Program Live Tooling Machines

PowerCAM for Live-Tooling is a programming assistant that works within SolidWorks and uses solids to generate CNC programs - one of the most promising solutions for programming live-tooling CNCs. PowerCAM works with feature-based solids as well as imported files such as solid IGES or solid STEP.

Within SolidWorks, partnering with SolutionWare, you may load your CAD file and select features or geometry to make your programs. PowerCAM works directly with SolutionWare's CAM products, GeoPath and MazaCAM, to automatically generate CNC code in the various formats needed for virtually all CNC machines, including G-code and Mazak's Mazatrol.

A key issue when doing small quantity prototype work is often that the programming and setup time far exceeds the time required to machine the actual parts. This programming assistant can take a solid in SolidWorks and in a few clicks assign tools, cuts, feeds and speeds to automatically program parts and radically reduce the programming time.

The main advantage is the assistance that PowerCAM provides by selecting the type of cuts needed to make parts for the increasingly popular live-tooling CNCs - automatically determining the tool tilt B-axis angle, and orientation for each cut. This simplifies the most difficult steps involved in programming livetooling machines.

Coordinating with PowerCAM is the MazaCAM CAD/CAM and Editor - Matrix Edition Version 4.6 - technology for Mazak shops using the Mazatrol language. This latest edition of MazaCAM includes various major enhancements to help Mazak shops program their machines or convert programs from one machine to another. One of many enhancements, which have had no solution in the past, is the ability to take a 3D Mazatrol program and convert it to another Mazak control. With this new feature, re-writing 3D Mazatrol programs by hand to another control is no longer an issue, reducing programming time and cost.

With the increasing cost of programming and reprogramming parts that are already proven on other machines, Mazak shops are continually looking for new solutions to improve productivity and delivery time. And while most Mazak controls can up-convert the immediately prior generation or two, the task when converting to Matrix is far more extensive than any previous generation, and many aspects are tricky to handle.

While anyone can get there by handcopying the program and entering it into the new Matrix control, this is a tedious and error-prone method. MazaCAM is technology that transforms the legacy Mazatrol programs to the new Matrix controls, enabling the shop to be up and running in minimum time.

Users who have the milling-based e-Machine and who may also have an earlier turning-based Integrex, MazaCAM enables conversion between these differently-based control families. Maza- CAM handles Mazatrol programs from all earlier generations of Integrex: T3, T32, T-Plus, Fusion640MT and Fusion-MT-Pro.