CAM Transition Moves Direction From Feature To Feature

[Imachine909]

Does anyone's CAM offer arrows or anything else to show direction of the transition moves. Say you have a hundred pockets or holes in one operation it can get hard when trying to find problems or really make sure everything is happening just like you want. I have a few seats of NX CAM and CATIA Manufacturing and to my knowledge neither offer anything to visually show which direction a transition move is going. Anyone know a trick or does anyone's CAM have this built in?

 

[Mike1974]

Not sure... In MCX, the chain defaults to climb, depending on where you pick the start point...??

 

[TeachMePlease]

Esprit shows linking moves when you turn on toolpaths.

 

[Herding Cats]

I'm not sure if I can add arrows but I've got a fair amount of semi automatic control over sorting with SolidCam.

 

[Herding Cats]

If I hover over the line it shows a red arrow with direction.

Also the spin is only 1000 because it is a rigid tapping operation. Wouldn't want anyone to think I'm dragging my feet

 

[lobust]

I'm not sure if I can add arrows but I've got a fair amount of semi automatic control over sorting with SolidCam.


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I use (and love) Featurecam; For hole patterns it has some options to optimise ordering, but also you can define the order of each hole explicitly. For all other features there are many options that can be leveraged to effect ordering, but they are perhaps a bit scattered and incoherent. You have to have a pretty good knowledge of the program to use them effectively.

It doesn't have an easy way to see the direction of a single move like you do in Solidcam, I really like that hover over a toolpath segment convenience. In Featurecam there are a couple of ways but none are as nice. FC has a simulation tool called region of interest where you set a start and stop point in the simulation and watch it with the speed turned right down to see exactly what's happening there. Another way is to use the manual toolpath editor and select that move, then it does show an arrow like yours does. That is a lot more work than just hovering though...

 

[Herding Cats]

I use (and love) Featurecam; For hole patterns it has some options to optimise ordering, but also you can define the order of each hole explicitly. For all other features there are many options that can be leveraged to effect ordering, but they are perhaps a bit scattered and incoherent. You have to have a pretty good knowledge of the program to use them effectively.

It doesn't have an easy way to see the direction of a single move like you do in Solidcam, I really like that hover over a toolpath segment convenience. In Featurecam there are a couple of ways but none are as nice. FC has a simulation tool called region of interest where you set a start and stop point in the simulation and watch it with the speed turned right down to see exactly what's happening there. Another way is to use the manual toolpath editor and select that move, then it does show an arrow like yours does. That is a lot more work than just hovering though...

Just to be totally clear if you look closely at the screenshot you will see the arrow deal is in a simulation. I am unsure if it can be added to the normal work space.

There is a point to point editor that may also show arrows but I can't remember how to get there since I don't use it because it is very cumbersome to try and use with several Mb linear programs.

 

[Imachine909]

I do like in Solid CAM how when you hover over the tool path it shows the arrow.

In the picture below you will see a few pocket tool paths. All of the red dash lines are transition moves. The problem is when you have 100 pockets it's hard to know which way everything is going due to it not having any direction cues. I have summitted a enhancement request to my VAR and basically the response was they see no benefit.

 

[Herding Cats]

I have summitted a enhancement request to my VAR and basically the response was they see no benefit.

It cost's too much....ok
We don't know how to do it.....ok
We will look into it(and never do anything)....ok
No benefit.....dumb response that insults your intelligence

 

[Imachine909]

It cost's too much....ok
We don't know how to do it.....ok
We will look into it(and never do anything)....ok
No benefit.....dumb response that insults your intelligence

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Mr. M]

It cost's too much....ok
We don't know how to do it.....ok
We will look into it(and never do anything)....ok
No benefit.....dumb response that insults your intelligence

That is the type of response I got from our Gibbs reseller. Nevermind that it was things most other CAM systems did and was proven to be a benefit.

 

[Mud]

I fondly remember Smartcam having a direction arrow on each and every line segment and rapid move segment 20 years ago. I think the new version still does.

 

[Vancbiker]

SmartCam was an awesome product in its day. When they got bigger and went through a buyout or two it all went to crap. I wonder what the current revived product is like.

The shop I worked at in the 70s and early 80s was a very early SmartCam user. Our registration number was 0006. The salesman was one of the 2 partners that started the company and wrote the program.

 

[Mud]

I wonder what the current revived product is like.

It looks pretty nice from the Youtube videos, which are all several years old by now. I got on the email tech support list when I was considering it again, so I see every emailed question and response, there aren't many low level questions that would indicate basic frustrations, they are all pretty advanced.
The cost is quite reasonable. It does not do 'associative', if you change the solid you have to regenerate every toolpath affected by the change, that's my major criticism, which would not deter a job shop. It still lets you edit just about every piece of toolpath.
They do do free trials.

 

[Herding Cats]

It does not do 'associative', if you change the solid you have to regenerate every toolpath affected by the change

Much of SolidCam is associative but you still need to recalculate the tool path. You just don't need to re-select the geometry/features

 

[Vancbiker]

Much of SolidCam is associative but you still need to recalculate the tool path. You just don't need to re-select the geometry/features

Same with NX.

 

[Mike1974]

MCX shows rapid and feed, you can change colors and such if you like, mine are just default.


rapid is yellow, blue is feed.

 

[alphonso]

Edgecam is somewhat like MCX. Each tool is its own color. Rapids are dashed lines, feeds are solid. No arrows to show which way tool is moving.

 

[Imachine909]

This is all fine with the different colors and help full on small parts. But when your part is 20' long and you can get the to and from feature on the screen at the same time at a usable zoom rate.

 

[Mud]

Fusion shows you the beginning and end and direction, but nothing along the links. You'd think that if they can do it, everyone would.