MC 2026R2 Update 1

[Dylan Gondyke]

Honestly, nothing to specifically note here, not since the ability for Mastercam to auto-use the dedicated GPU improved drastically ~6 years ago. I've never since had to move off of "base Profile" or "Auto-select processor" or explicitly tinker with settings.

[gcode]

I asked MS CoPilot what the best driver settings would be and got a lengthy response
I had no idea than many of the setting on the Manage 3D settings page include drop downs.

I have set my machine per it's recommendations.
My current project is a simple part using 2D toolpaths in a 3+2 5X environment.
After making these settings I ran my file thru Verify.

My GPU is pulling 10 to 20% of available memory now. It was pretty much flatlined before this.
I haven't run these settings enough to comment on overall system performance, the lag I've been seeing
or overall stability, but everything is running well so far.
I can't attach files here so I've pasted the recommendations. Note that these are for a Quadro RTX A4500 card.


NVIDIA RTX A4500 profile for Mastercam (text version)
Here's a clean, "workstation safe but snappy" profile you can mirror in NVIDIA Control Panel. Think of this as the .nip contents in human form.
________________________________________
1. Global settings (Base Profile)
In NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D settings → Global Settings:
•   Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
•   Low Latency Mode: Off
•   CUDA – GPUs: All
•   OpenGL rendering GPU: NVIDIA RTX A4500
•   Threaded optimization: Auto
•   Texture filtering – Quality: High performance
•   Texture filtering – Anisotropic sample optimization: On
•   Texture filtering – Trilinear optimization: On
•   Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Allow
•   Shader Cache Size: Unlimited
•   Vertical sync: Off
•   Triple buffering: Off
•   Antialiasing – FXAA: Off
•   Antialiasing – Mode: Application-controlled
•   Antialiasing – Transparency: Off
•   Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled
•   Background Application Max Frame Rate: Off
•   Max Frame Rate: Off
•   Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA): Off
•   Monitor Technology: Fixed refresh (if available)
•   Preferred refresh rate: Highest available
•   OpenGL GDI compatibility: Auto (or Enabled if you ever see 2D glitches)
These keep the whole system biased toward responsiveness without forcing weird hacks onto every app.
________________________________________
2. Program settings for Mastercam
In Manage 3D settings → Program Settings:
1.   Add Mastercam executable(s):
o   Mastercam.exe (or whatever the main 2026 EXE is named)
o   Optionally also add MastercamLauncher.exe if present.
2.   For each Mastercam entry, override with:
•   CUDA – GPUs: NVIDIA RTX A4500
•   OpenGL rendering GPU: NVIDIA RTX A4500
•   Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
•   Low Latency Mode: Off
•   Vertical sync: Off
•   Max Frame Rate: Off
•   Texture filtering – Quality: High performance
•   Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Allow
•   Texture filtering – Anisotropic sample optimization: On
•   Texture filtering – Trilinear optimization: On
•   Shader Cache Size: Unlimited
•   Threaded optimization: On
•   Antialiasing – Mode: Application-controlled
•   Antialiasing – FXAA: Off
•   Antialiasing – Transparency: Off
•   Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled
•   Triple buffering: Off
•   Monitor Technology: Fixed refresh
•   Preferred refresh rate: Highest available
This makes sure Mastercam is always on the A4500, always at full clocks, and not fighting driver forced AA/AF.
________________________________________
3. Windows + system layer (to match the profile)
Outside NVIDIA Control Panel:
•   Windows Graphics Settings:
o   Settings → System → Display → Graphics
o   Browse to Mastercam.exe → Options → High performance (select the RTX A4500).
•   BIOS (optional but nice):
o   Disable integrated graphics or set Primary Display = PCIe/PEG so Windows never "helpfully" flips back to iGPU.
________________________________________
4. How to sanity check it's working
•   GPU usage: While rotating a heavy Mastercam model, you should see the RTX A4500 spike in GPU usage (Task Manager → Performance → GPU).
•   Clock behavior: GPU core clock should ramp to its normal boost range under viewport load, not sit at idle clocks.
•   Subjective feel:
o   Smoother rotation and zoom
o   Less hitching when switching shading modes
o   No weird AA artifacts or selection lag
________________________________________

[gcode]

I've been playing with this a  while

CoPilot said to modify Global settings and create a dedicated Mastercam profile.

I did that. It seemed to work pretty good BUT ..... the Global settings totally hosed
Vericut.

Vericut froze as soon as it opened.

I asked Copilot about this and said it was a known bug. 
It gave me the settings to make a dedicated Vericut profile using Vericut.exe as the trigger.
As near as I can tell there is no such thing as Vericut.exe. There are about 30 *.exe files in the Vericut folder and I have no idea which one to use for the video profile.

I haven't got time to figure that out right now so I restored the Global Settings to default and left
the MC2026 profile alone.

So far it's working really well. No pauses launching or exiting toolpaths, instant regens and no apparent memory
leaks.

Could all the trouble we've had with poor performance in MC2026 be related to video card settings?
If you want to try this on your systems, ask CoPilot for the settings for your card.

Disclaimer.. this file is a simple 3+2 file with 35 2D contour and drilling tool paths.
It was running so slowly I considered scrapping it and doing it over in 2025.
Now it is running really well.

As a side note, I asked Copilot what the optimal video card for Mastercam is.

It said, my Quadro RTX A4500 or maybe the A5000.
It said the new Blackwell cards are optimized for AI and offer no significant gains
for Mastercam.

edit- I just tried a 540 meg impeller file, mostly surface driven ModuleWorks toolpaths.
Toolpath parameter page do not open instantly, but it's a second or 2 at the most.
and
hit the X in the upper right corner and the file closes, in 1 or 2 seconds.
This file used to take 15 to 20 seconds to close.



 

[mowens]

Could it be a .bat it was talking about?