We recently had a pilot to test this. We concluded that we could program the first instance %70 faster with Pro/NC then MasterCAM. Each family table member could be programmed from the time it takes to push regen to as little as %70 faster.
The only strategy I have seen to "automate" family table or model iterations is to create surfaces in Master CAM not related to the model and the marry the surfaces up to the new instance or iteration. The risk is that there is no relationship between the model and the tooling surface. This will help you keep the existing toolpaths. (correct or not)
Remember that each time you bring a model into Master CAM (translator or not) the surface IDs change because the file is imported. Therefore you cannot keep the toolpaths. Master CAM still needs to convert the data to read it in. This is the advantage of Pro/NC. No translation. The only thing that changes on a new iteration or instance is just the added or removed geometry. Almost all the modified geometry will automatically update during regeneration unless it can no longer be machined using the previous method. The surface ID remain the same and the toolpaths remain.
