I have just uploaded the latest version of HSMAdvisor

In this one I made some changes (again) to the layout of the FSWizard tab.

Changes were made according to Your feedback, so i hope you guys like it!

As you can see from the screen shot above Tool Type selection drop-down lists have been moved to the Tool Data panel.
This was made to make it more obvious which values get saved and loaded when user does operations with saved tools.

For the same purpose Saved Cut drop-down is now located on top of all cut parameters that it affects.

The top-most panel (Workpiece) now contains Machine and Tool Library drop-down lists.

I urge everybody to download this update as it fixes all of the existing issues regarding layout changes.

Also in the previous version, when Trial version gets expired, the Splash Screen blocks the License Activation dialog, which would make it impossible to purchase a license or enter your license information.

This glitch and many others have been fixed and i would like to ask everybody to download the latest release as soon as possible!

Cheers!

This weekend was very productive

I have finished work on floating license scheme and volunteers have begun testing it.

Licensing like that requires a lot of work on both the web side AND the client side. So a lot of things can go wrong and hopefully testing exposes all of the possible problems before a paying customer has the opportunity to face any.

Aside from cleanup here and there i have added the material search feature.

"Material" panel is now expandable and it is hiding a search field.
When you type anything into that field, material list right above will filter out items that contain the text being searched.
To clear search results user can just click the red x button to the right of the search field.

Here is how it looks:

You don't really need to click on the magnifying glass button as searing and selecting of material is done in real time as you type text.

In fact in many cases simply typing things like "D2" will select the material you need.

What's New:

• Material Search Feature
• Added several new machine profiles to the default machine list
  (When you install over existing installation, use machine import function to add them to your current machine list)
• Finished floating license module (pending testing)

What's improved:

• Added Aluminum 6061-T4 to materials list
• Fixed missing Aluminum 6061-T6
• Added floating pop-up box to pretty much all fields on the FSWizard screen
• Cleaned up various things.

Our most recent sale is over and it has been a huge success.

I would like to thank everybody who helped me make this software better with every update.

I just wanted to tell you about an incoming update here.

One of early users- Kevin, expressed his desire to install HSMAdvisor on 9 CAM computers in his shop. Now all computers are connected to the network, so he was wandering if it was possible to make all seats share the same tooling database.

It was not possible back then, so I decided to add that functionality in there.

The testing is almost complete and soon everyone will be able to download an update that lets multiple users share the same tooling database over the network. You could even share it over the internet if you use software like DropBox.

I bit later I will create a tutiorial on how it is done. 

This goes to show how important user feedback is for software makers like me.

So if you have any idea and would like to see it implemented, please let me know.

It it looks stupid but it works, it is NOT stupid!

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.

In this update i fixed some of the annoying things that were present in my app before.

Firstly i have totally changed the way app renders. Instead of using gradient backgrounds i am now using background images everywhere. This prevents glitches that some users reported before.

Then main menu now takes the whole screen. Small but descriptive icons were added to ease the navigation. Also scrolling problems for all of the devices were fixed there.

Phone Back button now exits the main menu or the virtual keyboard.

To shut down the app you have to tap Back key twice. This prevents acidental exits.

Phone Menu button opens main menu now. So the workflow is a lot like in the rest of android apps.

As a test i gave it to my wife to try out. She was pleased and managed to run through the whole app within a couple of minutes and never got lost. She especially liked menu icons, said they looked cool.

Email me or post on forums if you have any feedback.

main menu updated keyboard

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

Hello gentleman,

This has been a great run.
Many of suggested features were implemented.
All of the reported bugs fixed and still there is so much to do left.

Out "get it for free" program however has ended.

Here is a list of people who qualified for a free license.

Users who earned at least 2 points got qualified!

Pleaase send me email at cnc@zero-divide.net with your:

Name
Last Name
email address
Computer ID key

Those are users who gave suggestions on support forums.

If you wrote me emails, please get in touch with me anyway. Most of my email contacts who was involved into beta-testing have already gotten their keys.

Qualified users who suggested by email are:

• Stan stanmc@****.net
• David C. Allen
  

If you feel left out please get in touch with me. i could have forgotten somebody.

Sevaral weeks ago i saw a post on CNCZone.

A HSMadvisor user Peter Neil used it to calculate cutting conditions for cutting a block of pre-hardened stainless steel.
His machine was Tormach.

Here is an exact copy-paste from that forum post:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did a test cut on the Tormach today using feeds & speeds from the latest version of the excellent HSM advisor.
To make it interesting, I did the cut using some 1.2085 pre-hard Stainless Steel as I have plenty of stock of it and have a job in mind for this, and wanted to see how it cut on the Tormach.
The material is like a stainless P20, at 16% Chrome/1% Nickel & 0.5% Sulphur (which makes it slightly free-er machining) and is hardened to around 33-35 Rockwell C, so I used the HSM advisor guidelines for machining P20 rather than Stainless. Cutter was a 10mm 4-flute Carbide TiAlN coated EM.

So...... ticking the HSM/Chip thinning option I got a speed of 5120 and feed of 2214mm/minute( 87 IPM). I used a DOC of 10mm and WOC of 0.5mm/0.020" - and turned off the flood cooling to machine it completely dry. The finish pass on the 1st level was 15mm DOC and 0.5mm WOC and slightly lower speeds/feeds.

Loaded up a 40mm x 63mm block , pressed the start button, and it went from this....





...to this!

This HSMAdvisor v0.200 release is a major step forward.

Aside from major rewrites that i did to improve stability of the code there are also new features that will improve user experience 
and move us one step ahead towards making it the best tool for machinists. 

New Features

• Circular Interpolation feedrate compensation
  Now you can get compensated feedrates for milling inside and outside round features.
• HSM and Chip Thinning 
  are now two separate check boxes.
  Chip thinning allows to compensate for thinning chip thickness at low radial and axial engagements.
  HSM allows to increase cutting speed when chip thinning occurs. 
• Manufacturer's Speed and Chipload input
  For when you need to enter manufacturer recommended S&F values.
• .NET 2.0 Framework 
  Starting from this release i have downgraded required framework version from 4.0 to 2.0
  This will allow us to target wider audience as it immediately drops requirements for Windows computers.
• UNEF and UNS threads
  New thread sizes were added into the Threading section. 
• Drill Chart 
  was expanded to drills up to 1.5" in diameter

Bugs Fixed

All the existing bugs were tackled when code re-write happened.
I took a long time testing and fixing all of the problem and suspect areas, so at this poing it should be bug-free.

HSMAdvisor_v0.200 program picture.JPG