Computer-aided manufacturing:

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of computer-based software tools

that assist engineers and machinists in manufacturing or prototyping product
components. CAM is a programming tool that allows you to make 3D models using
computer-aided design (CAD). CAM was first used in 1971 for car body design and
tooling.

Overview

Traditionally, CAM has been considered as an NC programming tool wherein 3D

models of components generated in CAD software are used to generate CNC code to
drive numerical controlled machine tools.

Although this remains the most common CAM function, CAM functions have
expanded to integrate CAM more fully with CAD/CAM/CAE PLM solutions.

Early Use of CAM

The first commercial applications of CAM were in large companies in the automotive
and aerospace industries for example UNISURF in 1971 at Renault (Bezier) for car
body design and tooling.

Historical Shortcomings

Historically, CAM software was seen to have several shortcomings that necessitated
an overly high level of involvement by skilled CNC machinists. CAM software would
output code for the least capable machine, as each machine tool interpreter added on
to the standard g-code set for increased flexibility. In some cases, such as improperly
set up CAM software or specific tools, the CNC machine required manual editing
before the program will run properly. None of these issues were so insurmountable
that a thoughtful engineer could not overcome for prototyping or small production
runs; G-Code is a simple language. In high production or high precision shops, a
different set of problems were encountered where an experienced CNC machinist
must both hand-code programs and run CAM software.

Typical areas of concern:

• High Speed Machining, including streamlining of tool paths

• Multi-function Machining
• 5 Axis Machining
• Ease of Use

Machining process

Most machining progresses through four stages, each of which is implemented by a

variety of basic and sophisticated strategies, depending on the material and the
software available. The stages are:
Roughing
This process begins with raw stock, known as billet, and cuts it very roughly to shape
of the final model. In milling, the result often gives the appearance of terraces,
because the strategy has taken advantage of the ability to cut the model horizontally.
Common strategies are zig-zag clearing, offset clearing, plunge roughing, rest-
roughing.
Semi-finishing
This process begins with a roughed part that unevenly approximates the model
and cuts to within a fixed offset distance from the model. The semi-finishing
pass must leave a small amount of material so the tool can cut accurately while
finishing, but not so little that the tool and material deflect instead of shearing.
Common strategies are raster passes, waterline passes, constant step-over
passes, pencil milling.
Finishing
Finishing involves a slow pass across the material in very fine steps to produce
the finished part. In finishing, the step between one pass and another is
minimal. Feed rates are low and spindle speeds are raised to produce an
accurate surface.
Contour Milling
In milling applications on hardware with five or more axes, a separate
finishing process called contouring can be preformed. Instead of stepping
down in fine-grained increments to approximate a surface, the workpiece is
rotated to make the cutting surfaces of the tool tangent to the ideal part
features. This produces an excellent surface finish with high dimensional
accuracy.

Areas of usage

• In mechanical engineering
• In machining
• In electronic design automation, CAM tools prepare printed circuit board
(PCB) and integrated circuit design data for manufacturing.

Softwares of CAM:

Delcam:

Delcam is one of the world's leading suppliers of advanced CAD/CAM software

product development solutions for the manufacturing industry. The company has
grown steadily since being founded formally in 1977, after initial development work
at Cambridge University, UK. It is now a global developer of product design and
manufacturing software, with subsidiaries in North America, Europe and Asia.

Edgecam:

EdgeCAM is a computer aided manufacturing (CAM) program developed by Planit.

EdgeCAM specialises in solid based machining. It has support for direct translation of
Solidworks solid files, as well as files from other popular CAD systems, like Inventor,
Solid Edge, Pro/ENGINEER, Pro/DESKTOP, UGS NX and CATIA.
EdgeCAM is a complete CAM software solution for production machining and mold
& die applications. It has an extensive range of 2-5 Axis milling, turning and mill/turn
strategies, seamless CAD integration and sophisticated automation tools.

EdgeCAM applications include prismatic and surface milling, complex multi-axis

turning, mill/turn, rotary and multi-plane milling and family of parts machining.
Supporting solutions for a more productive and profitable machine shop are supplied.
These include toolpath simulation, a wizard approach to post processing, a
comprehensive tooling database, intuitive and flexible machine tool communications
and a web-enabled job management system.

EdgeCAM provides the production machine shop with a wide range of flexible
milling cycles. Machining efficiency is maximized on simple and complex prismatic
parts as well as those incorporating sculptured surface geometry. EdgeCAM provides
prismatic machining combined with powerful 3D solid and surface machining
strategies.

EdgeCAM Turning provides functionality for a wide range of machine tools,

including 2-axis lathes, multi-turret configurations, sub-spindle turning centers and
mill/turn machines. On a mill/turn machine, C-, Y- and B-axis milling and drilling
take place within the same program as the turning to provide a fully integrated and
associative programming solution. Ease of use and an understanding that cycle times
are critical, especially on multi-configuration mill/turn machines, underpin the
development of EdgeCAM's turning functionality.

EdgeCAM produces advanced rough and finish turning cycles, together with support
for facing, boring and drilling in either canned cycle or longhand format. Toolpath
calculation takes into consideration the complete tooling insert and previously
machined material to avoid gouging and eliminate air cutting.

EdgeCAM offers support for Sandvik Coromant Wiper inserts for turning tools,
allowing these productivity enhancing inserts to be used reliably in all aspects of
production machining.

Promanufacuring:

CAM, if treated secondarily to CAD, can yield opportunities for costly delays and
production mistakes. Pro/ENGINEER Production Machining provides manufacturing
engineers with robust NC programming capabilities for directly cutting and shaping
product parts using milling, turning, and wire EDM. And, since it enjoys seamless
compatibility with the design, changes are automatically incorporated. The result:
improved time to production and customer responsiveness. Improve your
manufacturing tooling and factory equipment design processes with Pro/ENGINEER
Production Machining.

Benefits

• Includes all the capabilities of prismatic and multi-surface milling

• Supports CNC mills, 2-axis/4-axis CNC lathes, and 2-axis/4-axis CNC wire
EDM machines
 • Provides low-level NC sequence editing, allowing precise toolpath control and
optimization
• Detailed step-by-step production planning instructions improves
manufacturing efficiency, and reduces development cost
• Optimized NC programming for families of designs accelerates time-to-
volume production.

G Codes:

G-code is a common name for the programming language that controls NC and CNC
machine tools. Developed by the Electronic Industries Alliance in the early 1960s, a
final revision was approved in February 1980 as RS274D.

Due to the lack of further development, the immense variety of machine tool
configurations, and little demand for interoperability, few machine tool controllers
(CNCs) adhere to this standard. Extensions and variations have been added
independently by manufacturers, and operators of a specific controller must be aware
of differences of each manufacturers' product. When initially introduced, CAM
systems were limited in the configurations of tools supported.

Manufacturers attempted to overcome compatibility difficulties by standardizing on a

machine tool controller built by Fanuc. Unfortunately, Fanuc does not remain
consistent with RS-274 or its own previous standard, and has been slow at adding new
features and exploiting the increase in computing power. For example, they changed
G70/G71 to G20/G21; they used parentheses for comments which caused difficulty
when they introduced mathematical calculations so the use square parentheses for
macro calculations; they now have nano technology recently in 32-bit mode but in the
Fanuc 15MB control they introduced HPCC (high-precision contour control) which
uses a 64-bit RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor and this now has a
500 block buffer for look-ahead for correct shape contouring and surfacing of small
block programs and 5-axis continuous machining.

This is also used for NURBS to be able to work closely with industrial designers and
the systems that are used to design flowing surfaces. The NURBS has its origins from
the ship building industry and is described by using a knot and a weight as for
bending steamed wooden planks and beams.

Computer-aided engineering:

Computer-aided engineering ((often referred to as CAE)) is the use of information

technology for supporting engineers in tasks such as analysis, simulation, design,
manufacture, planning, diagnosis and repair. Software tools that have been developed
for providing support to these activities are considered CAE tools. CAE tools are
being used, for example, to analyze the robustness and performance of components
and assemblies. It encompasses simulation, validation and optimization of products
and manufacturing tools. In the future, CAE systems will be major providers of
information to help support design teams in decision making.
In regard to information networks, CAE systems are individually considered a single
node on a total information network and each node may interact with other nodes on
the network.

CAE systems can provide support to businesses. This is achieved by the use of
reference architectures and their ability to place information views on the business
process. Reference architecture is the basis from which information model, especially
product and manufacturing models.

The term CAE has also been used by some in the past to describe the use of computer
technology within engineering in a broader sense than just engineering analysis. It
was in this context that the term was coined by Dr. Jason Lemon, founder of SDRC in
the late 70's. This definition is however better known today by the terms CAx and
PLM.

CAE areas covered include:

• Stress analysis on components and assemblies using FEA (Finite Element

Analysis);
• Thermal and fluid flow analysis Computational fluid dynamics (CFD);
• Kinematics;
• Mechanical event simulation (MES).
• Analysis tools for process simulation for operations such as casting, molding,
and die press forming.
• Optimization of the product or process.

In general, there are three phases in any computer-aided engineering task:

• Pre-processing – defining the model and environmental factors to be applied

to it. (typically a finite element model, but facet, voxel and thin sheet methods
are also used)
• Analysis solver (usually performed on high powered computers)
• Post-processing of results (using visualization tools)

This cycle is iterated, often many times, either manually or with the use of
commercial optimization software.

Softwares of CAE:

ANSYS:

ANSYS, Inc. is one of the world’s leading engineering simulation software providers.
It develops general-purpose finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics
software. ANSYS develops a complete range of computer-aided engineering (CAE)
products, but it is perhaps best known for its ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS
Multiphysics products.

ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS Multiphysics software are self-contained analysis

tools incorporating pre-processing (geometry creation, meshing), solver and post-
processing modules in a unified graphical user interface. These are general-purpose
finite element modeling packages for numerically solving a wide variety of
mechanical problems, including static/dynamic structural analysis (both linear and
non-linear), heat transfer and fluid problems, as well as acoustic and electro-magnetic
problems.

The software is used to analyze a broad range of applications. ANSYS Mechanical

technology incorporates both structural and material non-linearities. ANSYS
Multiphysics software includes solvers for thermal, structural, CFD, electromagnetics,
and acoustics and can couple these separate physics together in order to address
multidisciplinary applications. ANSYS software is also used in Civil
Engineering(ANSYS/CivilFEM), Electrical Engineering, Physics and Chemistry.

ANSYS acquired the CFX computational fluid dynamics code in 2003 and Fluent,
Inc. in 2006. The CFD packages from ANSYS are powerful and flexible, used for
engineering simulations of all levels of complexity. They offer a comprehensive range
of physical models that can be applied to a broad range of industries and applications.

MSC.Adams/Control:

Highlights:

⇒ Build complex mechanical system models without writing equations

⇒ Visualize simulation results with animation and strip-charts
⇒ Model full nonlinear effects including flexibility and collisions
⇒ Modify parametrically defined geometry and physical properties
⇒ Integrate seamlessly with Simulink models

Description:

MSC.Adams/Control help control system developers eliminate the need to write

complex equations of motion for mechanical plants. The software enables users to
graphically model mechanical systems, containing a variety of constraints and force
types as well as parts of arbitrary shape, then directly integrate their Simulink -
developed control system models within these mechanical system designs. Users can
then simulate their systems' full-motion behavior from within the Simulink
environment and visualize the results using animations and plotting.

The ADAMS suite of tools allows virtual prototyping and virtual testing -- the ability
to build and test your complex products in the computer before committing to
expensive and time-consuming physical prototyping and testing. Employing an
interactive graphical environment and libraries of components, joints, and forces,
ADAMS enables engineers to parametrically model 3-D mechanical systems and
study alternative designs as "virtual prototypes" by simulating and comparing realistic
motion behavior.
Abaqus:

Abaqus is a commercial software package for finite element analysis developed by

SIMULIA, a brand of Dassault Systemes S.A.

The Abaqus product suite consists of three core products: Abaqus/Standard,

Abaqus/Explicit and Abaqus/CAE. Abaqus/Standard is a general-purpose solver using
a traditional implicit integration scheme to solve finite element analyses.
Abaqus/Explicit uses explicit integration scheme to solve highly nonlinear transient
dynamic and quasi-static analyses. Abaqus/CAE provides an integrated modeling
(preprocessing) and visualization (postprocessing) environment for the analysis
products. The Abaqus products use the open-source scripting language Python for
scripting and customization. Abaqus/CAE uses the fox-toolkit for GUI development.

Abaqus is used in the automotive, aerospace, and industrial product industries. The
product is popular with academic and research institutions due to the wide material
modeling capability, and the program's ability to be customized. Abaqus also provides
a good collection of multiphysics capabilities, such as coupled acoustic-structural,
piezoelectric, and structural-pore capabilities, making it attractive for production-level
simulations where multiple fields need to be coupled.

Abaqus was initially designed to address non-linear physical behavior; as a result, the
package has an extensive range of material models. Its elastomeric (rubberlike)
material capabilities are particularly noteworthy.

The spelling for ABAQUS derives from the Greek word, aba-kala-culus, meaning the
memory solver. Abaqus was originally spelled in capital letters; however after a
rebranding of the company and the introduction of the SIMULIA brand, Abaqus is
now in lower case letters, with an upper case 'A'.

Computer-aided design:

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is the use of computer technology to aid in the design
of a product. Current software packages range from 2D vector base drafting systems
to 3D solid and surface modellers.

Origins and terminology:

CAD originally meant Computer-Aided Drafting or designing because of its original

use as a replacement for traditional drafting. Now, CAD usually means Computer
Aided Design to reflect the fact that modern CAD tools do more than just drafting.
CAD is sometimes translated as "computer-assisted", "computer-aided drafting", or a
similar phrase. Related acronyms are CADD, which stands for "computer-aided
design and drafting", CAID for computer-aided industrial design and CAAD, for
"computer-aided architectural design". All of these terms are essentially synonymous,
but there are a few subtle differences in meaning and application.
Introduction:

The CAD process.

Commercial floor plan.

CAD is used to design, develop and optimize products, which can be goods used by
end consumers or intermediate goods used in other products. CAD is also extensively
used in the design of tools and machinery used in the manufacture of components, and
in the drafting and design of all types of buildings, from small residential types
(houses) to the largest commercial and industrial structures (hospitals and factories).

CAD is mainly used for detailed engineering of 3D models and/or 2D drawings of

physical components, but it is also used throughout the engineering process from
conceptual design and layout of products, through strength and dynamic analysis of
assemblies to definition of manufacturing methods of components.

CAD has become an especially important technology, within the scope of Computer
Aided technologies, with benefits such as lower product development costs and a
greatly shortened design cycle. CAD enables designers to lay out and develop work
on screen, print it out and save it for future editing, saving time on their drawings.

Softwares of CAD:

AutoCAD:

AutoCAD is a CAD software application for 2D and 3D design and drafting,

developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc. Initially released in late 1982, AutoCAD was
one of the first CAD programs to run on personal computers, and notably the IBM
PC. Most CAD software at the time ran on graphics terminals connected to mainframe
computers or mini-computers.

In earlier releases, AutoCAD used primitive entities — such as lines, polylines,

circles, arcs, and text — as the foundation for more complex objects. Since the mid-
1990s, AutoCAD has supported custom objects through its C++ API. Modern
AutoCAD includes a full set of basic solid modeling and 3D tools, but lacks some of
the more advanced capabilities of solid modeling applications.

AutoCAD supports a number of application programming interfaces (APIs) for

customization and automation. These include AutoLISP, Visual LISP, VBA, .NET
and ObjectARX. ObjectARX is a C++ class library, which was also the base for
products extending AutoCAD functionality to specific fields, to create products such
as AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Civil 3D, or third-party
AutoCAD-based applications.

AutoCAD's native file format, DWG, and to a lesser extent, its interchange file
format, DXF, have become de facto standards for CAD data interoperability.
AutoCAD in recent years has included support for DWF, a format developed and
promoted by Autodesk for publishing CAD data. In 2006, Autodesk estimated the
number of active DWG files to be in excess of one billion. In the past, Autodesk has
estimated the total number of DWG files in existence to be more than three billion.

AutoCAD currently runs exclusively on Microsoft desktop operating systems.

Versions for Unix and Macintosh were released in the 1980s and 1990s, but these
were later dropped. AutoCAD can run on an emulator or compatibility layer like
Virtual PC or Wine, keeping in mind the performance issues that can arise when
working with 3D objects or large drawings.

AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are available for German, French, Italian, Spanish,
Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified (No LT), Chinese Traditional, Russian, Czech,
Polish, Hungarian (No LT), Brazilian Portuguese (No LT), Danish, Dutch, Swedish,
Finnish, Norwegian and Vietnamese. The extent of localization varies from full
translation of the product to documentation only.

IGES:

The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) (pronounced eye-jess) defines a

neutral data format that allows the digital exchange of information among Computer-
aided design (CAD) systems.

The official title of IGES is Digital Representation for Communication of Product

Definition Data, first published in January, 1980 by the National Bureau of Standards
as NBSIR 80-1978. Many documents (like MIL-D-28000) refer to it as ASME
Y14.26M, the designation of the ANSI committee that approved IGES Version 1.0.

Using IGES, a CAD user can exchange product data models in the form of circuit
diagrams, wireframe, freeform surface or solid modeling representations. Applications
supported by IGES include traditional engineering drawings, models for analysis, and
other manufacturing functions.

Pro/ENGINEER:

Pro/ENGINEER (commonly referred to as Pro/E or ProE) is a 3D CAD parametric

feature solid modeling software created by Parametric Technology Corporation
(PTC). Its direct competitors are UGS-NX and CATIA, and to a lesser degree
SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor and SolidEdge. It runs on several UNIX flavours,
Linux and Microsoft Windows, and provides solid modeling, assembly modelling and
drafting functionality for mechanical engineers.

Pro/ENGINEER is an integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution for mechanical

engineering and design which was created by Dr. Samuel P. Geisberg in the mid-
1980's. It pioneered the CAD industry by introducing the concept of Parametric,
Feature-based Solid Modeling. Models are driven parameters and intelligent features,
rather than simple dimensional values.

Pro/ENGINEER outputs consist of solid model data for tooling and rapid prototyping,
CNC manufacturing, and finite element analysis. A product and its entire Bill of
Materials can be modeled accurately with fully associative engineering drawings, and
revision control information. It is compatible with Windows and Unix-variants. All
data is interchangeable between these platforms without conversion.

PTC also provides a comprehensive product development system that helps

companies optimize their product development processes. This integral, interoperable
and internet-based system provides the capabilities to create, colllaborate, control,
configure, and communicate product development information. PTC's product
families include Pro/ENGINEER, CoCreate, Windchill, ProductView Mathcad, and
Arbortext.

SolidWorks:

SolidWorks is a 3D mechanical CAD (computer-aided design) program that runs on

Microsoft Windows and was developed by SolidWorks Corporation - now a
subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, S. A. (Suresnes, France). SolidWorks is a parametric
feature-based solid modeler, using the Parasolid geometric modeling kernel.
SolidWorks was introduced in 1995 as a low-cost competitor to CAD programs such
as Pro/ENGINEER, SDRC I-DEAS, Unigraphics and CATIA, and is currently one of
the most popular products in the "midrange" or "mainstream" mechanical CAD
market.

SolidWorks employs a parametric, feature-based approach to creating models and

assemblies. Parameters refer to constraints or conditions whose values determine the
size, shape, characteristics, and behavior of the model or assembly. Parameters can be
either numeric, for example dimension values such as the diameter of a circle or the
length of a line; or geometric, such as conditions like tangent, concentric, coincident,
parallel, horizontal, and the like. Numeric parameters such as dimensions can easily
be related to each other through equations to capture even the most complicated
design intent.

Features refer to the building blocks of the part. They are the shapes and operations
that construct the part. Shape-based features would include slots, holes, bosses and the
like that either add or remove material from the part. Shape-based features typically
begin with either a 2D or 3D sketch. Operation-based features generally don’t have
sketches. These types of features include operations like filleting, chamfering,
shelling, or applying draft to a part.
 screen shot captured from a SolidWorks top down design approach.

Building a model in SolidWorks usually starts with either a 2D or 3D sketch. The

sketch consists of geometry such as lines, arcs, conics, and splines. Dimensions are
added to the sketch to define the size and location of the geometry. Relations are used
to define attributes such as tangency, parallelism, perpendicularity, concentricity, and
such. The parametric nature of SolidWorks means the dimensions and relations drive
the geometry, not the other way around. The dimensions in the sketch can be
controlled independently, or by relationships to other parameters outside the sketch.
For example, you can sketch a rectangle and dimension its height and width. Then
you can extrude the rectangle to create a rectangular prism. You can then relate the
length of the extrusion to the height of the rectangle so that if extrusion gets longer,
the height changes accordingly. Furthermore, you can subsequently add a hole in the
face of the prism and create another relationship so that the diameter of the hole,
which was created after the prism, drives the width of the prism. This way, if the hole
has to grow larger, the prism’s dimensions would also increase to accommodate it.

Another aspect of the feature-based nature of SolidWorks is you can roll back into the
history of the part in order to make changes, add additional features, or change to
sequence in which operations are performed.

In an assembly, the analog to sketch relations are mates. Just as sketch relations define
conditions such as tangency, parallelism, and concentricity with respect to sketch
geometry, assembly mates define the same relations with respect to the individual
parts or components. This means you can assemble parts with the same easily edited
intelligence that you have in part modeling. Beyond the simple mates are advanced
mates that include gear and cam and follower mates.

MicroStation:

MicroStation is an innovative CAD platform used by teams of architects, engineers,

contractors, and GIS professionals to integrate work on buildings, civil engineering
projects, power plants, and geospatial information.

MicroStation is used by a majority of the global design elite for very good reason.
Here's why:

• MicroStation provides a sound platform for BIM.

• At the heart of Bentley's DigitalPlant strategy is MicroStation
• Forty-seven out of 50 U.S. State DOTs standardize on MicroStation.
• The whole world is mapped using MicroStation and DGN
CATIA:

CATIA (Computer Aided Three dimensional Interactive Application) is a multi-

platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by French company
Dassault Systemes and marketed world-wide by IBM. The software was originally
intended for the development of Dassault's Mirage fighter jet, but became a runaway
success and was subsequently adopted by numerous well known companies world-
wide, such as Boeing and IBM. The software was also famously used by architect
Frank Gehry in his building of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. CATIA is written in
the C++ programming language. CATIA is the corner stone of the Dassault Systemes
PLM software suite.

Commonly referred to as a 3D Product Lifecycle Management software suite, CATIA

supports multiple stages of product development (CAx). The stages range from
conceptualization, through design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM), until analysis
(CAE).

CATIA provides an open development architecture through the use of interfaces,

which can be used to customize or develop applications. The supporting application
programming interfaces are as follows:

• The Fortran and C programming languages for version 4 (V4).

• The Visual Basic and C++ programming languages for version 5 (V5).

These APIs are referred to as CAA for V4 and CAA2 (or CAA V5) for V5. The
CAA2 are component object model (COM) like interfaces. They provide integration
for products developed on the CATIA suite of software.

Although later versions of CATIA V4 implemented NURBS, version 4 principally

used piecewise polynomial surfaces. CATIA V4 uses a non-manifold solid engine.

Catia V5 features a parametric solid/surface-based package which uses NURBS as the

core surface representation and has several workbenches that provide KBE support.

As of 2007, the latest release is V5 release 18 (V5R18).

One of the main reasons customers choose CATIA V5 is its ability to seamlessly
interact and work in tandem with a host of other applications like Enovia, Smarteam,
various CAE Analysis applications etc.