The 2018 R2 release of Alphacam (www.alphacam.com) houses a new ‘nesting engine’ that — according to tests — delivers a 17% improvement in material yield.

Using proprietary technology, the company says that the nesting engine also provides faster calculation times, along with improved feedback and graphics.

The overall theme of Alphacam 2018 R2 is to save time and improve productivity. To enable these aims to be achieved, parametric rules have been migrated to the C# programming language and feature an enhanced graphical user interface, as well as more functionality.

These improvements provide greater control, a better user experience and simpler more-streamlined logic statements.

The face-milling cycle, which is now part of Alphacam’s core capability, is among many machining enhancements, creating intelligent tool-paths that allow users to face-mill irregular and multiple geometries.

This function improves productivity, as the user does not need to create several operations to achieve the same result.

Productivity has also been improved by the new ‘Order by Intersecting Geometry’ function, which is said to save significant time when sorting the sequence of a complex job.

The function works by letting the user select a previously created geometry to define the order of geometries or tool-paths, based on those which intersect the selected geometry first.

Among further improvements is the ‘parametric sketcher’, which is now considerably more powerful — thanks to an updated user interface that allows the window to be resized.

This capability provides greater visibility of the parameters and actions list, which is essential for managing complex projects.

There are also improvements to the sketcher’s geometry-creating tools for producing fillets and chamfers.

Productivity is improved, as the need to calculate those points is eliminated.

Finally, enhancements to Alphacam’s dimensioning system provide greater clarity when printing and presenting information.