Important Concepts

The following are a few very important concepts to understand, when using SmartCAM. They explain some fundamental ideas that once understood make using SmartCAM easier and more intuitive. They also represent "best practices" suggestions that will make using SmartCAM even easier than it already is.

Steps and Layers

While both Steps and Layers can be used to create wire-frame geometry a Step is actually toolpath, while a layer is mainly construction geometry.

A Step is a combination of a Tool, and its related settings, and a Process Operation Type with its machining settings; such as speeds and feeds. When NC code is generated, geometry created with a Step is output as cutter path.

When generating NC code, layer geometry is ignored.

You can easily convert layer geometry to step geometry and from step geometry to layer geometry. When you convert a layer to a step, it immediately becomes cutter path and will be output when you generate NC code.

Finally, in most cases, Step and Layer geometry can be used interchangeably. For example, while a boundary of a pocket is normally designated with a layer profile, it could just as easily be a profile created using Step geometry.

Profiles and Geometry

The term "Profile" is often used in SmartCAM. Profiles are a series of sequential and contiguous geometry elements, that linked together define a single geometry feature. Some requirements for a profile include:

Geometry that is not in a profile does not have a name, it is often simply called "random geometry."

When NC code is created for Profile geometry, created with a Step, the tool will descend at the start of the profile and remain down throughout the rest of the profile, only retracting at the end. For random geometry, depending upon the properties and cut direction of the geometry, the tool may have to descend, cut, retract, and rapid to several different locations.

Additionally, a number of SmartCAM functions reference an entire profile simply by having the user profile a single element in the profile. In order to have the function deliver the results you expect, the element provided must be part of an actual profile not just a random piece of geometry.

SmartCAM has specific functionality for creating a line and arc profile; which has the ability to solve for unknown values. This is not the only method for creating profiles in SmartCAM. Random geometry can be grouped and "chained" into a profile, as long as the random geometry meets the above requirements for a profile.

Profiles can also be created directly by certain SmartCAM functions; such as the From Solids - Boundary or Slice functionality, or by a toolpath generation function.

Profiles can be selected and added to the active group by enabling the group arrow and double-clicking on one of the elements in the profile, or by using the Group toolbar's Profile selection tool and clicking on any element in the profile.

Hole/Hole Feature Profiles

SmartCAM's profile selection tools can also be used to rapidly select a sequence of similar holes or hole features. The set of holes or hole features is only considered a profile for the purposes of selecting them and adding them to the active group. The sequence of holes or hole features will also be recognized by the Insert Before/After Profile functionality on the Insert Properties bar.

To be considered a profile, the hole/hole features must be sequential in the process model database - listed one after the other in the list view with no other elements between them. And the elements must have the same properties; they must be on the same step or layer, on the same workplane, and have the same properties for level, depth, and clear.

To select the profile, enable the group arrow and double-click on any hole in the sequence, or use the Group toolbar's Profile selection tool.

Active and Result Groups

Groups are a collection of selected geometry; they can be any combination of steps, layers, wire-frame, and surfaces. Many SmartCAM functions work using groups; you select the geometry you want to work with, add it to a group, and then apply the SmartCAM function to all the geometry in the group.

Unlike Containers, mentioned below, elements in a group can still be manipulated as individual pieces of geometry, while containers are treated as a single element. When the List View is in Context mode, containers are shown as a single element. When the list view is displaying an organized tree view of the data, containers can be expanded to show the individual elements. And groups contain no manufacturing data, you cannot modify a group and then regenerate the contents.

Two commonly referenced groups are the Active and Result groups.

The "Active" group is the group you are currently working with. While there are several ways to add geometry to the active (working) group, the most common method is simply to active the Group Arrow icon on the status bar and then select the geometry to add to the group.

The Group Arrow looks like:

Many SmartCAM functions place their generated result geometry in the "Result" group. The result group contents can be added to the active group, for further processing.

Using Containers

Container elements provide the capability to collapse a set of elements, with the same step or layer property, into a single element. Verification and Code treat work with the geometry in the container directly, just as if the geometry were not in the container.

Containers created by Process operations, operations that generate toolpath, will contain all the machining parameters used when the toolpath was created. This means you can later modify the container, which will open the related process operation panel and fill in all the original manufacturing settings. You can then simply change the appropriate option and regenerate the toolpath. The existing toolpath will be replaced by the new toolpath and the new manufacturing settings will be saved in the updated container element.

Using containers is a "best practices" suggestion. They do not have to be used. However, the collapsed toolpath makes resequencing and working with the toolpath much easier. And having the ability to regenerate the toolpath with different machining settings, at any time, is a very useful and powerful feature.

The containers described above are "Process Containers". They are named this because they are created by Process operations. You can manually create a container, from the active group, which contains any geometry that you would like - as long as all the elements share the same layer or step property.

The manually created containers are useful for grouping and working with sets of related data. For example, all the wire-frame geometry that describes a pocket can be grouped and added to a container. Manipulating this single container element will manipulate the pocket geometry within.