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Product category: CAD/CAM systems (not machine tools)
News Release from: OneCNC | Subject: NURBS based Hybrid CAD/CAM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 02 August 2002

Wizard makes hybrid CAD/CAM easy for any
shop

OneCNC NURBS based Hybrid CAD/CAM technology enables increased CNC capability and versatility at an affordable price. Wizard Technology to make it easy for any shop to use it.

OneCNC NURBS based Hybrid CAD/CAM technology enables increased CNC capability and versatility at an affordable price The software uses Wizard Technology to make it easy for any shop to use it and provide immediate benefit

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM is fully Windows compliant so if you can use Windows you can use the software.

This is what OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM can do for your shop.

Hybrid CAD/CAM is no longer a tool only available to large manufacturers to design and manufacture in their parts in 3D solids.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM has leveled the playing field for all shops in CNC machining.

Even one-man shops can now have the benefit of this technology.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM provides a complete CNC capability using this technology.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM increases the capability and versatility of almost any machine shop.

The increased technology capability provides the ability to obtain new customers and in turn increase business volume and reduce manufactured cost.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM lets the user build a model from either solid component bodies or the flexibility of creating parts from surfaces, or a wire frame model that can be surfaced and then turned into a solid.

The user can start with a simple wire frame to create the body of the model, surface the wire frame and merge it to create a solid model.

Another method of creating a solid model is to use wizard technology to create a basic body from a cube, a sphere, or an extrusion of a shape.

This body can then be modified using other bodies, surfaces and or wire framed parts using the easy to use operations.

Using the modifying operations bodies or parts can be added to, subtracted from or intersected with the model being constructed.

For example, to place a hole through a block in a solid model, the user simply creates a solid cylinder and subtracts it from the block model.

After a solid part model has been added to or subtracted from other components, the result is still a single, solid body.

By being solid definition, it does not have gaps, cracks or overlaps.

NC programmers know how gaps, cracks and unexpected imperfections in a part can cause machining problems.

These parts can require editing or re-creation of geometry, before the models are suitable for creating tool paths.

Imperfect geometry without solids technology can also cause gouging and create a poor surface finish.

Solid models tend to eliminate virtually all of those problems.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM considers all surfaces or solids to be solid ensuring gouge free machining.

Solid models allow volumes of material to easily be added and subtracted from one another.

Sometimes, a mould design can simply be a model subtracted from a die block.

Features such as fillets, chamfers and wall thickness can be added to a solid model easily and quickly.

To fillet a solid, for example, the user simply defines the radius, and then selects an edge or edges to create an automatic fillet.

Though each operation in solid modeling may create any number of new faces or intersecting elements, the model remains a single, solid body.

Each addition or subtraction of material leaves a completely joined, solid form in a single part file that is used for all design and CNC data.

That benefit alone streamlines and automates much of the traditional CAD process and produces extremely high quality CNC code.

Why does every shop need Hybrid CAD/CAM? - Solid and Surface modeling has become common in today's design industry.

This means that more product manufacturers are looking for CAM shops equipped with Hybrid CAD/CAM capability because the manufacturer can send a solids or surface file to the supplier and expect accurate replication results.

Even a shop that primarily does 2D work from supplied designs can benefit from the OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM.

A solid model using this technology provides high-quality edge curves and other data needed for 2D or 21/2D operations such as pocketing tapered wall pocketing contouring and drilling and tapping.

The solids file lets you see the entire part, view it as a rendered model not just 2D prints or wire frame.

For a shop that designs in 3D, OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM allows users to work significantly faster as they can decide how each part should be handled using wire frame, surface or as solids.

The speed and accuracy of solid modeling contribute to reduce time to market, now more crucial than ever in today's competitive environment.

Shops appreciate that solids expand their options for getting parts into the customers' hands as quickly as possible.

Modeling in solids is perfect for conceptual design, when a shop collaborates with the customer to produce a part from hard-copy sketches or directly from idea sessions.

In this process, sizes and shapes change continually, and solid modeling easily accommodates such design changes.

Mould makers are often given a minimum of machining information, which they are expected to manufacture the product as designed from.

Working in 3D solid can yield a final core and cavity much more quickly than a 2D drawing.

In some cases, it may be as easy as removing the solid model from a block to form the cavity.

In other cases, the solid provides a distinct starting place from which to build the final mould.

Shrinkage adjustments can be programmed in as a single factor rather than creating a new enlarged design.

Creating other mould geometry or model of gating and mould design for instance is made easy using the same techniques.

It is important to note that machining solids does not require any special NC programming functions with OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM.

Using OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM users apply tool paths to a solid the same way they would to surfaces.

Having OneCNC CAD/CAM gives a shop the capability to use the type of data they want, a wire frame to create surfaces or a solid, surfaces used to create a solid, or the solid itself.

This gives the shop more choices for programming a part.

NC programmers can use OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM Wizard technology to create the tool paths enabling them to generate tool paths faster and with superior results.

Unique features Of OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM - while solid modelling offers many advantages, there are still many applications that require surfacing.

Many industries, including automotive body panels, aerospace fuselage design, plastic component design still use surfaces extensively to define the complex shapes.

Other customers work with surfacing CAD systems and send those files to job shops.

In many cases, surface modeling is still better at generating the ergonomic forms common in tool making.

This is especially with shapes derived from sections and drive curves, and in blending one irregular surface form to another.

Surface modeling capability is very much needed to import, repair or edit the part to suitably machine those files.

In fact, surfacing is often a necessary complement to solid modeling.

A combination of solids and surfaces can also be beneficial when, for instance, an NC programmer wants to include a surface as a boundary in a solid model to prevent the tool from moving into a specific area of the model.

This task is easier to do by creating a quickly defined surface than with an additional solid body.

With hybrid modeling, the user has the choice of the best of all possible tools in a single environment.

That's why it is necessary to have a Hybrid CAD/CAM.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM provides exactly that all in one totally integrated Windows compliant software.

A Business Decision - purchasing a stand-alone CAD/CAM has in the past been a significant business decision, but OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM has now made that decision easy.

More and more companies are designing in solids and eliminating 2D print data.

Suppliers capable of importing their customers' solids files will gain business as more and more companies supply solids files.

If your potential customers use solids, they will expect you to work with solid models as well.

From the technical viewpoint, shops that have OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM can import their supplier's files with greater capability by bringing in native solids, surfaces or wire frame files.

And, if the files are in solids or surfaces, shops don't have to spend the time to create a model that is useable for manufacture.

This alone provides distinct financial benefit.

If your shop is Hybrid CAD/CAM capable, most customers' changes and additions can be executed much faster and easier.

Although an imported file may not show how the model or part was created, you can still easily perform operations on it to create parting joints gating or other modifications or additions.

Having Hybrid CAD/CAM technology, you can add to the solid the tooling and jigs or fixtures necessary to machine the part.

Because fixtures are often made up of basic geometric shapes, Hybrid CAD/CAM has the tools to create these elements quickly and easily.

And when hybrid models are created in an integrated CAM package, all the elements such as surfaces solids and wire frame can be machined as one model.

OneCNC Hybrid CAD/CAM has the technology, pioneered the affordable price which makes that business decision easy.

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