Advanced CAM Features Cut Programming and Cycle Times

Programming shares a common hurdle for both routine parts and complex ones: It’s a task that takes longer than most shops would prefer. Feature- and macro-based programming are promising ways to cut down this time, especially for nontraditional tools that promise efficiency, like barrel cutters and angle heads. I recently spoke with Open Mind Technologies USA’s Managing Director Alan Levine and Application Engineer Uday Honnalagere, who told me about how these kinds of features are shaping the next generation of CAD/CAM software to be faster, more accurate and simpler to use.

Feature- and macro-based programming, such as that in Hypermill, recognizes holes, pockets and grooves to shorten their programming time to only a few minutes. This enables programmers to spend most of their time taking on the more complex areas of the part. Images courtesy of Open Mind Technologies USA.

Automation Center for All

Repeated programming steps for jobs like setting up a job list, defining the milling area, determining the stock fixturing and clamping the stock to the center are busywork for the average operator, making these tasks a priority for automation. This also goes for common features and toolpath movements. Here, feature- and macro-based programming can shorten the process of programming a common feature to only a few clicks. Honnalagere says this is the process with Hypermill, Open Mind’s CAD/CAM software, with an Automation Center function that can “automate the workflow to mimic exactly what the user would do manually.”

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Depending on how many functions are a part of the software, users can automate significant amounts of their programming. Honnalagere says it’s possible to automate 100% of programming on some simple parts using Hypermill, but most users will automate only 80-90% of a part this way, taking on the most complex parts of a job manually to ensure fine control. Even with the manual element, he says this sort of division of automated and manual programming can save 70-80% of programming time.

Ideally, shops with skilled programmers should also be able to add their own automation routines. Open Mind is aiming to do so with Python API scripting. Users can write code calling Hypermill functions and integrating them into a full script that can handle certain functions or features that might not be loaded into the CAD/CAM system by default.

In-House AI

Another approach for streamlining programming stems from references to past work. For example, Open Mind’s Data Center function aims to speed up the reference process using on-premise machine learning/artificial intelligence algorithms to sort through past Hypermill projects. Users working on a job can check similar tool paths from Open Mind’s training data or from the shop’s own past projects, then transfer the proven approach into their new job. Users can “filter on various attributes or criteria such as size, material, fillet radius, job and cycle and more,” Honnalagere says.

Automation features within CAD/CAM software can shorten programming of new parts and part variants (such as differently sized medical implants) by retrieving toolpath strategies proven out and refined in earlier projects.

For data security and IP protection purposes, Honnalagere recommends local AI over cloud-based software. Open Mind’s Data Center holds to this standard, keeping customer data local rather than adding it to a global training database. This focus on local data also means the software becomes more attuned to user standards over time, as the only data that gets added to initial Open Mind training pool is the user’s own successful data.

Simple Programming For Complex Work

Besides automation for simple, repeatable features or tool paths that see common use on the shop floor, Honnalagere and Levine point out the value of CAM features for simplifying programming of harder-to-use tools. For Hypermill, barrel cutters stand out as one of its specialties, as the software uses several of Open Mind’s patents to improve performance with these tools. The software enables users to control the contact point of the barrel radius for improved tool life across both simultaneous and positional five-axis tool paths, while also simplifying bounding passes to reduce the remaining material after a tool path. Hypermill includes a feature that lets shops nestle the barrel cutter in an internal corner to reduce the material necessary to machine through additional processing.

CAM features that simplify programming for advanced tooling and toolpaths can cut both programming and cycle times. Hypermill’s barrel cutter features improve tool life while reducing additional passes. This can lead to significant efficiency gains over machining certain features with conventional tooling.

Honnalagere also speaks to the necessity of advanced CAM software for machining with angle heads. While traditional CAM software tries to find solutions for features on the inside of a cylinder along the spindle centerline, these tools operate at an angle from that centerline. Toolpath calculations and alignment must consider both the spindle axis and the cutter axis. These kinds of heads can be necessary in producing expensive aerospace engine components, so Honnalagere recommends using a CAM system with a collision detection system compatible with these tools.

Precision and Topology

Advanced CAD/CAM features can also work under the hood, where users may benefit from them without direct interaction. This is the case for what Open Mind calls its topology-aware tool paths. As part of this feature, Hypermill completes a topology analysis of the part to improve cutter interaction where surfaces meet. Honnalagere says it usually reduces the number of machining points while better managing tangency continuity. In practice, he says this better equips users to adjust feed rates around these points while improving surface finish and reducing cycle times.

Levine points to Hypermill’s high-precision surface mode as an example of another kind of advanced CAM feature that can benefit users. Rather than using an approximated mesh of a surface to set tool path command points, the software calculates these using mathematics for increased precision. He says providing this high-precision data to machine tool controls leaves the onboard smoothers with less work and reduces force spikes and other issues stemming from bumpy tool paths’ sudden acceleration and deceleration, instead giving “high-quality input” to the machine.