A new piece of specialist CAD for CAM software — specifically for sheet metal — has been launched alongside the latest release of Radan (
www.radan.com) from Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence Division.
Radan Designer forms a pivotal part of the software’s CAD/CAM functionality in preparing parts for bending, nesting and cutting.
While the module is available on the new Radan 2020.1 ‘price list’, existing Radan 3-D users have the option of a free upgrade.
Product manager Olaf Körner says it contains a material library and several calculation methods to create the correct unfolded shape. “Unfolding parameters such as bend allowances can be controlled independently of the geometry, leading to more-accurate flat blanks, more-accurate folding and — ultimately — to a higher-quality product.”
Mr Körner says the new release delivers a more-flexible and fluent approach by enabling parts for additional jobs to continuously go onto the nest, which he says leads to improved machine and sheet utilisation; and with ‘common cutting’ becoming increasingly popular, Radan’s support for it has been extended by a new Common Grid Cutting algorithm, which considerably reduces the risk of tipping while also ensuring that heat build-up is more predictable.
An additional safety check has been added to detect floating scrap in punching programs. Four new functions have been added to the Radtube module. With information to ‘feed nesters’ increasingly coming from ERP systems, Radtube can now use CSV files that specify the name of the product, the quantity and other parameters, eliminating the need to key them in again, while the colour coding of specific parts ensures quick identification.
The other two items follow on from that and are also linked to identification: improved reporting, so that documentation going to the shopfloor includes the colour co-ordination; and introducing a simple line font, instead of a more intricate TrueType font for text marking and imprinting parts.
In the previous release of Radan, there was an option for importing 3-D files into Radquote, but they had to be single part files; in 2020.1, any multi-body or assembly files can be added.
Furthermore, improved support for bars and tubes includes the ability to set up a complete library of shapes for cutting; and as nesting technologies and cycle times are the same for tubes as for 2-D, Radquote can provide an
accurate cost related to the high-performance nesting of bars and tubes.
Radan’s interface with Hexagon’s WorkPlan project management solution has been enhanced, both in terms of quoting and nesting; and Radbend has been enhanced with regard to dealing with programming press brakes for multiple machines, by automating some of the steps (where tooling is compatible, the time taken to switch a program from one machine to
another has been reduced by around 70%).