ONGAA CAM for Wood CNCs

If you have ever needed to create a smooth, ‘arbitrary’, curved contour in WoodWOP from a SOLIDWORKS model you have probably been a little disappointed with the results.  ‘It’s not smooth!’.

The primary reason is in how the spline is converted into the WoodWOP contour and not how it is machined.

Most conversion programs will convert points on the spline to accurate contour points but they connect the points with straight lines.  Only by reducing the distance between the points can the contour be improved.   ONGAA CAM takes the connecting line into account as well and if it is curved, it supplies WoodWOP with the information to define an ARC.  This arc simulates the actual spline much more closely.

Take for example a perfect circle and imagine selecting 8 points along the circle to ‘guesstimate’ the contour.  This is of course exaggerated but it illustrates the point.  Now use those … Read the rest

As many of you already know, just because you can draw it does not mean its easy to create a WoodWOP contour to match — well at least not by hand or using DXF…

With ONGAA CAM it is as easy as selecting edges and whatever machining parameters WoodWOP wants to know. (Direction of travel, tool number ,  Tool compensation etc.)

Take for example the outline of the state of Indiana.

In ONGAA CAM (SOLIDWORKS), simply select a starting point, the first edge and then select tangency. Then with a couple more edge selections to close the loop we are done with the now 51 edges including straight line, arcs and spline curves.

Now launch WoodWOP from within ONGAA CAM to see the result.

It really is that simple.

The contour delivered to WoodWOP is 831 lines and arcs that fall within the 0.5 mm default approximation setting.

 … Read the rest