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[ News-Press Releases ]
PRESS RELEASE: June 2011
SmartCAM V18.0 Released
Features Include New Rest-Milling
Roughing, Feature-based
Holemaking, Improved Modeling &
Toolpath Editing
Many Improments Also Made to Core Functionality in
All
Applications
Thursday, June 9, 2011 - Springfield, Oregon -
SmartCAMcnc has announced
the full release of SmartCAM® V18.0. Version 18.0 delivers new and
improved milling functionality to the SmartCAM milling suite, and
several modeling and toolpath editing enhancements to the entire
SmartCAM suite of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system software.
Nofication of the release will be sent out to all current SmartCAM
maintenance customers.
The SmartCAM product family consists of
applications for Computer-Numerical Control (CNC) milling, turning,
fabrication and wire EDM. Version 18.0 is built on two central themes:
core milling improvements, and core modeling and toolpath editing
enhancements requested by customers.
New Rest-Mill Roughing Capabilities
The new Rest-Mill Roughing capabilities, one of
three a major core milling improvements in SmartCAM V18.0 milling
applications, allow users to easily identify areas of remaining
material, then machine those areas using a new Region Rough process.
The Region Rough process machines the rest mill regions by
automatically switching between profiling and pocketing strategies,
depending on whether a region is open or closed. These new
capabilities make it extremely fast and easy to re-machine features
using progressively smaller tools.
Feature-based Hole-Making
In addition to the Rest Mill Roughing improvements,
V18.0 introduces new Feature-based Hole-Making capabilities. Solid
model hole-feature recognition has been enhanced to automatically
identify compound hole-features, and create corresponding hole-feature
elements which include full parametric detail of the hole. A new Hole
Making process allows toolpath to be created by applying hole-making
tools to a group of hole-feature elements, and automatically
determining the start levels and hole depths from the input
hole-features. The user has complete control over the hole-feature
sequence, and the hole making processes can be modified and
regenerated at ay time. These capabilities allow full automation for
the creation of hole-making toolpath for common features, thereby
saving time and ensuring accuracy and repeatability.
“Our last SmartCAM release focused on solids
machining improvements in our advanced milling applications. For V18
we decided to concentrate on core milling functionality that will also
benefit our SmartCAM Production Milling users,” said Douglas Oliver,
SmartCAMcnc’s Senior Product Manager. “The wireframe rest-mill
roughing and feature-based holemaking are fundamental capabilities
that will be a huge time saver for all our milling users.”
Adds Helical Milling
The third core milling improvement found in
SmartCAM V18.0 is a set of enhancements related to the Helical
Milling. Helix elements can now be created with left- or right-offset
properties, and can be offset during verification and code generation.
The Thread Milling process has been enhanced to take advantage of the
new helix offsetting capabilities, as well as adding support for
single point tools, tapered threads, multiple-side passes, and a
user-specified lead extension. Additionally, changes to the code
generator provide greater control over the output of straight and
tapered spirals. These improvements are in direct response to frequent
user requests for improved thread-milling support.
Many Customer Requested Improvements
Added
Additionally a number of customer-requested core
modeling and toolpath editing improvements can be found in all
SmartCAM V18.0 applications, including machinable system fonts, a
clip-to-intersection editing tool, improvements to toolpath
verification and enhanced geometry layer mapping.
Machinable Geometry from System Fonts now provides
a full variety of font choices to the user. When a font is selected,
SmartCAM extracts and scales the outline curves of the font and
converts it to lines, polylines and arcs for use as machinable
geometry.
The Clip-to-Intersection Editing Tool provides a
method to split and remove geometry segments with a single click. This
feature makes it remarkably easy to convert construction geometry into
final part profiles.
Two requested enhancements have been made to
SmartCAM's Showpath Toolpath Verification functionality. A new
Showpath option allows the verification to be restricted to only the
portion of the model within the viewing window, and new configuration
settings allow the tool motion speeds to be customized to better match
the user’s system capabilities and preferences. These two options
allow a more efficient use of this heavily employed feature.
New Layer Mapping and Filtering Options allow
better organization of the user’s part geometry when importing CAD
data into SmartCAM. SmartCAM layers can be pre-named and specific CAD
layers can be directly mapped to SmartCAM layers. Additionally,
specified layers not required for the manufacturing process can be
filtered out of the import entirely. These features allows companies
that use standardized CAD modeling layers to dramatically reduce the
number of initial steps required to begin building toolpath for the
model.
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