CADCAM specialist Open Mind has identified rapid growth with its automated program generation. In fact, the company estimates that the number of automation projects among users of the hyperMill CADCAM suite tripled in 2020. At the same time, demand for hyperMill Automation Center Advanced has increased significantly.

“The more powerful that machining centres and tools become, the more often CAM programming becomes a bottleneck,” explains Rico Müller, project manager for CADCAM automation at Open Mind Technologies AG. “Companies are looking for solutions that allow them to make their CAM programming more efficient by automating processes. Even the most complex and diverse workpieces are created based on a large number of similar operations that can be standardised. In hyperMill, tool databases, feature recognition and macros for standardisation have been available for some time. However, they are now being more commonly adopted across the manufacturing industry to automate CAM program creation.”

Even the basic version of hyperMill Automation Center allows users to automate the job list creation process, and select and position clamping devices. In addition, a uniform process can be defined for all programmers. The Advanced version makes it possible to define and standardise even complex processes, where the solution primarily focuses on the individual elements of a CAD model. Here, the steps for data preparation and programming, right up to simulation and NC program generation, can all be defined.

Once a manufacturing process has been defined, it can be applied to any new component and executed automatically. If any decisions cannot be made with complete certainty within the automated process, the user is prompted to make the relevant choices during the program run.

For further information
www.openmind-tech.com

Mastercam Mill offers expanded machining flexibility and an increased emphasis on speed and automation. Multi-axis features, 3D enhancements and 2D high-speed tool paths combine with dozens of additional new enhancements in a software package intended to improve shop-floor productivity.

For example, maintaining climb and conventional machining is crucial for surface finish and tool life. For this reason, tool paths now provide constant control of climb or conventional cutting even while in complex areas that would require use of both sides of the tool.

In addition, multi-axis roughing has been enhanced and renamed to multi-axis pocketing, which includes new options such as undercut roughing, wall finishing and floor finishing. Multi-axis pocketing provides greater control of the tool contact point and machining angle when using ‘Accelerated Finishing’ tools and ensures that users get the best possible motion.

The new unified multi-axis tool path allows users to select multiple pieces of input geometry to generate the tool-path pattern. Then, using those geometry choices, the tool path picks the best algorithm to calculate the path.

Mastercam’s 3D high-speed blend tool path includes many enhancements, including the ability to keep created passes equidistant in 3D by adding cuts in steep areas and the capability to set the exact number of cutting passes. Furthermore, by applying automatic and custom angles to raster tool paths, Mastercam now automatically sets different angles to maximise the length of the cut pattern and/or minimise the connecting moves.

Finally, advanced drill, a new tool path, is a customisable multi-segment drill cycle that is useful for spot drilling, deep-hole drilling and back spot facing.

For further information
www.mastercam.com

Faro RevEng Software 2021, the latest update to the company’s RevEng software platform, features automatic surfacing capabilities (NURBS), creating surfaces quickly and directly from scanned point clouds and meshes. As a reverse engineering scan-to-CAD software solution, the system is suitable for aftermarket design, the creation of replacement parts, new design iterations or additive manufacturing.

The ‘Automatic NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) Surfaces Creation Tool’ allows for the creation of a full network of curves and surface patches at the click of a button, ready for immediate export into a CAD file. Full control is also possible by customising the surface patches in the sketch mode with its flexible control point placement, while curves are colour-coded to quickly verify surface continuity. The 3D point cloud capture enables users to create models up to 1.75x lighter with a grid management feature to obtain clean, light and consistent point cloud data.

“Reverse engineering with RevEng is easier and faster than ever,” says John Chan, Faro software product marketing manager. “Users can scan with a Faro ScanArm – paired with the optional eight-axis rotating platform to increase acquisition speed – to generate a high-quality mesh and quickly produce exportable CAD surfaces for machining, FEA simulations or 3D modelling.”

According to Faro, users can also import point cloud or mesh files from any source and repair the mesh with RevEng optimisation tools, automatically repairing meshes up to 20x faster than current leading tools and improving smoothing effectiveness up to 1.5x faster. This makes RevEng software agnostic, ensuring it can be paired with any inspection program.

For further information
www.faro.com