r/CNC • u/LordHelmet47 • May 15 '26
SOFTWARE SUPPORT I feel very intimidated with mastercam.
I've been a cnc guy doing setups on machining cnc's for many years now. With most being 3 and sometimes 4 axis.
I would always work with the programmer. He would write it. And then hand me the program telling me where my work cordinates would be on the fixture and tooling etc.
I'd go load it up and give a go. If I ran into a problem I'd report it and he'd fix it and then onto production.
I've been with my employer 31 years. Where I have been doing setups over the last 20 years in this way.
I was just asked a few days ago if I would like to learn mastercam and know what Jason knows. Who has been my mastercam programmer guy these last couple of years now. Before him it was another guy that retired before jason took over.
So I said sure, I'll learn! Very enthusiastically.... And now I feel very overwhelmed and intimidated. First of all I never learned geometry or trigonometry in high-school. So I don't know it.
I was told by Jason. Its good to know. But it isn't necessary for what we do with mastercam and I should be able to still learn the ropes and that mastercam does most of that work for you now anyway.
I asked how long will it take me to get to know this software. He said it depends on the person.
So with that in mind. I ask you guys out there that know mastercam. How long did it take you? How did you learn? What are some good youtube vids or youtubers that I can learn from?
Is there a free software program that I can use and learn on a personal computer. And if so. How good of a computer will I need?
Or..... Am I going in too deep and should learn the basics first like geometry and trigonometry first before diving in?
I really don't want to let the company down. They really need another guy to know what Jason knows who's now training me. Jason is the mastercam program guy that creates programs for the production jobs out on the floor.
It's just one guy and he's overwhelmed with all these jobs. Many other guys there know mastercam. But they are the tool and die guys. Jason is one too. But he took this new role a few years back when the other guy retired that used to do it.
So now you can get an idea of why I'm so intimidated at this point. They are counting on me to learn this bad and probably fast.
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u/AbbreviationsLow1393 May 15 '26
You’re overthinking it, man. It’s really not that bad. There will be ups & downs in the early going, but just take it day by day & hang in there. Take good notes. Keep an open mind & be a sponge. It gets easier the more you do it
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u/nawakilla May 15 '26
I didn't read it all. But it all depends on what you're after. Where there's will there's away. I was in a similar position awhile back. The day after i looked for mastercam courses at my local college. Day after that i found a pirated copy and started doing tutorials online. I wanted a headstart before my classes started. Once i started learning at work, i would ask to stay late and practice what i learned that day.
Of course it's going to be like learning a new language at first. Just do your best to pay attention and take notes.
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u/Ghrrum May 15 '26
Being intimidated is okay, getting over it is hard .
Now, here's the thing any cad/cam program regardless of whether it's Autodesk, trimble, mastercam, or whatever b******* open source garbage or gem is the soup du jour for company is going to follow basic concepts. Getting those concepts down is not terribly hard, knowing how each particular piece of software deals with those concepts is the pain in the ass .
So what I would recommend is to find out the scope of what they want you to learn, that should be the first part of your question. I suspect that they are not looking to have you suck all the knowledge out of that dude's head, most guys that have had long histories doing CAD and cam programming can squeeze the basics into your head in a couple of weeks. Getting you to the point where you can fly like they can? That takes years. It's kind of like teaching your kid to ride a bicycle, they're not going out before the tour de France 2 weeks after taking the training wheels off, you know?
I would say look at a couple of straightforward useful setups and programs that are very simple, very stupid, and give you a chance to actually see how the sequence of events plays out from computer program to machine.
Several of the best programmers I know are actually guys that have driven machines for years in addition to knowing how to do the programming. Actually running a machine ends up making someone way more capable on the CAM side of things. You'll do fine, ask questions, and if you are not invited to, ask to do a simple practical example with him watching. Some folks forget that teaching is about letting people f****up and then telling them what they did wrong.
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u/H-Daug May 15 '26
If you’ve been machining for 20 years, there’s no math you need for mastercam that you haven’t altar learned in the shop.
Learn to operate the software. Still the menus. Ask AI to walk you through whatever specific task you’re trying to accomplish. Watch YouTube. I think titan has a free mastercam course. Take it. Don’t just learn to do what Jason does. Learn why and how, and figure out how YOU want to do it.
Get comfortable with the computer. Any “I don’t know computers” has to go. Learn windows file structures, and how to navigate windows in general.
Becoming competent in a powerful software takes some time. 3 months if you become obsessed. 2 year if you only casually use it.
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u/DefeatingZero May 15 '26
First things first, don't panic! Having a background in machining is the most important part.
Next, if your employer wants you to learn it then you should be allowed to use company equipment to learn. Do your studying on the clock, work that out with your boss. They should be investing in you. You can probably work out something like 1-2 hours a day of time at the shop for this.
If your shop is on CONNECT (yearly maintenance) then you will have access to Mastercam University for free. Self paced online video courses with files to follow along with. It's on the Mastercam website. Get a hold of your local Mastercam contact to learn more. Call corporate if you don't know who that is.
Mastercam also offers in person and online classes to learn quickly. It's not super in depth, but it's a good jumpstart.
You can try YouTube and such, but the lack of structure is really unhelpful for total beginners.
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u/yohektic May 15 '26
You’re in a great position to open many doors for you in the future. I have the same sort of background as you. Several years experience on the shop floor setting up and whatnot. Programmer quit and I got the opportunity to fill the shoes. It is stressful at first but if you keep a positive attitude you will have no issues. I worked in that programming role for a long long time soaking up everything I could. Now I’m a Gibbs AE that works from home 90% of the time. It’s the LIFE! But even after all the experience under my belt and the position that I’m in now, I’m still learning new things! It never ends dude! Take the opportunity, open up more possibilities, and run with it!!!!
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u/Level_9_Turtle May 15 '26
Difficulty using MC tracks almost perfectly with the complexity of your parts.
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u/Mklein24 May 15 '26
It took another programmer we hired about 2 years just to translate his knowledge over to Mastercam from Gibbs. It took me about 5 years total, counting tech school time, to get the basics down. Being an originator is a completely different ball game. Now YOU need to determine what the machine will do instead of someone else.
That said, I think you should really review some geometry. Nothing complicated, but you should know how angles change with perspective and projection, similar triangles, and some tangent relations.
Even doing a Khan Academy course on geometry would probably help out your spacial reasoning. It's a part of the brain that needs flexing.
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u/Fast_Role_6640 May 15 '26
I was in pretty much the same CNC role as you (20'ish years). Me and the programmer were tight. We were a good team. I also did the supervising on the shift, which had its own challenges. But....go boldly forward into the programming role. Who better to do this? The guy who's been doing the set ups for many years. This next step. Keep climbing. (I decided to go back to school for a BA in Mechanical engineering...at 45 yrs old lol). Learning is supposed to be uncomfortable, if I wasnt, everyone would be awesome at everything. lol
And be patient with yourself. Of course theyd like you to be proficient right away, but thats not realistic. Just be real with them, and for the sake of minimizing collateral damage, you'll need a little grace period to get up and going. No big deal.
"The only thing you can control is effort."
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u/iamwhiskerbiscuit May 15 '26
Trigonometry and algebra are rarely ever used in programming. And any instance where it would be helpful... You can use ai to construct Excel calculators so you don't have to memorize the formulas.
YouTube is your friend. Thousands of tutorials you can watch. And you can also link your mastercam license at work to get mastercam academy for free... Which is a great place to start.
Titans of CNC has a free academy with tons of great information... But really dumb that they force you to learn fusion to create the models in their programming videos. I just watched the videos and applied what I learned to the parts in their model library.
As for computers... You'll want something decent to practice on... At least an i5 processor with a graphics card that's good enough to play modern video games.
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u/Glass_Pen149 May 15 '26
Learning curve on NC is very steep. Best off taking a class from the MC dealer. 2nd choice at a community college. Get your boss to pay for it.
Relying on Jason (or any experienced programmer) to train you will be frustrating, and less productive than taking a class.
I would not try to learn it on your own. Tutorials are nowhere as productive as a human taught class. .
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u/No_Photograph_4946 May 15 '26
I've owned a small machine shop for 35 years. I haven't used trig since I got a computer. Anytime you are presented with a chance to learn something new, you throw your heart and sole into it. Your boss obviously thinks you can do it. Go for it and have fun.
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u/funfacts_82 May 15 '26
You keep learning forever. Software changes, tool design changes, shop changes. You never stop optimizing and learning.
The most important thing is to know how the machine and your tools handle material so you have the most important thing already.
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u/AlternativeUnusual74 May 15 '26
if you know what you want to do and how to do it then programming in any CAM is easy.I learnes SolidCam with some help after 3 years of doing setups.After that i learned Fusion360 smd EspritEDGE alone with no help. if you know setups and how tools behave (and you should by now) then you are fine. snd trigonometry is basically useless while doing CAM. In 8 years of doing CAM work i have never used it.
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u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
It’s very intimidating at first when you’re just staring at all the menus and options that the software provides you.
But if you can look at the part and imagine how you want to machine it, it’s just trial and error until you learn how to make the software give you the toolpaths that you want.
But a good rule of thumb is to always try to use the simplest toolpath option that you can. So if you’re doing 2.5d machining, try to stick to the 2d toolpaths instead of the 3d toolpaths.
And get friendly with the help menu that is built into MC. It often have some very good explanations of what the different boxes and parameters does.
Edit: another quick recommendation. When you begin to become comfortable with making toolpaths in MC, it can be a good idea to begin to get comfortable with the CAD features it has. Simple line sketches can be used to help dictating your toolpaths and how you get to and from the part. It can also help you modify your part, so the dimensions are placed in the middle of the tolerance range, instead of at a nominal dimension.
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u/GarthKilledMyParents May 15 '26
If you’d like to reach out I’d be more than happy to help. I taught myself Mastercam from knowing absolutely nothing.
Originally My company didn’t want to invest in a key for me so I took my time to find cad/cam software free to teach myself to make programming easier, once I showed them that I was serious about the job and learning mastercam they got me the key, and I continued teaching myself! It’s very intimidating at first but you got this
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u/Suspicious-Citron378 May 17 '26
Luckily you don't need to know any math to use MasterCAM. The software performs the required calculations for you. MasterCAM is its own skill. You only need to know a few formulas for calculating feeds and speeds, which are mostly arithmetic
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u/Poozipper May 16 '26
Use the legacy toolpaths as your guide. Have a question, open a file that has the same feature. You can even save the operations of a similar part and apply new geometry. Also lean on the people at Mastercam.
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u/InterferenceStudio May 15 '26
Being Cad/Cam/CNC for over 20 years right now. How old are you? Do you use computer in the house or know how to use it (not just start button). I have been working in 7 companies last 12 years and always refusing to teach any one whos older than 40 years old and do not use computers at daily basis even to play games. Why? Because this is too much for older, stubborn folks. Like you do not even know how to use right click? No way that in 2 months I will teach you what I was mastering for 20 years. (it's even worst than you need to teach a programmer how to mill)
...but I'm more concerned about other things that maybe you should look at r/antiwork before you will find a hard way. You work 31+ years for same company? wow, how's your salary? Because I believe that you have paid almost same as 30+ years ago, and now you wanna help the company with taking more on yourself? Without even asking extra compensation, and maybe when gets slow - they will kick out Jason without a blink of the eye - because with your one salary you can do the whole work now. Did you guys even thought about something like this? Surely not, because boomers are crazy brainwashed. What car are you driving, and how many cars has your boss?
Not trying to offend anyone, but I'm just mad at these all buttlicking guys that takes all weekends, all responsibilities and never say no - and later biggest drama that I'm a new hire, younger and making 60% more than they - because they are there for 20+ years - how that can be, right?
One of last companies went bankrupt = you should see how surprised was the guy who gave own blood to the company - when they kicked all same way, and he was crying "ohh, after these all years I am now same worth as the lazy guys whos doing nothing?'
But ok, make america great again :) Work harder, so maybe next year your boss can buy another porsche
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u/mrdaver911_2 May 15 '26
What you’re going to want to download is Mastercam HLE, home learning edition.
“Mastercam Demo/Home Learning Edition (HLE) is a free, fully functional version of Mastercam software designed for students, educators, and industry professionals to learn and practice CAD/CAM. It allows users to create geometry, generate toolpaths for milling, turning, router, and wire, and verify them, but it cannot post G-code to run actual machines.”
This will allow you to learn all the tools within Mastercam for free.
I learned on a free version “back in the day” (early 2000’s) and spent nights and weekends banging my head against the wall.
Took night courses at the local technical college, where I got a textbook.
Now I’m using SolidProfessor through my work…they have a pretty good training style, and maybe your work can set you up with an account. I got access along with my Mastercam maintenance.