Integrated CAD/CAM At Its Best 

TopSolid'Cam will be exhibited at the Bourget Aeropspace trade fair in Paris from 18-24 June, Hall 3, Stand B1. With a very strong presence in this market the Bourget is an important meeting point for Missler Software and its customers.

Missler Software is the number one provider of CAM solutions to aerospace sub-contractors in France. With such references as Turbomeca, Sagem, MBDA, Mecachrome, Airbus Cimpa... TopSolid'Cam is widely recognised as the leading CAM solution in this field.

TopSolid'Cam provides such custom functions to manage aerospace parts as:

• Topological analysis
• Stock management
• Dedicated « quality surface » cycles
• Collision management
• 5 axis milling
• Driving of complex multi-function machines

Here are 2 new TopSolid'Cam 2007 functions which will greatly facilitate the aerospace sub-contractor's life:

• 2D multi-pocketing – This function, greatly improved on previous versions, enables the detection of grooves and facilitates the detection of faces to be machined. This is an important improvement for the aerospace industry and protects the thin part walls of parts commonly machined by this industry.

• Insert life management – This new function permits retract movements so that the operator can replace the used inserts when necessary. The programmer has the choice to change the inserts between several convenient moments (at the end of the current pass, the beginning of the following, real-time pass, etc.) The possibility to change inserts when necessary is an important improvement for the machining of hard materials, notably in the aerospace industry.

Missler Software will participate at the WFL Technology Meeting in Linz from 18-21 June. This 4 day event gives WFL customers and prospective customers the opportunity to view up close the WFL machine range and at the same time meet with WFL partners such as Missler Software.

The 2 companies work closely together to generate high-performance post-processors to drive complex WFL mill turn machines. Close collaboration between Missler Software, its long-time reseller Comdata in Austria and the machine constructor WFL has resulted in significant post-processor development together with machine simulation. WFL is in fact equipped with TopSolid'Cam for the programming of customers' test work pieces and is on permanent display within its show room at Linz.

GEOCAM - Maquinação e Moldes, Lda, Portugal, is a mold making company which manufactures large sized molds (up to 20 tons). The company acquired 2 TopSolid'Mold seats in 2006 and more recently a third seat.

In terms of mold design, Geocam was looking for a software to design its molds and to ensure that the entire mold would be designed parametrically. In this way the entire history of the mold design would be conserved and changes could be made at any stage of the design.

TopSolid'Mold proved itself to be the best solution upon successful completion of an 18 ton sandwich mold with four cavities, dimensions 1700x1360x1000. This mold has 2500 parts in the BOM and a total of 4500 parts. The mold in question has 156 ejector pins, 1000 screws and 100 water pipings.

After the mold design was completed, the performance of the mold was tested:

• Insertion of a new ejector pin with all the drills attached = 20 sec.
• Insertion of 20 new ejector pins with all the drills in the mold base attached and the calculus of the fitting diameter distances to each ejector pin = 4 min and 30 sec.

Missler Software has just created the TopSolid End User mailing list, user@topsolid.com. This mailing list will be used to regularly send out notifications of new patches, technical notes, hints... everything you need to keep up to date with TopSolid developments.

Receiving the most up to date information on TopSolid will help you to better exploit the software's numerous functions and take advantage of all improvements made throughout the year. You can join the end user mailing list by simply clicking here or visiting http://www.topsolid.com/download/patch/

Mechatronika SA, part of the STS Holding Group Ltd. since the year 2000, is located in Gabrovo in Central Bulgaria. The company works on the design and manufacture of machines which make and simultaneously fill laminated tubes. The design and manufacture of such machines is a highly specialized field – 2 other companies worldwide engage in a similar activity.

In 2004 the company acquired the TopSolid CAD/CAM integrated solution. Having considered the solutions on offer by the leading editors, Mechatronika opted for TopSolid for 2 main reasons:

• A fully integrated CAD/CAM solution meant that one software solution could be used from design right through to manufacture
• A very competitive price for the many functionalities on offer in TopSolid

Click here for the rest of the report.

You are a TopSolid operator and you would like some tips on what your software is capable of doing. Each newsletter will include a highlight of the month accompanied by an avi of a TopSolid module.
This month let's take a look at TopSolid'Cam.

Video commentary

When you machine in continuous 5 axis with or without unpinching angles, it is possible that the tool collides with other sides of the part. TopSolid'Cam takes this environment into account. In fact you can manage such form tools and "cheat" on the definition of the tool in order to avoid collisions.

Minimum requirements to read videos

2 formats are possible: AVI and WMV

• To read the AVI file the Techsmith codec has to be installed first, click here to download it.
• To read the WMV file the lastest version of Windows Media Player available here is required

TopSolid'Cam will be present at the Mori Seki Technology Days in Roissy France from 13-15 June. Missler Software and Mori Seiki work closely together to generate high-performance post-processors for Mori Seiki machines. The 3 day event, organised by the machine tool manufacturer, will give companies the opportunity to see the wide range of machines on offer together with the appropriate CAD/CAM system to drive these machines.

Missler Software and Mori Seiki have worked in close collaboration for many years now. An ever closer working relationship since 2005 means that the machine tool manufacturer has approved TopSolid'Cam's post processors for its NT series of machines. (TopSolid'Cam, in addition, is capable of driving the rest of the Mori Seiki range of machines.)

All Missler Software and reseller trade fairs will be published here each month and can also be found on http://www.topsolid.com/news/shows/showslist.asp