FeatureCAM 2018 Released

[mark.gadsden]

FeatureCAM 2018 has now been released. You should be able to find it in your Autodesk Desktop Application. If it is not visible there then you should be able to access it from your Autodesk account page here.  

The main features of FeatureCAM 2018 are:

• Ribbon interface - UX design improvements
• Automatic angle for parallel finishing
• Automatic 3+2 positioning
• Swiss synchronization
• Spiral toolpath improvements
• Laser machining (with PartMaker in FeatureCAM Ultimate)
• Keyway broaching (with PartMaker in FeatureCAM Ultimate) 
• Workflow improvements (with PartMaker in FeatureCAM Ultimate)

For more details please see http://www.autodesk.com/products/featurecam/features/features-by-release or view the full readme here.

Thanks,
Mark

[cfarber]

To get the tool bar to stay there you need to have FC open(a fm file must be opened), open up the secret menu and click on browse ezfm INI folder and delete the ezfm INI file, then go to FC and save settings and that should take care of the toolbar. 

I have noticed until you delete the ini file you will have to redo the toolbars everytime even if you try and save settings before deleting the ini file. The INI file is the running file that remembers all the setting and changes you make in the software and reopens them when FC is opened. BUt when you get 1 corrupt digit it wreaks havoc on everything.

[Anonymous]

ahhhh the good ole .INI file strikes again...it seems like back in 2014 I had to wipe mine clean at least once a week!

[cfarber]

There was a time where i had to do that. I got sick of redoing my toolbars so once I had a few good days in a row I would go make a back up of my INI file and when the SHTF I just copied my backup INI in the INI folder. Eventually I didn't have to do that and all was good.

[Anonymous]

That is exactly what I did.

[Anonymous]

That was the problem I was having. Since turning the Show Ribbon off, mine has looked and acted like 2017. Buttons the same size as 2017. 

[TomOliver]

Are any experienced Featurecam users (old Delcam users) using 2018 and enjoying the experience? I haven't switched yet. Still running 2017. I was just wondering if you still thought it is a mistake to upgrade. 

Tom

[Anonymous]

Since changing back to the old interface I haven't had any issues really. Automatic parallel surfacing is nice.

[TomOliver]

So functionally it works well? The user interface is just different/ hard to get used to?

[Anonymous]

Yes, functionally it does work well. I tried for quite a while to get used to the "Ribbons" interface but it just wasn't happening. 

[dames99]

---

@scnicholson wrote:

Also was able to figure out the proper file path to have multiple FCAM icons on your desktop that all open a different toolcribs, materials, machine configurations, and or post for different materials or machines.  SEE PAGE 2 OF THE ATTACHED THIS IS FOR FCAM 2018, FOR 2017 JUST IGNORE THE RED TEXT BOXES

---

Hi scnicolson,

Is this really the way you float the licenses? There must be an easier way!! I have no problem with the new ribbon but I have not been able to float a license since we went to Fcam 2017. The old Delcam software was easy to switch licenses.

[cfarber]

Dames, yes that is how I use 1 seat of FCAM to run multiple machnes, materials without having to switch your mach. conf., posts, and toolcribs.

I had originally gotten this document from my fcam sales rep. I had to change and tweak the pathing to get the desired results. But once I figured it out it was full throttle to make up for lost time with using the new interface.

I am liking the new features so far, just had problems with the ribbon and various bugs which most have been worked out now. Still have some slight display flashing and a crash once in a while, but I noticed if I dont open more than 3 heavy (lots of 3d features)  fm files in one session fcam wont crash. I am teaching myself to open more than 1 session of fcam to have multiple heavy files open.

[ADVAERO]

I have installed 2018 (while still using 2017) in order to test 2018 before switching over fully,lucky i do this cause the 2018 wont open full screen,

in fact all the right upper corner window controls are missing, and so the program is stuck at 1/4 of the actual screen size.

I am guessing either the program doesn't recognize the monitor or its  having an issue with graphics card maybe.
Either way it is completely unusable as it is.
i had the same problem when 2018 first came out so i uninstalled it and waited for updates,no its installed this time with the latest updates and hot fix...

none of which actually fixed the underlying problem,so its still bugged and cant open full screen ,or minimise or change the window size etc...

Now i realize i am running fairly crusty old monitors (3 of them ,with desktop on all 3) but frankly how hard is it to get the software to read the current screen parameters from windows and run the correct size/resolution according to the windows configuration?.

[cfarber]

It might not be a monitor problem. Have you read the pc requirements for FCAM and make sure your pc can even handle the 2018 version it is extremely graphics heavy. A graphics card below what is recommended may cause visual issues. Our IT Dept. was in contact with Autodesk to make sure the pc they were building for me would be good to go for the next 3 to 4 years (graphic card wise).

Also I run 2 monitors a 15 inch and a 27 inch both with different resolutions and have no Issue moving my FCAM from monitor to monitor.    

[ADVAERO]

The requirements for 2018 is exactly the same as 2017 ,and i'm running 2017 fine.
featurecam is not graphics heavy using the surface shading option to turn off "use graphics hardware" so the shading is done by CPU which is faster.
as an overclocker i always run hardware monitoring apps and GPU usage is seldom above 10% ...CPU usage is often at 100% on complex parts.
The 2017 version installed and runs fine first time ,the 2018 version is bugged.
As far as my hardware goes ...the specs do not specify what graphics cards are supported ,for example no radeon cards listed,and my graphics card is a quatro 2000D 1Gb ,i7 CPU,16Gb ram, and as i said runs 2017 just fine aside from intermittent software crashes (which it has always done on every version for the last 7 years despite numerous hardware upgrades).
So as i said it is not a visual issue it is a software issue the 2018 software does not have the usual window controls at the top right to minimise/maximise the program and so it stays stuck at 1/4 of the screen size as soon as it opens.

[cfarber]

Well that rules out pc issues. I dont know what else to suggest. 2018 runs fine on my multi monitor system. 

[ADVAERO]

problem solved,
i was just playing round with 2018 trying to get it full screen ,turns out the default view settings when installed is set to office 2010 theme ....ie no window controls.
when i changed to any of the office 2007/2013/2016 view themes the window controls are back and program can be displayed fullscreen /minimised etc.
The settings are here :select view (at the top),scroll down to styles and themes at the bottom,select any style and theme that is NOT office 2010.
Once a new theme is selected the program will then open every time with the new setting.

So basically why is 2018 set to open with office 2010 theme by default after first install???

[ADVAERO]

I think i found the cause of the problem is that 2018 doesn't appear to support windows aero (transparent windows),2017 didn't have themes so it used the current windows theme settings including windows aero themes with transparency.

So on 2017 featurecam displayed my current transparent window borders etc (including the window controls min/maximise etc),On 2018 the themes over ride the windows theme setting so does NOT display correctly.

As a result using featurecam 2018 themes office 2007/2010 or the windows 7/8/10 themes results in no window border and no window controls to minimize/maximize etc.
So either 2018 needs a bug fix to support windows theme setting including Aero OR an option to turn off the built in themes,personally i think all office themes in featurecam suck ,as they all are too bright and make txt look washed out and hard to read,featurecam 2017 looked visually much better using my windows settings.

[cfarber]

Glad you were able to figure it out.

It must be a bug that only affects certain setups My aero seems to work just fine. I'm curios what office package are you running, I am running O365 and my FCAM2018 defaulted to office 2016 theme (which I changed to the 2016 dark grey theme) on install. It could also be that I was running the dark grey style on FCAM2017 which made it default to office 2016 theme hard telling though I havent looked back 2017 eversince I was able to customize 2018 to how I had 2017 running.

[ADVAERO]

Now that you mention it i was running office 2010 up until recently then the company upgraded to office 2016,

featurecam 2017 doesnt have any themes the dark grey was normal.

we changed to office 2016 about the same time i tried out the featurecam 2018.

I am still running featurecam 2017 despite getting 2018 to work as the themes suck on 2018 ,even the office 2016 theme makes text etc a lot lighter than featurecam 2017.

And also despite getting the 2018 version to work and show the window control buttons it still does not display the transparent window borders etc that i have set unlike 2017 version.
I also tried adjusting the screen contrast and brightness to make Fcam 2018 readable but then the screen is way to dark for everything else.

[ADVAERO]

on the right is 2018 version and you see the problem the left pane is grey text on grey background,all text is lighter than previous version as well .Then all the icons are also lighter and less distinct compared to previous versions.

Microsoft themes suck.
only way to improve this is to make it customisable so the user (me) can select my own setings for font /size darkness/color/and background of each pane.