In this CAM tutorial, we provide an intro to feature based machining and presents scenarios of when you would use it and when it would be most beneficial. She then talks a little bit about traditional programming versus feature based machining programming.
The demo gets into some of the areas where it's been implemented and some of the coverage of feature based. The tutorial then goes into a couple of demos and looks at getting started with FBM and how you can analyze your parts for FBM-prime features.
NX Post processors have capabilities beyond toolpath translation – they can also be used to detect and enforce programming styles. By developing custom warning messages, a user can ensure proper CAM programming. It can be tempting to put these into a programming template, but by putting the functionality right into the post, the user can more consistently keep programming mistakes from making it to your machine controller.
This video shows off several examples of how a custom post processor warning can be used to prevent machine/part/tool crashes, weed out invalid machine code, and enforce desirable programming styles. All demos were made using NX Post Builder 12.
The three examples we show are:
Post processor preventing spindle speed maximum from being used.
Post processor double checking tap feedrates against RPM and pitch.
Post processor confirming correct configuration of cutter compensation settings for a specific machine.
The next video of this NX post processor series covers how to identify the underlying variables in NX for enabling warnings. It will cover how to take a specific programming style preference and confirm that it can be checked by the post processor.
In our Spring 2019 Portland NX User's Group event, we reviewed optimizing 5-axis contouring with an example part.
If you do any kind of programming with NX CAM, you know there's a lot of different ways to do anything. Much of it comes down to your preference but in this tutorial vid, we’re going to show a couple of different options for multi-axis contouring and some surfacing options.
First we're going to go with the most simple: a tilt-tool axis. Then the next operation we're going to do is a contour profile. A contour profile adds a little bit extra level of difficulty, especially with the five-axis demo part we’re using essentially with no floor. Lastly but very broadly we’ll go over variable axis guiding curves, with a focus on zig-zag with patch, spiral without patch, and helical profile.
NX Post processors have access to a huge breadth of information provided by the NX CAM application, information that can be used to speed up programming and prevent machine crashes. Post processors have to handle and process information provided by NX in order to perform more complex or tailored tasks. But what kind of information does a post processor see? How is any of that information stored and handled?
This video explores the relationships between NX CAM, post processors, and the MOM variables that tie the two together. We demonstrate how information is stored and transferred from NX CAM to a post processor as a specific variable. As an example, we will examine a cutter compensation setting and explore the variables that capture and describe the setting. This cutter compensation setting is an example from a previous video that demonstrates how a post processor can produce custom warnings if desired settings are not used. This video explicitly covers how to find and describe the variable and values that correspond to “desirable settings.”
The next video of this NX post processor series will cover how to transfer custom warning dialogs from post processor to post processor using Post Builder. This third and final installment is reserved for our current NX support customers and will enable a skilled user to propagate custom warning messages onto all Post Builder post processors. In combination with this second video, the user should finally be able to program custom warning messages on all post processors. The first video, Putting Custom Warnings right in your NX Posts, covers potential examples and use-cases for custom warning messages.
NX Post processors are capable of a wide variety of custom behaviors, but tend to be written with very specific machines and setups in mind. What if you wanted to take a custom feature from one post and put it on another post? There are certain tools and features that can be used to easily migrate functionality between post processors built with Post Builder – this video will show you how.
This video will demonstrate how to transfer custom commands between different post processors and will use examples from the previous videos of this post processor series. We will explore how to take a custom warning message from one post processor and transfer it to a different machine’s post. We will also look at how to modify the custom warning itself.
The discussion and demonstration will be limited to behavior governed exclusively by custom commands. Though this sounds like a limitation, a remarkable amount of custom behavior can be handled entirely through Post Builder custom commands. This video will get you up to speed on how to modify and bring your favorite custom command performance to all of your Post Builder posts.
We recently held our annual look at CAD-CAM solutions for aerospace engineering and manufacturing at our Seattle NX User's Group event. In this live recording we walk through some of our go-to tips & tricks when it comes to manufacturing with NX CAM.
A common task when programming within NX is making selections. In this video we go over some of the built-in tools to help you make your selections efficiently.
In this short webinar we talk about Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM) for both plastics and metals. Get a brief overview of additive manufacturing as a whole, where it is now and where it's going.
Then we dig into the meat and look at improvements in NX advanced manufacturing by doing some light weighting & optimizing for both metals and plastics. We kick around a few samples that we take apart and lightweight with Topology Optimization and Generative Design using the Frustum TopOp tab in NX. We also be look at lattice structures and how to use those.
Lastly we'll touch upon some of the work Applied CAx has been doing with our Carbon M2 3D printer.
We held this webinar on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018
This webinar was led by Sterling Logan, owner | engineer at 3DLOGICS, and Taylor Saul, technical account manager for Applied CAx.
Sterling Logan is owner and lead engineer at 3D LOGICS, a professional Additive Manufacturing lab specializing in SLSplastics and DMLS metals. Their professional services and expertise go beyond 3D printing to includeCAD Design, Part Optimization, 3D Scanning, and Reverse Engineering.
Taylor Saul is technical account manager for Applied CAx. Taylor is a wealth of knowledge on CAD, CAM and PLM, and is your first point of contact for improving your workflows, licenses and processes.
This NX CAM fundamentals video is going to be about setting up your geometry view when you are in the operation navigator, which is where all of your CAM takes place. You work from four different views. You have your program view, your machine view, your geometry view, and your method view.
