Re: UG vs Mastercam

On Feb 20, 4:29 am, Black Dragon <b...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
BillT wrote:
On 2/19/2010 8:56 AM, Joe788 wrote:
I would be interest to see which level of MC you get for 5-6 grand...
You can be assured the maintenance will not be based on that price.
It's 10% Bill. So $16K for level 3 + solids, and your maintenance is
$1,600 bucks.
What do you get with level 3 + solids? I would assume at that price you
get the full multi-axis enchilada, no?  Btw, solids is a given nowadays.
One thing that used to really piss me off in MC as having to tell it (a
computer of all things) I was selecting a solid edge as opposed to a
curve...

For ~$15K you get Mill 3 and Solids. And Mastercam Solids is the poorest
implementation of solids I've ever seen. Robert White did a better job
when he wrote FastSolid (addon) for Cadkey in the mid to late 90's. Hardly
anybody machines from solids in Mastercam unless they're doing simple
prismatic parts. Everyone heavy into surfacing imports or models solids
then creates wireframes and surfaces from them to machine from. It really
is truly pathetic compared to what I see our Cimatron users doing.

Mastercam will cost you well over $20K if you need a decent CAD system,
Multiaxis, decent verification, etc. Initial software cost is likely
close to that of UG. Around here (geographically) training and startup
would be EXTREMELY costly. Is much much easier to hire people experienced
with Mastercam than any other system. I know quite a few designers in the
mold business who are proficient with UG but the ONLY shop I know of
which used UG for NC programming was sold and absorbed by a larger
company and is now using Mastercam.

There's a reason for that and it's very much related to wages, but
that's a rant for another day as I've got to go earn my peanuts now. ;)

--
Black Dragon

It is bad luck to be superstitious.
                -- Andrew W. Mathis

It all depends on where you are and your reseller. Around here,

Mill Entry = $3200
Mill 1 = $5000
Mill 2 = $9000 (worthless, only allows single surface machining with
most 3D paths, and no "follow surface" gap setting)
Mill 3 = $12000-$13000 depending on what day of the week it is.
Solids = +$1000
Advanced Multi Axis = +$2,500

So you end up at about $16K for everything, + another $4K for
Solidworks. Surprisingly, the maintenance for $16K worth of Mastercam
ends up being about the same as the maintenance for the $4K seat of
Solidworks!

The solids package is unnecessary, because you can still machine
solids without it. I'm old school like BD though, and prefer wireframe
and surfaces.

MC will do 5 axis positioning with any of the mill levels, but needs
the add on for the fancy stuff. A very nice 5 axis post for a common
machine like a Mazak Variaxis is $2500 from In House.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why does The Real / Fake Joe788 Waste So Much Time Chaining And Extracting Wireframe Geometry In
    ... Jon, you don't have Mastercam solids, or even a seat of Mastercam. ... Jonny Jihad the CADCAM ... Gibbs user, that there's no such thing as chaining in Gibbs? ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)
  • Re: UG vs Mastercam
    ... solids is a given nowadays. ... Mastercam will cost you well over $20K if you need a decent CAD system, ... The Solids and surfacing are so far beyond that of Mastercam, it's not even a fair comparison, and for 1/3rd the cost of Mastercam. ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)
  • Re: UG vs Mastercam
    ... implementation of solids I've ever seen. ... with Mastercam than any other system. ... which used UG for NC programming was sold and absorbed by a larger ... you act is if YOU actually work in a machining job shop. ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)
  • Re: UG vs Mastercam
    ... implementation of solids I've ever seen. ... with Mastercam than any other system. ... which used UG for NC programming was sold and absorbed by a larger ... you act is if YOU actually work in a machining job shop. ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)
  • Re: UG vs Mastercam
    ... implementation of solids I've ever seen. ... with Mastercam than any other system. ... The Solids and surfacing are so far beyond that of Mastercam, ... a worthless loser like James Meyette just this. ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)