CAD/CAM Products Speed CNC Programming

Delcam offers a range of enhancements to its CAD/CAM products designed to speed and ease programming for CNC machines. PowerMill 2012 features a Flowline machining enhancement that divides the tool path between a pair of drive curves in a constant number of passes rather than a varying number of passes with constant stepover. According to the company, this approach provides a high-quality surface finish while lowering cycle time and minimizing wear on the cutter and machine tool. 

FeatureCAM 2012 includes back-boring and spiral-roughing strategies to improve production machining programming on lathes, mills and turn-mills. Back boring enables more parts to be completed in a single setup, and larger bores can be produced on the reverse side of the part. Spiral roughing can be used instead of Z-level roughing, and a single, continuous tool path instead of a series of levels provides a smoother finish with no dwell marks.

The 2012 version of Delcam for SolidWorks featues wire EDM programming. Other options include programming of turning, turn-milling, drilling, and two- through five-axis milling.

A range of direct modeling options have been incorporated into the 2012 release of PowerShape that are focused on design for manufacture, particularly on preparing product designs for the development of molds and other types of tooling.