The sale is officially over!

I would like to thank everybody who INVESTED in HSMAdvisor and FSWizard development.

Thanks to your support and funding i am able to continue working and improving upon my and YOUR software.

In a little over a year we have done a lot of work and there are many more amazing features in the pipeline. Anything we can dream of can be acomplished if enough effort is made.

Thank you.

Today i got another review on my free FSWizard Android app.

It wasnt bad. The guy gave 4 out of 5 stars, but then he added that he would gladly pay 4-6$ and that 18$ for the pro version is beyond reasonable.

I should have shut up.

But i never can.

I replied that the price is what it is, explaided my point of view and thanked him for a good review.

He then changed his rating to just two stars...

And then denied that he initially gave me 4!

Sir. Take your business somwhere else.

Update: guy changed his rating to one star and wrote he does not know what 4-6$ i am talking about.

Friends, if you know a guy named David Alwine, keep away from him. He is an utter lying jerk!

latest round latest edit

This is my first try at making a tutorial.

I wanted to show how to set up integration with you CAD/CAM program usi g drilling cycle as example.

I have decided to keep the sale on HSMAdvisor until November 11.

This should give everybody just enough time to make up their mind.

Update

The sale has been extended until November 13 th.

I have received not one but two letters asking me what happened to the sale prices and why it ended so soon.....

Well, you guys have 2 more days to decide!

Also i have uploaded an update to HSMAdvisor that fixes problems with the integration module giving out errors.

Now everything works fine.

FSWizard for android now has a bolt circle.

Center loacation, bolt hole dia, number of holes and a starting angle can be specified

2013-11-05_20-19-24.png

In this release I have added CAD/CAM integration.

Please read the latest tutorial in HSMAdvisor Tutorials section here
This is a pretty Unique way of doing it.

It is still in the beta-mode.
But it is fully functional. I have tested it on MasterCAM and SurfCAM with great results.
While some functionality is not supported well on all cadcam packages, it is still much better than nothing.

Please send me your feedback on how it works with your CADCAM package.

I have also added a list of recently used materials.

Now material list will have 6 recently used items at the very top of it.
Later on i will allow user to enter whatever number of recent items he wants to see there. But for now its just 6.

New Computer ID and New License keys

Starting from this release i have changed how Computer ID keys are generated.
This was done to fix problems some of the users experienced when they added or removed additional hardware on their computers.

New Computer ID's mean License keys have been changed for all users as well.
Not to worry though, License keys will be automatically updated for all of our users, so no action from their side is required.

If you have active license. You will get a message telling you what happened and your license file will be updated automatically.

Some bugs got fixed as well.

All of them were pretty minor, nothing to write home about.

Material definitions got updated as well.

Added several materials, updated speeds and feeds for tool steels and stainless steels.

I still have to add some of the previously requested materials (like Weldox Graphite, etc) to the list.
And i am planning to add it in the next release.

Chiploads for micro-milling were changed as well.

Chiploads for micro-endmills (below 1/16 dia) were reduced significantly.

NOTE. THIS INTEGRATION MECHANISM HAS BEEN DEPRECIATED AND REMOVED FROM HSMADVISOR.

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR MASTERCAM X9 AND MASTERCAM 2017 HOOKS FOR MASTERCAM

One of the most requested features in HSMAdvisor has long been integration with various CAD/CAM solutions available on the market.

There are two possible ways of achieving said task.

First way: using CAD/CAM API to create plugins to enable HSMAdvisor to "talk to" various software packages.
This road could produce the best results, however implementing it would be laborous and results not always very convinient to use.
Also developer(me) would have to create plugins for many dozens of cad/cam software packages. Muliply that by the fact that with each CADCAM release, a new version of plugin would need to be produced, tested and debugged. This work is for a whole software department and would call for a product far more expensive than what a lot of my customers could afford.

Second way: Grab tool, speed and feed data directly from the CAD/CAM window, process it and then update required information when the calculation is done.
This solution is easyer to implement and could prove to be the most convinient for user as well.

Need i tell you that i have chosen to go the easy way?

Without further delay let me introduce the first Speed and Feed calculator that can be integrated with a CAD/CAM solution by a user himself!

This is How it Works

Step One: User launches CAD/CAM solution. We will use MasterCAM x2 in our case.

A toolpath is programmed the usual way, a proper tool is selected and when it is time to enter your speed and feed data you launch HSMAdvisor.

On FSWizard page you first select the kind of work-piece material you are working with then click [Capture] button.

A new dialog window called Capture Wizard will appear.
A red message will be saying that target window was not found.

Do not worry. This simply means that you have not saved any profiles yet.

1. Click Add button.
2. Type in the EXACT title of the window that contains tool and cut information.
   In this particular case it will be "Drill/Counterbore". Please note that you can use particial title like "Drill/" or "bore", but "Drill/Counterbore" will still be picked up.
3. Click OK.
   This adds the new window title into the target list.
4. Hit [Re-Scan All] button to refresh the wizard and find our target window.

(Picture below shows exactly what we did)

A message below the target list drop-down will say whether any taget from the list was found.

Lets hope that it was. In that case Tool Data, Speed and Feed etc. groups will become available for edit.

Capture wizard scans Target Window using its title. Then it puts text from the elements if found to various drop-down lists.

Now its time to to tell our Capture Wizard which fields represent what kind of parameters.

The main fields that need to be selected are Diameter, Tool Type. RPM and Feedrate.

Those are 4 basic things that we need to get the job done.

1. Re-Scan All to refresh the wizard and re-scan all windows if needed
2. In tool Data Check "Capture" check box
3. From the "Diameter" drop-down list select the value that represents the tip diamter of our tool
   In this case our drill is 0.199
4. In the Tool Type, Material And Coating check at least Tool Type filed checkbox and select the value that contains tool type data in this window.
   In this case we choose "Tool name" field that contains word DRILL - this is enough to associate it with HSMAdvisor's Drill Tool Type
5. Choose whether to capture tool material
6. Choose whether to capture tool coating
   In many cases you can use text in Comment field to tell HSMAdvisor what kind of tool is being used
7. In Speeds and Feeds section check Capture and/or Update check boxes to be able to receive and send result data.
8. Choose values that represent Cutting speed, Chipload, RPM and feedrate
   In this case Mastercam does not even show us cutting speed or chipload! But, we can still work with only RPM and Feedrate
9. SAVE- Click Save button to save your work on this profile.

At this point you can hit [Capture] button to transfer captured information back to HSMAdvisor.

BUT. It would not capture any tool type information.

To be able to correctly parse tool type you need to go to Tool Type, Material and Coating Recognition tab and enter "DRILL" into the Tool Type table right across Jobber Twist Drill tool type.

What capture wizard does is looks for word "DRILL" inside Tool Type Field text. If it does see that text it assumes it is Jobber Twist Drill.

Now you can his SAVE again to save your recent changes and click [Capture] button to bring all that into back to HSMAdvisor.

What then

After successfull capture you should have pretty much exactly the same data as you just had in CAD/CAM cut parameter window.

You then perform your normal calculation to find the proper speeds and feeds.

When ready you click on [Capture] button again.

If you saved your previous work you shlould now have all fields ready to use.
Make sure "Update" checkbox inside Speeds and Feeds section is ticked.

And simply click [Update] button.

This will copy the information into the corresponding fields on the target window.

Limitations and considerations

There are some limitations and considerations.

• Target window MUST be open and it MUST be the only window with this particular title on the desktop at this particular time.
• If target window contains different tabs, a tab with information being captured needs to be selected.
• You may have to run HSMAdvisor in admin mode in order for this to work.
• This only works with conventional basic windows form data and will not work for data contained in list boxes and non conventional elements like list views, tables and trees.

Conclusion

I know this may feel a little laborious, but there is no way around it if we want to implement any sort of integration across multiple CAD/CAM pacakges at once.

This Will Not work in some cases at all. In many cases some features will not work properly Always double-check your data.

Testing was done using SurfCam 5,6 and MasterCAM-X2.

Later on if this Capture Wizard catches on i will introduce pre-defined CAD/CAM profiles  for various supported software packages and their versions.

Please direct your feedback here or create a new forum thread on our support forums.

HEM is a relatively new term.

It means High Efficiency Milling. It only became available when constant tool engagement toolpahs became almost standard on most of the CAM software.

Unlike HSM that utilizes chip thinning effect, HEM relies on much larger widths of cut and thus chip thinning does not occur. What gives it its name is much higher material removal rate that would normally be possible.

When you are machining a pocket you are most often only milling at about 50% WOC. But nevertheless you need to calculate speeds and feeds based on the fact that the very first move and every corner will be full slotting action. Which means that the whole pocket needs to be machined at lower feedrate.

HEM uses constant engagement toolpths to make sure that this never happens and that Width of Cut remains optimal. Tool never needs to make a full slot so you can ramp up the feedrate as if you were doing outside profiling.

Here is a video of a 1/2" 3 flute endmill machining a 5/8" deep pocket in aluminum at full depth. Normally this pocket would have been machined in 2 steps at 150 inches per minute.

Using Constant Tool Engagement toolpaths we can go full depth at 0.175" stepover and 275 inches per minute.

The advantage of this method is obvious- Higher Productivity.

HEM is not ideal for all cases and each application merits its own method of machining, but its always nice to know more than one way to do your job.

Haloween sale is ON!

All HSMAdvisor Licenses over $90 are currently 15% off!

You can buy a 3 Year Floating License Subscription Or a Permanent License now for just $82

Life Time Subscription is only $165 And Permanent License with LifeTime updates is $186

 Cheers!

This is another video from his Productivity Series.

In there we get a quick demonstration of HSM techniques Eric is using to produce his beatiful vise.

Also my own HSMAdvisor is featured there!

Thank you Eric!

Orange Vise are produced in the USA.

Check out this website for more info http://orangevise.com