From Planit comes the latest release of its market leading Edgecam computer aided manufacturing (CAM) software, 2009 R1. With unrivaled ease-of-use and sophisticated toolpath generation, Edgecam is capable of programming milling, turning and mill-turn machines. This latest release contains improvements specifically designed to increase the productivity of manufacturing companies.

Many of the improvements in 2009 R1 directly address requests from existing Edgecam users; including the new Associative Machining Technology. This automatically calculates the correct cutting feeds and speeds for a program based on the tooling, part material and the machine tool specification. Feeds and speeds are automatically updated if any of the parameters are changed.

Furthering Edgecam’s support for 5-axis machining, 2009 R1 introduces a nutated head/rotary table configuration.

With increasing demand for rapid manufacturing, the capabilities of Edgecam Strategy Manager have been further extended to improve support for twin-turret turning, with a command available in the Mill-Turn environment to reduce the number of tool changes required.

Further enhancements have been made to the new Rough Turn Cycle, including ‘Stock Runout’, a function which automatically decides the amount of overrun required when machining, and improved control over cut direction.

Another popular enhancement developed to save machining time is the introduction of in-process stock. Stock is updated as toolpaths are applied, and utilised by subsequent operations, thereby reducing programming time.

The new Rest Finishing cycle supports all milling tool types, with toolpath generation time up to 30 times faster than its predecessor.

In 2009 R1, Edgecam’s ToolStore has undergone a major overhaul, with an improved user interface, better tool selection and significant performance improvements.

In addition to further improvements to feature recognition, Edgecam Solid Machinist now offers feature ordering based on logical machining rules, resulting in cycle time savings. Feature browser improvements allow Solid Machinist to identify which features cannot be manufactured due to the limitations of the selected machine tool.

Finally, a number of smaller improvements include better handling of part files containing multiple toolpaths and improved navigation through the online help files.