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Topsolid CAM online Help Index

Milling presentation

 

TopSolid'Cam is a CAD/CAM software (Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing) intended for NC machines tool path creation like milling machine, manufacturing center, or CNC lathe machines.

The tool path are computed taking into consideration the part in both is rough and finished state. Every single machining operation updates the rough, enabling the system to know how much material remains. This “solid update” is used in the creation of the other machining operations.

The programmer then has the guarantee of a collision free tool path between the tool, the finished part and the machine environment. Since TopSolid'Cam knows at any time how much material still needs to be removed, the user always creates an optimized tool path.

As we have previously described, we absolutely need two solids in order to create our tool path. Each of these solids can be created within TopSolid'Cam, or imported into TopSolid'Cam using the standard translators such as IGES, SET, VDA or STEP. If the imported geometry is not solid, it will be required to turn the geometry into a solid using the sewing function included in TopSolid.

Please refer to your TopSolid V6 training or user manual for a complete description of this procedure.

 

TopSolid'Cam is a CAD/CAM software designed to work with numerically controlled machines.  In order to proceed, TopSolid'Cam has a first solid model representing the part to be machined as well as a second solid, which is the part in its original state (Rough part)

The rough part is required in order to create a tool path with TopSolid'Cam.

These two models are linked together by the concept of ‘part’ or ‘Part’. In order for the system to know the part’s orientation, it is also required to specify a construction plane. The material is also defined during this step, allowing TopSolid'Cam to compute the cutting settings for each machining operation.

To create the tool paths, the user can use three different yet complementary ways.

The first method is based on the automated analysis of the finished part. It uses the topological  (mathematical vertices definition) of the part.

The second method is called semi-automatic method and relies on the creation of 2D geometrical entities to create the tool path.

A third method is also available and is based on the features created in TopSolid (such as drills and pockets) and retrieves the information contained in the feature to automatically machine it, including a proper tool selection.

All of these machining modes create a machining operation and an automatic update of the rough part

 

The Topological analysis

When machining  so called ‘2D’ parts, the available machining operations are:

The Topological analysis engine of TopSolid'Cam studies the geometrical properties of  the face of a solid and offers the appropriate machining operation. If more than one solution is found, TopSolid'Cam lets the user decide what machining operation he wants to perform on the face.

TopSolid'Cam computes this analysis and takes into consideration the state of the rough part. TopSolid'Cam will automatically extend a machining tool path all the way to the rough part if there is material to be removed by the operation, which means that TopSolid'Cam automatically computes the machining area without any user intervention.

By using this system, the system guides the user through the realization of the machining cycle.

Semi automatic machining (Based on curves)

This is a more ‘classic’ CAM machining method based on the curves leaning on the edges of the solid to machine.

The user defines the path to be followed by the tool and then calls the machining operation to perform curves. These curves can be lines, arcs, etc..

Just like the topological analysis machining, the rough part is updated by every machining operation performed in this mode.

Feature based machining

In order to profit from the automatic machining improvements, the finished part must be designed using TopSolid. More specifically, the user has to use the features in TopSolid. Please refer to the TopSolid V6 user manual for further details concerning the feature-based design using TopSolid.

Here are the presently recognized features available in TopSolid which are automatically recognized in TopSolid'Cam:

It goes without saying that this list will extend itself during the software’s life.

TopSolid'Cam allows the user to create a machining process associated to each elementary shape previously described. When these shapes are detected in the part, the user can machine them by simply calling the process

Important:

To benefit from the automatic improvements of the feature based machining, the part must have one of the previously described features. The feature based machining will not work on imported parts because by using a standard translator such as IGES, all parametric definition of the part is lost. TopSolid'Cam offers a different solution in order to machine holes that were not created using TopSolid, called the Shape analysis. This method is described in the next section.

Shape analysis machining (Cylinders)

Another important machining feature of TopSolid'Cam is it’s ability to detect all the cylindrical holes of a part from an imported file format and to ask the user to associate elementary machining operation to each hole.  Unlike feature-based machining, this method will allow the user to work on imported on imported models from data translators.

 

Topsolid CAM online Help Index

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