Delcam’s Vortex, PowerMILL and FeatureCAM on show at WMTS

Delcam will demonstrate the latest developments in Vortex, the company’s patent-pending high-speed roughing technology on booth #401 at the Western Manufacturing Technology Show at the Edmonton EXPO centre in Edmonton, Alberta, from 15th to 17th June.  Programs incorporating Vortex to be demonstrated will include PowerMILL for high-speed and five-axis machining and FeatureCAM for quick and easy feature-based CAM programming.

In addition to improvements to the Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy, the latest release of PowerMILL includes new options in toolpath simulation and verification, improved collision checking to also cover near misses, and more efficient raster finishing, area clearance and drilling, plus more options for customization by users.

Complete verification, covering cutting moves, leads and links, and tool changes, can now be undertaken of a project for machine-tool issues such as collisions, saving considerable time compared to undertaking verification of each individual toolpath in turn.  Comprehensive verification is performed, including ensuring that the machine tool is capable of running the proposed strategy, as well as checking for both machine-tool collisions and tooling collisions.  A detailed list is generated of any problems found so that these can be fixed on a case-by-case basis.

FeatureCAM, the world’s first feature-based programming software (launched in 1995), has had constant development its Feature Recognition to ensure that the system retains its leadership in programming speed and ease of use.  The 2015 R2 release incorporates a milling calculator to help users obtain the maximum benefit from the Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy.  Other enhancements, among the 280 customer-requested improvements since the initial 2015 release last September, include the ability to create multi-tool blocks within machine designs, better control over toolpath output and more efficient automatic selection of tools.

27 May 2015