ONGAA CAM for Wood CNCs

ONGAA CAM – Basic for Biesse and the Nesting Option have been releases!

With ONGAA CAM basic for Biesse you can now program your Biesse CNC machine directly from SOLIDWORKS in a single/simple 3D environment.  Supported functions are Drilling (vertical and horizontal), Routing (vertical and horizontal), Pockets (rectangular and polygons) and Sawing.

ONGAA CAM offers many time saving features such as ‘All hole on face’ drill selections which automatically expands a single ONGAA CAM process into individual drill processes in BiesseWorks.

Using the power of SOLIDWORKS for modelling provides additional business solutions because this also effective makes all programs parametric.  This is because the programming steps are stored with knowledge of the model.  As the model changes the programming steps are generated with all new geometry.

With ONGAA CAM and SOLIDWORKS you really can ‘Design it once’ and ‘manufacture it in 1000 different sizes’.

ONGAA CAM is both … Read the rest

Making ONGAA CAM easier to use and save even more of your valuable time has been the focus of the design team over the past few months and it has paid off. ONGAA CAM now provides an even easier and faster way to add machining to models.

• Drill all vertical holes on a FACE with a single ONGAA CAM process.
• Create all vertical pockets on a FACE or SKETCH with a single ONGAA CAM process.
• Create all polygon pockets on a SKETCH with a single ONGAA CAM process.

Vertical drills and Vertical pockets both provide Min/Max criteria to allow smart WoodWOP process creation when using faces as the source of the geometry. Simply select the FACE, click All Holes and ONGAA CAM generates a vertical drill process in WoodWOP for each hole that meets the min/max criteria. As with all ONGAA CAM processes, the ‘instructions’ to expand a face

Making ‘spline’ contours is a time consuming process in WoodWOP but with ONGAA CAM, smooth contours are simple and fast.

In WoodWOP the process usually starts with a list of points that came from a drawing or by manual calculations.   These points are then entered, if done correctly, as ARC segments or LINE segments.  The result should be a smooth approximation of the curve.

Unfortunately many other programs that generate MPR contours only generate straight line segments.

In this image we show the difference between a straight segment ellipse (lower half stating with the blue segment) and an arc segment ellipse (upper half).

In each case, the segment lengths are the same.  The segments are easy to see in the lower half but the upper half required a square mark to identify the end of segment #2.

And If you can see it here, you will definitely see it in … Read the rest

Decorative panels in millwork are not new but they can be expensive.  Sometimes the quantity required just does not justify the cost and time to order it.

If you have  ordered and used some (and also have a Homag/Weeke CNC machine) you have looked at it carefully and said I could make that if I had enough time or the right software.

Well the right software is now available.   WaveGenerator, by ONG Solutions,  creates ready to machine MPR files to create waveboards.  Since the MPRs are 100% WoodWOP compliant all options are available to the operator.  The application is standalone and requires no additional software.

So why should you make your own?  Here are just some of the reasons.

• Cost:  At $600 a sheet purchased vs.   a 4 X 8 sheet of standard material machined in 17 minutes.
• On Demand: Final materials are not never held up in

Automatic Nesting

Several automatic nesting strategies are available in ONGAA CAM which provide a quick and easy way to nest rectangular parts across many sheets of material (directly from SOLIDWORKS).   ONGAA CAM optimizes the nest to both maximize material usage as well as minimize tool changes.

But not all part are created equally.  Automated nesting assumes the required material is as defined in the work piece definition of WoodWOP.   Odd shapes would waste both material and time.

Manual Nesting – ‘Nudging’

With the latest version on ONGAA CAM, manual nesting or ‘Nudging’ is now available.

Parts can now be selected, moved between sheets, moved on a sheet as well as rotated using intuitive button controls or keystrokes.

Unlike some other nesting solutions, ONGAA CAM goes not produce one continuous toolpath / process.

The resulting ‘Nested MPR’ shown here in WoopWOP 5 still produces … Read the rest

Whether you routinely make ‘left hand’ and ‘right hand’ parts or you use all ‘origins’ to make the same part, programming for a mirrored position in WoodWOP requires extra time (and care).  ONGAA CAM allows programming for any mirror position with only one selection.

To achieve ‘handed’ manufacturing, the program, designed for the #1 position, will generate a ‘Normal program’ and a ‘Mirror in X program’.  Although contour geometry is ‘mirrored’, routing strategies will be altered from climb routing to conventional.  ONGAA CAM provides a special features to overcome to need to think is reverse.  “Mirror Copy” will copy the process, with all the options and definitions, but reverse both the contour direction and the tool compensation.  Combined with the mirroring WoodWOP variables, each routing process can be turned on of off, by WoodWOP, depending on the position it is NC-GEN’ed for.

One program for any positions is more difficult … Read the rest