SmartCAM V14.5 Released: Delivers Architecture, Solids
Machining Capabilities
Thursday,
November 13, 2007 - Springfield, Oregon -
SmartCAMcnc has
announced the release of all SmartCAM V14.5 applications.
The SmartCAM product family consists of Production Milling,
Advanced Milling, FreeForm Machining, Production Turning,
Advanced Turning, Advanced Wire EDM, and Advanced
Fabrication. Annoucements of the release have been sent to
all current customers.
SmartCAM® V14.5 brings a
significant modernization of SmartCAM’s powerful macro
language, and builds on and adds to the working with Solids,
visualization and usability themes found in recent releases.
“SmartCAM has long been
recognized for its extensive customization capabilities,”
said Doug Oliver, SmartCAMcnc’s Senior Product Manager. “In
order for us to extend this core strength we have replaced
the old macro system runtime interpreter with a new two-pass
compiler. This immediately provides several key benefits to
our users including faster processing, uniform language
syntax, and built in error checking and reporting.”
The macro language has been
enhanced with dynamic arrays, simpler string construction,
additional branching capabilities, and new macro commands
designed to solve specific programming needs, and it
provides the opportunity for additional customization
capabilities to be added in future releases.
Version 14.5 also demonstrates
SmartCAMcnc’s established commitment to solids machining:
added to all SmartCAM applications is the ability to create
a solid model by stitching together a set of surfaces. “Many
users receive CAD data from a variety of sources, so being
able to work with both open-surfaces, which are often
provided from IGES data, and solid models is critical,”
Douglas went on to say. “By providing tools such as the new
auto-stitch capability, users working from open-surface
models can now take advantage of the higher-level SmartCAM
capabilities that are only available for solid models.”
Other Highlights
Continuing on the machining from
solids improvements of v14, several new geometry modeling
tools and selection techniques are provided:
-
A new arc/line polyline fit
function allows prismatic edge geometry to be extracted
from an entire surface/solid model.
-
New curve extraction tools
allow 4th axis toolpaths to be created using the edge data
of 3D wrapped features (advanced products only).
-
Additional topological
selection methods allow simple selection of an entire
solid, and provide options to select all faces connected
to the current selection set, or only those that are
tangent.
SmartCAM V14.0 Boasts ACIS Kernel, Machining From
Surfaces/Solid, Open GL Graphics, and More
Thursday, February 28, 2007 -
Springfield, Oregon -
SmartCAMcnc has
announced the field test release of all SmartCAM V14.0
applications. The SmartCAM product family consists of
Production Milling, Advanced Milling, FreeForm Machining,
Production Turning, Advanced Turning, Advanced Wire EDM, and
Advanced Fabrication. The company plans to release the
product to all maintenance and new customers in April of
this year.
SmartCAM V14 represents
SmartCAMcnc’s most significant release to date, and
demonstrates a strong commitment to the modernization of the
product family, offering substantial improvements in Solid
CAD compatibility, productivity, usability, and
visualization.
“SmartCAM Version 14 is another
great leap forward for the entire SmartCAM product line. By
providing complete 3D solid model support in all SmartCAM
applications, users can make full use of their solid CAD
data in SmartCAM,” said Doug Oliver, SmartCAMcnc’s Director
of Product Planning.
“We also continue to build on
our core strength: total toolpath control. Other CAM systems
might dabble in editable toolpath, but most systems don't
allow it. Only SmartCAM provides full toolpath editing,
right down to individual toolpath elements. Our users depend
on SmartCAM to give them complete control of the entire
manufacturing process.”
Highlights of SmartCAM V14
include:
ACIS Solid Modeling Kernel in all SmartCAM applications
– All SmartCAM V14 products now include the ACIS® Solid
Modeling Kernel (previously found in FreeForm Machining and
Advanced Milling). Full 3D application support has also been
added to all applications. This new capability allows all
SmartCAM applications to import 3D solids, surface, and
wireframe data via SAT, IGES, DXF, and DWG files.
OpenGL Solid Model Graphics
in Main Window – SmartCAM has been updated to use OpenGL
graphics in the main user window. OpenGL is the most widely
adopted 3D graphics API in the industry. This change
provides several significant benefits, specifically the
rendering of a solid with transparency, integrated dynamic
viewing of the model, shaded-surface picking, and overall
improved graphics performance. (Due to the higher system
requirements for OpenGL Modeling, users should review the
new system requirements for SmartCAM at SmartCAMcnc’s
website, www.SmartCAMcnc.com.)
Machining from Solids –
the new Create from Solids geometry
capabilities allow creation of boundary and slice profiles
from a group of surfaces.
-
The Boundary function
creates a composite boundary from multiple adjacent
surfaces which share common edges.
-
The Slice function
creates a slice from an entire solid, or from a subset of
user-specified surfaces.
-
A new Hole Flip option
automatically changes the entry side of through holes from
one side to the other.
New High-Speed Milling
Features – Three new high-speed machining capabilities
have been added to Production Milling, Advanced Milling,
FreeForm Machining, and Advanced Turning that are especially
beneficial to both production shops and mold and die shops.
These include:
-
True Spiral Pocketing –
This new pocket milling pattern generates a continuous
spiral path between the pocket boundary and a central
location within the region. This technique reduces spikes
in tool load by eliminating the stepover moves that would
otherwise exist in a conventional offset pocketing path,
thereby extending tool life.
-
Trochoidal Slotting – A
new trochoidal rough milling process clears a path of
material using a smooth series of continuous small arc
loops and lines which advance the tool along the profile
in small increments. This technique allows high federates
for slotting cuts, providing faster material removal while
limiting the maximum tool load, and thus providing longer
tool life.
-
Plunge Roughing – A new
plunge rough milling process clears a boundary of material
using a pattern of drilling style plunge cuts placed at a
specified increment along a series of rows. The plunge
rough toolpath output uses either drilling canned cycles
or conventional long-hand commands. This technique directs
the cutting forces along the tool axis rather than
radially, and allows purpose built tools to remove large
amounts of material very quickly.
Several other new enhancements
greatly improve everyday usability, including:
Invert Visibility – This new display control allows
quick manipulation of visible and hidden elements by
switching between visibility modes. This capability allows
elements that are hidden to be selectively redisplayed.
File Preview – A new file
open dialog box provides an image preview prior to loading
process models, custom tool graphics and font files. The
thumbnail image can be expanded to a larger image for
improved clarity.
Tool Tip Help – Tool tips
“pop-up” display whenever the cursor hovers over an icon or
menu pick.
ACIS 3D Modeling Kernel, OpenGL Graphics Added to All
SmartCAM V14 Apps; System Requirements Upgraded to Support
Improvements
Thursday, January
11, 2007 - Springfield, Oregon -
SmartCAMcnc has
announced that the ACIS® 3D modeling kernel from Spatial
Technologies, and the powerful, industry-standard OpenGL 3D
graphics interface are being added to all SmartCAM V14
applications, providing solid model import, export and
display capability. The system requirements for SmartCAM V14
applications have been upgraded in support of those
enhancements.
SmartCAM V14.0 is scheduled for
an early Q2 2007 release.
To allow SmartCAM users to take
immediate advantage of SmartCAM V14, SmartCAMcnc requests
all SmartCAM users compare their current systems to the new
system requirements for V14 and to make any necessary
changes prior to installation. Complete details on the new
system requirements and recommendations can be found at
http://www.primetechnologies.co.uk/system_requirements.htm
The addition of the prominent
ACIS 3D modeling engine gives all SmartCAM V14 users the
ability to work directly from ACIS solids or IGES surface
models. Previously this capability was available only to
SmartCAM FreeForm Machining and SmartCAM Advanced Milling
users.
Industry standard, OpenGL 3D
graphics provides SmartCAM V14 users with dynamic viewing
and shaded surface picking of solid models in the main
graphics window.
SmartCAM computer-aided
manufacturing (CAM) software provides CNC manufacturing
solutions for milling, turning, fabrication, and wire EDM
applications. It is exclusively developed by SmartCAMcnc.
SmartCAMcnc provides maintenance contracts, updates,
upgrades and technical support for all SmartCAM users,
regardless of version.
All SmartCAM products include
updated data translators and market leading NC editing
software.
SmartCAM V13.5 Features Process Management, Job Library,
Roughing, Improvements
October 18, 2006
- Eugene Oregon -
SmartCAMcnc has
announced the release of Version 13 for all SmartCAM
applications and for Predator Editor for SmartCAM.
With the release of SmartCAM
V13.5, SmartCAMcnc has added functionality that provides all
SmartCAM customers with new organizational tools for their
job and process data. Additionally, Version 13 provides
improved Z level core/cavity roughing, spiral hole making
functionality and more.
SmartCAM Version 13.5 builds on
SmartCAMcnc’s goal of continuing to provide process
management improvements and new functionality in every
release of SmartCAM. This is the company’s fifth full
release since it re-established SmartCAM development two and
a half years ago.
Highlighted improvements to the
entire suite of applications include:
-
Regenerative Toolpath
Elements – enables data can be recalled for process
modification and optimization
-
Job Library –
enhancements to the SmartCAM Job Library gives the user
the ability to capture and collect tooling, operation
parameters and speeds & feeds from previous (or new)
SmartCAM job files. This data can then be retrieved from
the library for future jobs
-
Core & Cavity Roughing
Automation – panel provides SmartCAM FreeForm
Machining users with a simple and easy-to-use interface
for Z-level stock removal on a selected set of surfaces or
solid
-
Spiral Hole Making –
has been added which computes a continuous, smooth spiral
toolpath for straight or tapered through or blind holes
-
Consolidated Hole Making
process toolbox provides users easy access to a variety of
commonly used hole making functions
-
HTML Help – the
application Help system has been converted to HTML format
which provides better navigation and search capabilities
NEWS: April 4, 2006
SmartCAM v13 Production Milling Application Released
April 4, 2006 - Eugene Oregon -
SmartCAMcnc has
announced the release of Production Milling v13, and CAM
Connection v13.
Highlighted improvements to the
entire suite of applications include:
-
Hide Selected/Unselected
– allows any element or set of elements to be hidden using
the group tool – no need to mask an entire Layer or Step
-
Display Filters –
allows hidden, masked, and surface elements to be removed
from the list view – quickly reduce the sequence list to
visible toolpath elements
-
Container Elements –
collapse a sequence of many elements into a single named
and described element – reduce sequence complexity and
further documents process
-
Dynamic Viewing – use
mouse button Zoom/Pan/Rotate controls – quickly change
view in a single viewing mode
-
Customization Improvements
– add custom user functions to existing toolboxes to
customize user interface and integrate new commands where
they fit best
The next schedule release is
SmartCAM Production Turning v13 in the second week of April
2006.
SmartCAM computer-aided
manufacturing (CAM) software provides multiple-surface
capabilities for a full range of parts from 2-axis work to
complex 3-axis molds, dies, and prototypes. Prime
Technologies provides maintenance contracts, updates,
upgrades and technical support for all SmartCAM users,
regardless of version.
All SmartCAM products include
updated data translators and market leading NC editing
software.
Version 12.x applications
represents the SmartCAMcnc’s first releases of its
industry-pioneering software since the company was founded
in December, 2003. Prior to that time, the software sat idle
while it was owned but not developed by a series of
companies. These new releases are the first by any company
since 1998.
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