Frequently Asked Questions

For best experience it is recommended that you run HSM Performance Pack on a multi-CPU/core system with Windows XP 64-bit or Windows Vista 64-bit. Furthermore, it is recommended that you install minimum 2Gb of system memory. To take full advantage of HSM Performance Pack it is highly recommended that you are using at least a quad-core PC.

HSM Performance Pack supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows are supported.

The HSM Performance Pack license is bound to a specific Mastercam HASP. You can see the enabled Mastercam HASP in the HSM Performance Pack about dialog. You need a license file to be able to run HSM Performance Pack. It is recommended that you copy the license file to the HSM Performance Pack installation folder so all users on the PC have access to it. HSM Performance Pack will automatically ask for the license file when it is run for the first time. You can hereafter select a new license file from the about dialog.


The Adaptive Clearing for Mastercam product has been merged with HSM Performance Pack for Mastercam. The license determines which strategies can be used. The enabled strategies are listed on the about dialog under the licensing components.

CIMCO Integration offers a free trial of HSM Performance Pack for Mastercam. You can request a trial by filling out the evaluation request form. You are also welcome to send an e-mail directly to hsm-support@cimco-software.com requesting a trial. You will receive a license file that is bound to your Mastercam HASP and which will allow you to run the full version of HSM Performance Pack for a limited time.

HSM Performance Pack is sold woldwide through Mastercam resellers.

There are currently 2 component options for HSM Performance Pack: 1) Adaptive clearing only and 2) all strategies. It is possible to upgrade adaptive clearing only to all strategies at a later time.

HSM Performance Pack licenses can be purchased in fixed quaterly payments. After 2 years the customer will receive a permanent license. Normal maintenance has to be paid hereafter for the license starting from the last payment. Customer can at anytime choose to stop payments but will loose the license when the temporary license expires. Customer can also choose to pay all remaining payments at once and get a permanent license immediately (the maintenance will still expire 2 years after the first payment).

Educational pricing is such that you get 10 educational licenses for the price of 1 industrial license.

Please contact your reseller if you have replaced your Mastercam HASP to which an HSM Performance Pack was bound and we will issue a new HSM Performance Pack license for the new Mastercam HASP. For customers on HSM Performance Pack maintenance this is normally free of charge otherwise a small fee may be charged.

CIMCO License Manager must be used for floating license support. A floating license cannot be used directly with HSM Performance Pack. CIMCO License Manager installer is a single executable available for download from the primary download page. CIMCO License Manager supports Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

When using a floating license HSM Performance Pack will automatically check out a floating license from the installed license manager when it is first run. The license will be released again when Mastercam is closed. However, you can manully release the license by selecting "Release Floating License" from the main menu.

CIMCO License Manager is a generic license manager which provides support for floating licenses on a local area network. The license manager requires a floating license. Only permanent licenses for Mastercam NetHASPs are issued as floating licenses. You must be an administrator to install the license manager. The license manager will automatically install itself as a Windows service. Any error messages are written to the Windows application event log with source CIMCO License Manager.

The license manager uses port 4444 (TCP) and port 4445 (UDP). You must run the license manager on a host for which these ports are not occupied by other applications. The license manager will not run properly if either port is in use by another application. Any active firewalls must be configured to allow the license manager to use these ports.

Running instances of HSM Performance Pack will automatically choose the first license manager found on the local network. However, if you have a DNS running on your network you can add an alias "cimcolm" for the host running the license manager. Clients will automatically prefer the "cimcolm" host to other hosts running the license manager. CIMCO License Manager does not support multiple subnets at the moment.

You need to be an administrator to install HSM Performance Pack for Mastercam. The HSM Performance Pack installer consists of a single executable. HSM Performance Pack will be installed in a folder called "HSM Performance Pack for Mastercam" in the Windows programs folders by default. It is recommended that you install HSM Performance Pack in the default folder to avoid installation problems. It is highly recommended that you close all running instances of Mastercam and any other installation in progress to avoid installation problems.


HSM Performance Pack will automatically detect the appropriate installation folders of Mastercam and install the HSM Performance Pack C-hook. If you update/install Mastercam hereafter you can manually run the repair utility found in the HSM Performance Pack installation folder to reinstall the C-hook. It is not recommended that you try to install the C-hook manually due to potential compatibility issues between different versions of Mastercam/HSM Performance Pack.

You cannot use HSM Performance Pack 3 and ealier versions simultaneously for the same version of Mastercam. The last installed version of HSM Performance Pack will be used. HSM Performance Pack 3 support side-by-side installation with HSM Performance Pack 2 so you can continue to use HSM Performance Pack 2 with Mastercam v9 and Mastercam X if required.

The HSM Performance Pack installation or the repair utility found in the installation folder will automatically detect all versions of Mastercam X, X2, X3, X4, and X5 and install the appropriate C-hook. You can also install the C-hook manually if required but this it is generally not recommended. For Mastercam X you need to copy the file hsmmcx1.dll into the X C-hook folder and rename it to hsm.dll. For Mastercam X2 you need to copy the file hsmmcx2.dll into the X2 C-hook folder and rename it to hsm.dll. Similarly, for Mastercam X3 you need to copy the file hsmmcx3.dll into the X3 C-hook folder and rename it to hsm.dll. For Mastercam X4 you need to copy the file hsmmcx4.dll into the X4 C-hook folder and rename it to hsm.dll. For Mastercam X5 you need to copy the file hsmmcx5.dll into the X5 C-hook folder and rename it to hsm.dll. You can always run the repair utility if you need to return to the standard installation.

By default the repair utility will install the HSM C-hook in all Mastercam X, X2, X3, X4, and X5 folders. However, you can also use the following arguments with the repair utility to control which Mastercam installation folders to use:

Argument	Description
/x1	Install HSM C-hook in Mastercam X1 folders.
/x2	Install HSM C-hook in Mastercam X2 folders.
/x3	Install HSM C-hook in Mastercam X3 folders.
/x4	Install HSM C-hook in Mastercam X4 folders.
/x5	Install HSM C-hook in Mastercam X5 folders.
PATH	Install HSM C-hook in the specified path.

Mastercam X, Mastercam X2, Mastercam X3, Mastercam X4, and Mastercam X5 are currently supported. The HSM Performance Pack installation contains separate C-hooks for X, X2, X3, X4, and X5. For Mastercam v9 you need to use HSM Performance Pack 2.3.3.

You can run all versions of HSM Performance Pack released before the expiration of your maintenance period. The end of the maintenance period is listed in the HSM Performance Pack about dialog. You will get a warning when your maintenance is going to expire. Maintenance always expires at the end of a month.

HSM Performance Pack 3 utilizes a completely redesigned toolpath kernel to ensure the best possible toolpath generation performance. HSM Performance Pack supports multi-CPU and multi-core PCs but even on a single CPU system the new HSM Performance Pack will often be must faster then the previous version. HSM Performance Pack 3 should generally allow you to reduce your total toolpath generation time many times on up to date hardware and hence potentially save you many hours of waiting time.


The new version of HSM Performance Pack will generally use more memory during toolpath calculation then the old versions. However, HSM Performance Pack will automatically detect if the system is low on memory and enter a special memory conserving mode. This can increase the calculation time significantly but will allow the toolpath generation to complete on low memory systems. To avoid this make sure to install the recommended amount of system memory.

If you are having issues with bad performance on your PC. You should attach the system report with e-mails sent to hsm-support@cimco-software.com. You can generate a system report from the support submenu in the HSM Performance Pack main menu. If relevant you should also attach your part file.

HSM Performance Pack can fully utilize Windows 64-bit during toolpath generation. Running under Windows 64-bit is recommended since more memory will be available for the toolpath calculation which will allow you to run bigger jobs and potentially also reduce calculation time for large jobs since HSM Performance Pack can avoid entering the memory conservation mode.

You can set up an HSM Performance Pack toolbar in Mastercam X using the Mastercam customization dialog. The HSM Performance Pack specific functions can be added to the toolbar of choice once the HSM C-hook has been properly installed. The available functions are listed under the "HSM - CIMCO Integration" category in the Mastercam customization dialog which can be opened by selecting "Settings" followed by "Customize" from the Mastercam main menu.

Updates will be made available in the end-user download area. Please make sure to check for new updates on a regular basis. You should already have received information on how to download updates for HSM Performance Pack. You can configure HSM Performance Pack to check for new updates automcatically in the preferences. You can also manually check for new updates by choosing "Check for Update" from the HSM Performance Pack main menu.

For support please contact your local reseller or CIMCO Integration directly at hsm-support@cimco-software.com. Please include version of HSM Performance Pack and Mastercam in e-mails.

If you have an Internet connection it is possible for CIMCO Integration to do remote support directly. You can start remote support from the main menu.

HSM Performance Pack includes its own backplot and verification engines. The backplot and verify are fast and have additional features which can be quite useful when analyzing toolpath. You can see some nice pictures of the backplot and verify in the gallery.

HSM Performance Pack includes its own arc fitting filter. The filter is always disabled by default. You can enable it from the main HSMPP menu under Options -> Use integrated arc filter. The new filter is very fast and tries to align points in the toolpath for the best surface quality. For finishing toolpath the arc fitting tolerance should normally be set to the machining tolerance. HSMPP will write in the generation log whenever the Mastercam or the HSMPP filter is active.

The arc filter is very fast and will often reduce your total calculation time by a factor 2 or more. The filter carefully tries to fit arcs for superior toolpath quality. However, the filter will not fit linear motion to the same degree as the Mastercam filter does because this can result in visible facets on the part. If you want to avoid close linear points in the toolpath you should likely just loosen the machining tolerance.

HSM Performance Pack writes NCI parameters into the NCI data for the operation when it is regenerated. You can use these values from the post processor to generate setup sheets and to trigger specific behavior in the NC program.

The setup sheet X+ developed by GMCCS supports HSM Performance Pack. You can get it at http://gmccs.de/index.php?page=mastercam_xplus.htm.

HSM Performance Pack allocated the NCI parameter range from 30800 to 30999. The parameters listed below are currently in use.

Parameter	Description	Version
30800	HSM string identifying HSM Performance Pack.	3.0.58
30801	HSM Performance Pack revision number.	3.0.58
30820	Machining strategy string identifier.	3.0.58
30821	Machining tolerance.	3.0.58
30822	Radial stock to leave.	3.0.58
30823	Axial stock to leave.	3.0.58
30824	Machining strategy number identifier.	4.0.1
30830	Clearance height.	3.0.58
30831	Absolute clearance height.	3.0.58
30832	Retract height.	3.0.58
30833	Absolute retract height.	3.0.58
30840	Maximum stepdown if defined.	3.0.58
30841	Maximum stepover if defined.	3.0.58

You can select language used by HSM Performance Pack from the languages menu. You can also modify existing translations or add new translations from the language menu.

The product called Adaptive Clearing for Mastercam has been discontinued as of the release of HSM Performance Pack 3 for Mastercam. However, Adaptive Clearing is still available with HSM Performance Pack for Mastercam and existing licenses for Adaptive Clearing for Mastercam can be used with HSM Performance Pack 3.

If you have old parts with existing adaptive operations created with Adaptive Clearing for Mastercam you first need to convert them into HSM Performance Pack operations using the convert operation option. First select your old adaptive operation and then choose convert operation from the main menu.

You can see a list of the HSMPP version used to modified/create existing HSMPP operations by choosing Modification Info available under support in the main menu.

If you encounter problems with HSM Performance Pack please make sure to provide the full version of both Mastercam and HSM Performance Pack together with the description of the problem. You are also very welcome to send us suggestions for improvements.