The HRS Blog – SolidWorks and CAMWorks

You might think that engraving a complex shape or logo on a 3D surface would be a difficult and complex feature to create in CAMWorks, but it’s simple. This blog will walk you through doing this in a way found to be very effective regardless of the complexity of the intended form.

Project a split line feature onto the face you’d like to etch.

Once the projected edge is created, convert the edge geometry to a 3D Sketch. Right-click on one of the edge segments, Select Loop, Open a 3D Sketch, Convert Entities and Exit 3D Sketch.

A 3D Sketch is created on the complex surface that was modeled. Now let’s go into CAMWorks.

At this point run AFR (Automatic Feature Recognition) and add a Multi Surface Feature which will detect and place a tool-path on the 3D surface. To engrave the logo on this surface, insert a 2.5 Axis Feature in Mill Part Setup 1, select Curve Feature for the Type, and also select the 3D sketch that was created earlier as the curve to use.

Click Next and set the Type: Blind and set the depth to .005 to just brake into the surface.

After the Feature is created, Generate Operation Plan and Generate Toolpath. Click on the Operations Tab and double click the new Contour Mill Operation that was created. Select the proper tool from Your Tool Crib. This example is using a 90 degree 1/8” countersink bit.

Simulate Toolpath and analyze your Operation. Change depth parameters or tool to achieve your desired etching in the complex 3D surface.

For more CAMWorks tips and tricks, check out the CAMWorks Corner in the Hawk Ridge Systems recorded webinars, or visit the CAMWorks video page for additional details on features and packages.

Aircraft seat assembly ready for nesting and machining

With the markets ebbing and flowing, talks of fiscal cliff deals, and the lessons learned from the past few years, it seems the age old adage of “time is money” has never rung so true. Whether it’s honing your systems and procedures using data management tools, sharpening your modeling skills by taking a class, or optimizing your products using finite element analysis, the focus on productivity and streamlining is apparent in many areas of business. But what happens when the design gets approved and released for production? Productivity has always been a priority of any machine shop; maximizing the use of the stock, minimizing the cycle time and managing waste are just a few examples – but what tools are available to assist?

For maximizing the use of stock material and minimizing waste, there are a variety of nesting packages available. Many are predominantly geared towards the sheet metal market; as such they use a DXF format to adjust the orientation of the flat pattern. Other packages use a block nesting approach for 3D files whereby an imaginary rectangle is fitted to the part as closely as possible resulting in a quick nest but not an optimal solution from a waste perspective.

CAMWorks Nesting is a true-shape nesting program that creates fast and efficient nested layouts of 2D flat patterns and 3D parts. Being the first CAM gold partner for SolidWorks has its advantages also. The program allows you to use either SolidWorks files or imported geometry (such as Parasolid, STEP, IGES etc), in either part or assembly format and works with multi-body parts (a commonly used modelling practice for sheet metal and welded components).

A fast nest solution showing room for improvement, but still well nested.

Have a tight deadline? You can choose to run a fast nesting process which will quickly create a nest of the parts but may not be the optimal nest. Machining that expensive Inconel? You can also choose to optimize the nest and it will produce an assembly of well nested components so you’re not giving your profits away to the swarf recycler. And for those that are down to the wire but need the best efficiency, you can set a time constraint for optimization.

Optimization has managed to increase the material utilization by nearly 7%

So you’ve set everything up, ran the nesting, got a great looking nested assembly and just as you’re about to hit the big green button the customer calls saying they need to make a change! It’s usually at 4:59pm and the job’s got to be running. Not to worry! You can either make the changes to the SolidWorks file or update the imported file and rebuild the nest. The nesting will update to accommodate the changes to the file.

Need to machine your parts? Use all the benefits of CAMWorks – a true feature-based, parametric CAM tool, right inside of the nested assembly. The key time-saver here is the automatic feature recognition (AFR). The speed at which it can detect features such as pockets, holes, and bosses, associate machining operations to the features, and generate the toolpath is mind-boggling at times. But one of the greatest assets is the ability to teach it the way you machine your components. That one click button to program your parts isn’t so much a dream – with CAMWorks it can be your reality!

The greatness of CAMWorks is not just about the tools themselves; it’s the support we can offer. Our dedicated support team is second-to-none, and has the can-do attitude it takes to get to the bottom of any question quickly and efficiently so that you can be productive. Hawk Ridge Systems employs a number of engineers with CNC experience, and because of that we will be able to relate and relay this information to ensure that our software and support continues to be the best.

See CAMWorks in action - Watch this video.

If you’d like to find out more information about CAMWorks or request a demonstration, please give us a call at 877.266.4469 in the US or 866-587-6803 in Canada, or email us at info@hawkridgesys.com. You can also check out our Webinar Wednesday schedule for upcoming CAMWorks eDemos!

Need to take your new product design to its full manufacturing potential? CAMWorks is your ultimate CAM solution for taking your 3D CAD models from concept to production. And now Hawk Ridge Systems has joined the party. With our world renowned sales and support teams fully behind CAMWorks, customers can now have the same confidence our SolidWorks customers already love. We’ll get you up and running in no time, with our goal of making you as productive as possible.

Established in 1994, CAMWorks has been one of the leading SolidWorks Gold Partner products for over 15 years, integrating directly into the SolidWorks interface for a seamless user experience. This gives you the ability to create tool paths for your geometry inside of your model files, which means no external files to deal with and no extra loading time required.  The best part of it all: when you make changes to your part geometry, CAMWorks updates automatically to accommodate them.

Another great feature of CAMWorks is the automatic feature recognition (AFR). This ability alone gives CAMWorks a leg up on the competition by giving the user the ability to automatically recognize geometry to calculate tool paths and tool bits to get the job done with minimal setup effort. Using AFR also means that you don’t have to exclusively use native SolidWorks files, but any general CAD file type SolidWorks can open. CAMWorks supports 2.5, 3, 4, and 5 axis machining operations- all depending on your specific machine capabilities. Speaking of machines, CAMWorks can be used with any brand mill, lathe, mill-turn, and wire EDM out on the market.

To give you an idea of what it takes to go from start to part using CAMWorks, we’ll summarize the order of operations and workflow for the average user with CAMWorks:

1. Create your part (need something to machine, right?)
2. Jump over to your CAMWorks features tab and set up the part. What machine will be used, what tools, stock size, etc.
3. Either use AFR or interactively assign the features you’d like to machine
4. Generate an operating plan, which consists of the operations required to machine the part features and the tools pertaining to your machines capabilities. (2.5, 3, 4 and 5 axis operations).
5. Generate tool paths. CAMWorks recommends best practices based on a knowledge base that comes with the software, and you can modify it to match how you run your parts or similar parts. e.g. Pocket in, pocket out, ramp, spiral, etc…)
6. Simulate your tool path in real time- see an animation of exactly how your part will be machined. See the tool in action, and what you see is what you get.
7. Output your file to your machine and crank those machines up! Sync up g-code using one of the many post-processors inside of Geometrics’ large database, or have Hawk Ridge Systems custom build one specific for your machine. (A small fee may apply)

And that essentially sums it up. Getting started just requires customizing CAMWorks to match all of the machinery in your shop, your operations, and your tooling. Select your equipment from the CAMWorks extensive database and you are all set. We understand that the only time you’re making money is when your machines are up and running, and with CAMWorks every minute of the day can be utilized to its full potential.