Mastercam 2018 Mill offers expanded machining flexibility and an increased emphasis on speed and automation. 2D high speed toolpaths, 3D enhancements, and multiaxis features combine with dozens of additional new enhancements in a package intended to improve shop floor productivity.
Here are some of the most significant highlights and new functionality in Mastercam Mill:
2D Enhancements
Stock awareness has been added to select 2D toolpaths and allows tool motion on the top, bottom,
or both values of the stock. This provides a safer and more optimized tool motion. You can also optimize finish passes based on your rough stock, giving you more efficient and safer tool motion. Plunge entry is supported for Dynamic Mill toolpaths, allowing you to plunge 
directly into material. Spring passes can be used to create additional finish passes with a spacing of zero between the passes. This can be used for parts with thin material that may have flexed away from the tool during previous passes.
3D Enhancements
The workflow for all 3D high speed toolpaths has been streamlined and gives you fine control over exactly where to cut. High speed Hybrid toolpaths now offer smoothing controls and deliver a finer finish, requiring less handwork. Follow containment has been added and allows the tool to follow the containment boundary back to the start of the cut, creating clean and closed passes. It also helps to avoid partial cuts when a containment boundary was directly on top of a vertical surface.
Multiaxis Improvements
Common direction has been added to select toolpaths and keeps the tool at a uniform tilt angle to reduce tool and machine motion. Dropping has been added to the 3- to 5-axis toolpaths and projects the 3-axis toolpath onto the selected surfaces, adjusting the tool vectors to be normal to the surface. Also, the Multiaxis Link Safety Zone page has been redesigned to better reflect the parameters. You can learn more about the dozens of additional enhancements to Mastercam Mill at whatsnew.mastercam.com.
Additional powerful tools in Mastercam 2018 Mill include:
- Many contour enhancements such as Chamfer tool offset, Machine finish passes, Multi pass order, and Rough pass cut direction.
- Mastercam 2D toolpaths now support Depth cut direction and Depth cut order, allowing you to order your cuts from top to bottom or from bottom to top, as well as allowing you to set the depth cut order.
- When you select an undercut tool, but do not want to machine the undercut area, Detect undercuts disables undercutting when using an undercut tool.
- The Collision Control page has been redesigned in Mastercam Multiaxis, and Maintain Tilt keeps the tool tilted during retract and feed moves to reduce tool and machine motion.
- Many other productivity improvements across the entire product.
For more information on Mastercam 2018, please visit www.mastercam.com.
