I have been away from general CNC miling for about 7 years, and now I am again in possession of a small 4 axis router/mill.
Having a look at the CAM softwares that exist, I'm a little surprised that there are no 'smart' solutions out there.
Here is what I believe should be happening in some shape or form by now, in a CAD integrated CAM :
I specify the characteristics of my machine.
I specify the tools that I have, ie some end mills, ball nose, flat, different sizes, etc.
I specify the stock as well as how it's being held.
Now the CAM software calculates the tool paths for the best tools it sees.
Why should I need to tell it every individual pocket, surface, level, when it has all that data of the part in front of it?
It should first do roughing , using all axis available, and then choose a different toll for finishing.
Now, I know that choosing tools and paths is somewhat an art, and to get the best possible results nothing beats doing everything the old way, but for something quick it seems that something more intelligent would be possible.
Having to tell it where each feature seems so 'dumb' , for lack of better words.
Is anyone working on such a thing ? Seems like the direction to go to me.
The feature exists in various forms. The most basic would be something like iMachining3d which looks at the stock and target models, and removes the difference.
CamWorks and other feature/technology driven systems will recognize certain geometry types and assign an apropriate toolpath and tool to it. It is considerably harder than it sounds, because there are numerous ways to accomplish even simple features.
For example a hole might require a single hit with a short drill; a spot+drill; a spot+drill+ream; helical milling; or boring head. In a feature based CAM system you must create a set of rules to choose what technology to use; based on hole diameter, depth, and possibly tolerances embedded in the CAD model.
I gave it a try but my impression was that building a useful set of rules is too time-consuming to be worthwhile for a hobbyist. In most cases when I am drawing a part up in CAD I already know how I plan on making it and the features will be chosen to be machinable in specific setups and with specific tools.
For example I design my parts to require the smallest number of toolchanges possible, but automated CAM just can't really achieve the same efficiencies or surface finish.
I have been using CAMWorks for quite some time now, it has a feature based machining option, it pulls out features and finds the best tooling for the job. Out of the box, it does what it can. I've made a lot of edits to the database for my way of machining. It takes time, but it becomes very efficient. I have some parts that I can "Extract Machinable Features" and "Generate Toolpaths" and have a solid program posted within minutes and not have to select any features by myself, but like I said, I've perfected the database to my preference and tooling/tool crib. It's not always perfect, depending on the part I may program it different than it tries to do it. I've found it very useful when I have a part with a lot of holes, threaded, blind, thru, etc. It will find every hole and group the same ones together and automatically pull from the tool crib the correct spot drill, drill, tap, etc. I've edited the database for different material types and it now has all the speeds and feeds ready to go along with spot drill size to give a countersink on the hole, whether its just a hole or tapped hole.
The " it " is not intelligent, yet, AI someday...................
This is a progressive work to achieve the software you want.
Mgmt wanted to replace expensive nc coder$/programmer$/machinist$ in the early 1970's ( a management dream )
By the end of the 1980's we achieved a 100 to 1 hours in reduction and programmer productivity via wire frame cad, vs punched card fortran code. Then came 3D solids.... Yeah and the programming time reduction again.
Today's software allows skilled experienced CNC programmers to fine-tune like never before.
Today's software .makes it hard to scrap parts.
We went to the moon with punched cards Cad / NC
The future of CAM , why not now ?
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