Editor's Pick: MachineWorks v8.0 Released

Dear DE Reader:

“It's in there” as an everyday expression gained popularity from an old Prego marinara TV commercial. One taste convinces the skeptical Dad that the seasonings needed to make the meal special are “in there.” The secret sauce that extends many CAM applications comes from their partnership with MachineWorks. So, “si prega di leggere” today's Editor's Pick of the Week to learn what's coming to your CAM toolset.

MachineWorks just released version 8.0 of its like-named MachineWorks CNC (computer numerical control) simulation and verification software development toolkit. All sorts of CAM, CNC control and machining developers have integrated MachineWorks' specialized simulation and verification tools into their own applications. At the end of today's main write-up is a link to a veritable Who's Who list of developers who've done that.

MachineWorks CNC (computer numerical control) simulation and verification software version 8.0 has been released. Among its capabilities is support for complex simulations, verification and clash detection on CNC machines as well as additive manufacturing systems. Screen capture courtesy of MachineWorks Ltd.

MachineWorks v8.0 sees new tools and functionalities in multiple areas. Improved performance and ease of use are the overriding theme of this release. For example, new modeling functionality provides surface and feature detection capabilities that are designed to make switching between CAD and polygonal data less frustrating and time-consuming than before. As well, improved implementation, compression and communication tools provide support for real-time, cloud-based simulation rendering even over slower network connections.

V8.0 introduces tools with optimized collision checking and customized performance for sheet metal bending. Speaking of collision detection, MachineWorks v8.0 now automatically deals with troublesome simulation and collision detection of highly complex objects. This is said to improve the performance of its optimizing crash avoidance function.

V8.0 debuts a handy sounding feature called Simulation Snapshots. It's something of a time-traveling Undo button. What it does is let you a grab picture of a moment in time during a simulation. Whenever you need to, you can travel back to that moment in time and make edits to your toolpath.

A capability for capturing 3D recordings of simulations inside of MachineWorks launches in v8.0. With this feature you can diagnose your intended operations and produce movies for the marketing department. Along those lines, v8.0 introduces an API (application programming interface) that MachineWorks says provides better support of 3D tools. V8.0 now optimizes representations of milling tools and defines complete tool assemblies with all the individual solids.

That's just some of the new and improved functionality in MachineWorks v8.0. Hit today's Editors Pick of the Week link for more of a taste of what's in there.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE