Not only will the latest releases of Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM system for high-speed and five-axis machining and feature-based programming system FeatureCAM will be highlighted, but also for the first the PowerINSPECT inspection software will also make an appearance.
The main enhancement in PowerMILL 2016 is the ability to mirror complete machining projects in one operation and to maintain automatically the machining characteristics, for example to specify automatically whether climb or conventional milling should be used in each section of the toolpath. Previously, only individual toolpaths could be mirrored.
Automatic mirroring saves considerable time whenever tooling is needed to produce right- and left-hand versions of a part, such as press tools for the nearside and offside of a car. It will also be faster to program the machining of tooling for symmetrical objects since it will be possible to program one half of the core or cavity and then mirror the toolpaths to generate the complete program.
The 2016 version of FeatureCAM includes a range of enhancements to give high-quality results on all types of machine tool, including complex mill-turn equipment and five-axis machining centres, while retaining the rapid programming times for which the software is well-known. The most significant new option is the ability to duplicate the physical constraints of the machine tool in simulations in FeatureCAM. Machine-tool limits can be added to the models to be used in the simulation for three-, four- and five-axis milling machines, for turning equipment, and for mill-turn machines, including those with multiple turrets and/or multiple spindles. It is then possible to check that the chosen machine tool is capable of completing the proposed program for all types of equipment, from the simplest lathe to the most complex multi-tasking machine.
PowerINSPECT makes it easier to complete fast and accurate inspection of complex assemblies. The new version includes automatic feature extraction for point-cloud batch inspection, easier navigation of the history tree, better control over RPS alignments and new options for collision checking.
