Vero Software has launched a new product with which it aims to ‘fill the gap between CAD and CAM’, a direct modelling tool focusing on the specific needs of machinist programmers.
As a stand-alone, optional application for its CAM portfolio, the newly-available Designer enables users to create new designs or modify existing geometry from third-party CAD systems.
Vero says that Designer, which accepts any CAD file from any source, represents a CAD framework that will become ‘the core modelling engine for all CAM applications’, without a dependency on having a series of parameters to drive it, or a feature tree.
“It provides a very quick, dynamic editing and modelling environment, where users simply sketch, drag, hold, push or twist, to create and modify models,” explains Vero brand manager John Buehler.
“Some modellers do not maintain adequate tolerances, so the models will often require a degree of repair – or if they’ve only been roughly modelled there may be gaps in the geometry.”
Designer will allow users to read the native CAD data, clean up poor geometry, close gaps, stitch it into a solid, and make modifications important to the CAM process, such as the suppression of features, or the modification of draft angles.
“Generally, those modifications do not impact on a part’s design or performance, but will make it more manufacturable,” admits Buehler.
Rather than modifying a lengthy series of parameters to make a design change, the direct modelling tools allow the desired shapes to be obtained by simply pushing, pulling and dragging the geometry.
Import Model Healing allows small gaps between surfaces on imported models to be automatically healed, preventing the time-consuming rebuilds across very small surface patches.
Where surfaces are corrupt or missing, Designer automatically creates the edge curve geometry, making it easy to rebuild new faces – closing a surface model to produce a solid body that eliminates construction problems later in the process.
The software also includes Feature Suppression, hiding or removing geometry features that aren’t necessary for CAM, or that won’t be created by the machining process, which along with Model Simplification can remove portions of the model, such as intersecting features, to help speed up machining and provides better results.
Buehler concludes by saying that while many modelling systems try to do everything for everyone, Designer focuses on the needs of machinist programmers, providing specific CAD for CAM, which if it’s your game might make make this one to look out for in the New Year.
