Cabinet Vision has always looked after the cabinet and panel process design requirements, leaving Alphacam to focus on the manufacturing needs. The integration between Alphacam and Cabinet Vision allows complete file transfer between design and manufacture.
Cabinet Vision is capable of custom cabinet and room design, photo realistic renderings, material optimisation, full costing direct from design, and cut lists and bill of materials. Combined with the powerful S2M Center, Cabinet Vision can automatically create machine ready G-Code for CNC flat table routers, point-to-point machines, panel saws, drill and dowel machines, chop saws and other specialised CNC machinery.
Version 8 is the latest release, with new features including automatic lighting, which greatly enhances the quality of renderings used for customer presentations, and the capability to import BXF files from Blum Dynaplan and automate all machining for their designs and components. In addition, Autocad designs can now be imported straight into Cabinet Vision’s Screen-To-Machine Center for even faster toolpath creation, nesting and machining.
Meanwhile a host of new functionality has been unveiled for Alphacam, which has applications from 2 Axis through to 5 Axis CNC programming. The latest 2013 R1 release includes reduced programming time and material wastage, and improved material surface finish, part quality and tool life.
New functionality includes tool path oscillation and automatic support tags, which can be added automatically to any contour toolpath, allowing the part to stay attached to the material being machined. This overcomes the issue of small parts moving during the nesting process, reducing material wastage and improving part quality.
Other important developments include nesting zones, which allows small parts to be identified and nested in specific areas of a sheet. This means small parts can be restricted to the centre of a vacuum-clamped sheet – the area of maximum suction – reducing the chance of their moving during machining.
Finally, new reporting tools allow the user to create configurable reports and labels, which significantly improves both part, and program traceability. The new reporting application within Alphacam 2013 R1 sets up bespoke documentation for nested job reports, setup sheets, tool listings and part labels.
