London-based CloudNC, a manufacturing technology company backed by Autodesk and Lockheed Martin, has announced that its CAM Assist solution can now create programming strategies and toolpaths with artificial intelligence (AI) for 3+2 axis CNC machines.

Previously, CAM Assist — which is available as a plug-in for Autodesk's Fusion software — generated machining strategies with AI for manufacturers using three-axis CNC machines, helping them to create programs for the machines far more quickly than previously possible. The new upgrade means CAM Assist can now provide strategies and toolpaths for 3+2 axis components as well, enabling many more manufacturers to benefit from CAM Assist’s efficiency gains. With 3+2 axis support in place, CloudNC estimates that CAM Assist now can help around two-thirds of the CNC machining market.

Dr Andy Cheadle, chief technology officer at CloudNC, said: “This upgrade is not only a huge step forward in making CAM Assist even more useful for manufacturers around the world, but it is also an incredible technical achievement. From an R&D perspective, 3+2 axis support is exceptionally challenging, as the extra elements it involves introduce more potential ways of making every feature of every component, by several orders of magnitude.”

CAM Assist uses advanced computer science techniques and AI to generate intuitive machining strategies in minutes or seconds, depending on complexity, which could take CNC machine programmers hours or even days to manually create. As a result, the amount of time it takes to program a CNC machine to make a component — a bottleneck in many factories — is greatly reduced, compared to the previous manual programming process, as is the time spent to estimate how much a new component will cost to program.

That gain enables manufacturers using CAM Assist to raise productivity and shorten lead times, while also estimating for more work, more quickly — saving an average workshop over 300hr of programming and estimating time a year.

CAM Assist is available for Autodesk Fusion both via CloudNC and the Autodesk App Store. CloudNC is currently undergoing beta testing in other packages, and expects to launch solutions for those later in 2024.