[Brakeman Bob]

Hello everyone

I want to get my head around using SolidCAM's Automatic Feature Recognition & Machining (aka AFRM) particularly in situations where a hole (a) enters a face at an angle a (b) has four different diameters needing about 7 tools to machine it accurately. Does anyone out there have any experience with AFRM that they are willing to share? From what I have seen so far, AFRM leans heavily on the technology contained in Machine Processes but I am wondering how well the 'automatic' bit of feature recognition actually works in practice. Another thing I am interested in is how can you set AFRM to select a formtool when a particular set of conditions are found.

Thanks in advance

Bob

[imachining-6061]

I am kind of disappointed the way it works. 1 st it brings new tools every recognition process even the tool is already in your part tool table. So we get same tools and we have to manually delete it. 2nd it only works with native hole wizard features because it reads the data from there. If you have a converted model from another cad system it's not much helpful. I personally use my own processes templates which makes more sense. I really expect more from this AFRM option .

[Brakeman Bob]

Well, you have got further than I have. I have a very simple part, freshly loaded into a brand new installation of SC2016 SP2hf1 and when I right-click on "Hole recognition + technology >> SHR" (as instructed to by the Help) all I get is a dialog saying that the technology database has failed to load and do I want to replace it with the global technology database. If I click "Yes" SolidCAM responds with "technology database loading failed". Game over!

I have managed to create a hole feature set but SolidCAM refuses to parse them out into machinable features.

I can see why you are disappointed with it. Let's hope that SolidCAM get around to putting it right.