Advances to CAD/CAM Software Designed to Boost Productivity

Alphacam 2018 R2 by Vero Software has a new nesting engine that the company says provides faster calculation times and improved feedback and graphics. Vero Software migrated Parametric Rules to C#. Vero Software says that Parametric Rules have an enhanced GUI and functionality that facilitate greater control, improved UX and simpler logic statements. Vero Software also enhanced the Face Milling Cycle, which is now part of Alphacam’s core functionality, creating intelligent tool paths and enabling users to face-mill irregular and multiple geometries. 

Alphacam 2018 R2 also has a new order-by-intersecting geometry function, which the company says saves users time when they order the sequence of a complex job. It works by letting the user select a previously created geometry to define the order of geometries or tool paths based on those that intersect the selected geometry first.

Additionally, the Parametric Sketcher is now more powerful because of an updated UI, which means that the window can be resized. There are improvements to the Sketcher’s geometry creation tools for creating fillets and chamfers as part of the geometry-creation tool set. Vero Software says that this eliminates the need to calculate those points.     

Enhancements to Alphacam’s dimensioning system provide greater clarity when printing and presenting information. User-defined suffixes for both the primary and alternate units and a scale factor mean that two separate values can now be displayed.

Vero Software improved the importing of CAD models with Solidworks configurations. Alphacam has a new interface where users can choose which configuration of an assembly to import. With this interface, users are not obligated to check that the last version saved in Solidworks is what they want.