This tutorial provides an overview of how to use CAM Assist to compute your first toolpath strategy for your part.
Only some of CAM Assist’s features are covered here (just the bare essentials). If you’d like know more about all of CAM Assist’s features, refer to the CAM Assist User Interface section.
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The following step-by-step instructions assume you’ve already opened a relevant part. If you’ve not yet opened a part, see Getting Started with CAM Assist (Step 2). For the purpose of illustration, CloudNC’s ‘Demo part 1’ is used in the step-by-step instructions. |
Tutorial step-by-step instructions
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Note the following within CAM Assist:
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Setup tab
Machining mode - CAM Assist supports ‘3 Axis’ and ‘3+2 Axis’ machining.
Target setups - notice that each Workpiece has an accompanying ‘Setup' checkbox:
CAM Assist will compute a toolpath strategy for the workpiece only if it’s setup checkbox is checked.
Workholding security - when a ‘Setup’ is checked, its Workholding security is displayed:
Workholding security is set by adjusting the slider from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’
This allows CAM Assist to select appropriate tools.
If your workholding security is not excellent, CAM Assist will opt for smaller tools in the tool library.
For this Tutorial:
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Machine tab
This tab is especially useful when you’re using session tools as the main source or when using a hybrid selection of tools.
CAM Assist uses CloudNC’s Cutting Parameters engine to calculate appropriate cutting data. The values you enter here will be used by that engine.
For this Tutorial:
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Tools Tab
Material - workpiece material to be used by CAM Assist.
Tool Source - source of the tool library you want to use:
Tools from session- the tools that are available in the current NX session.
Built-in Metric toolset - CloudNC CAM Assist tools using metric units.
Built-in Imperial toolset - CloudNC CAM Assist tools using imperial units.
Export Tools to Session
You can only select one 'Tool Source at a time.
For a hybrid selection of tools,:
Add tools to the NX session manually
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For this Tutorial:
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Decide the workpiece material and tools to be used by CAM Assist.
Select the tool library you want to use. CAM Assist comes with four tool libraries:
CAM Assist built-in tools in metric
CAM Assist built-in tools in inches
NX pre-selected built-in tools in metric
NX pre-selected built-in tools in inches
You can also ask CAM Assist to use tools in your session as the target tools to program the part.
Machine Tab
Set your CNC machine properties. This is useful when using session tools as the main source or when using a hybrid selection of tools. CAM Assist needs to know machine properties to calculate appropriate cutting data for each tool using the CloudNC Cutting Parameters engine.
Operation Tab
Decide all the operations you want CAM Assist to include, as well as any sub-settings you might want to include or exclude in the operations.
Running CAM Assist
Once you’ve completed steps 1 - 7 (above):
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CAM Assist will compute a toolpath strategy for the part using using the configuration you have specified in the CAM Assist tabs.
Once all the above steps are completed, press OK to run CAM Assist for the first time.
Click on the Setup tab