Mastercam

“If I didn’t have Mastercam, I don’t know how I would have machined this part.”

““Once again, ShopWare helped with the upgrade and gave us some of the best technical support you could ask for. With their help, we tackled the programming for the first die block job for forging dies for an automotive supplier to General Motors and Ford.””

““It’s just unbelievable how fast you can run hard materials, soft materials—it doesn’t matter. Whatever you have,” Ridl said, “Mastercam makes it easy. If I’m honest, Mastercam is a big part of our success in accomplishing basic 3D machining,” Ridl said.”

““When I saw that I could put a PDF into Mastercam and use it as geometry, I said, ‘Finally! It’s happening. I always knew it.’””

““We don’t have to start over with all of our programs. We’re able to patch and play until we get to the point where we get everything done through Mastercam offline.””

““We were machining six pieces on the inserts before we had to change them. With the 3D toolpath, we can cut up to 15 pieces per insert now. By using Mastercam and 3D toolpaths, we reduced our cycle time by 20%.’”

“I think Mastercam allows you to customize pretty much everything down to the posts and personal preferences. We bought a machine last year that was configured differently than anything else out there. With the combination of 5 different axes that are in different planes than any of the other machines out there, you need a post to be able to post G-code. There was not a post existent for that machine. Being able to customize posts and parameters, using all the different settings within Mastercam, has been easy for me and very useful.”

“A few years ago, we upgraded our machines using a $2 million Skills Capital Grant. Getting the right posts was tough at first, but Mastercam has completely changed the game for educators. Now it’s plug and play.”

“Mastercam gives us real-world relevance. Nine out of ten companies on our advisory board use it. Our students are walking into job sites already fluent in the software employers rely on.”

““With Mastercam, I don’t have to go back to an engineer to have him redesign or give me new specs; I can just tweak the 3D model in my software,” a COBRA programmer said. “I have a Push/Pull function, a Move function, and Modify feature, all within Model Prep. These features simplify the editing process and eliminate additional programming time.””

““Because I can view the process through the software, I’m able to create code quickly and efficiently,” said a CNC Programmer at COBRA. “Stock Modeling allows me to see what the machine is going to do before I do it and Tool Verification makes it easier to go from idea to actual cutting.”

“Mastercam allows me to take these really complex shapes and give the machine the exact instructions I want. It makes it all seamless and efficient, which is important because we have to be quick. The faster the shop can make the club, the faster engineering can complete a test, get an answer, then go back and either make material or construction changes or move on to the next phase of design or development.”

““Mastercam is the first process of all of our jobs. We rarely ever get repeat jobs, so most of the time it’s the first process in manufacturing the parts that we do. We hit Mastercam and create a program. Most times, we get a model from our customer so we work straight from their models. Mastercam is a huge part of our first process.””

“That’s why we use Mastercam. You can choose any other program you like, but those won’t have options for special applications. In Mastercam, you can get everything you want and still do those special ‘extra’ things. No other software can handle this kind of work.”

““Some of the jobs we do, you just can’t program them longhand with a notepad. You need Mastercam to come up with those kinds of profiles, shapes, and programs for the EDM. And it goes back to being a jobber shop trying to do things quickly.””

“Right now there are seven jobs available for each graduate. We concentrate on both mold work and precision components because most of the industry in our region is comprised of mold builders and contract manufacturers.”

““What used to take an hour,” Brother Isadore says, “now takes five minutes.””

““With Mastercam, we could do whatever we wanted. The level of detail and the ease with which we programmed it – we couldn’t achieve that before.””

“What used to take an hour, now takes five minutes with Mastercam.”

“Dynamic toolpaths really help you engage the workpiece and attack it at full depth. It speeds up the process. It all comes down to cycle times. Time is money. Typically, on the Haas VF-3, if I’m running aluminum, I’ll max the spindle out at 8,000 rpm and feed it 75 or 100 inches per minute. The software helps me make my living.”

““Mastercam has really helped us optimize our machining operation. We’ve reduced production times, improved efficiencies, become more productive, and even seen some significant cost savings. We certainly use it to the fullest. I’d say, we utilize almost every aspect of Mastercam available to us to get the job done.””

“When we initially got our Mill-Turn license, there were some tweaks that needed to be made to the machine post file. We sent a Zip2Go file within Mastercam to the folks at MCAM Northwest and they were able to fix those issues and get the files back to me in a short period of time so we could get back up and running.”

““Mastercam made it very easy for us to make something that we knew would not fail when we needed it to succeed. It pulled through tremendously.””

“Mastercam gives us the flexibility and precision we need to tackle complex projects quickly and confidently.”

““I’ve used several different CAM programs and, to me, Mastercam is the easiest. Students can see tool wear and feed, too. Dynamic Milling changed the way that they machine.””