Editor’s Pick: CAD/CAM Solution Sees Improved Roughing

Dear DE Reader:

You can make the prettiest pictures and run gob-smacking analyses, but ultimately someone has to machine the part. And whether you do the making in a mold and die shop or in some huge aerospace or automotive manufacturing plant, you need a CAD/CAM solution that works both with and for you rather than giving you a rough time. That’s the reputation that WorkNC from Vero Software has cut in industries large and small.

WorkNC is Vero Software’s solution for demanding, precision two- to five-axis machining. Recently, the company released WorkNC 2017 R2. Improved Waveform Roughing strategies are the big development in this release. Quick aside: If you use AlphaCAM, Machining Strategist, VISI or another one of Vero Software’s focused manufacturing products, it’s likely you have or will soon see the effects of the roughing strategy improvements.

Beginning in WorkNC 2017 R2, the Waveform roughing cycle toolpath optimization capabilities now take into account the tool load during intermediate Z-step calculations. There’s a new option that lets you force the initial lead-in and the final lead-out to a secure point above the stock if you need to, such as if there’s a variation between a machine’s virtual stock and the real stock.

Vero Software says WorkNC 2017 R2’s Waveform Roughing strategy now achieves improved toolpath optimization by taking tool loads into consideration during intermediate Z-step calculations. Image courtesy of Vero Software.

For high-speed jobs, 2017 R2 introduces a Parallel Finishing toolpath, which the company says can help make high-feed cutter management more efficient. The deal here is that your toolpath calculations use the cutter’s actual shape. What this means for you, according to Vero Software, is that you get optimal surface quality while slashing machining times by as much as 80%.

Also neat with the 2017 R2 release, WorkNC now automates and simplifies the Machining Sequence process. Here, it helps you with toolpath programming by alerting you to missing data—views, curves, points and the like. That should help you make corrections on the fly.

WorkNC 2017 R2 also sees improvements in its collision detection functions and a new option for radial stepovers. You also can now do machining preparation operations in its CAM-specific CAD module as well.

If sometimes you think that your CAD/CAM solution’s notion of roughing strategies was developed at a WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) SmackDown, take a look at what WorkNC 2017 R2 has to offer. It may be what you are needing. You can start learning more about it by hitting today’s Editor’s Pick of the Week link.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE