The Milling module provides a two-and-a-half, three and five axis milling capability from the Manufacture environment of EdgeCAM. Various milling (driven) tool types can either be loaded from the ToolStore or defined by parameter. ·
You can drive the tool with respect to the model geometry using these standard types of machining cycle:
Profiling
Pocket Milling
Facemill
Slotting
Hole Production
Surface Milling
The toolpaths resulting from these operations may be then be mirrored, transformed, matrixed or rotated.
If you need to make changes after defining a sequence of these operations you can restructure the sequence at any time, inserting, editing or removing the individual commands as necessary.
Any changes you make to the original geometry from within the Design environment are reflected in all machining commands based on that geometry.
Tool movements can be simulated on screen using default or user-generated tool graphics. Full control of the simulation is provided, including speed controls, swathe mode and simulating specific instructions.
Once a toolpath has been generated, you can display and examine a representation of the material remaining from a solid rectangular block. Other methods for examining the results of a toolpath are to render the uncut mesh and reporting on the cycle time.
Most of these features can also be used with the driven tooling of turning centres, enabling C and Y axis control of the tool.
You can also control machine tool specific functions such as coolant on/off.
When satisfied with the machining operations for the part, you can generate CNC code. EdgeCAM uses Code Generator files to interpret the machining sequence into a set of CNC instructions for a specific machine tool type, and outputs this information to an ASCII text file. You can then use the EdgeCAM Editor or other editors to examine and alter this file as required.