Vero Software recently hosted successful Alphacam and Cabinet Vision User Group Meet-ings at the North American divisional headquarters of parent company Hexagon Manufac-turing Intelligence, in North Kingston, R.I.

The meetings, which took place Oct. 17 and 18, delivered in-depth overviews of new prod-uct features and enhancements, as well as a preview of upcomingdevelopments.

Participants learned how to optimize the Alphacam user interface for an up to 30 percent reduction in programming time, and were given a real-time demonstration of how parts reverse engineered with Hexagon technology can be easily programmed using Vero Software.

“We scanned a part with a Hexagon portable ROMER scanning arm, generated a file popu-lated with the associated geometry, and then imported the file into Alphacam,” said Perry Boyett, Alphacam sales and services director. “From there, we were able to program the part to demonstrate how Hexagon metrology equipment and Vero solutions quickly add up to greater efficiency on the shop floor.”

In addition to being educational forums, user-group meetings are an opportunity for cus-tomers to posepractical questions to Vero staff, as well as to interact with peers.

“These meetings are designed to directly benefit our customers by offering training at no charge on certain aspects of the software,” said Paul Corey, sales engineer for Vero Soft-ware. “At events like these, our users are given the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers that will immediately help them to be more productive.”

Renowned for its ability to program any type of machine tool, Edgecam, the solution for production CAM, will be exhibited from the 18th to 20th of October at the SIANE 2016 Trade Fair which will be held at the Exhibition Center in Toulouse.

With over 700 companies represented and more than 9000 visitors, the SIANE Trade Fair is recognized as the major event for manufacturers in the South of France. Toulouse is already famous as the European capital for aeronautic and aerospace engineering but the SIANE trade Fair also attracts other sectors of activity such as the automotive, electronic and medical device industries.

Hall 6 Stand 6Z05, Vero Software will present its Version 2016R2 solutions: VISI, the fully integrated CAD/CAM solution; WorkNC, the 2 to 5 axis CAM solution; PartXplore, the collaborative Viewer & Analyzer solution along with Edgecam, the production oriented Turning and Milling solution, an indispensable requirement in the Aeronautics sector.

Aeronautic applications regularly require 3, 4 and 5 axis lathes but nowadays multifunction mill/turn machines are often the most suitable alternative. Edgecam offers easy and safe programming of these types of multi-task machine tools. Edgecam initially detects the machining environment, fully simulates milling and turning operations – the rotary movements of the stock and the spindle to detect any eventual collisions and ensures a totally secure environment. Designed to guarantee minimal production leadtimes, Edgecam integrates the “Waveform Roughing” strategy from Vero Software offering users the advantage of a high speed machining cycle and, at the same time, greatly improved tool service life.

The Version 2016R2 of Edgecam is now a 64-bit application. The program can now load very large solid models 20 times quicker than the previous version.

The Rough Turning cycle now offers a Ramp strategy. It is used for turning deep areas with double-edged inserts while ensuring longer tool service life because the contact point on the insert varies constantly thus avoiding cutting edge chipping. This new strategy can also be used on sloping surfaces.

The latest version of Edgecam also offers improved collision detection and NC code for hole machining. Through interaction with the clamping system updating command, drilling cycles can avoid collisions with clamps using retract and safety plane distances.

One of the world’s most powerful sheet metal CAD/CAM systems is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year.

Radan, now part of the Vero Software Group, began life as a verification program created at Bath University.

Kevin O’Connor, Radan’s Sales and Major Accounts Manager, says the University was approached by a machine tool manufacturer who wanted offline programming software for a sheet metal punch press.

“In those days pre-verification programmers would type the G-code and X and Y co-ordinates, longhand, and it came out as paper tape which would be fed into the machine tool controller. The cutting tool would then move according to the instructions on the paper tape.”

Two senior lecturers at the university, Tony Billett – who was to become Radan’s Managing Director – and Martin Swainston, devised the software to read the paper tape and simulate the movement that the machine would make, offline. “It’s very primitive compared to Radan today, but was far in advance of anything else available in 1976. For the first time, it was possible to try a program out on a computer instead of waiting until it was on the machine and cutting metal.”

Radan has developed into the world leader by staying solely in the sheet metal industry, and creating solutions for specialist niches within that sector. These include Radtube, which drives dedicated tube cutting machines tools as well as the rotary axis on flat bed lasers;   and Radm-ax for driving 5-axis lasers. “Both these modules provide an affordable solution to the CNC part programming needs of engineering businesses of all sizes.”

But Kevin O’Connor says today’s customers are looking for much more than just CAD/CAM functionality. “They want something to run the whole of their production process, which may include punch, laser, press brake, costing, and production control.”

That led to the advent of Radan’s logistics suite, which began with Radimport, and the new Radmanager. Also, Radquote will be released later this year. “Customers asked us for a quoting module to manage their production, and be able to fully integrate with existing MRP systems.”

Now with a UK customer base approaching 2,000, he believes Radan’s future lies in two areas: guaranteeing that customers continue to get new state-of-the-art functionality in each of the annual updates, and further development of the logistics products.

“We talk to the machine tool companies to ensure that all our new functionality fits in with their technology, and we hold regular user group meetings where customers tell us what they’d like to see in future releases.”

Now in his 29^th year with Radan, Kevin O’Connor explains why he has stayed loyal to the brand for so long. “A number of employees also have 20 and 25 years service. Not only do we passionately believe in how Radan helps sheet metal companies take their businesses to the next level, but we already work for the best company doing what it does in the sheet metal industry. What more could we want?”

Headquartered in England, Vero Software designs, develops, and supplies CAD/CAM/CAE software radically enhancing the efficiency of design and manufacturing processes, providing its customers with exceptional value through high productivity gains and significantly reducing time to market. The company’s world-renowned brands include Alphacam, Cabinet Vision, Edgecam, Machining STRATEGIST, PEPS, Radan, SMIRT, SURFCAM, WorkNC and VISI, along with the production control MRP system Javelin. Despite the diversity of application, these solutions have one thing in common: they all address the rising challenges of achieving manufacturing efficiencies and bring huge value to the operations in which they are deployed.

Vero has direct offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, USA, Brazil, Netherlands, China, South Korea, Spain and India supplying products to more than 45 countries through its wholly owned subsidiaries and reseller network. Vero is part of Hexagon (Nordic exchange: HEXA B), a leading global provider of information technologies that drive quality and productivity across geospatial and industrial enterprise applications.

The latest release of the game-changing Alphacam CAD/CAM software ensures that users can exploit the full power of their PC.

Alphacam 2015 R2 is 64-bit compatible, meaning its programs can utilize all  available memory. “With 32-bit computers only able to work with 2GB, irrespective of how much memory is onboard, some large files are extremely difficult to work with,” says Alphacam Technical Manager Paul Green. “We gave a high priority to this development, as it means end users can now process large files without any issues arising.”

Amongst the full array of new and enhanced functionality in Alphacam 2015 R2:

The GUI includes a new fully customisable radial menu. “It means users can set up as few or as many commands as they need.”

For Advanced 5-Axis Machining, while the previous release of Alphacam introduced surface machining, considerable enhancements in 2015 R2 give many more advanced options, including wire frame machining for effective trimming, and multi-axis roughing which allows roughing to the actual contour, removing any unnecessary fresh-air machining. Side Wall Axial Relief Feed (SWARF) machining reduces 5-axis cycle times and gives a better surface finish through effective side-of-tool machining. The strategy is to finish the part in one cut, through constant cutting conditions giving increased material removal and a constant low cutting force, along with simultaneous 5-axis vector orientation providing full access to machining areas.Enhanced Feature Extraction makes it easier to find features on orthogonal panel faces. “There is now the option of finding holes and contours on any panel face at the same time, speeding up panel processing.”

Another major aspect of new functionality has been added to Part Management, with full associativity between a part and its copy. Whenever an original part is amended on Alphacam 2015 R2, there is the option to automatically update the copy.

Improved on-screen realism is achieved through Rendered Z-Level Geometries and Material Textures.  “By rendering Z-level parts we’re making them visually clearer to the user,” says Paul Green. “And users can now apply any texture, whether it be metal, wood, granite, plastic or composite, so that it looks on-screen how it will look on the machine. Rendered clamps and fixtures can also be shown on a full machine configuration.” A command in the Rough Finish cycle – Previous Tool Profile – automatically uses the profile of the previous tool to generate the new tool path to machine corners where form and shaped tools have left material there. A new function in Nesting now identifies parts by name, rather than number as in previous releases. “As well as the part names showing in the nest on-screen, they also appear in reports. It helps to make in formation more relevant – users can see at a glance which part is on a nested sheet.” Solidworks Assembly Support considerably speeds up processing. While Alphacam has been able to import Solidworks files of individual parts for many years, one click now brings in a full assembly file containing all the parts. Subtle changes to Part Modeler give higher quality image previews, along with commands for part manipulation including rotation around a specific point or axes, and zoom to a cursor.

Vero Software hosted its first reseller conference as a Hexagon company at HxGN Live early this month, when it detailed for resellers the benefits of being part of a successful company interested in integrating computer-aided-manufacturing (CAM) software with metrology equipment to improve manufacturing processes. “HxGN Live was a wonderful opportunity for our resellers to see firsthand that Hexagon is a great technology company and a very supportive parent to Vero, as well as to better under-stand our strategy going forward,” said Steve Sivitter, CEO of Vero Software. “It was an in-spiring event for all.”

Vero Software’s annual reseller conference is a forum for resellers across the Vero brands, with a technical focus on the latest upgrades and how those upgrades translate to benefits for customers. Included in the conference lineup were resellers for Vero Software’s Alphacam, Cabinet Vision, Edgecam, Radan, SURFCAM, VISI, and WorkNC product lines. The conference took place June 1-4 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was hosted in conjunction with Hexagon’s annual HxGN Live event. Designed to be both educational and inspirational, HxGN Live draws more than 3,000 participants each year.

Addressing conference attendees during the event’s opening keynote address alongside Hexagon Metrology President and CEO Norbert Hanke, Sivitter said that Hexagon’s acquisi-tion of Vero, which took place in late 2014, has been overwhelmingly positive. “Steve Sivitter’s opening session was particularly encouraging,” said Alison Wildblood, CEO of SURFCAM reseller CAMCAD Technologies, Inc. “It’s great to know that the Hexagon ac-quisition means that we have a huge company behind us that is in this business for the long haul — one that focuses on technology development and creativity, and technology sharing among the divisions and brands where it makes sense. We can see a definite plan for the future of manufacturing technology for SURFCAM and our customers.”