Autodesk’s PowerMill CAM system provides additive and subtractive strategies

PowerMill is Autodesk’s CAM system for high-speed and 5-axis machining. It offers a comprehensive range of tools to enable the manufacture of moulds, tools, and other complex shapes.

PowerMill 2019 provides a dedicated suite of strategies to help program the growing number of CNC machines that offer both additive and subtractive technology. It is capable of driving both wire-fed and powder-blown hardware with 3- and 5-axis machine motion.

For 5-axis machining, a new automatic tool axis tilting method simplifies the creation of collision-free toolpaths. This single feature creates smooth and safe 5-axis motion for all model shapes and toolpath types, making it as easy to create 5-axis programs as it is to produce 3-axis code, the company says.

The high-efficiency roughing strategy – Vortex – now includes a new From Stock option that uses adaptive clearing to produce toolpaths that machine parts with considerably shorter cycle times than previous releases.

For 2-D machining, PowerMill provides an improved workflow for the definition of open-sided 2-D features. These can now also be created based on a selection of surfaces, reducing programming time further.

The stock simulation tool–ViewMill–offers a Remaining Material shading mode. This helps CAM programmers to identify areas of unmachined stock to ensure parts are completed before they are removed from the machine.

Autodesk * www.autodesk.com