CAMWorks Adding More Functionality

I don’t often write about CAM software, but last year CAMWorks made a big splash at Solid Edge University by coming out with an integrated version of their software for Solid Edge. It was a big deal because we did not have any integrated third party CAM tools at that time. This year they are following up with a couple of important impreovements.

The first improvement is one that had been promised and delayed for some time, assemblies capabilities in CAMWorks for Solid Edge (CW4SE). Assemblies are how we represent the real world, with collections of parts, and while you probably could get everything done you needed to do with multi-bodies, having assemblies available certainly does make some things simpler.

This image is taken from SolidEdging, Dave Ault’s site, and shows an assembly in the CW4SE integrated interface.

The second item is potentially even bigger news because it will affect all CAMWorks users, not just those of the Solid Edge persuasion. This is again gleaned from Dave Ault’s blog. It’s called Job Shop Tech Database. The Tech Database will now be populated with commonly purchased tools in flute configurations that Volumill commonly uses, from 2 to 5 flutes. Some of the cutting strategies are also being revamped.

Here’s a quote from Dave about the name of the new addition: I like the moniker that Geometric has chosen in Jobshop TDB. But it is more than just a title or name it is the intent behind what they are doing and why they are doing it. It is a recognition that our time has value too and that there needed to be out of the box a far more user-friendly way of implementing this program.

This change will be more for new customers than for existing customers, and more for the job shop than the high-volume production shop. Long-time customers have probably already made the additions they need to make to the TDB, and job shops need a wider range of tools and setups than shops where they use the same setups most of the time.

In any case, the assemblies have already been added (CW2014 service pack 2), and the Job Shop TDB gives you something to look forward to. If you’re going to be at Solid Edge University this year, make sure to sit next to the CAMWorks guys at lunch and hear more about this first hand.

Read more detail at SolidEdging.