ONGAA CAM for BIESSE/GCODE/HOLZHER/HOMAG

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

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

Update #2:  ONGAA CAM Nesting for Biesseworks – has been released.

Nesting is performed efficiently directly from Solidworks.  Nest up to 99 sheets with optimization and automatic separation of parts based on material and thickness.

Update :  ONGAA CAM Basic for Biesseworks – has been released and is available today.

ONGAA CAM Basic includes Drilling (Vert+Horiz), Routing (Vert + Horiz), Pockets (Rect. and polygon) and saw processes.

Contact us to arrange a demonstration today.

See how ONGAA CAM for Biessworks can make your programming easy directly from the SolidWork Model without DXF imports .  Watch our Video preview

Work on creating an ONGAA CAM version for BiesseWorks is underway.  The target release date in mid 2014 after the Beta testing has been completed.

This version will integrate as smoothly with BiesseWorks as it does with Homag’s WoodWOP.

Just imagine a world with  ‘no more DXF … Read the rest

Optimizing Processes and Optimizing MPRs

Nesting – or combining multiple parts onto one sheet is a vital function for ‘Flat Table’ operators.

Until now, ONGAA CAM‘s ability to nest ‘complete assemblies’ has been received with both enthusiasm and a little reservation.

Users have ‘enthusiastically’ created all kinds of assemblies in SOLIDWORKS, combining nested assemblies, parts with multiple configurations and ONGAA CAM has created multiple sheet MPRs without a hitch.

Then came the next requests for improvements …

• How do I optimize the the processes? — the generated nested MPR made one part at a time — I want the number of tool changes to be reduced.
• I have a big assembly, how do I do more than 4 sheets.
• How do I tell ‘what part is what’ when looking at the nesting preview.
• How do I print the nest layout (with parts listed) so the ‘guys on the floor’

Since nesting is all about ‘optimizing’, we took another look at optimizing the nesting process to see where we could improve upon what we had.

Step 1, has not changed.  From an assembly click ‘Gen, Nested MPR’

With a single click, all ‘unsuppressed’ parts of the assembly will be listed, sized and initially laid out on as many sheets as it takes and that layout displayed.

The nesting process will take a ‘configured’ sheet size – width, length and thickness as well as a perimeter scrap dimension ans apply these while arranging the parts.

Grain orientation of part and board was available in the previous release as were the numerous layout options and these remain the same.

Step 2, Adjusting the layout options has new features added to help the process.

The first is a quick reset of the sheet thickness based on the thickness of the parts.  If … Read the rest

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

We were recently asked to summarize the benefits of using ONGAA CAM over generating DXF layers to load machining into WoodWOP as MPR (MPRX).

To those using ONGAA CAM the benefits are clear:

• No need to create drawings and layers.
• No need to edit each process in WoodWOP to add the parameters that can’t be set in the ‘cryptic layer names’ – like tools changes
• No need to learn a new interface – ONGAA CAM provides access to all WoodWOP parameters.
• One click MPR load into WoodWOP – ‘visual verification’.
• Complex contours including lines, arcs and splines simply by selection
• Hole Wizard arrays and Linear Pattern arrays in one selection.

But the above lists does not fully capture all the benefits because as we all know ‘first time’ is not always right.  What happens if the model needs to be adjusted?   Lets say two features were moved by 2mm and … Read the rest

As with all thing,s a path is easy to follow when you can see it.  Toolpaths are no different.

The straight forward – follow these edges – toolpaths are a snap in current version of ONGAA CAM.  Click on a vertex, then an edge and another and so on.  The resulting toolpath is both simple and easy to visualize.

But what about surfaces? Those 3 dimensional curves than have no points or lines to click on.

Well, we are going something about those.  PLY file generation will allow you to select a surface and ONGAA CAM will map out a toolpath to machine the surface.  Files will be MPR compliant files able to be used both in ONGAA CAM as well as WoodWOP. With options like ‘Step Increment’, WoodWOP tool selection and path trace angle several ply files can be produced providing initial clearing, rough and finishing toolpaths.

 … Read the rest