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General Points

TopSolid/Wire is a CAD/CAM software (Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing) intended for NC machines toolpath creation for wire machines.

The toolpaths 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 toolpath between the tool, the finished part and the machine environment. Since TopCam knows at any time how much material still needs to be removed, the user always creates an optimized toolpath.

For the solid, surfaces or profiles definition, the user can use

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

• Further more, some dedicated wire definition (like gear, 4 axis ruled surfaces are included inside TopSolid/Wire)

• Or can import them into TopSolid/Wire using the standard translators such as IGES, SET, VDA or STEP.

With TopSolid/Wire, the regimes of machining, which can be defined with the machine, are used :

• During the toolpath definition to select the appropriate rates and offsets

• By the Post processor to output a complete ISO file

The toolpath can be 2 axis D, with a constant angle or in 4 axis mode.

Some technological points (like stop points, corners conditions, ....) can be added to have a perfect machining.

Usually the user needs to :

1. Define or import the part definition (solid, surface profiles).

2. Call his specific machine.

3. Define the toolpath with all the offsets and rates (roughing, finishing , ...). All these points are managed in automatic by TopSolid/Wire.

4. Add if it's necessary some technological points.

5. Check the result.

6. Output ISO file(s).

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