

Mill Solutions
Give your shop the best possible foundation for fast and efficient milling. From general purpose methods such as optimized pocketing to highly specialized toolpaths like 5-axis turbine cutting, with Mastercam Mill, your parts are produced faster, with greater accuracy, quality, and repeatability.
Many of the products we use every day are made with the help of Mastercam Mill. This software delivers a full array of machining strategies and so much more. Mastercam milling solutions can be customized to what your shop needs today and easily scaled to meet your future manufacturing needs.
- A full design package based on a machinists needs including wireframe, surfaces, and solids design
- A wide range of toolpath modules, from industry-leading 2D/3D Dynamic milling strategies to multiaxis and specialized options like Port Expert and Blade Expert
More people use Mastercam than any other CAM software. From CAD inception to the creation of a final machined part, Mastercam is designed as a comprehensive solution for manufacturing efficiency.
- Full 3D CAD modeling
- Context-sensitive help available from all dialog boxes
- Powerful Multiaxis cutting
- Easy pocketing, contouring, and drilling
- Intelligent, stock-aware toolpaths
- Robust 3D solids and surface machining
- Complete tool library and custom tool support

Learn how our milling solutions can help solve your manufacturing challenges.
Features

Dynamic Motion™
Extend tool life with proprietary toolpath strategies that maximize material removal rate and reduce cycle times.

Accelerated Finishing™
Take advantage of innovative profile tools and processes aimed at greater efficiency and higher machining productivity.

Advanced Toolpaths
Reduce costs and cut programming time with advanced toolpaths like Deburr and Equal Scallop.
Powerful CAD
Open any CAD file in Mastercam to access modeling and prep tools for CAM programmers to get parts on and off machines quickly.
Localized Support
Our Mastercam Resellers bring years of practical experience specific to various regions, manufacturing goals, and language requirements worldwide, to ensure that as a Mastercam user, you always have the support you need to get the most out of your CAD/CAM investment.
Free Software
Give the world’s #1 CAM software a test drive. Download Mastercam Demo/Home Learning Edition at no cost. Use it to learn Mastercam and get familiar with the latest advances in CAD/CAM – every step of the way up to actually machining a part!
Machine Simulation
Detect collisions between your stock, tool, and machine components before sending code to your machine tool. Machine Simulation is a safe way to prove out 3-axis, 4-axis, or 5-axis Mill (or Router) toolpaths to make clean, efficient, and accurate programs.
System Requirements
See the table below for minimum and recommended system configurations for Mastercam. These recommendations are based on systems we have in use at Mastercam for testing and evaluation purposes. Our recommendation is to get as much power (processor, video card, and memory) for your systems as you can afford.
Minimum | Recommended | |
---|---|---|
OS | Windows 10 or Windows 11 64-bit Professional | Windows 10 (version 20H2 or later) 64-bit Professional |
Processor | Intel® or AMD 64-bit processor, 2.4 GHz or faster | Intel i7 or Xeon® E3, Kaby Lake or later, 3.2GHz or faster |
Memory | 8 GB | 32 GB |
Video | OpenGL 3.2 and OpenCL 1.2 support with 1 GB memory. No onboard graphics. | NVIDIA Quadro® or AMD FirePro™ / Radeon Pro card with 4 GB (or higher) dedicated memory. |
Monitor | 1920 * 1080 resolution | 1920 * 1080 resolution, dual monitors |
Storage | Solid State Drive (SSD) with at least 20 GB free and a USB 2.0 reader (for installation media) | NVMe Drive with at least 20GB free |
3D Mouse | 3Dconnexion 3D mouse |
Connection to Internet and email is recommended for installation, support, and updates.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Mastercam continues to review the operating system (OS) requirements for Mastercam with a goal of providing the best possible user experience for our customers.
We recommend using Windows 10 (version 20H2 or later) or later 64-bit Professional editions. While Mastercam may run on other Windows editions (such as Home Edition) or virtual environments (such as Parallels for Mac), it has not been tested on these configurations and is therefore not supported.
Mastercam 2021 was the last release to officially support Windows 7 as Microsoft ended extended support for the OS in January 2020. Mastercam 2022 will install on Windows 7 systems but will not be supported. Future versions of Mastercam will not install on Windows 7.
PROCESSOR
The processor speed will impact how fast the software will calculate and complete tasks. With each release, more and more aspects of Mastercam are becoming multi-core processor aware. Toolpath calculation and Simulation will generally run faster with a multi-core processor. We typically see a 50% reduction in toolpath calculation time with the latest Intel i7 or Xeon processors.
MEMORY
When Mastercam uses all available RAM, it switches to using virtual memory space, which is stored on the hard drive and will dramatically slow the system down. We recommend a minimum of 8 GB of memory. For large toolpath generation and simulation, we recommend 32GB of RAM.
VIDEO
When purchasing a new computer for Mastercam, one of the most important component is the video card.
We recommend an NVIDIA Quadro® or AMD FirePro™ / Radeon Pro card with 4GB or more of memory. Other graphics cards can be used, but they must offer full OpenGL 3.2 and OpenCL 1.2 support. OpenCL is required for Mastercam to be able to hand off certain computation tasks to the graphics card to increase system performance.
We do not recommend or support the use of onboard graphics found with some PC configurations. These do not generally have the capability to drive graphics intensive applications such as Mastercam and can lead to system instability.
Make sure you are using up-to-date drivers from your card manufacturer. We often see issues that are resolved with updated video drivers. The driver version can have a great impact on how the card performs.
The latest drivers for NVIDIA and AMD can be found at the online links. We recommend using the automatic detect feature to detect which video card is installed. More information on configuring the graphics card can be found at this Mastercam knowledge base article.
MONITOR
Most of our internal systems utilize dual monitors and we find this to be a more productive setup. Mastercam displays on the primary monitor while applications such as Mastercam Simulator, Code Expert, or Tool Manager display on the secondary monitor.
The minimum recommended resolution for the primary display is 1920 * 1080 resolution typical of widescreen monitors available today. Mastercam will run on lower resolution screens but beware of potential sizing issues with larger dialog boxes and panels which may be awkward to work with. Lower resolution monitors may work fine as a second monitor in a dual screen setup.
Mastercam will run on large format displays, including 4K monitors and high-DPI devices however, we do experience some display issues with these configurations.
STORAGE
We have found that one of the best computer upgrades is to invest in a NVMe drive. These drives are now priced at a point which makes them a good investment. Many of our test systems employ a smaller primary NVMe drive for the OS and installed applications with a second large capacity conventional drive for data.
3D MOUSE
A 3D mouse improves the way you interact with your 3D application. It is designed to be used by your non-dominant hand in tandem with a standard mouse for a balanced and cooperative work style. You gently manipulate the 3D mouse’s controller cap to simultaneously pan, zoom and rotate 3D content while your standard mouse is free to select menu items or parts of the model. Additional technical and purchase information can be found on the 3Dconnexion website.
ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Most computers today have some kind of anti-virus software to protect from unwanted malware. In some cases, these have been found to interfere with applications such as Mastercam which are running on the computer. Mastercam does not recommend specific anti-virus products, but if you see unexpected issues, it may be a conflict with anti-virus software. Try temporarily disabling the anti-virus software or setting an exception for Mastercam.
Add-Ons
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Learn MoreMastercam Community
When you choose the world’s most widely used CAM, you gain benefits beyond the technology driving our software. Our global community of Mastercam users, experts, educators, and enthusiasts helps you get the most from your investment.
- Online and local training
- Network of innovation
- Educational resources
- Maintenance and regional support
- What’s New documentation for Mastercam
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the process of milling?
Milling is a common machining process. It is a type of subtractive machining where a part is cut from a piece of stock material using a variety of spinning, rotary cutters, such as an end mill, for example.
What are the advantages of a CNC milling machine?
CNC milling machines have many advantages over manual machining. CNC milling is able to replicate a machining process accurately to precise specifications around the clock. Not only can you achieve exacting standards, the automation results in drastically increased production speed and efficiency over a manual milling process.
How can I learn to use milling software?
Depending upon your choice of software, you will have different options to learn milling software. For example, Mastercam is the most prevalent milling software, so you will find a variety of options to learn how to use it. You can learn to use this milling software in classrooms and career training programs, through online training courses, and with tutorials and training opportunities provided by Mastercam and an extensive global network of Mastercam partners and Resellers.
What are the disadvantages of a milling machine?
It is difficult to identify a disadvantage to a milling machine, unless your manufacturing process would benefit from a different type of machine altogether, such as a lathe, mill-turn machine, or Wire/EDM machine, for example. This cost of investing in a CNC milling machine may seem like a disadvantage compared to a manual mill. However, it is likely the added machining capability and increased productivity and efficiency benefits will so quickly compensate for the initial investment that the cost of investment is not truly limiting as a disadvantage.
Which software is used for CNC mills?
CAM software is used to program CNC mills to create toolpaths using G-code to automate the machining process. CAM stands for computer-aided manufacturing or computer-aided machining. CAM software takes part files created in a computer-aided design (CAD) software and creates the code to control CNC machines to cut the part. Mastercam, for example, is a CAM software with built-in CAD, but you can also import CAD files from virtually any CAD software to prepare for machining on a CNC mill.
What is the difference between 2D and 3D milling?
The difference between 2D milling and 3D milling lies largely on the amount of machine axes that can be commanded on each line of NC code. Typically, when 2D milling, only the x- and y- axes will be utilized on a given move at the machine. In contrast, a simultaneous x-, y- and z-axis move can be used when 3D milling. For example, in complex surface machining, like you would find in mold and die components, Mastercam Mill 3D could be used to program any free-flowing complex surface or set of surfaces.