Reflections on the Integration of CAD and CAM Software

Do you want to integrate? This is a problem that manufacturers, machine shops and production teams will encounter when using CAD and CAM technology. Many product development organizations have chosen to implement integrated CAD/CAM solutions, such as SolidWorks-AD software and CAMWorks SolidCAM CAM software integration programs, to increase production efficiency, stimulate design innovation and shorten product time, otherwise it may be Obvious competitive disadvantages are even eliminated.

1
figure 1

1
figure 2

1
image 3

Advantages of integrated CAD/CAM Integrated CAD/CAM solutions enable automated processes that use CAD modeling techniques and common geometry formats to design parts, molds, and prototypes, and to achieve production through automatic generation of G code, CNC programming, and tool paths Manufacturing, which can greatly increase production efficiency and reduce costs. Integrated CAD/CAM solutions can increase the competitiveness of the organization. There are many reasons for this. To understand how this integrated solution can significantly increase productivity, including how to make the work of design engineers, CNC programmers, and machinists easier, the true meaning of "integrated CAD/CAM" must be accurately understood because of certain CAM companies. According to different situations, different definitions are proposed. Over the years, CAM software vendors have defined "integration" as being able to use, accept, or import 3D CAD models and design data to generate tool paths and automate manufacturing processes. This approach is not really a true "integration" because once the geometry is imported into the CAM package, it will be completely removed from the CAD system or lose its association. CAM applications that are truly integrated with CAD software must provide seamless single-window integration and be fully associated with the CAD system. In other words, the CAD program must be embedded as the CAM system's own modeling and geometry engine. For any CAM program, if it requires product CAD model data conversion, file conversion, or unrelated editing and updating capabilities, resulting in separate manufacturing and design models, it is not a true integration. A fully integrated CAD/CAM solution should use an actual CAD system to process geometry and individual parameter associated files to drive both applications. SolidCAM and CAMWorks software are examples of integrated CAM systems. Each application uses the SolidWorks CAD system in the actual CAM software package as its modeling tool. Non-integrated CAD systems use their own proprietary modeling techniques and must import CAD data to support manufacturing automation. This non-integrated solution separates data and people from the product design and manufacturing stages. This separation will limit productivity, reduce accuracy, and limit the organization's creativity and collaboration potential. Although non-integrated CAM packages can import CAD data and can handle solid models to some extent, they cannot use the full power of full parameter correlation CAD modeling systems like integrated systems, nor can they use geometry in manufacturing and CAD models. All relatedness. Regardless of whether the manufacturer is processing prototypes, mass production, or cutting dies, integrated CAD/CAM solutions can achieve greater interoperability with their single, fully-associated models and make the manufacturing process faster, more flexible, and more accurate. It provides a simplified approach to CAM, including improved CAD data processing methods, and facilitates model changes during design and manufacturing phases, as well as automatic updates of part and assembly models and tool paths, while also facilitating product design. Collaborate with manufacturing experts. Integrated CAD/CAM solutions can avoid monotonous, time-consuming updates to the model during both design and manufacturing phases, which often impact design changes, iterations, and innovation. With a non-integrated approach, engineers and manufacturing experts often refuse to modify and iterate designs because of the time pressure and workload of keeping the design and manufacturing models in sync. The integrated CAD/CAM system enables design, engineering, and manufacturing experts to develop product development in a smooth, interactive, and non-separated, continuous manner, enabling professional development. Design engineers, CNC programmers, machinists, and other manufacturing experts are all valuable resources for providing knowledge, experience, and skills. By using an integrated CAD/CAM system, different inputs from all product development and manufacturing resources can be grouped together on a single geometry platform so that they can make a difference, propose changes, and work together. Design engineers can gain manufacturing knowledge, CAM operators can acquire CAD skills, and at the same time, as the rest of the team, machinists can access the same three-dimensional geometry, thus increasing the possibility of teamwork. In this way, no one will fall into the tedious, inconsequential work or additional geometry transformation requirements. With an integrated system, each member of the team can focus on the manufacturing process. The integrated solution also offers the advantages of focusing on development work. CAD vendors focus on improving solid modeling capabilities while CAM companies focus on automated programming and processing. CAM companies that have had to continue the development of modeling technology and automated programming will not be able to keep up with the innovations and new features gained from professional CAM research and development. It is very unlikely that developers lagging behind those who are strictly focused on CAM will work with the modeling capabilities of mainstream CAD systems. With a fully integrated solution, the CAM operator will be able to use all new developments and innovative features of the CAD system, and vice versa. For example, CAD systems (such as SolidWorks) are better at processing different types of CAD formats than any CAM system, which allows the machine shop to make any model changes in the CAD system. Therefore, the final model used for machining is more Relevance. The important point of CAD/CAM integration is usually CAD/CAM integration. In terms of information, it actually refers to the three software integrations in the design and manufacturing process, namely CAD, CAPP, and NCP. To date, no unified definition of CAD/CAM integration has been made in the world. CAD/CAM integration refers to the integration of information and physical devices. To achieve a high degree of CAD/CAM integration, the following factors should be met: A new generation of feature-based parametric modeling techniques: As mentioned earlier, there are three conditions: 3D solid modeling, parametric modeling, and feature modeling. This is a key technology that is required in the CAD stage to be able to complete and provide complete engineering manufacturing information for follow-up work. Information exchange technology: Due to the island's appearance during the initial development of CAD and CAM software, the format of their data is not uniform, and the use of different systems and data exchange between different modules is difficult to perform, which affects the CAD/CAMd integration. Internationally, there is a general data exchange specification. IGES exchange specification: IGES exchange specification appears earlier, many CAD, CAM software support this format, but this format has three shortcomings: The specification describes the contents of the geometric layer, lack of CAM required engineering information; The CAD system can only realize the conversion of a subset of entities in IGES. There may be one-to-many, many-to-one, approximate or non-convertible; most of the current IGES processing programs do not support the ASCII code format, which requires a large space. STEP exchange specification: The International Organization for Standardization ISO published the product model data exchange standard STEP in 1988, which solved the exchange of product models. STEP has three features: It supports a wide range of application areas. It can express complete product data and provide a variety of data exchange methods. It has a neutral mechanism and can be independent of a thermonuclear specific system. The STEP standard is implemented in four levels: file exchange, job format exchange, database exchange, and knowledge base exchange.

Tray Sealing Machine

Tray Sealing Machine,Tray Sealer,Tray Packing Machine,Proseal Tray Sealer

Wenzhou Dajiang Vacuum Packaging Machinery Co.,Ltd. , https://www.djpack-vacuum.com