Milling Options - Radcam Technologies

Production Milling

GibbsCAM Production Milling supports 2-axis through simple 3-axis wireframe machining with full functionality for contouring, pocketing with unlimited bosses/islands, thread milling, face milling, 2D/3D spiral creation, drilling with support for many drill cycles, tapping, and boring. It also supports simple 4th-axis positioning. You can clean material off the top of a part with automatic cycles for face milling like spiral, zig-zag, back and forth, and one direction. GibbsCAM Production Milling provides easy-to-use, powerful programming capabilities for your machine tools.

Freeform Geometry Creation

Whether you start with imported geometry or need to create your own geometry, the GibbsCAM Production Milling freeform geometry capabilities provide a powerful means to create and edit geometry for machining. The GibbsCAM graphical user interface infers what operations you want to perform based on the selected elements, which dramatically streamlines interactions with the system. Auto-chaining eliminates the need to stop the workflow continually to trim and connect geometry.

Graphical Tool Definition

The GibbsCAM Production Milling graphical user interface displays key dimensions to create error-free tools easily. It supports a wide variety of predefined tool types and user-defined form tools.

Multi-Process Programming

Select geometry once and apply multiple machining operations like a series of rough, semi-rough, finish passes to it all at once. The resulting processes are associated with each other and the original geometry, so updates are accommodated easily.

Knowledge-Based Programming

You can save processes including Multi-Process Processes and associated tooling and re-use them between programs. You can develop a knowledge base library of process/tooling from your shop’s best machining practices to improve programming efficiency, program consistency, and part quality.

Full 2- and 2.5-Axis Programming

GibbsCAM Production Milling provides a full range of functionality to define processes for efficiently machining 2- and 2.5-axis parts from geometry.

Advanced Pocketing Routines

The GibbsCAM Production Milling advanced pocketing routines support machining open-sided pockets and pilot and/or auto pocket corner drill pockets with unlimited islands or bosses. You can specify whether to machine pockets breadth or depth first. It supports pocketing machining strategies including Auto Plunge, User Plunge, Ramp, Periphery Ramp, and Helix.

Boring/Drilling Sub-Routines

GibbsCAM Production Milling supports a wide range of boring (bore, fine bore, backbore) and drilling sub-routines to optimize efficient hole-making operations.

Solids Import

The Solids Import option provides entry-level support to machine solid models. Solid models can be read, viewed, and manipulated. You can select and extract geometry for machining. With Solids Import, you can import a solid model, view it, and extract geometry from selected edges, which you can then machine. This option is ideal if you machine wireframe geometry and want to expand your capabilities to support rudimentary solids machining.

Solids Import PDF Image

Entry-Level Solids Support

Solid models are more and more common in manufacturing as a source data type. Solid models provide more accurate geometry than other formats, which reduces errors. GibbsCAM solids-based options are built on the Solids Import option. If you are ready to step up to solids, Solids Import provides basic support to machine solid models in an easy-to-use environment so that you can ease into solids.

Native Parasolid Support

Solid models are available in a wide variety of formats, from industry standards like STEP, to CAD-system-specific formats, to kernel modeler formats. GibbsCAM Solids Import supports Parasolid files, a kernel modeler format widely used by numerous popular CAD systems like Siemens Solid Edge® and SOLIDWORKS®. Sharing a common modeling kernel ensures that you can read CAD models in Parasolid format directly into GibbsCAM and then view and manipulate them. Build your solids-based technology on a solid foundation.

Solid Viewing

Solid models provide a more complete representation than wireframe or surface models, which allows them to render more accurately. You can choose from a variety of solids display modes. You can orient your view dynamically while also providing quick access to standard views with the innovative GibbsCAM virtual trackball. Get a solid view of what you are machining.

Extracting Geometry from Solids

Solid models contain both wireframe and surface geometry for the richest amount of geometric data. And solid models ensure accurate edge geometry between surfaces. With GibbsCAM Solids Import, you can extract a solid model’s wireframe geometry, which corresponds to the edges of a part, and directly machine from it. Or, if necessary, you can modify the extracted geometry before you machine it. Take advantage of solid model accuracy.

Slicing Solids

Sometimes, where you want to machine is not necessarily defined by an existing edge. With GibbsCAM Solids Import, you can generate wireframe geometry by cutting the solid with a plane. You can then machine or further manipulate the resulting geometry. Get solid capability built on solids technology.

Foundation for Solids-Based Options

Solids introduce a whole new range of capabilities from data exchange, to visualization, to machining, to verification. With GibbsCAM Solids Import, you can choose to add additional capabilities seamlessly, which further expands your solids-based technology. Read in CAD data in other solid formats like ACIS files, CATIA V4 or V5, Pro/ENGINEER, and STEP AP203 or AP214. Grow at your own pace while you protect your investment.

Tombstone Management System

The Tombstone Management System (TMS) was developed specifically to simplify and streamline the multi-part setup, programming, toolpath verification, and post processing for tombstone machining. Within a single, interactive graphic interface, the TMS dialog provides all the options and flexibility required for CNC programmers to specify and modify machining strategies and generate efficient, error-free G-code ready for your machines.

Tombstone Management System PDF Image

GibbsCAM TMS provides:

The ability to create a part and fixture combination and have it automatically duplicated in a layout.
Various options to locate and arrange parts on a tombstone face automatically.
The flexibility to arrange a different part on each face or mix parts on each face.
The ability to program parts or faces at different Z levels.
The choice of duplicating an arrangement across all faces or creating different arrangements on each face.
The ability to add or clear operations for exceptions on each face like part features or machining operations blocked by adjacent workpieces.
The ability to set different safe distances for traversing from part to part and indexing (rotating) from one face to the next.
Options for optimizing cycle time by tool, by tool and part, or by tombstone face.
Support of subroutines, canned cycles, and B-rotation positions in the G-code output.
The ability to generate CNC code in single-part mode to prove setup and machining before running a fully-loaded tombstone.

Optimization is typically dependent on grouping similar or identical operations together to minimize tool changes and rotations of the tombstone. TMS lets the programmer:

Group operations by tool to minimize tool changes. Perform machining of part features with a single tool in order and across all parts before making a tool change.
Group operations by tool and part to minimize traverses. Complete all operations with a tool on a workpiece before moving to the next workpiece. Or the programmer can choose to have a tool perform a single operation in a group before moving to the next group.
Complete all operations on a face before moving to another to minimize tombstone rotation.

TMS provides tools for choosing among these options and automatically sorts the toolpath so that it can be verified and tested. Easily correct any problems by returning to the TMS dialog and making the necessary modification.
By enhancing TMS with GibbsCAM Machine Simulation, the programmer can render and dynamically simulate the entire setup including tombstone, parts, fixtures, tools, tool holders, and all moving machine tool components to test for interference, collision, and cycle time. Simulation also tracks X-Y-Z positions to prevent tools from exceeding a machine’s travel limits.
When the programmer is satisfied with the result, a single click in TMS generates a post-processed G-code program for the entire tombstone of parts.
Required: TMS requires 2.5D Solids or SolidSurfacer and a customized post processor to generate the appropriate G-code.
Recommended: While not required, we highly recommend Machine Simulation to visualize TMS output properly.

You can manipulate the tooling from within AutoNest.

For punch machines:

Edit tools and tool data
Change MicroJoints
Select a turret setup
Change the processing order
Drag nibbling
Add tool functions
Control pickup: change the unload tool position
Edit and delete CAMs

For cutting machines:

Change the lead-in (entry)
Edit and delete CAMs
Change the processing order
Apply the smart cut
Add/edit/delete/move MicroJoints