GREENING OF THE COMPANY....

Mastercam has made environmental efforts since its inception, before greening became a catch phrase. Efforts made by the company include:

• Reducing the size of printed product brochures
• Posting more content to the web site rather than printing on paper
• Changing the product packaging from four-color printed boxes with coatings to a smaller box using recycled, unprinted cardboard
• Printing manuals on 100% post-consumer recycled paper

A new 12,000 sq. ft. addition features a soon-to-be-completed 72kw photovoltaic solar array to produce 25% of the company's electricity.

Other efforts include:

• Geothermal heating and cooling
• Radiant floor heating
• Spray foam insulation
• Insulation under the concrete slab
• Energy efficient Andersen windows
• FSC certified lumber – Forestry Stewardship Council
• Enviro interior doors – no formaldehyde
• Energy efficient T8 lighting
• Dual flush toilets and low water use urinals (1 pint)
• Super engineered thermally efficient NanaWall garage door
• Solar photovoltaic panels
• Low-VOC paints and finishes
• Low-VOC carpet (no PVC)
• Fresh air exchange
• Herman Miller modular furniture

MASTERCAM PRODUCT LEVELS

With the release of Mastercam X (10), the application became a true Windows-based application, as opposed to one ported over from DOS. It also represented a fundamental shift in the way the application was configured. Mastercam X2 provided many enhancements over the previous version and adopted a true Windows application feel. Mastercam supports many types of machines, each with a choice of levels of functionality, as well as offers optional add-ins for solid modeling, 4-axis machining, and 5-axis machining. The following list describes the Mastercam product levels:

• Design—3D wireframe geometry creation, dimensioning, importing and exporting of non-Mastercam CAD files (such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Inventor, Parasolid, etc.).
• Mill Entry—Includes Design, plus various toolpaths (top construction and tool planes only), posting, backplot, verify.
• Mill, Level 1—Includes Mill Entry, plus surface creation, many additional toolpaths (for all construction and tool planes), highfeed machining, toolpath editor, toolpath transforms, stock definition.
• Mill, Level 2—Includes Mill, Level 1, plus additional toolpaths, toolpath projection, surface rough and finish machining, surface pocketing, containment boundaries, check surfaces.
• Mill, Level 3—Includes Mill, Level 2, plus 5-axis wireframe toolpaths, more powerful surface rough and finish machining, multiaxis toolpaths.
• 5-Axis add-on—5-Axis roughing, finishing, flowline multisurface, contour, depth cuts, drilling, advanced gouge checking.
• Lathe Entry—3D wireframe geometry creation, dimensioning, importing and exporting of non-Mastercam CAD files (such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Inventor, Parasolid, etc.), various toolpaths, backplot, posting.
• Lathe, Level 1—Includes Lathe Entry, plus surface creation, C-axis toolpaths, stock definition, stock view utility.
• Router Entry—3D wireframe geometry creation, dimensioning, importing and exporting of non-Mastercam CAD files (such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Inventor, Parasolid, etc.), various toolpaths (top construction and tool planes only), toolpath transformation in top plane, backplot, verify, posting.
• Router—Includes Router Entry, plus surface creation, rectangular geometry nesting, additional toolpaths (for all construction and tool planes), highfeed machining, toolpath editor, full toolpath transformations, stock definition.
• Router Plus—Includes Router, plus additional toolpaths, toolpath projection, surface rough and finish machining, surface pocketing, containment boundaries, check surfaces.
• Router Pro—Includes Router Plus, plus True Shape geometry nesting, 5-axis toolpath functionality, multiple surface rough and finish machining, multiaxis toolpaths, toolpath nesting.
• Wire—2D and 3D geometry creation, dimensioning, various 2-axis and 4-axis wirepaths, customizable power libraries, tabs.
• Art—Quick 3D design, 2D outlines into 3D shapes, shape blending, conversion of 2D artwork into machinable geometry, plus exclusive fast toolpaths, rough and finish strategies, on-screen part cutting.

CNC SOFWARE/MASTERCAM

Founded in Massachusetts in 1984, CNC Software, Inc. is one of the oldest developers of PC-based CAD/CAM software and one of the first to introduce CAD/CAM software designed for both machinists and engineers. Mastercam, CNC Software’s main product, started as a 2D CAM system with CAD tools that let machinists create parts on a computer screen, as well as to machine parts in the shop. Since then, Mastercam has grown into the most widely used CAD/CAM package in the world (based on the number of installed seats, as reported by the independent research firm CIMData). CNC Software, Inc. is now located in Tolland, Connecticut.

Mastercam’s comprehensive set of predefined toolpaths—including contour, drill, pocketing, face, peel mill, engraving, surface high speed, advanced multiaxis, and many more—enable machinists to cut parts efficiently and accurately. Mastercam users can create and cut parts using one of many supplied machine and control definitions, or they can use Mastercam’s advanced tools to create their own customized definitions.

Mastercam also offers a level of flexibility that allows the integration of 3rd party applications to address unique machine or process specific scenarios.

Mastercam's name is a double-entendre: it implies mastery of CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), which involves today's latest machine tool control technology; and it simultaneously pays homage to yesterday's machine tool control technology by echoing the older term master cam, which referred to the main cam or model that a tracer followed in order to control the movements of a mechanically automated machine tool.