Optimizing CAM Operations with CAM-TOOL Version V19.1

1. Display Tool Contact Point CL

When machining adjacent areas using tools of different sizes and shapes, displaying the tool center or tool tip makes it difficult to accurately check the remaining material.
With CAM-TOOL V19.1, the tool path can now be displayed at the tool contact point, allowing users to clearly verify whether any uncut material remains.

The Display Tool Contact Point feature supports checking unmachined areas before running cutting animations, helping improve the efficiency of tool path verification and optimize the time required to review cutting ranges.

2. Curve Cutting (Projection Surface – Contour and Tool)

It is now possible to project 3D curves onto specific machining surfaces to generate cutting paths.

This significantly reduces CAM programming time when creating tool paths on complex surfaces such as grooves and channel features.

3. Toolpath Boundary - Add Offset on surface

4. Tool Shapes Fillet (Fillet Tool Shape)

The Fillet tool shape, used to generate smoother tool paths, can now be created as polygonal entities.

The generated shapes can be assigned as machining surfaces, allowing them to be reused across multiple configurations. This significantly reduces the time required to create Tool Shape Fillets for each CAM calculation process.

5. Automatic Improvement of 5-Axis Conversion

In situations where tool interference is likely to occur in narrow machining areas as shown below, the rotary axis is also utilized to increase material removal efficiency.
The improved success rate of automatic 5-axis conversion results in fewer 5-axis conversion attempts and shorter data generation time.

• When a Z-Level toolpath is calculated using the Division Angle

Setting the tool axis direction may sometimes become misaligned when the toolpath is interrupted. Aligning the tool axis direction for each Z-Level toolpath improves the machined surface quality.

6. Improved Surface Filling Operation

Continuous Tangent and Position boundary edges can now be switched simply by clicking directly on the geometry.

This intuitive entity selection reduces CAD operation time, especially when working with models that contain a large number of entities.

7. Improved Accuracy for Taper Tools

When using taper tools to machine sloped geometries such as deep ribs, some toolpaths were previously not generated.
This improvement enhances the accuracy of taper tool processing, ensuring that the required toolpaths are correctly output for complex inclined features.

8. Export Tool List

To display the list of tools used in the machining process list, the tool list can now be exported to an external file in HTML format.

This feature helps share information between CAM operators and machine operators, enabling smoother coordination and more efficient collaboration.

9. Air-Cut Removal Optimization: Support for Hollow Stock Models

The optimized calculation can now recognize hollow stock shapes and eliminate air-cut toolpaths in hollow areas, helping to significantly reduce machining time.

10. Helical Tapping: Improvements to “Chamfer Length” and “Hole” Settings

The tool tip angle can now be set to 180°, and the chamfer length of the thread milling tool can be defined separately for different hole types.