Planit Unveils Alphacam 2012 R2

By DE Editors

Planit has released Alphacam 2012 R2,  the latest version of its CNC software, which includes a new high-speed machining technique.

According to the company, the main addition to this latest release is a new Waveform 3D Roughing Strategy, which is a high-speed machining technique that maintains a constant tool cutting load by ensuring the tool engagement into the material is consistent.

The tool moves in a smooth path to avoid sharp changes in direction,  maintaining its velocity and can dramatically decrease the machining cycle time.

According to Planit, traditional tool paths have to run slower feeds and speeds because of the variable width of cut conditions encountered in corners. The tool load spikes as chip thickness increases in areas where the tool finds more material than it did while cutting in a straight line.

The solution includes support for rapid moves with an all-new Automatic Rapid Manager. Rapid positioning moves between 5-axis operations and work plane operations are now automatically created by setting just one “Safe Level” value. And integrating Machine Works 7.1 provides multi-threading support and improvements in speed.

Configurable alignment datum points give greater control over the automatic positioning and alignment of solids for machine ready setups,  and users can run a Geometry Query after extraction to sort specific types of geometry into specific layers, ready for processing with Machining Styles or Auto styles.

For more information, visit Alphacam.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.