ModuleWorks, the leading supplier of CAD/CAM components for toolpath generation and simulation will be showing the latest release of its CAM components, version 2009.9, at the EMO exhibition to take place in Milan from 5 – 10th October 2009.
Continuing the theme of recent releases, ModuleWorks 2009.9 provides new features across the breadth of the product range, each designed to improve customer productivity.
The industry leading 4- and 5-Axis machining components benefit from new smoothing strategies which may be applied to both the rotary and tilt axis to provide smoother toolpaths and improved surface finish. They are particularly useful when machining STL models as they smooth out the adverse effects caused by triangulation in the target model.
The popular auto-tilt strategy includes the new smoothing techniques and a range of other detail enhancements which further improve performance and surface finish. Other areas of development include undercut projection and increased support for non-orthogonal machine configurations.
3-Axis machining has a range of new features in roughing and finishing. Roughing now supports intermediate slices, where the steps between cuts are reduced using a series of slices between the main slices to reduce the need for multiple roughing operations. 3-Axis finishing now has support for silhouette boundaries to contain toolpath and new methods to control start point to help minimise link move length and allow smooth transitions between passes.
Simulation completes the product suite and improvements here are largely focussed on 5-Axis simulation with better support for non-orthogonal machines and increased performance. For quick simulation of finishing toolpaths, a simple automatic offset stock may now be used as shown in the illustration.
David Plater, Technical Director comments “This releases offers a balanced set of new features spread across the product range, many of which are based on direct feedback from our partners who are now incorporating these features in their own products”.