TopSolid'Cam 2020
Drilling
Drilling and Side Milling : new primitives
In the menu, new primitives have been made to be able to directly activate a certain type of drilling. By default they are not available in the contextual menus, but you can add them as you wish as shown in the video.
Gun drilling
A new type of drilling is added: Gun drilling. It works like a regular drilling, but you can specify the way the drill needs to go in the hole, and at the end back out again in a specific tab. This allows you to quickly machine a deep hole without the need to create a custom drilling.
Drilling from top element
In absolute value mode, the drilling depth was given relative to the highest point of the selected geometry. However, the presence of possible chamfers / fillets could make this application more difficult to automate from the analysis. It was therefore made possible in TopSolid 7.14 to be able to take into account or not the chamfers of the part to apply the given depth.
Milling 2D
End milling : Feed rate on last axial pass depth
TopSolid 7.14 makes it possible to give a specific federate on the final axial pass in an end milling operation. This gives you more direct control on the quality of the finishing pass.
Side milling: Over Cut Type
When giving an over cut on a lead in or lead out, it is now possible to choose the type of overcut. With a tangent line (like before) or by following the curvature of the machined segment.
Side milling: Spring passes
TopSolid 7.13 made it possible to add a final empty pass, called spring pass, on a side milling. A pass that doesn’t take any material, just to have a clean surface. This year, you can add such an empty pass on all axial passes, not just on the last.
Side milling: Helix: Breaking edges
It is now possible to use the breaking of vertical edges inside a side milling, even if it is in helical mode.
Multi parameters edition: Change material side
When modifying multiple operations at once, it is now possible to also modify the material side of selected operations. So it is no longer needed to edit each operation separately if you want to change the side of the material, typically this is usefull when machining on curves.
Breaking Edges Milling : Optimization
TopSolid 7.14 brings you the possibility to optimize the order in which edges will be machined in the « Breaking Edges Milling» operation (like in drilling). This way you can win machining time without having to optimize manually.
Rough Finishing
To be able to program simple 2D parts faster, a new function is added inside the roughing operation. This new function is called “Roughing Finishing”. It allows to quickly finish a whole 2D part.
It uses a roughing algorithm, so it manages the remaining material even if the previous operations did not update the stock. But the differences are :
- The finish cuts preserve the geometry of the part. We no longer work in G1, but on real G2/G3.
- We can have an integrated contouring in each Z pass. This pass can also send the compensation code (G41/G42) in « Shifted » mode.
2D Swept machining
With this new function, TopSolid brings you the opportunity to create a sweeping toolpath by using a maximum of G2/G3 interpolations, not just G1 like in a normal 3D sweeping.
The toolpath is created by running a cross section (Section curve) on a guiding curve defined in the XY plane (Drive curve). The result is a 2.5D and not 3D machining. The arcs of circles are therefore known if they are present in the profile.
This new function is included in the Milling 2D module.
Milling 3D
Super finish without Constant Z
In the Super Finish operation, when using « Angular separation » mode, we have 2 news options :
- Only raster passes
- Only constant step-over
Furthermore are Radiused Mill tools supported in the « Angular separation » mode.
Constant step-over: add a last offset at the end
TopSolid 7.14 brings you a solution to a problem that could exist in a Constant step-over machining. Depending on the chosen step, when you arrive at the end of the « pocket ». The last pass (offset equal to the machining step) may in some cases not exist, so the last width could be 2x the machining step.
The improvement consists in adding a last pass in this area by locally modifying the machining step (the step is slightly smaller). The algorithm searches for the largest step value to add a last offset.
Raster
From now on TopSolid has an updated algorithm for Raster machining. This new algorithm no longer “turns around the edge” when defining contact faces or angular limitations. This way the contact faces are better preserved.
Carefull! As this is a new algorithm, it will not automatically be applied in existing files. You need to “upgrade” the file to use the new algoritm. You can do this through home -> Edit -> Upgrade:
Check surfaces: different offsets
It is now possible to define several groups of surfaces with different offsets.
3D Contouring: Toolpath optimization
When creating a 3D Contouring with multiple curves, it is now possible to ask TopSolid to optimize the order in which the curves are machined.
Sweeping: computing without tool tail
A small but handy improvement was made to the 3D Sweeping. We added a new check box to be able to calculate toolpath without tool tail. The new option is in the « Geometry » page and is visible when you activate « Automatic check faces » or « Trimming surfaces enabled ».
With this option active, TopSolid will only take the cutting part of the tool into account for the check or trimming faces and not the tool chank.
Planar Faces machining: cut only some Faces
From now on, TopSolid will no longer find all planar faces on the part when launching the Planar faces machining.
You can select them manually, or use a selection filter (by color, altitude, …).
The goal is to gain a lot of time on complex parts having a lot of geometries and or faces to analyze.
Of course you can still ask TopSolid to find you all planar faces by clicking on the blue L-icon.
Milling 4X
4-axis machining compatible with 5-axis contouring and swarf milling
We have some good news for our users having a licence for the M4 module (4 axis milling). They now have access to the Swarf and the 5D contouring function which were previously reserved for the M5 module. Of course the application is limited to 4 axis, but the 5axis algorithms give better results, even with 4 axis.
4-axis machining compatible with 5-axis contouring and swarf milling
All 4-axis operations have been reworked to support the use on 5-axis head-head machines.
This opens up a whole new range of operations to be used on these kind of machines!
Milling 5X
4-axis machining compatible with 5-axis contouring and swarf milling
When the normals of a 5-axis machining oscillate around a singular position (for example Z on a Table/Table machine) there is a phenomenon of instability of the machine axes, because large rotations are necessary for a small variation of the normal.
In order to avoid this phenomenon, all 5 axis operations provide the possibility to force the alignment of the normals with a given direction (vector) when the latter approaches it.
Turning
Turning finishing 4X continuous
On demand of our customers, we re-worked the way you can control the tool orientation in a turning finishing 4X continuous.
You can now add, modify and delete orientations calculated by TopSolid. This means you have total control on the tool orientation during the machining.
Turning roughing divide by 2 in VCC
TopSolid 2020 brings you again the possibility to use constant cutting speed on a roughing operation with 2 tools in the "passes divided by two" mode. This was previously deactivated because of problems in the scenario. On demand of our customers it is available again together with some extra improvements.
Turning: Minimum tool length
Like in milling, TopSolid offers you now the possibility to ask TopSolid the minimum tool length needed for turning operations. A great help to avoid crashes, which we all like to avoid!
Turning: Check collisions
In the same philosophy as the previous point, TopSolid will now check collisions inside turning operations without the need to do a simulation. Carefull, when you have a collision, a red point appears in the middle of the segment, not exactly where the collision occurs.
Turning: Change partholder
To make modifications easier for you, it is now possible to change an operation to another part holder.
Typically a second positioning on the subspindle. TopSolid will change the stage, the part, rebuild the operations and relink some references for you. This function will not work flawlessly in some cases were you will need to help TopSolid by making some manual modifications also.
Tools
Some nice improvements have been made on the tools:
- you can apply lifetime management on milling 2D operations (end milling, side milling, drilling, …)
- you can use filters in the tool manager
- New generic form are available for the toolchanks
And there is more...
1. Type of WCS in virtual jog
It is now possible to define the type of wcs you want to use in the label of a virtual jog. You can set it on Turning, Milling or Automatic.
2. Select graphically WCS and angular solution
When modifying an operation you now have the possibility to show all available WCS graphically on the screen and select one of course.
3. Scenario simulation in Verify
A now option inside the scenario allows you to set “verify” as the simulation method when playing your scenario.
4. Verify with convex cutting shape
It is now possible to use convex inserts in verify so you get a better simulation.
5. Show/Hide G0/G1
2 new icons at the bottom right of the graphical area allow you to show or hide G0 movements and G1 movements.
6. Company Options
On a PDM server system, the administrator has the ability to edit a company configuration file, which lets him lock the values of certain options for users using the new Tools > Company Options command that is only visible when the administrator is logged in.
7. Method
TopSolid 7.14 brings you a lot of new possibilities in the creation of your methods, so you can automate your work even further:
- Create a general method from the cilinders analysis screen
- It is now possible to build in a loop (= conditional repetition) in a methode.
- You can call another methode from inside a methode.
- Let TopSolid add the chosen tool to the machine on a specific position.
- Select the driven point of the chosen tool.
- The insert width is now available in a method.
8. Copy-Paste: Multi-geometries
We improved the copy/paste of operations between machining files. Now, when you need to indicate geometry, you can select multiple geometries. So you have less questions and it works more logical. You can also choose to copy the tools.
9. Compare and replace
A new improved « Compare and replace » function and methodology has been developed for CAM. TopSolid guides you through the replacement, tries to solve automatically what it can, invites you to verify the choices it made where it's not 100% sure, and asks your help for items it couldn’t solve.
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