Being able to import completed NX assemblies into G-Code simulation software is proving to be a valuable time-saver for the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) in Sheffield.

NCSIMUL, part of Hexagon’s Production Software portfolio (www.hexagonmi.com), guarantees that finished G-Code sent to CNC machine tools is 100% accurate and collision-free.

Tom Parkin, Nuclear AMRC production engineer, said: “It gives us an exact representation of what is happening on the machine.

"Having this digital twin is absolutely vital in ensuring that cutting paths are correct. CAM and simulation systems are not generally user-friendly when it comes to positioning individual models, but being able to take an NX assembly — including a fixture, stock model and the final part — is particularly beneficial.

“Without it, we would have to import single models one at a time, import the fixture by itself and position it, and import the stock model and position that in relation to the fixturing.

“NCSIMUL allows us to import a full assembly file from the NX package straight into the simulating environment.

From there, I can select where my datum positions are, select the tooling, put the NC program in and run the G-Code simulation. This is a great benefit to us.”

NCSIMUL is being used as part of the Nuclear AMRC’s philosophy of helping manufacturers to have zero prove-out times on their CNC machines and analyse tool-paths in depth before putting them on to the shopfloor.

It currently has one seat of the software, which runs on a Mazak Integrex i-200 five-axis mill-turn machine tool.