SolidCAM Application Tutorial

Basic Training-1
SolidCAM + SOLIDWORKS
The Complete Integrated Manufacturing Solution
 Contents

Contents

1. Introduction................................................................................................................. 1

2. Opening the Part and Starting SolidCAM................................................................. 3

3. Milling Part Data.......................................................................................................... 7

4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path...................................................................................... 13

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Introduction
1
About this course

This tutorial illustrates the advanced concepts of 5 Axis machining, post and machine simulation
settings, basic parameters used in defining the tool path, parallel strategies of 5-Axis machining, and
creating machine simulation.

Prerequisites
Students attending this course are expected to have basic knowledge of the SolidCAM software.

Course design
This course is designed around a task-based approach to training. The guided exercises will teach
you the necessary commands and options to complete a machining task.

Using this book

This tutorial is intended to be used in a classroom environment under the guidance of an
experienced instructor. It is also intended to be a self-study tutorial.
This book is made using SOLIDWORKS 2020 and SolidCAM 2021 SP0.

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Opening the Part and
Starting SolidCAM 2
Before starting SolidCAM, you need to do the following settings that will enable you to select the
right post processor and the machine associated with the post processor.

1. Click Tools > SolidCAM > SolidCAM

Settings.

2. In SolidCAM Settings, you must pay attention to the path for post processor

and, machine simulation files.

By default, the post processor files and the machine simulation files are
located on this path: /root/Program Files/SolidCAM/Gpptool. But, it
is a good practice to create separate folders in the root directory for the
post processor and the machine simulation. For example, C:/GPP &
C:/Machine_Sim. The advantage of creating separate folders is that the
post processor and machine simulation files remain intact even when the
SolidCAM version is uninstalled or upgraded.

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 2. Opening the part and starting SolidCAM

3. Click CAM-part.

4. Ensure that the settings are as shown in the image.

5. Click OK to exit the SolidCAM Settings window.

6. Browse and open the SOLIDWORKS part Basic Training.SLDPRT.

7. Click Tools > SolidCAM > New > Milling.

The New Milling Part window displays.

When the Use Model file directory check box is selected, SolidCAM
saves the entire project in the location of the SOLIDWORKS part file.
If the box is not checked, it stores the project in the “User” directory
located in /root/Program Files/SolidCAM/. It is recommended that
you select Use Model file directory check box.
CAM-Part name - The name of the part is always derived from the
SOLIDWORKS part file name. If a CAM part already exists, then
SolidCAM uses the suffixes -1, -2 to create alternate names.

8. Click
The Milling Part Data window displays.

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6
Milling Part Data
3
In the Milling Part Data window, you must define the CAM part for machining.
Post Processor Definition

1. Select the post processor/machine that will be used to machine the part. The selection of the
post/machine depends on the part to be machined and the availability of the machine with the
customer.
In this example, if you closely observe the part, you will notice that you need to machine the
periphery of the part and also cut some pockets. Although a standard Table-Table Machine would
serve the purpose, it is better to machine this on a Head-Table configuration of the machine. As
you have a cylindrical part, it is advisable to use the DMU 100 Monoblock kind of a machine which
has a tilting head and a rotary table. In our case, the rotary axis of the table is around X axis. This
axis is also known as the A axis. The following figure explains the industry standard nomenclature
that is used to represent axis:
The part used in this tutorial will rotate around X axis and the head will tilt around Y axis. So, this
machine will have A and B axis.

Rotation Around X Axis = A Axis

Rotation Around Y Axis = B Axis

Rotation Around Z Axis = C Axis

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 3. Milling Part Data

2. In the CNC - Machine list, click FANUC5a.

Coordinate System Definition

The coordinate system on the part must reflect the machine
axis. In this tutorial, the part is cylindrical in shape, and
one of the axis of the machine is rotating around X axis.
Therefore, the X axis of the coordinate system must be
the rotating axis. Do the following:

3. Click CoordSys in the Define section.

The CoordSys window opens which has the options to define a

coordinate system. Use the most relevant option for cylindrical
parts. The most relevant option is to align one axis along the axis
of revolution of the cylinder.

4. In the Place CoordSys origin to list, click Center of revolution

face.

5. Select the face as shown in the image.

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The coordinate system is now set with one of the
axis. In our case, the Z axis is aligned to the axis of
revolution of the cylinder.
As our axis of rotation on the machine table is
around X axis, you must align our X axis along the
axis of revolution of the cylinder. And, the Z axis
must denote the depth axis.

In short, you need to swap the place of Z axis with X axis and the
place of Y axis with the Z axis. You can do this using the Modify by
flip functionality available in SolidCAM.

To get the X axis in place of the current Z axis, click the Flip Around
Y button.

The coordinate system must look like this:

Now, the X axis is aligned to the axis of revolution
of the cylinder, the Z axis is pointing to the
depth, and the Y axis is denoting the tilting head.
Depending on which side of the part is on the +
X, click Flip around Z button twice.

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 3. Milling Part Data

The resultant coordinate system must look like this:

6. Click
The CoordSys Data window displays.

7. Enter the parameters as shown in the image.

8. Click

9. Click in the CoordSys Manager window.

10. Click to come out of the Milling Part Data window.

Target definition
To define the part, do the following:

11. Right click Target > Define in the CAM Tree Manager.

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12. Select the part as shown in the image.

13. Click

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Creating a 5-Axis
Tool Path 4
You will now create your first 5 Axis Tool path and learn some basic functionality in SolidCAM
5 -Axis Simultaneous Milling.

1. Right click Operations > Machine

setup > Add at start of operations tree.

2. Enter a value of 250 in the Z column.

3. Click OK.

4. Right click Setup > Add Milling Operation > Sim 5 Axis Milling.

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

Sim 5 Axis Machining always works with the 1st position of any coordinate system. For example,
MAC1 POS1, MAC2 POS1, MAC3 POS1 etc. It never allows you to select any other positions of
the coordinate system.

5. In the Technology list, click Parallel cuts.

6. Click Geometry.
The Geometry area is subdivided into 3 groups: Geometry selection area, Work type, and the area
to be cut and other parameters.

7. Click under Drive surface.

8. Select the highlighted face. The face is displayed

in the geometry selected area on the left side.
Every surface has 2 directions. The outer direction
and the inner direction. Depending on which side of
the part has to be machined you can select the
direction. However, if there is a solid model, then
the outer direction is automatically set.

9. Select the Show direction for selected faces

checkbox to show the direction.

10. Click

11. Set the Work type. The following options are

available:
Around ‘X’ Axis : The cuts must be normal to X
Axis
Around ‘Y’ Axis : The cuts must be normal to Y Axis
Around ‘Z’ Axis : The cuts must be normal to Z Axis

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12. In Around axis list, click X-Axis.

13. Select the Constant option.

The Type in the Area section, allows you to set how

much area of the drive surface must be machined.
Following three options are available for the selected
strategy (i.e. Parallel cuts):
Full, avoid cuts at exact edges:
This option creates a tool path for the entire surface.
However, it avoids creating the tool path at the trimmed edges of the surface. This is useful when
you do not want to blunt/spoil an existing edge which is already machined or, when the model is
imported from another CAD system as the surfaces which are imported from other CAD system
can have imperfect trimmed edges. This can result in the tool paths having many jumps to the
retract plane.
The value by which the tool path starts from inside the surface edge is determined by the Maximum
Step Over parameter in the Tool path Parameters tab.
Full, Start and end at exact surface edges:
This option creates a tool path from the exact edge (both start
and end edges). In this option you can give a margin by which
the tool path will start from inside the surface edge. The value
is to compensate for the inaccuracies in the trimmed edge.
If you select Full, Start and end at exact surface edges, you
see these options:
It is always a good practice to give an allowance which is
either default (0.03mm) or something close to it. Making the
additional margins close to 0 creates unnecessary jumps to the clearance plane because there are
inaccuracies in the trimmed surface edges.
Limit cuts by one or two points:
This option allows you to create a tool path on the
surface using the following scenarios:
Selecting only the start point ends the tool path at
that point and from the start edge of the surface.
The following figure explains this scenario:

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

Selecting the second point ends the tool path at that point similar to what is explained in option 1.
Selecting both the points creates the tool path between
the two points. This option is very similar to defining an
area for machining. The only difference is that two points
are used to define the area.

14. In the Type list, click Full, avoid cuts at exact edges.

15. Click Tool > Select.

16. Double click BALL NOSE MILL tool icon to add it as the tool.

17. Click
The next step is to define the clearance area type and values for clearance definition. You will look
at this step after generating the tool path, as at that point, it will be much clearer.

18. Click Tool path parameters.

You will look at the following three main parameters which will be defined in this tool path:

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i. Cut tolerance
ii. Distance
iii. Maximum Step Over/Scallop
Cut tolerance:
This parameter is the tolerance with which the toolpath is generated. This parameter is “Bi-tol”
which means any value defined as the tolerance is taken as +/-
Note that here the 5 Axis Simultaneous directly uses surfaces to perform the calculations. Unlike
HSM which uses intermediate mesh to do the calculations. A mesh is generally made up of triangles
which is the simplest geometry to calculate on. Therefore, if the surfaces are of good quality,
even a slightly loose tolerance in the 5-Axis Simultaneous gives a very high quality surface finish.
Tightening the tolerance results in higher calculation times and more number of points in the
resultant Gcode file.
Distance:
This parameter is used to generate more number of points with equal spacing between them.
Generally, SolidCAM calculates points on a given surface based on tolerance. However, the number
of points can sometimes be too less. For example, on a surface which has extremely large curvature
radius or on small surfaces which can lose out on detail because of less number of points representing
the surface. To overcome this, the distance parameter is used.

Points Generated on surface with a given tolerance

Points Generated on surface with a given tolerance and distance

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

Note that using the distance parameter increases the number of points appearing in the Gcode file
in multiples. This can sometimes slow down old machines as they do not have the processing power
to read in the large number of points. Therefore, this parameter must always be used judiciously.
Maximum step over:
This parameter is the maximum distance between two subsequent toolpath passes. Remember that
if the distance is “Maximum” it means at some areas the distance can also be lower than what is
defined. Changing the maximum step over influences the scallop value and vice versa.
Now, set the above explained values:
Cut tolerance. 0.02
Distance. Do not use this parameter now
Maximum step over. 3
Leave the rest of the parameters as default.
Now, create and visualize your first 5 axis tool path.

19. Click
The tool path calculation in SolidCAM 5-Axis generally happens in the following three stages:
Creating cut sections on the drive surfaces
Linking the cut sections based on sorting and links
Checking for gouges and applying the gouge check reactions

20. Click
The Simulation window displays.

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21. Click
The calculated tool path should look as displayed in the image:

Run the machine simulation to understand some crucial problems in your current tool path. You
will use DMU 100 Monoblock machine to simulate the tool path.

22. Click Machine Simulation.

This step does the following:
Creates the part & stock STL and loads into the simulation
Loads the tool path with tools & holders
Loads the machine from the machine sim folder
Depending on the number of tool paths and tolerance of the part, it may
take several minutes to start the machine simulation.

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

23. Click the Run icon.

This is how the simulation looks like:

24. Click in the Simulation window.

To understand what causes the gouge
in the very first move of the part, you
need to understand the Levels option
in the 5 Axis Tool path Definition Box.

25. Click Levels.

Levels is the clearance plane. There are four
types of levels in SolidCAM 5-Axis.
Automatic
Clearance to a Plane
Clearance to an imaginary Cylinder
Clearance to an imaginary Sphere
Clearance to a Plane:
Using this option the retracts of the tool always take to the plane specified. The plane could be
in either X Direction, Y Direction or, Z Direction. The plane can also be user defined using two
points.
Clearance to an Imaginary Cylinder:
Using this option the retracts of the tool are taken to the nearest point on an imaginary cylinder.
This cylinder can have its axis running either through X axis, Y axis or, Z axis. The axis can also
run through a user defined direction which can be defined using two points in space. The other
parameter that the user is allowed to define is the radius of this imaginary cylinder.
This option is best suited for this part as this is rotating around X axis and the retracts must take
place on the nearest point on an imaginary cylinder.

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Clearance to an Imaginary Sphere:
Using this option the retracts of the tool take place on an imaginary sphere. The radius and centre
position of this sphere is user defined.
This option is best suited for impeller kind of parts.

26. In the Type list, click Cylinder.

27. Define a Radius of 65 mm.

The part has a radius of 50 mm, therefore, you can maintain a
constant clearance of 15 mm throughout. The axis of the Cylinder
will pass though X axis.

28. Select the X-Axis from the Direction list.

29. Click

30. Click
The Simulation window displays.

31. Click
You can see that the retracts look much better than before.

32. Click Machine Simulation.

33. Click the Run icon.

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

You can see that the initial gouge is no longer there and also the retracts are much better and easy
on the machine.

34. Click
You will now look at two more issues that must be fixed.
1. Leads and links for entry, exit and retracts.
2. Tilt angle to avoid cutting exactly at the tip of the cutter.
Leads & Links:
These are very important to allow the tool to enter and exit the material smoothly. As you can see
in the below picture, the tool is directly entering into the material, this can cause the tool to chip off
or wear early.

You will now see some of the common leads and links used in this part.
The first leads are applied to the main entry and exit of the tool into and out of the part.

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35. Click Link.

36. Set the parameters as shown in the image.

37. Click next to Use Lead-In.

The Lead-In window displays.

38. Unselect the Use default Lead-In check box.

39. Enter the parameters as shown in the image.

40. Click OK.

41. Click next to Use Lead-Out.

The Lead-Out window displays.

42. Unselect the Use default Lead-Out check box.

43. Enter the parameters as shown in the image.

44. Click OK.

45. Click the Links tab.

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

46. Enter the parameters as shown in the image.

47. Click Default Lead-In/Out.

48. Enter the parameters as shown in the image.

49. Click

50. Click
The Simulation window displays.

51. Click
The Lead-Ins and Lead-Outs look like this:

52. Click

You will now look at tool axis control which is the most important part in 5-Axis Machining. This is
important as the tool axis control defines the orientation of the tool axis during 5-Axis Machining.
An improper tool axis control definition can cause jerks on the machine and can also gouge into
the part.
In this exercise you will use the tool axis control to effectively use the tool to cut the material and
not grind/rub against the material.

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Observe the following images:

In the above scenario, the tip of the tool is doing all the cutting. This is not the best method to cut
as the tip of the tool has “0” RPM. This creates a grinding/rubbing effect on the material and wears
out the tool. The surface finish appears jaded.
To make the tool cut, and not rub or grind, a small tilt angle must be applied so that it can push the
tip of the tool away from the cutting area and use the point on the spherical part of the tool which
has the “RPM” to cut the material.
Look at this image:

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 4. Creating a 5-Axis Tool Path

53. Click Tool axis control.

54. In the Tilt angle at side of cutting field, enter the

value of 25.

55. Click

56. Click
The Simulation window displays.

57. Click Machine Simulation.

You can see that the tip is no longer cutting the part but the side of the tool is cutting the material.
Depending on the diameter of the cutter
and the machine kinematics, this angle can
either be increased or decreased to get the
desired results. This angle is more popularly
applied when Bull Nose Cutters are used.

58. Click

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Tilt Angle is the angle of the tool axis across the tool path in the feed direction, while Lead/Lag
angle is the angle of the tool axis along the tool path in the feed direction.

Unlike tilt angle which physically tilts the tool, lead/lag angle in this machine produces a shift from
the centre thereby producing the same effect of a tilt angle (Pushing the tip of the tool away from
the cutting area).

End of the tutorial.

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 SolidCAM Application Tutorial
Basic Training-1

iMachining 2D 2.5D Milling HSS (High-Speed Surface Machining)

iMachining 3D Indexial Multi-Sided Machining HSM (High-Speed Machining)

Sim. 5-Axis Machining Turning & Advanced Mill-Turn Solid Probe

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