'General' Section
The ‘General’ section of the General Tab is expandable/collapsible; it enables you to do the following:
Specify the machining environment: ‘Tool library’ and 'Stock material’.
Edit the properties of the chosen ‘Machine’.
Specify the ‘Machining mode’.
Layout
The layout of the ‘General’ section changes depending on your action for the following:
Machine - clicking the drop-down arrow for the Machine displays a set of properties that CAM Assist needs to compute a toolpath strategy.
Machining mode - CAM Assist provides two modes: ‘3+2 Axis’ and ‘3 Axis’.
Machining direction - displayed when the selected Machining mode is ‘3+2 Axis’.
The screenshot to the right shows all of the ‘General’ section’s features, including the ‘Machine’ properties and the ‘Machining direction’ options.
For more information on each of above features, see below.
Features
The following table describes each feature in the ‘General’ section, as shown in the screenshot above.
Feature | Description | How to Use |
---|---|---|
Tool library | Lists all of the Mastercam tool libraries available to CAM Assist. |
|
Tool Summary | Shows a summary of the tool, including the following:
| This feature is display only. |
Stock material | Lists all of the materials that you can use in CAM Assist (see Supported Materials). CAM Assist will select tools, machining strategies, and cut parameters based on the Stock material you select. | Click the down arrow to select the Stock material you want to use. |
Machine | Shows the machine that will be used for the part. The machine is configured within Mastercam but there is a set of properties that CAM Assist requires to compute toolpath strategies. Follow the instructions to the right to check/amend the CAM Assist ‘Machine properties’.
|
|
Machining mode | See Machining mode, below. | |
Machining direction | Only displayed when ‘3+2 Axis' is selected for the Machining mode (see Machining mode, below). |
Machining mode
Depending on which Machining mode is selected, the layout of the ‘General’ section changes, as shown in the following side-by-side screenshots.
Layout if the ‘3 Axis’ Machining mode is selected
Layout if the ‘3+2 Axis’ Machining mode is selected
Machining mode choices
As can be seen from the above screenshots, CAM Assist provides the following Machining mode choices:
3 Axis
3+2 Axis - if selected then a Machining direction is required:
Aligned to X, Y, Z axes - the tool orientation used to create toolpath strategies can only come from the +X, -X, +Y, -Y, and +Z axes.
User defined - the tool orientation comes from the orientation specified by the user in the Target setup(s) within CAM Assist.
Automatic - automatic 3+2 strategies are only available for evaluation through participation in CloudNC’s ‘Early Access Beta Program'.
For detailed step-by-step instructions on using all four choices, see Machining modes in the 'How-to Guides' section.