ModuleWorks and SolidCNC sign partnership agreement

ModuleWorks have this week confirmed another new partner, SolidCNC from Turkey, a fast growing manufacturing economy. The press release is reproduced below and we're pleased to welcome SolidCNC to our diverse range of global industry partners.

ModuleWorks, the leading supplier of CAD/CAM components for 3-5-Axis toolpath generation and simulation have confirmed their partnership with Turkish CAD/CAM provider, SolidCNC.

SolidCNC develop an easy to use solution for milling, wire and turning applications with an emphasis on the mold and die industry.

New releases of SolidCNC will incorporate ModuleWorks 3-Axis machining and material removal simulation technology providing an expanded range of toolpath strategies and state-of-the-art verification with toolpath analysis.

SolidCNC join the growing list of leading CAD/CAM vendors who have selected ModuleWorks to provide machining and/or simulation technology for their CAM solutions with CIMData figures now showing that ModuleWorks partner with more than 60% of the leading suppliers.

Mr. Ata Demiray , CEO, seen above completing the agreement with Yavuz Murtezaoglu, ModuleWorks founder and Managing Director comments “We conducted a detailed evaluation of potential solutions, including a make or buy comparison and ModuleWorks was a clear winner for our requirements, especially time to market. All of customers will soon benefit with fast, accurate verification and more choices for toolpath generation”

Yavuz Murtezaoglu comments “We’re very pleased to be able to announce SolidCNC as a new partner in a rapidly growing geography. SolidCNC provide a comprehensive solution for manufacturing and the addition of ModuleWorks’ toolpath and verification technology will complement the product and add value for customers”.

ModuleWorks Record Year in 2011

As we start back to work for the new year, we're pleased to be able to give a summary of our year in 2011. We delighted that, with our partners help, we can announce a record year for the company.

Revenue has increased by an impressive 30% and there have been a total of 20 new sales, including 12 completely new partners.  Of particular interest is the success achieved in new geographic markets, including China, Korea, Turkey and Russia.  Establishing a presence in these markets is expected to lead to further growth in future years.

It has been a record year for custom development projects with five major development projects taking place during 2011.  The synergies between these development projects and the core product development allow these projects to be delivered in a highly efficient, cost effective manner, while also allowing the developments to be leveraged into improving the core products.

The new 5-Axis Multi-blade product had a successful launch and is already achieving very positive results. Further developments during 2012 are expected to see our partners get the full benefits of this new technology.

New products have been launched which allow the ModuleWorks technology to be applied to Dental CAD/CAM and Woodwork CAD/CAM.  These industries are able to benefit from the 200+ man-years of development effort that have already been invested in the core products and so deliver very impressive results in a short time.

The single most successful product during 2011 has been the ModuleWorks Simulation Component, both being adopted by many existing partners and attracting new partners.  Already more than 50% of ModuleWorks partners are using ModuleWorks Simulation, and this is expected to increase during 2012.

The ModuleWorks Simulation Component has also been popular with CNC companies looking for Simulation and Verification on the control.  A number of collaborations are in progress with the aim to making this dream a reality.

Yavuz Murtezaoglu, Managing Director for ModuleWorks, adds “We are delighted with the successes of 2011 and have invested heavily to achieve further growth during the coming years.  We are fully committed to developing high quality CAD/CAM technology and making it available to a large number of end users at an affordable price.  Given the high cost of development, we are convinced that providing component software and working closely with our partners is the most effective way to achieve this.  Finally, I would like to wish continued success to all of our partners during 2012.”

That it for this week. Our best wishes for 2012 from everyone on the ModuleWorks team.

The ModuleWorks Blogger

ModuleWorks launches new 2011.12 CAM components

ModuleWorks has recently announced the latest release of our CAM components, version 2011.12.  The new release offers a range of new features across the product range, further expanding capability for 3-5 Axis machining and simulation.

ModuleWorks is at the forefront of 5-Axis machining and Simulation technology, providing the machining and CNC simulation components behind many of the popular CAM systems available today.  

The latest release introduces a broad set of new features across the products range. Highlights are shown below:-

4 and 5-Axis Machining

Angle Step control on Multi-blade

The 2011.12 release adds a number of improvements to tool axis tilt control. 5-Axis tilting has a new fanning distance option to specify how tilting around corners takes place.  A larger distance value will give a longer tilt transition around the corner giving smoother overall toolpath and help to avoid potential marking on the finished component.  Tilting also has a maintain tilt option which can be used to avoid unnecessary tilting on small undercut regions.

4-Axis machining supports control with the tool axis maintained along the rotational axis and tilting applied relative to cutting direction.

There are also further improvements to the multi-blade toolpath with additional control on the rapid motion between passes. The angle step value may be specified to smooth the transition moves and avoid big angular movements which may not be desirable.

3-Axis Machining

3-Axis Constant Z adaptive stepdown

3-Axis roughing now allows pre-drilled holes to be specified for the entry position for the cycle giving improved control over the toolpath. 3-Axis toolpaths also offer arc fitting option to replace a series of linear moves with a smooth arc to improve toolpath motion and reduce NC program size. 

The constant Z cycle now has an adaptive step down capability which adds additional passes in shallow areas. This has the affect of removing steps on the roughed out stock in shallow regions and reduces the need for semi-finishing. The toolpath also allows internal corners to be rounded to provide a smoother motion for high speed machining.

Pencil finishing now supports a multi-pass option by offsetting the toolpath out from the pencil trace by a given stepover and number of additional passes, providing a better surface finish in larger fillet areas. 

Simulation

Zoom using Dynamic Refine

A new dynamic refine feature has been added allowing the user to zoom up to small area and quickly refine the simulation to show details of remaining stock and surface finish. The previous model can be quickly recalled without recalculation providing a fast and easy workflow.

Simulation also allows a 3D mesh or STL to be specified for the tool holder or arbour. This is particular useful for lathe and mill turn applications where some of the more complex tool holders cannot be created using the simple revolves and extrudes.

Finally, in closing this final blog article for 2011, I'd like to wish all our readers best wishes for the New Year from the entire team at ModuleWorks. Thank you for custom in 2011, and we look forward to working with you in 2012.

Until the next time

The ModuleWorks blogger.

ModuleWorks offer free STL viewer for Android and Windows

ModuleWorks have recently launched a free downloadable STL viewer for Android Smart phones/tablets and Windows 7. 

The free download allows users to view and manipulate STL data on Android tablets and smartphones as well as conventional Windows PCs making it the ideal application for quick and easy viewing of manufacturing data in the office, at home or on the shopfloor.

The free viewer, STLView, is available for download at www.freestlview.com and also on the Android marketplace - you can get there directly using the QR code to the right. 

A range of sample files is also available; these show some of the popular ModuleWorks applications including blades, ports, impellers, dental and woodworking.

We've been experimenting with mobile applications for a while to see how we can use them to add value to the manufacturing process. The advent of the mobile devices and particularly the tablets offer lots of potential in manufacturing and make data much more mobile. We have a few other ideas in this area, so keep an eye out for other mobile initiatives from ModuleWorks.

Happy Thanksgiving to our US readers.

The ModuleWorks Blogger.

ModuleWorks Team Build, Aachen, Germany, October 2011

ModuleWorks Team October 2011

At the beginning of October we held a full 3 day team build event at our head office in Aachen, Germany. The event was attended by our entire team of nearly 50 people, many of whom traveled from the development centers in Romania, Ukraine and Russia to the event.

The purpose of the event was to get everyone together to meet face to face, share ideas on common issues and for everyone to build knowledge of our company and product range.

This was the first time we had had the whole team together in one location, although we have done virtual company meetings using the web.

This work and fun event was made up of interactive demo sessions, problem solving, company discussions and evening nights out for team sports and dinner.

Everyone was able to participate in the interactive sessions - there was no hiding in the back row for anyone:) - results from the team sessions were presented to the rest of the group for feedback.

The final day gave the team the opportunity to get some hands on training in the latest machining techniques using the range of different CNC machines in the Aachen office. This allowed our developers to experience the hands on application of the technology they develop, something that is often difficult to do.

The event was considered a great success by the attendees and hosts - 3 days very well spent. We've already seen a number of benefits from the event and have some more new ideas to try out in the coming months. We'll certainly running similar events again.

Until the next time

The ModuleWorks blogger.

Techical Tip – Mesh based 5-Axis SWARF machining

SWARF machining is a popular topic and one where we do a lot of R&D work.  Our technology can be applied to both Surface model and STL meshes and we have progressively automated use to make it both easy to use and quick to implement in the host system.
 
The majority of SWARF cycles use an upper and lower guide curve to control the tool tilt angle. Traditionally, the selection of these curves is something of a manual process and often the actual surface geometry is not considered in toolpath generation, potentially leading to gouging.

ModuleWorks has developed the ‘Best fit’ cycle with automatic curve creation and using the underlying surfaces as a basis of the toolpath calculation.

 This has a number of benefits:-
•    Highly automated toolpath generation. Upper and lower guide curves, best fit contact line and tool tilt angle are all automatically calculated.
•    Easy to use, only the basic surfaces need to be selected.
•    Gouge free toolpath
•    With the 2011.8 release, the automatic selection can be overridden to give a higher level of control.

Until the next time

The ModuleWorksBlogger

ModuleWorks sign vectorcam Gmbh as 50th Partner

We've recently confirmed our 50th CAD/CAM industry partner, vectorcam. The original press release is reproduced below, but in summary we're proud to have a such a group of world class vendors who have chosen to use our our CAD/CAM components in a diverse range of manufacturing products.


The ModuleWorksBlogger

ModuleWorks, the leading supplier of CAD/CAM components for 3-5-Axis toolpath generation and simulation have confirmed their partnership with CAD/CAM provider, vectorcam Gmbh, to provide state-of-the-art Simulation technology for vectorcam.

vectorcam Gmbh have become ModuleWorks’ 50^th CAD/CAM industry partner and join the growing list of leading CAD/CAM vendors who have selected ModuleWorks to provide 3-5 axis toolpath and/or simulation technology for their products. CIMData figures indicate that ModuleWorks partner more than 60% of the leading CAM suppliers.

vectorcam is a modern and easy to use 3D CAD/CAM system for milling, drilling, turning and wire EDM used by more than 20,000 companies worldwide.  Future releases of vectorcam will incorporate ModuleWorks’ machine simulation and toolpath verification technology to help ensure safe machine tool operation and optimal surface finish.

Mr. Günter Böhning, CEO, seen above concluding the agreement with Yavuz Murtezaoglu, ModuleWorks founder and Managing Director states “We went through a thorough evaluation of different solutions and ModuleWorks was a clear winner based on its extensive simulation and verification functionality and the ease of integration. Our engineers were able to achieve a basic integration in a matter of days and the new simulation tools will be available for our customers in the next release of vectorcam”.

Yavuz Murtezaoglu comments “Simulation is an increasingly important aspect of the manufacturing process with customers expectations of virtual prove out increasing as graphics hardware and software has become ever more powerful. Our technology is ideal for CAM vendors offering easy integration of high performance simulation technology and we’re delighted to have vectorcam as our 50^th partner”.