can remember in years, though I'm sure there are other workflows out there that can trip over undiscovered memory consuming behavior.

As someone who uses Unified for all of my 3D surfacing toolpaths this drives me crazy. This might be the reason to move to 2025!

[Jeff]

I haven't had this problem in years

I have it pretty much daily.

[Jeff]

2025 fixed a consequential one related to multiaxis paths, where the more multiaxis paths you opened in a session, the slower it got. High multiaxis toolpath count in a single part file also exacerbated this. That's the biggest one I can remember in years, though I'm sure there are other workflows out there that can trip over undiscovered memory consuming behavior.

I program multiple parts per day, either it's from a customers model or I create my own.
On the average when we're not slow like we are now I do at least 7-10 per day.
Almost never multiple models in a file, unless you count a stock model (not the toolpath) that I create from a turned profile.
Our biggest customer sends us models that are gears with teeth and/or splined teeth.
I've been saying forever that Mastercam doesn't know how to handle these types of models correctly.
I had one the other day that was crippling Mastercam, all it had was some splined teeth. Clicking on "parameters" it took 5-10 seconds for the menu to pop up.
A restart of Mastercam didn't fix it, a computer reboot didn't fix it. Removing the teeth did.

That's one issue, the other is after a while Analyze will take 5 or more seconds to open.
Selecting a tool will take 5 seconds to open, menus like that, etc... A restart of Mastercam will fix it.
This has been an issue for as long as I can remember.
I'm using 2025.

Dylan I can send you a short video and the file if you like.

[Dylan Gondyke]

Sure thing Jeff, that'd be very helpful to allow us to run it down.

[Jeff]

Sure thing Jeff, that'd be very helpful to allow us to run it down.

email sent.
Keep in mind that this was 1st thing this morning, and the other day, the delay was about twice as long as in the video.

[Dylan Gondyke]

Just some copy/pasted comments after seeing Jeff's file:

I believe the lag in this file is because we're taking a glance at the model every time we come into a holemaking toolpath where the selection is based off of solid features, and certain types of heavyweight parametric features (splines, threads) being present on that model are really destructive to whatever check we're doing.

What seems to prove this out is that either removing the solid holes from the toolpath selection, or removing the splines from the model, removes the lag for me when I test it.

I'll get this over to the holemaking team to look at in more depth. I believe they're actively working on this problem, but this is a great model example.


This can be a general slowdown trigger for any function that reads the CAD data, to varying extents depending on what the function is.

In my previous job shop life using Solid Edge (also parasolid kernel), it used to be standard practice to have a "lightweight" version of complex models used for machining/process purposes, where threads, splines, surface treatments/stippling, meshes, and other destructive features were simplified or removed.

[Jeff]

In my previous job shop life using Solid Edge (also parasolid kernel), it used to be standard practice to have a "lightweight" version of complex models used for machining/process purposes, where threads, splines, surface treatments/stippling, meshes, and other destructive features were simplified or removed.

There are times where it's not feasible to remove them and I need to machine features on those gear teeth or splined teeth.
Like remove a tooth or mill a chamfer on one side of them, sort of like a clutch engagement.

Not sure if it matters, but I use the "Optimize" function on every model I start with. I never use "Simplify", I don't know if there is a difference in the long run.

But yes, in the end, I removed that splined area and the lag was gone instantly.
Thanks for looking at it Dylan.

[Dylan Gondyke]

Yeah, we're tackling it through multiple avenues, for example trying to avoid everywhere we can "repaints" of the graphics that can get expensive when there are models with these features. "Remove those features" isn't a great answer if you need the features.