For those who have tested 2027...

[JParis]

I can't believe I am going to say this after all the years on the bleeding edge...

Am I the only one considering sticking with 2026?

[gcode]

I can't believe I am going to say this after all the years on the bleeding edge...

Am I the only one considering sticking with 2026?

Keep in mind one thing
The current release of 2027 is a Tech Preview for EverPath.
They said that a lot of features in 2027 were not turned on yet.
for  this reason I have not done much with it other than beta test EverPath.

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Re: 2026
I feel slow and dumb still, not a fan of the choices they made around tools. Lots of customs are broken for me on import/opening old files, and just seems like a lot of extra work to perform the same tasks. Will I get used to it? Maybe. Will I stay on 2024 for another year? Also maybe.

Re: 2027
I didn't see anything compelling for 3 axis work from my experiences. Still not sure how much we can say about it. But I don't have multiaxis, so I think most of the cool stuff was lost on me. Going from 2024 -> 2027 was the same culture shock as running 2026. Also it used all my RAM all the time with a single instance open, keep in mind this is a 16GB machine, but no other release used more than 4/5GB with one instance, I typically have 3 or 4 files open at once.

Do you really feel 2026 is that strong of a release? I'll put more time into it if so, as you and Gcode came to it's defence when we were whining last year.

[JParis]

Do you really feel 2026 is that strong of a release?

I have no real issues with 2026..my only real complaint is the slowdown as a file size grows....I was able to cope with and come to terms with the Level Mangler and the changes in update 1 helped on that front...

All my guys are using it, the guys in the Mold Shop and prototype areas are also...the last one being the least skilled of all....

So yes, it is working for us across the board

[megatronprime]

I can't believe I am going to say this after all the years on the bleeding edge...

Am I the only one considering sticking with 2026?

It doesn't make sense not to update if you are paying for maintenance, if it's your shop do you, but it's not good for the company to pay for something and not use it.

That kind of stuff can really slow down progress, I remember upgrading from X7 to X9 to 2018 to 2020 within a year or two, ts was a pita

[megatronprime]

Keep in mind one thing
The current release of 2027 is a Tech Preview for EverPath.
They said that a lot of features in 2027 were not turned on yet.
for  this reason I have not done much with it other than beta test EverPath.

I like the concept of everpath, I remember asking for something like that a few years back, didn't think that they would ever do it, im not saying its because of me obviously, just saying its cool

[SuperHoneyBadger]

I remember asking for something like that a few years back

What did you ask for?

[megatronprime]

What did you ask for?

If we could have the non-multi-axis toolpaths merged into one the way they did with unified, this is sort of that imo.

[JParis]

Everpath = "So easy a 6 year old can do it"

The excecution is horrible

[gcode]

Do you really feel 2026 is that strong of a release? I'll put more time into it if so, as you and Gcode came to it's defence when we were whining last year.

They did a lot of things in 2026 that I consider a regression from earlier releases.
Tools, Posted File Output etc.. They have promised to fix some of this in Update 2 due out later this month.
The Planes and Level Managers are new and different but work just fine, it's just a matter of old dog, new tricks.
I love the Grouping and that alone makes it worth retraining myself.
The big issue for me is the ModuleWorks multiaxis add-on. I believe Mastercam stays a year behind what ModuleWorks is releasing but that still means there are new goodies in every release, even though they don't make the What's New file. The ModuleWorks stuff gets better and better with every release and that alone is more than worth any aggravation that comes with new releases.

As for the lag... Mastercam is trying very hard to automate hole operations using solid models and make it easy
to chain and select solid entities for other toolpaths.  They are succeeding, but the price is longer processing times  and lag opening toolpath parameter pages.

I just finished up a Ø60 impeller and tried using solids to drive my toolpaths.
It worked very well, yielding excellent results with little to no geometry creation on my part.
However, the deeper I got into the file, the slower it got, until I had to bag it.
I went back and created wire and surfaces for my toolpath and lag dropped to near zero.

Now a blast from the past.
I helped a genius named Bruce Stammer on a V9 project more than 20 years ago.
The file was 600meg and took 40 minutes to load. A local file save took 4 to 5 minutes and zero byte crashes
were frequent. We burned the file to a CD-ROM at least once a day so we'd have a stable backup copy.
The project took about a year off and on and we burned up 4 hard drives during that year.
I've often wondered how that file would run on a modern PC running a modern version of Mastercam.

[gcode]

Everpath = "So easy a 6 year old can do it"

The excecution is horrible

I like what they are trying to do, but IMO they have set an impossible development schedule for a totally new technology.
Under the normal release schedule, it's tech previews in the fall, 2 or 3 betas after the new year, then a public beta
followed by a production candidate and a public release in the summer.

[megatronprime]

They did a lot of things in 2026 that I consider a regression from earlier releases.
Tools, Posted File Output etc.. They have promised to fix some of this in Update 1 due out later this month.
The Planes and Level Managers are new and different but work just fine, it's just a matter of old dog, new tricks.
I love the Grouping and that alone makes it worth retraining myself.
The big issue for me is the ModuleWorks multiaxis add-on. I believe Mastercam stays a year behind what ModuleWorks is releasing but that still means there are new goodies in every release, even though they don't make the What's New file. The ModuleWorks stuff gets better and better with every release and that alone is more than worth any aggravation that comes with new releases.

As for the lag... Mastercam is trying very hard to automate hole operations using solid models and make it easy
to chain and select solid entities for other toolpaths.  They are succeeding, but the price is longer processing times  and lag opening toolpath parameter pages.

I just finished up a Ø60 impeller and tried using solids to drive my toolpaths.
It worked very well, yielding excellent results with little to no geometry creation on my part.
However, the deeper I got into the file, the slower it got, until I had to bag it.
I went back and created wire and surfaces for my toolpath and lag dropped to near zero.

Now a blast from the past.
I helped a genius named Bruce Stammer on a V9 project more than 20 years ago.
The file was 600meg and took 40 minutes to load. A local file save took 4 to 5 minutes and zero byte crashes
were frequent. We burned the file to a CD-ROM at least once a day so we'd have a stable backup copy.
The project to about a year off and on and we burned up 4 hard drives during that year.
I've often wondered how that file would run on a modern PC running a modern version of Mastercam.

I had the same issue doing automation, I had to use a combination of surfaces and mesh surfaces to get consistent and fast regen times, some of the solid models would take HOURS to regen for no reason.

[megatronprime]

I like what they are trying to do, but IMO they have set an impossible development schedule for a totally new technology.
Under the normal release schedule, it's tech previews in the fall, 2 or 3 betas after the new year, then a public beta
followed by a production candidate and a public release in the summer.

Yeah it doesn't leave time for optimization having a new release every year, I think they could do less changes and just have one version that is updated each year with the new module works stuff and bug fixes, a lot of new unoptomized features isn't the best long term, if the software is getting slower even if you buy expensive hardware.

[Newbeeee™]

I've often wondered how that file would run on a modern PC running a modern version of Mastercam.

Slower. :shrugging:

[Zoffen]

Yeah it doesn't leave time for optimization having a new release every year, I think they could do less changes and just have one version that is updated each year with the new module works stuff and bug fixes, a lot of new unoptomized features isn't the best long term, if the software is getting slower even if you buy expensive hardware.

They are trying to catch up but are just grasping at straws at this point.

2025 will probably be my last version. I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade unless they fix the file size/lag issues.