Pro/e Manufacturing vs. Mastercam

[EvilSpeeder]

My company is purchasing a CNC machining center and lathe and are currently evaluating our options on manufacturing software. We have Wildfire and Mechanica which we are currently using. The parts we will be making are all 2-axis (lathe) or 3-axis (machining center) type parts and will be moderately complex. They will likely be machined from large billets and we will be removing massive amounts of material (relative to the original size).



What are everyones thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the two software packages?



Thanks!!

 

[Moroso]

I've used Pro/MFG for 9 years but I never used MasterCam. The guys use Mastercam here and they love it but they lose the associativity with the models there machining.



For me that was probably the nicest feature about using Pro/MFG was that any design changes were instantly updated in the mfg. as long as the model wasn't drastically changed.



The software itself takes some getting used to but you can really fly when you're used to it. I haven't used it on Wildfire yet.

 

[nguy_da]

Pronc will beat the crap out of mastercam if you use it to machine proe parts. we used to have mastercam in here and it's been obsolete. we use pro/nc for milling and wire edm. proe+intralink+pro/nc rocks.

 

[peterbrown77]

If you are machining ProE parts, you really should use ProNC. It allows you to design a completely associative fixture and machine the native CAD file. We demo'd just about every NC system under the sun and heard some pretty disturbing answers to some very realistic questions.

Ask your Mastercam (or any other) rep:

1) I program a ProE part in Mastercam, and then Rev A of the part comes from Engineering. How do I handle it? What about Rev B?

2) I design a fixture in ProE (can't do it in Mastercam!) for my part. How do I get this fixture into Mastercam? How do I assemble it?

3) What happens if my fixture design has to change? How do I put a new fixture in Mastercam?



To be fair, learning ProNC is not as easy as falling off a log.....it's ProE, for God's sake. And more like ProE 2000i than Wildfire. But combine it with Vericut, and solid-model tools and you can completely computer-simulate and debug an NC program BEFORE making a single chip, all with associative geometry - plus design changes are handled gracefully.

 

[EvilSpeeder]

Thanks guys, looks like we'll be going with Pro again.

 

[peterbrown77]

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but I was just reading an article about Surfcam on www.surfware.com and how Harken Manufacturing uses it. I know you're looking at Mastercam, but I think this is indicative of what happens when you are dealing with non-native data. This paragraph stuck out:



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Post concedes that product designs are never perfect when they come into the shop.

 

[FireWild]

EvilSpeeder,


How are things going with Pro-man now? Do you believe it has been a good choice? I'm looking for a couple of good testimonials to prove to our programmers that parametric relationships are a good thing (they still use Surfcam once in awhile) and would love to switch back.


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