The view of the model can be changed in all toolpath verification. Simulation when showing material removal was previously in a static view.

The Dynamic View controls can be used to change the view of the model during verification in both Material Removal and Non-Material Removal verification modes. And with Verification paused, the keyboard view shortcuts and view commands that require input to dialogs can also be used to re-orient the model view before resuming Verification.

These changes greatly increase the benefit of toolpath verification compared to previous releases; the SmartCAM CAM engineer is able to much more easily follow and verify toolpath in all areas of the component using the improved Verification view controls, inspecting areas of particular interest or concern whenever necessary.

Change View during material removal verification

The individual user interface dialogs for ShowPath and ShowCut of previous versions have been replaced with a composite and more compact Verification User Interface.

The new dialog features multi-media-type controls that are used to Play, Pause, Rewind / Reset and Skip or "Batch Process" the toolpath elements to be Verified.

New Verification System User Interface

All toolpath verification is now displayed in the SmartCAM Graphics Window

Version 2017 Verification entirely within the SmartCAM Graphics Window

The range selected for verification can be batch-processed when in Material Removal Verification mode in addition to when in non-Material Removal mode of earlier versions, removing the overhead of toolpath simulation or material removal.

A benefit of this enhancement is that processing time when handling larger amounts of toolpath - as is often the case in Mold and Die work, for example - is reduced, enabling the resulting stock model & collision reporting and the cycle time to more quickly become available.

Fast processing of Toolpath Model with Batch Processing

New controls are available to pause verification after each element, after each step or at the end of the entire toolpath model.

The more compact Verification user interface also enables the SmartCAM user to more easily access additional options such as tool and toolpath display type, batch processing and the set of elements that are to be verified.

Collision and Gouge Detection has been fully rewritten for SmartCAM v2017 Verification.

Previously graphical / pixel-based, Verification now references the stock and fixture models to check collision conditions.

Collisions with fixture items are now also detected when in Non-Material Removal mode, which is additional functionality since the previous release.

Conditions that are checked and reported are:

• Tool Rapid Move into Stock or Fixture
• Tool Feed move into Fixture
• Holder Collision with Stock or Fixture

The Collision detection improvements enabled with SmartCAM Version 2017 provide more comprehensive and precise collision checks, meaning that a SmartCAM programmer has confidence that inadvertent collision errors have been trapped and reported.

The In-Process Stock Model can be stored in STL format for use as stock when verifying toolpath in subsequent Processes in any SmartCAM product, useful in the case when a component "hits the floor" between setups on different machine tools, for example.

Fixture elements derived from SmartCAM profiles can now also be optionally saved in the stored representation.

We appreciate that it's a small detail, but a useful, practical change is that Toolpath, Rapid Moves and End Points can now optionally be displayed during verification when in Material Removal mode. In earlier versions these options were available only when in Non-Material Removal mode / ShowPath.