beta testers wanted

[esherbro]

Hey everyone,

We're just about to launch the 2-axis Complete version of our VoluMill toolpath service, and we're looking for experienced users such as yourselves to try it out. The 2-axis Complete version adds open shape and remachining options to our existing 2-axis Pockets version.

For those of you who aren't familiar with VoluMill, it's designed to drastically cut cycle time and extend cutting tool life. It differs from other approaches such as trochoidal, peel milling, and adaptive clearing in that it does not have that much more tool motion than a standard constant offset toolpath but you can run it at much higher feeds and speeds than constant offset because it removes sharp corners and manages axial and radial depth of cut and feedrates to keep a constant material removal rate. There's more information at http://www.volumill.com or in the February issue of Modern Machine Shop (online version here) if you're interested. We have downloadable add-ins for Mastercam X and X2, and a GibbsCAM version will be available very soon. If you don't have either of these systems, you can also use our downloadable Universal Client; it takes a DXF file and outputs G-code. You can configure the way the G-code is posted, and there is an integrated viewer so you can see how it looks. In case you are curious, the Universal Client is open source, and the source code can be freely modified and integrated into any CAM system or process. VoluMill is sold as a service (kind of like maintenance, only with no up-front cost to buy a license) and delivered from our fast servers over the internet. The toolpath is encrypted and compressed for transfer, so it's secure and fast (I sometimes demo the service from my laptop connecting via Bluetooth to my cellphone to show the speed).

Anyway, if you are interested in being a beta tester, please send us an email via the contact form on our website or directly to support AT celeritive.com with the following information:

1) Name
2) Email address
3) Company name (if applicable)
4) What materials you typically cut
5) What machine you typically cut with
6) Anything else you want to tell us

If you want to try the pocketing version but are not interested in being a beta site, you can do that right now just by going to http://www.volumill.com and entering your email address on the Products page to get a free trial. No credit card necessary, just an email address and a name. We also have an interactive web browser-based demo that you can run on some predefined parts to see what the toolpath looks like without signing up.