If you have ever found yourself scrolling through a long list of planes trying to find the one you need, Mastercam 2026 has some good news. The Planes Manager has been refined with new organizational tools that help you spend less time searching and more time programming.
Let’s walk through what has changed and how to put these updates to work.
New Ways to Create and Import Planes in Mastercam 2026
The “Create a new plane” dropdown menu now includes options to add lathe planes and import planes directly. If you prefer right-clicking, the import function is also accessible from the context menu in the white space below your plane list.
Find Planes Faster with Search
A search field has been added to the top of the Planes Manager. Start typing a plane name—or even a partial name—and the list filters automatically. As you backspace or delete characters, the filter clears, making it quick to narrow down exactly what you’re looking for.
Sort and Filter Your Way
New sorting and filtering options appear to the right of the search bar. These give you more control over how planes display, so you can organize the view in whatever way makes sense for your workflow.
Introducing Plane Groups
One of the most useful additions in Mastercam 2026 is Plane Groups. This feature adds another layer of organization for your planes, letting you group related planes together and collapse or expand those groups as needed.
System planes are now automatically grouped into their own “System Planes” group. To create your own group, press the second button at the top of the Planes Manager. From there, you can drag a plane onto a group to add it, or select multiple planes, right-click, and choose to group them together. Planes can even be sub-grouped within a group, and ungrouping is just a right-click away.
This is especially helpful when you are working with multiple machine types on a single part, or programming positional multiaxis work that requires numerous planes. Grouping lets you separate operations logically and find what you need without scrolling through an endless list.
Work Offset Visibility at a Glance
Planes using the automatic work offset option now display a dedicated icon in their row. If a plane has a manual work offset, that icon is replaced with a number that matches the offset value in the plane definition. This small change makes it easier to see your offset setup without opening each plane individually.
More Actions, Fewer Clicks
On the right side of the manager, a “More Actions” button provides additional commands and options for each plane—the same options you’d find in the right-click menu. The properties display has also been updated. It’s now a collapsible group rather than a separate panel, which eliminates the old “Hide Properties” button and streamlines the interface.
You can also rename planes directly in the manager without opening the plane editing panel—another small improvement that adds up to real time savings.
Why the Updated Planes Manager Matters
These updates to the Planes Manager are designed to keep your planes organized and reduce the number of clicks it takes to get the job done. Whether you are working on a simple 3-axis part or a complex multiaxis setup, better organization means faster programming.
For more on Mastercam’s managers and interface, check out the Mastercam Core course on Mastercam University.
