Mastercam 2017 for SOLIDWORKS is a CAM application that is fully integrated into SOLIDWORKS. Users can program parts directly in SOLIDWORKS using Mastercam’s industry-leading toolpaths and machining strategies. In addition to all the improvements to Mastercam Mill and Lathe, Mastercam 2017 for SOLIDWORKS features the Analyze Toolpath, improved Tplanes, and so much more.

Analyze Toolpath
To make your job easier, Analyze Toolpath is used to display toolpath information such as coordinates, direction, operation number, and more when you hover over any part of the tool motion. Green and red arrows display at the start and end points of the entire path. When hovering over an element that is not an endpoint, a tooltip will display information that is specific to the entity.

Tplanes
To simplify your work, Tplanes are now associated to the SOLIDWORKS geometry that was used to create them. When a modification to the SOLIDWORKS geometry affects multiple planes, Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS displays a message asking you to confirm your changes.

CAD Functions
The Mastercam 2017 tab now includes a CAD Functions menu which contains the Create Boundary and Create Letters functions. These will create SOLIDWORKS geometry. The Roll-Unroll function is used to wrap geometry about an axis, or to unwrap rolled entities to make them lie flat. Mastercam creates a sketch from the resulting geometry.

Also available in the Mastercam 2017 for SOLIDWORKS release is:

• To view real-time operation data about selected toolpaths, you can choose the Display toolpath statistics option.

• Category-specific icons are now included on the SOLIDWORKS ribbon bar. All drop-downs now have an icon that matches the first of the functions to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

• Those who purchase or update to Mastercam Mill 2017 or Mastercam Lathe 2017 will also be able to use the corresponding version of Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS.

• New Chip Break is available in Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS Lathe and is valuable when working with stringy materials, and allows you to set length and time conditions, retract, and dwell options.

• Code Expert enhancements including fonts and colors in NC Configuration and character coding.

• Mastercam Simulator Auto Start which allows Mastercam Simulator to immediately begin to play once a sufficient amount of data has been transferred.

• Custom Tool Display allows users to define a tool using parametric properties along with a custom profile that can be imported from a CAD file.

CAMWorks 3D CAM software technology, Tolerance Based Machining uses tolerances, hole callouts, surface finishes and other annotations to automatically generate CNC programs for SOLIDWORKS 3D parts.

Geometric Limited, a global leader in 3D CNC machining software, today announced the availability of a revolutionary new technology that uses SOLIDWORKS 3D DimXpert and Model Based Definition (MBD) 3D dimensions and annotations to automate the programming process for CNC machined components.

Aligning with industry initiatives such as Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 for advanced manufacturing, CAMWorks has been uniquely structured to realize the benefits of automated CNC program generation based on tolerance, surface finish, and other annotations in SOLIDWORKS 3D parts. This functionality is possible due to CAMWorks’ ability to extract manufacturing features like pockets, bosses, holes, etc…, and automatically create toolpaths based on an internal knowledge base of user definable tools, feeds, speeds, and strategies.

Jim Foster (VP Channel Marketing and Sales –  Geometric) says, “The opportunity to reduce the need for 2D drawings while helping to automate CNC machining to this level is truly exciting. Toolpath programming processes that typically take hours can now be accomplished in minutes. CAMWorks with Tolerance Based Machining will save 70% to 90% over the typical times involved when using traditional CNC software to prepare parts and assemblies for machining.  For many of our product manufacturing customers, the competitive advantage this technology offers is significant.”

CAMWorks 3D CNC Machining Software uses surface finish, GD&T and tolerance information in SOLIDWORKS® 2016 to automate the generation of CNC Toolpaths

Geometric Ltd, a global leader in 3D CNC machining software, will present critical new functionality in CAMWorks to simplify and speed up the CNC programming process in the Tool and Die Industry by using manufacturing data; including tolerances, surface finish, GD&T, thread callouts, etc. in SOLIDWORKS 3D models, at Booth #C05, Hall 2 from 6th to 9th April, at DIEMOULD India 2016 in Bengaluru, India.

CAMWorks now has the ability to read dimensional information and will automatically select the correct tools, speeds, and feeds to meet the surface finish requirements called out in the model, set nominal values for asymmetric tolerances and select the appropriate tools, operations, and strategies to generate toolpaths to meet the requirements. This functionality automates the CNC programming process and eliminates the necessity to manually calculate allowances when defining CNC tool paths, or the need to rebuild 3D models to mean geometry, eliminating potential mistakes, while saving time and money, and will streamline the transition from design to manufacturing.

Available through an upcoming, second-quarter 2016 point release of CAMWorks® 2016, ‘Tolerance Based Machining’ will automatically select the correct machining strategies and eliminate long-standing differences between design practices required to tolerance parts based on fit, form, and function vs. manufacturing’s need to machine geometry based on mean dimensions and tolerances. CAMWorks 2016 is also the only CNC application that can read surface finish annotations and automatically select the tools, operations and strategies for correct tool path generation.

“For years, CNC programmers have had to read drawings and manually select tools, feeds and speeds, and hope the selections achieved desired results,” explains Swadhin Bhide, Head – Geometry Technology Solutions at Geometric. “CAMWorks solved part of this problem by capturing best practices and using those practices to automate toolpath generation. Now this game-changing technology has been extended to automatically read surface finish and dimensional requirements and select the correct machining strategies to automatically generate toolpaths.”

“With this new capability, CAMWorks 2016 software will automatically select the correct tools, feeds and speeds based on geometry as well as the manufacturing information captured in the 3D model. This significantly speeds up the CNC programming process, while reducing errors and time consuming manual efforts previously required,” he added.

Geometric Ltd., a global leader in advanced machining software, today announced the release of CAMWorks 2016 software, the latest release of the company’s suite of 3D CNC machining applications. CAMWorks 2016 delivers new productivity-enhancing capabilities that will help companies move seamlessly from design to manufacturing, while enabling more cost-effective handling of design and manufacturing changes.

Operating inside SOLIDWORKS® 2016 design software, and fully associative to SOLIDWORKS 3D design geometry as a certified SOLIDWORKS Gold Partner, CAMWorks 2016 provides many new customer-driven enhancements that enable CNC operators to boost productivity in the generation of toolpaths, as well as shorten the cycle times required to machine parts and assemblies.

A recognized industry leader in knowledge-based machining, proprietary feature recognition, and true G-code machine simulation, CAMWorks 2016 further automates the toolpath programming process, reducing CNC programming, setup, and machining time.

“CAMWorks 2016 delivers the most thoughtful enhancements I’ve seen in the past ten years, including significantly reduced dependencies on sketches, and a new tool-based workflow that helps simplify toolpath generation for many typical jobs,” said Jeff Travorrow, President of CAMS, Inc.

“The new surface selection method available to create prismatic, non-planar machining features provides a huge improvement for our CNC customers, because it eliminates the previous need to create sketches to define features.  Now we only need to select existing model geometry to create features,” said Tim Fulton, CAM Manager, Hawk Ridge Systems, Inc.

“The 2016 release has done a great job of improving the user experience.  As both an instructor and end user, I really like the addition of the Tool Tree tab and other changes to the tool environment. Creating, editing, and managing tools and tool cribs is now a much simpler task and makes CAMWorks easier to use and more efficient,” said Tyler Reid, Manufacturing Applications Manager, GoEngineer, Inc.

Improved functionality in the CAMWorks 2016 suite of CNC machining applications includes:

Productivity-enhancing improvements:

• Interactive feature recognition enhancements, including the selection of non-planar edges and faces
• Improved chamfer machining options including the use of intelligent parameters and user feedback to provide users better control with chamfers.
• Improved automatic feature recognition to simplify features and automatically recognize features by depth
• View and modify default machining strategies directly in CAMWorks without having to access the CAMWorks technology database (TechDB) in a separate application window

New Machining Benefits:

• Automatic pre-drilling of holes for high-speed machining applications in CAMWorks VoluMill
• New gun-drilling cycle specifically designed to support industry-standard tooling for deep-hole drilling and gun-drill operations.
• New cycles to support point to point operations including center drilling, drilling, reaming, and tapping of holes in complex four and five axis components and assemblies.
• For multitasking Mill-Turn machines, the ability to specify a fixed B axis angle for the tool and tool holder has been added for turning operations to provide better tool control.    

User Interface Improvements: 

• Addition of a Tool Tree Tab to simplify the creation of tools and tool cribs, more easily manage tools and operations including selecting, editing, replacing, and deleting tools.
• Enhanced generation of setup sheets including the ability to incorporate multiple part and assembly images as well as tool images to reduce setup time.
• Improvements to Knowledge Based Machining (KBM) database to simplify automation using features, operations, and strategies.

Gibbs and Associates, developer of GibbsCAM software for programming CNC machine tools and a Cimatron company, recently announced that it will participate at the SolidWorks World 2015 Conference with a presentation and booth demonstrations of GibbsCAM software’s optimization for machining parts designed in SolidWorks.

GibbsCAM is a SolidWorks Certified CAM Product that provides seamless integration with SolidWorks. Gibbs was selected to give a presentation called “Manufacturing Complex Solid Models with GibbsCAM,” to be delivered by Steve Aughinbaugh, a GibbsCAM applications engineer, on Monday, February 9, 2015 from 6:45pm-7:00pm. The presentation will highlight GibbsCAM’s integration with SolidWorks, and demonstrate the use of automation features of both products to read a complex part from SolidWorks and program it for machining with GibbsCAM. Mr. Aughinbaugh will demonstrate the ease of programming turning, milling, millturning and drilling operations on a multi-task machine, and finish with full simulation of the machining process. In addition to the presentation, GibbsCAM demonstrations will be available in Booth 525 of the Partner Pavilion. The conference runs from February 8-11, 2015 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mr. Aughinbaugh’s presentation will be centered on GibbsCAM’s MTM and Machine Simulation for programming, simulating and verifying multi-task machining (MTM) operations in making parts designed in SolidWorks. He will demonstrate how GibbsCAM directly reads SolidWorks part models, preserving features and attributes, and use these to identify, organize and select features for machining. The use of a complex part – a cylindrical part with flat areas, pockets, holes and compound holes – for the presentation will enable Mr. Aughinbaugh to demonstrate the ease and speed of GibbsCAM’s CNC programming for various different operations required to machine parts. Use of a complex machine for programming and simulation will enable him to highlight GibbsCAM’s new underlying architecture, the Universal Kinematic Machine engine, which allows programming and simulating machine tools of any configuration, simple or complex. His presentation will finish with simulation of the entire machining process, including the machine tool, its moving components, tool blocks and cutting tools as they make the part.

Inherent to the presentation will be GibbsCAM’s optimization for SolidWorks, which includes the integration of GibbsCAM’s Hole Manager with SolidWorks’ Hole Wizard to identify, categorize, and machine simple and compound holes, and GibbsCAM’s Automatic Feature Recognition and Feature Manager, to read and preserve features from the SolidWorks Feature Tree to easily identify and select areas for machining. This integration, in combination with many other GibbsCAM automation features, greatly simplifies solids machining and provides huge time savings for the SolidWorks user. With a short learning curve, GibbsCAM’s unique user interface enables additional productivity from ease of use and speed of programming.

The combination of GibbsCAM 2015 and SolidWorks 2015 provides a complete CAD/CAM solution for most manufacturing environments. Whether parts have simple geometry needing only 2.5-axis milling or 2-axis turning, or complex geometry requiring use of 5-axis machining, MTM or Swiss-style turning centers, the SolidWorks-GibbsCAM combination accommodates and optimizes the machining process. GibbsCAM verifies the toolpaths with gouge detection and interference checking, dynamically and visually simulates them on virtual machine tools, and accurately post-processes them to generate optimal NC programs. GibbsCAM features help users eliminate scrap and reduce cycle times, while they maximize efficiency, safety and profits.