Geometric Launches CAMWorks 2016 Software

Geometric Ltd., a global leader in advanced machining software, today announced the release of CAMWorks® 2016 software, the latest release of the company’s suite of 3D CNC machining applications. CAMWorks 2016 delivers new productivity-enhancing capabilities that will help companies move seamlessly from design to manufacturing, while enabling more cost-effective handling of design and manufacturing changes.

Operating inside SOLIDWORKS® 2016 design software, and fully associative to SOLIDWORKS 3D design geometry as a certified SOLIDWORKS Gold Partner, CAMWorks 2016 provides many new customer-driven enhancements that enable CNC operators to boost productivity in the generation of toolpaths, as well as shorten the cycle times required to machine parts and assemblies.

A recognized industry leader in knowledge-based machining, proprietary feature recognition, and true G-code machine simulation, CAMWorks 2016 further automates the toolpath programming process, reducing CNC programming, setup, and machining time.

“CAMWorks 2016 delivers the most thoughtful enhancements I’ve seen in the past ten years, including significantly reduced dependencies on sketches, and a new tool-based workflow that helps simplify toolpath generation for many typical jobs,” said Jeff Travorrow, President of CAMS, Inc.

“The new surface selection method available to create prismatic, non-planar machining features provides a huge improvement for our CNC customers, because it eliminates the previous need to create sketches to define features. Now we only need to select existing model geometry to create features,” said Tim Fulton, CAM Manager, Hawk Ridge Systems, Inc.

“The 2016 release has done a great job of improving the user experience. As both an instructor and end user, I really like the addition of the Tool Tree tab and other changes to the tool environment. Creating, editing, and managing tools and tool cribs is now a much simpler task and makes CAMWorks easier to use and more efficient,” said Tyler Reid, Manufacturing Applications Manager, GoEngineer, Inc.

Improved functionality in the CAMWorks 2016 suite of CNC machining applications includes:

• Productivity-enhancing improvements:

1. Interactive feature recognition enhancements, including the selection of non-planar edges and faces

2. Improved chamfer machining options including the use of intelligent parameters and user feedback to provide users better control with chamfers.

3. Improved automatic feature recognition to simplify features and automatically recognize features by depth

4. View and modify default machining strategies directly in CAMWorks without having to access the CAMWorks technology database (TechDB™) in a separate application window

• New Machining Benefits:

1. Automatic pre-drilling of holes for high-speed machining applications in CAMWorks VoluMill

2. New gun-drilling cycle specifically designed to support industry-standard tooling for deep-hole drilling and gun-drill operations.

3. New cycles to support point to point operations including center drilling, drilling, reaming, and tapping of holes in complex four and five axis components and assemblies.

4. For multitasking Mill-Turn machines, the ability to specify a fixed B axis angle for the tool and tool holder has been added for turning operations to provide better tool control.

• User Interface Improvements:

1. Addition of a Tool Tree Tab to simplify the creation of tools and tool cribs, more easily manage tools and operations including selecting, editing, replacing, and deleting tools.

2. Enhanced generation of setup sheets including the ability to incorporate multiple part and assembly images as well as tool images to reduce setup time.

3. Improvements to Knowledge Based Machining (KBM) database to simplify automation using features, operations, and strategies.