New user guide for Mastercam

New user guide for Mastercam

Overview

This knowledge base article is designed to give all the information needed to new Mastercam programmers at your company. Here you will find our recommended steps for getting a new user set up to use Mastercam effectively and ensure they are using up to date techniques for programming CNC machinery. The following topics are covered:
  1. Mastercam University (training)
  2. Mastercam.com and it's various uses
  3. Getting up to speed with Mastercam
  4. Support information
  5. Custom training 

Mastercam University

Mastercam University Logo

Mastercam University is a free training platform for Mastercam, developed and hosted right on Mastercam.com. The videos on Mastercam University are the core of the training we use ourselves, and we highly recommend it for any Mastercam user. Whether you're brand new to Mastercam and need to learn the basics, or if you've been using for a while and you're steeping up to a new type of machine, Mastercam University has you covered. There are lessons on Mastercam Basic and Core, which give you a foundation for all your Mastercam training needs. There are also lessons on Lathe, Mill, Mill 3D, Mill-Turn, and Multiaxis. The lessons on Mill, Mill 3D, and Multiaxis also apply to Router type machines.

Please take some time to go over what Mastercam University has to offer. The only requirement is a Mastercam.com account, which we'll cover next.

Mastercam.com and it's various uses

Mastercam.com is your #1 resource! We cannot overstate how important we think it is to have a Mastercam.com account that is properly linked to the current Mastercam licensing. A linked Mastercam.com account will provide you access to:
  1. The Mastercam forums, where you can post questions and answers about the software and request new features directly
  2. The Mastercam Tech Exchange, a repository of files and information to help you program your parts. Includes tool libraries, component libraries for Mill-Turn, generic post processors, and more
  3. Downloads for Mastercam and its updates
  4. The Mastercam Beta program, where you get early access to the next version of Mastercam
  5. Mastercam University, a free Mastercam training platform that covers much of the general use of Mastercam from design through Mill-Turn and Multiaxis
To access all of these great features you will need a Mastercam.com account that is linked to your current licensing. Here are the instructions for creating a Mastercam.com account if you already have one, followed by a link to our knowledge base article on linking your account. If you already have a Mastercam.com account from your work at a previous company you can skip ahead to linking, which will unlink from your previous licensing and relink to your new licensing. NOTE: It is highly recommended that you use a personal email address for your Mastercam.com account. This will allow you to keep your account up to date if you move to a new job and keep your forum history. Accounts can be relinked to new licenses at any time, and has no bearing on your ability to use Mastercam.

Creating a Mastercam.com login

  1. Go to Mastercam.com
  2. Select the Login option in the upper right hand corner of the window
  3. At the login screen, select the option to create an account at the bottom of the dialog 

  5. Follow the steps to create an account, similar to other online accounts

Linking your Mastercam.com account with your licensing


If you are moving from another job where your Mastercam.com account is linked to the old job, there is a button at the bottom of the linking page in step 7 that will allow you to unlink your account. Please unlink your account first, then follow the steps to link your account to the licensing at the current job.

Getting up to speed with Mastercam

Are you an existing Mastercam user who isn't up to date with the latest version? If you're trying to catch up with Mastercam we recommend you check out a few resources for learning about some of the new features in Mastercam.

New Feature Series from MCAM Northwest

Our New Feature series is a multi-part video recording of live webinars that we run every year. We typically go over a large portion of the new features for each version, focusing on the updates that make the most impact to the largest sets of programmers on a daily basis. You can find the New Feature Series recording on mcamnw.com/videos.

Mastercam What's New documentation

You can find the What's New documentation for Mastercam in a couple of locations:
  1. Whatsnew.Mastercam.com is an online resource for Mastercam that shows the new features for the most recently released public version of Mastercam. This requires an internet connection to view
  2. What's New documentation is also included in your installation of Mastercam. To access it:
    1. With Mastercam open, select "File" in the upper left corner
    2. Select Help
    3. Select What's New, which opens as an .htm document in a web browser, but does not require internet to access

Support Information

Our team here at MCAM Northwest is ready to support you! Here is some general information and contact info for our support team for your reference:
  1. Our support policy can be found here MCAM Mastercam Support Policy
  2. Customers on maintenance will receive higher priority in the support queue compared to customers who are off maintenance
  3. Customers on maintenance with "system down" licensing issues take precedence over other support
  4. Please consider your request before contacting us and decide if this is a support request or a training request:
    1. "This part of Mastercam is broken, my licensing doesn't work, Mastercam is crashing" are all examples of support issues
    2. "I don't understand how to use this function, I want programming advice, I need help with a specific application" are all example of training requests. Please contact our sales team for more information at sales@mcamnw.com, or call our main line at 503-653-5332 and ask for sales

Support contact info and suggested workflow

Phone number: 503-653-5332, and ask for support

For support requests it is recommended that you send us an email with your request. Even if the issue is not part/program/machine/post specific, we request you include a Zip2Go file as well. For more information on creating a Zip2Go for support, please see this knowledge base article How to create a Zip2Go file for Mastercam Support

Custom training

MCAM Northwest offers custom training as a billable service. Training sessions are typically 1-2 hours and happen online via Google Meet or Zoho Meetings depending on IT requirements on the user end. While this training is available, we highly recommend users first check out Mastercam University at Matercam.com before purchasing and booking training time with MCAM Northwest. Mastercam University has dozens of hours of free videos on using Mastercam at all levels, from Design and interface to Multiaxis and Mill-Turn. Why pay for training when you can get it for free? We recommend users get everything they possibly can from Mastercam University, and use custom training time from MCAM Northwest for topics not covered at Mastercam University and application specific work.

If Mastercam University does not answer your training needs please contact our sales team at sales@mcamnw.com, or call our main office at 503-653-5332 and ask for sales.

Conclusion

Whether you're a brand-new programmer at your first programming job or a seasoned programming veteran, we believe these resources are beneficial for all users. Please feel free to reach out to us at any time for any reason, we want to talk to you!

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