WORKNC To Reveal Toolpath Enhancements At MACH
WORKNC, part of the Vero Software product portfolio is pleased to be showcasing a number of significant enhancements to the new release at the forthcoming MACH 2014 exhibition.
WORKNC V23 includes further development of finishing toolpaths, which was completely revised in the previous version. Nicolas Lepetit, CAD/CAM Development Manager says: “These enhancements have continued by focusing on the precision and fluidity of cutter trajectories along with component finish quality of the remachining toolpaths.”
Visitors to stand 4426 in Hall 4 at the NEC in Birmingham, between April 7 – 11, will see demonstrations of how finishing toolpaths now handle corners more efficiently, along with better control direction and vertical lead in with Z level finishing, and enhanced handling of tapered cutters.
In addition, V23 optimises the machining environment by introducing a toolpath transition feature. This allows transitions between any toolpaths in the same project to be managed in WORKNC, giving the operator full control on the NC machine. The assembly toolpath function gives full visualisation and control of movements between 3+2 or 5-axis machining areas. Control is further enhanced by a new collision detection management module. Jobs are now set up quicker, as favourites can be saved in the Machine Context function.
Pre-CAM file processing is now faster, but with smaller memory requirements. “Large part files can be activated for programming up to five times faster, with a similar gain in workzone size, making them much more manageable. This will improve toolpath accuracy and consistency, better handling of surface borders, and greater flexibility for adding surfaces without having to reactivate the model.”
And for WORKNC CAD, modifications can now be made to the STL file during the preparation phase. “STL files can be used directly as stock models without being assigned as a CAD stock model. This means the stock model can be activated considerably quicker, while producing a better quality toolpath.”
Additional CAD functions for model preparation include preview options to optimise dynamically before validating the final result:
- Surface extensions – normal, draft or tangent to a surface or plane
- Solid chamfer or fillet with automatic model trimming
- Profile curve based on a surface silhouette from the direction of a given projection
- Surface offset of multiple surfaces with automatic intersection option to achieve the best possible result.
Part of the Vero Software Group, WORKNC is a leading CNC software for surface or solid models in mold, die and tooling businesses for 2 to 5-axis CNC programming, providing customers with productivity, reliability and flexibility. Improving these attributes in any company will help increase profitability. Vero has direct offices in the UK, Italy, France, Japan, USA, Brazil, Netherlands and China, while supplying products to more than 45 countries through its wholly owned subsidiaries and reseller network.