Often times CNC programming tutorials only teach you how to create the tool-paths and not enough attention is paid on showing how to properly hold parts being machined.

At the same time efficient workholding is an art in it self and mastering it could drastically improve shop productivity and accuracy.

Without further ado let's jump into the workflow.

Step 1. Analyze the Drawing and the Model

We would have to look at the drawing, tolerances and the CAD model to develop the machining strategy.

This particular part has tight (+/- 0.001) tolerances between the features located on the top and the bottom sides. In addition to that it has a 2.5 degree draft angle on external walls.

Thus I decided to not use the soft jaws approach and machine it in a fixture. Soft jaws are generally OK for tolerances down to +/-0.001" but because of the draft angle the part would always want to pop out of the jaws.

1. Finished Part 2. First Op: Before 2. First Op. After 3. Machined Fixture 4. Second Op: Bearing Seat 5. Third Op: Finished Part

I would like to announce the launch of a brand new product called HSMCode.

HSMCode combines the power HSMAdvisor speed and Feed calculator, its advanced Tool and Cut Database and the new functionality of HSMCode into one seamless product!

What does HSMCode Do?

HSMCode allows you to create ToolPaths from imported CAD or Solid geometry with ease.

All you need to do is pick features that need to be machined and HSMAdvisor will pick the most suitable tool, calculate proper speeds and feeds and then HSMCode will generate the G-Code for your machine

As simple as that.

You can also create additional geometry using an in-built CAD designer and Simulate your Toolpaths to verify the correctness of your work.

The sales will begin in a couple of months on June 31 2016!

Please contact me if you would like to test the early demo version, affect the development of the software and (depending on the value of your input) receive your Lifetime Subscription for free!

Cheers!

We have changed a Web-Server hosting company

This will translate to much better loading times for our users. Especially those who use the FSWizard:Online Calculator

Thank you for patience.

Our Halloween Sale is now Officially Over

Once again I would like to thank everyone who invested into development of this software.

Each one of you is not just a customer, but a co-creator. Thanks to your contributions our software gets better and better with every release.
And all of it comes back to our users in a form of features they have suggested or asked for.

At this point in time i can see the results of adding the subscription-based floating licensing model.
NOT surprisingly the Permanent License Type is still more popular than the subscription-based one.

Perhaps it is attributed to the fact that most people only use HSMAdvisor on one computer anyway, which most of the time is their CAD/CAM station and relatively few people need to move their seat from one computer to another.

More User Interface Improvements are Coming

I am in the process of re-vising the work-flow of loading a Tool/Cut From the database.

Tool and Cut drop down lists will disappear from the screen. Instead a couple of buttons will be added that would allow loading a Tool/Cut from the database, editing/viewing parameters etc.

This should greatly unload the screen and make things easier to read.

Have a good and productive day!

Version v0.735 has just been released.

We now have 2 new tool types: Counterbore and Chamfer Mill.
They were added to match with similar tools in most CAM packages

Also we now have tool simulation graphics in the Results' area new Tool tab.

Here is a simulation of the new Chamfer Tool type:

Capture Wizard now has Tab Name field that allows Wizard to only capture the Target window when selcted tab is active.

Also Detault Tool Type, Tool Material and Tool coating fields were added.
you can now specify which tool will be picked if Wizard fails to recognise the tool type.

Oh pardon me!

Forgot to mention: We now have Surfcam 5.2, BobCAD-CAM v25 and v26 integration profiles.
you can load those from Profile manager tab on Capture Wizard form.

On a side note somebody from SprutCAM has asked me to create a profile for their package.
Looke like they have demo available for download, so i will probably do that very soon.
As far as I know, I do not really have any customers using that CAM.

But hey, Things change!

HSMAdvisor has got a brand new CAD/CAM integration profiles manager.

It is now possible to import/export profiles to and from HSMAdvisor.

For now i only had time to add SurfCAM 5.2 to the list. MasterCAM x2 is coming a little later.

While using Capture Wizard yields very satisfactory results in most cases, it does not take a long time to set up either.
The whole procedure of creating a brand new profile takes just about 30 minutes.

If you created your own profile for a CAM system that is not already in the lest, please send it to my e-mail address: cnc@zero-divide.net or create a thread on the support forums. There you can upload XML files directly.

I would like to add it to the next release for everyone to enjoy.

Very good things happen to those who contribute!

If you need any help figuring out CAD/CAM integration. please refer to "HSMAdvisor Tutorials" category of this site, create a thread on support forums, or send me an email!

In this tutorial we are going to explore different options and techniques when programming cutter movement.

Lets begin with a simple part shown in a drawing below.

Basically it is a rectangular piece 4.00x2.00
For the purpose of simplicity lets make the depth of our profile (z- dimention) 0.75"

We are going to use a 0.5" dia endmill, again because it is a very common size and is easy to do basic math with.

I took a liberty of puting locations for our part/toolpath, so it is easy to extract numbers from the drawing just by looking at it.

Notice the green rectangle. This rectangle represents the path that the center of the tool will have to take to produce the part with required dimentions.
The thing is: because endmills have certain diameter, the center of the tool must be always offset by its radius.

There are two ways of doing that.

Another week another update!

A few days ago a topic popped up in CNCZone's BobCad-CAM forums regarding why speeds and feeds in above mentioned BobCAM were so crazy and unworkable.

Users were complaining and raving about such a "simple" thing like a good speed/feed calculator being missing from there.

This is actually a trend in pretty much any other CAM software package.

They sell tool to create toolpaths.
Many give tools to create 2D geometry and even real solids.

But very few CAM packages offer anything that even remotely resembles working starting cutting parameters.

It does seem bizarre and strange. But every CAM program "knows" type of material being worked on. It knows type of tool, its diameter and length.
It even knows flute length, cutting depth, width, ramp angle... pretty much everything.

But given all that they are unable to combine all this data and produce Speed and Feed that would not either break the cutter or melt it into the work-piece!

Anyway. Back to the topic.

Someone on that forum thread mentioned my old FSWizard.
It sparked quite a lot of interest, and i popped in and dropped a link to the latest version of HSMAdvisor, so that they actually try and see what a good calc can do.

As a result i have received a ton of emails filled with suggestions and thank-yous.

Apparently many did not even know anything about it and were surprised how well it worked for them.
One guy who just bought a license even said that his copy already paid for itself several times over within the first couple of days of using it!

To thank for enthusiasm, i quickly implemented some of those suggestions and i am now releasing them in this version 0.710

New thing are

• Adjustable font size and style. (in Settings) Allows to adjust global application font.
• Adjustable default values for Speed&Feed Overrides, Tool Productivity, Deflection and Torque Limits. (in Settings) You can now set values to which overrides reset by default.
• New Plunge Feedrate field shows up for milling tools.
  Non-Center cutting tools like Indexed endmills etc. will have plunge feed equal Zero.

Thanks everybody for support and suggestions!

As usual you can download the latest release on the Download page.

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.

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