Esprit 2010 Whats New

What’s New in ESPRIT 2010

What’s New in ESPRIT 2010

Copyright © 2009 DP Technology Corp. All rights reserved. U.S. Patent No. 6,907,313. Other U.S. patents pending.

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Contents

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Machining Technology Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

11 new SolidMill/SolidMillTurn Mold 3-axis cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2 new SolidMill/SolidMillTurn Mold 5-Axis cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

New SolidWire Turn-and-Burn and Turn-while-Burn technology . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Feature-based machining for all FreeForm cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

New Pocket Feature Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

New Stock Automation Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Associativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

New SolidWire 4-Axis Pocketing cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

4 New Knitted Surface commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Support for 3 Rotary Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

New Licensing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

What’s New in SolidMill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Enhanced 5-Axis Composite cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Enhanced 5-Axis Ruled Swarf cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

New SolidMill Traditional technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

New SolidMill Production technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

New SolidMill FreeForm technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

New options for face propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

New sub-element selection of a chain feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

What’s New in SolidTurn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Enhanced Turning Tool Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

New SolidTurn technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

What’s New in SolidWire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

New SolidWire technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

New Charmilles Part Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

New Charmilles-Fanuc and Charmilles-Millenium Part Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Enhanced taper changes on EDM features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

What’s New in the ESPRIT 2010 API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

What’s new in the Post Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Obsolete Operations, Product Features and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

1

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2The look of ESPRIT 2010 has changed dramatically with a new interface for all machining technology. Plus, associativity with CAD models has been extended to include milling features as well as EDM features and simulation is more efficient with a new stock automation engine.

Major changes have been made to milling with the integration of ESPRIT Mold 3-axis milling cycles, new and improved Mold 5-Axis cycles, feature-based machining for all FreeForm cycles, the ability to define a third rotary axis for milling machines, new knitted surfaces for parametric machining, and advanced pocket feature recognition.

Technology advances have been made to wire EDM with a new cycle for 4-Axis Pocketing and new technology for EDMs equipped with a rotary axis.

New Machining Technology Interface 1

11 new SolidMill/SolidMillTurn Mold 3-axis cycles ..........................................................10

2 new SolidMill/SolidMillTurn Mold 5-Axis cycles ..........................................................15

New SolidWire Turn-and-Burn and Turn-while-Burn technology .................21

Feature-based machining for all FreeForm cycles.............................................. 29

New Pocket Feature Recognition ...32

New Stock Automation Engine ...........41

Associativity ........................................................ 44

New SolidWire 4-Axis Pocketing cycle ............................................................................48

4 New Knitted Surface commands 52

Support for 3 Rotary Axes .................... 57

New Licensing System ..............................60

New Machining Technology Inter face

The display of machining technology for every cutting cycle in ESPRIT has undergone a complete transformation in ESPRIT 2010. The all new, innovative look and feel in ESPRIT makes machining more intelligent — and easier than ever.

All the ESPRIT cutting cycles you know and love have a new machining technology interface in the Project Manager that makes it easier than ever to create milling, turning, and wire EDM operations.

2 | What's New in ESPRIT 2010

How It Works• The technology is the same, but the way the user interacts with it has changed

• All machining technology is displayed in the Project Manager so users can simultaneously enter data and see the part model

• The feature for the operation MUST be selected first

• The responsive interface constantly updates based on the feature input and the selected machining parameters

• Validation occurs as values are input to make sure the technology is correct before it is placed on the feature

• All machining input is stored with the technology

ESPRIT 2009 Inter faceIn previous versions of ESPRIT, the machining technology was displayed in a dialog box that often blocked the view of the part itself and the user could not interact with the part model while the dialog was open.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 3

ESPRIT 2010 Inter faceNow the machining technology is displayed in the Project Manager, which makes it easy to view and interact with the part model while the technology is being defined.

The user also has access to the other tabs in the Project Manager to make it easier to select features or add new cutting tools.

How to use the new ESPRIT 2010 Inter faceEven though the new ESPRIT 2010 Interface is now in the Project Manager, the way to use the interface is very similar to ESPRIT 2009. The interface is based on three main areas:

1. Toolbar area

2. Vertical tabs

3. Parameters area

Toolbar area

The Toolbar area contains commands to validate (OK) and close (Cancel) the current technology as well as a command to load the help file for the current technology.

The drop down button displays the context menu for the technology. The icon reflects the last command used by the user.


Ver tical tabs

To save space, tabs are arranged vertically. Parameters are grouped on the tabs in a “top down” approach, where you define the most general information about the cutting cycle on the General tab, then move to the Strategy tab to define a bit more detail such as clearances and depths, moving down each tab to add more detail about your machining operation.

Parameters area

The machining parameters are displayed in the parameters area and grouped by category.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 5

Each group control can be collapsed or expanded for visualization purposes.

Adaptive Technology Based on the Machining ElementIn ESPRIT 2009, features could be selected before or after the machining technology was defined. Selecting the feature first gave a lot of benefits to the user (automatic calculation of the feature depth, lead-in/out, and other expressions based on the feature).

In ESPRIT 2010, the technology page can be loaded only if the machining element has been selected first.

If a valid machining element is not selected first, ESPRIT will return the following error message.

Now that the technology has prior knowledge of the machining element, ESPRIT can reduce the number of parameters shown on the technology page based on the feature type.

For example, if the user selects an Open Pocket feature, the SolidMill Pocketing technology will show all the Open Pocket parameters.


However, if the feature is closed, there is no need to show parameters that will not be used by the tool path engine.

Dynamic Inter faceTo make the selection of parameters easier, the concept of the new interface is to show the user only what is needed based on the current input.

The new ESPRIT 2010 Interface is built upon a dynamic interface that will hide and show parameters based on what the user is currently changing.

For example, in the SolidMill Pocketing operation, depending on the tool motion pattern, some options are not used by the tool path.

In ESPRIT 2009, any options that were not used by the current tool path were grayed out but still visible.

In ESPRIT 2010 the interface updates to show only the parameters you need and hide the options that are not used.

If the user changes a parameter, the interface updates to show or hide a different set of parameters.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 7

Machining Parameter ValidationIf a machining parameter was invalid in ESPRIT 2009, the user did not know until after the technology had been applied. An error message was displayed only after the dialog was closed. Therefore you had to reopen the operation page in order to fix the incorrect parameter.

For example, if the value entered for the start depth was greater than the total depth value, you would get the following error message in ESPRIT 2009.

In ESPRIT 2010, the new technology interface will check for the most common errors (such as the start depth) as the user enters values and will tag the incorrect parameter with a clear message on how to fix the value.

For example, if the value of the starting depth is greater than the total depth, the parameter will be tagged as an error and the user will be able to see how to fix the value by moving the mouse over the error icon.

All Machining Input is Stored with the TechnologyIn ESPRIT 2009, even if the feature was selected first, any other input required for machining (entry/exit points, island features, boundary features, etc.) were selected after the technology page was closed. Because of this, the additional input required for the operation could not be stored with the technology.

In ESPRIT 2010, all machining input is defined on the technology page and stored with the technology. Now that the technology stores the input, the user can add, change, or remove machining elements from the technology interface when editing an existing operation.

X When selecting an object in the graphic area, the new technology page will show the name of the object followed by its element number: “Object Name (element number)”


If the user did not fix the incorrect values on validating the technology page, ESPRIT will send a message to the user as a reminder to fix the incorrect values and will leave the technology page open in order for the user to review all parameters. The operation will not be created until all parameters are valid.

In the event of a combination of incorrect values that cannot be detected at the interface level (tool path error, or invalid entries, etc...) ESPRIT will show the error message generated by the tool path and will leave the technology page open.

New Cutting Tool SelectionIn the new technology interface, the way that tools are selected has been changed to make it easier for the user to find a cutting tool. When the user wants to select a tool from the new technology interface (in any milling or turning cycle), there are three ways to show the tool list: Standard, Turrets, or Tool Types.

Standard

ESPRIT shows all the tools available in the document for the current technology type. The tool list is the same as in ESPRIT 2009.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 9

Turrets

ESPRIT shows the tools sorted by turret. Since the tools can be sorted by turret at the selection of the tool, the selection of the turret name in the technology page in SolidTurn or SolidMillTurn is not required anymore. ESPRIT sets the turret automatically.

Tool Types

ESPRIT shows the tools grouped by type.


11 new SolidMill /SolidMillTurn Mold 3-axis cycles

The seamless integration of ESPRIT and ESPRIT Mold began in ESPRIT 2009 with the introduction of the new SolidMill Mold 5-Axis cycles. ESPRIT 2010 continues that tradition with the introduction of 11 new SolidMill Mold and SolidMillTurn Mold cycles for 3-axis milling.

The new Mold 3-axis cycles include a roughing cycle that can also be used as a rest machining cycle, 7 new finishing cycles, and 3 specialized cycles for 3D contouring, pencil tracing, and corner machining.

The new Mold commands are located on the “SolidMill Mold - SolidMill Mold 5-axis” toolbar.

Like the Mold 5-Axis cycles introduced in ESPRIT 2009, the new Mold 3-axis cycles are based on FreeForm features.

X Complete information about SolidMill Mold cycles is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for SolidMill Mold in the index.

Mold Z-Level Roughing CycleThe first cycle and one of the most important is the Z-Level Roughing cycle. This cycle uses knowledge of the stock to remove all the excess material around the model at incremental Z levels. Each Z level is cut with a concentric pattern.

High-speed roughing options are included and extra contouring passes can be added to pre-finish the model.

How it works

• Starting from the stock, this operation roughs out all the excess material from the model

• Stock material is roughed at several incremental Z-levels, starting from the top height and decrementing the height of each cut by the incremental depth until the bottom height is reached

• Top height is defined by the highest point of the stock or by the top Z limits set in the cycle limits

• Bottom height is set by the lowest point on the stock or by the bottom Z limit

• Z limits are used only if they are within the stock limits

• Each Z level is cut with a concentric pattern

Parallel Planes Finishing CycleThis cycle generates passes on the model that are parallel to each other. The tool can move in one direction or in a zigzag pattern. Tool path can be limited to vertical areas, horizontal areas, or both.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 11

Mold Z-Level Finishing CycleThis cycle is appropriate for finishing on non-flat areas. This cycle can be used in combination with the Floor Finishing cycle to ensure a good finish on all zones of the model.

How it works

• Finishing tool path is generated at incremental Z-levels

• Milling starts from the top height, decrementing the height of each cut by the incremental depth until the bottom height is reached

• Tool path can be limited to zones on the model with a slope above a user-defined slope angle

• The tool performs a contouring of the part at every Z-level

How it works

• Parallel tool path is generated by specifying a start point, an angle for the passes and the distance between each cut

• Create a zigzag or unidirectional tool path on the model

• This cycle offers high speed machining options and advanced slope options

• It can be used for pre-finish or final finishing

Radial Finishing CycleThis cycle generates passes on the model based on a center point. All passes radiate outwards from this center point.

How it works

• All passes intersect a center point

• This cycle is ideal for cutting circular areas

• Cutting passes can be limited to an angular portion with user-defined start and end points

• Cutting passes can be limited radially with a start and end radius measured from the center point


Spiral Finishing CycleThis cycle generates passes from a spiral that starts at a specified point. The spiral is projected along the tool direction on the model to generate the tool path.

How it works

• A single spiraling pass can start at a specified point or multiple spirals can be created that start from points in a PTOP feature

• Cutting passes can be limited radially with a start and end radius measured from the center point

• Tool path is generated by projection of the spiral along the tool axis onto the model

Floor Finishing CycleThis cycle is best used for finishing floors and other flat areas. This cycle can be used in combination with the Z-Level Finishing cycle to ensure a good finish on all zones of the model.

How it works

• Cuts all areas on the model with a slope angle less than a user-defined angle

• The tool path follows a concentric pattern based on the limits of the zones identified as floors

• Tool path can be offset to protect wall areas

Pencil Tracing CycleThis cycle produces a contouring on the part along all the positions where the tool has multiple contact points with the model. The result is a re-machining of internal corners that have a radius smaller than the corner radius of the tool.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 13

How it works

• The tool follows all positions where there are multiple contact points with the model. These positions are also called bi-tangency points.

• A single pass is generated to cut along these bi-tangency zones

• Tool path can be limited to zones on the model with a slope that falls within user-defined slope limits

Corner Remachining CycleThis cycle can be used to cut rest material in corners that previous operations could not cut because of the size of the tool. Similar to the Pencil Tracing cycle, this cycle is also based on bi-tangency zones (the tool has multiple contact points).

How it works

• A reference tool is used to identify zones that need re-machining

• All zones on the model that cannot be reached by the reference tool are considered to be a corner

• Separate machining strategies can be defined for vertical corners and horizontal corners

Mold 3D Contouring CycleThis cycle allows contouring of 3D profiles. One of its applications would be engraving on the model.

How it works

• One or more 3D curves are used as input

• Several options let the user control the tool altitude along those curves: Follow the curve while cutting at a constant depth, project the curves onto the model, apply an incremental depth…

• Lateral passes can be offset from the 3D curve to either cut toward the profile from a given distance or cut away from the profile by a given distance


Concentric Finishing CycleThis cycle produces concentric passes with a constant 3D step over to generate a good finish on walls and floors.

How it works

• Using a concentric pattern this cycle generates a constant scallop height on walls and floors

• The concentric pattern can be based on the part boundary or selected profiles

• Step over is constant along the model surface (compared to a projection plane for most other cycles)

• Passes can be generated on all the part elements or limited inside curves

• A user-defined point can be used to control the initial approach of the tool

Between Curves Finishing CycleThis cycle is a good choice when finishing along an area that is contained between two profiles.

How it works

• ESPRIT morphs passes between 2 input profiles

• The profiles can be defined by 2 chain features or a single Ruled feature

• Passes are created with a constant spacing along the surface (3D step over)

• Profiles can be open or closed

• Passes can cut along the profiles or across the channel defined by the profiles

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 15

2 new SolidMill /SolidMillTurn Mold 5-Axis cycles

New Surface Swarf and Impeller cycles have been added to SolidMill and SolidMillTurn Mold 5-Axis.

The new Surface Swarf cycle positions the tool along ruled faces without using a ruled feature.

The new Impeller cycle is dedicated to the roughing and finishing of impellers.

New Sur face Swar f cycleThe 5-Axis Surface Swarf cycle is a new cycle that complements the 5-Axis Ruled Swarf cycle. Unlike the Ruled Swarf cycle that uses a Ruled feature to control the tool orientation, the tool orientation of the Surface Swarf cycle is based on the surface geometry already contained in the FreeForm feature.

How it works

• A FreeForm feature contains the surfaces to machine

• All the part surfaces of the FreeForm feature must be ruled surfaces: Parametric lines in one direction are straight lines. The cycle fails if a surface is not ruled.

• This cycle is restricted to a single pass on a wall. If you need an incremental depth, use the Ruled Swarf cycle.

• Upper and lower chain features put limits on the wall to cut

X Complete information about the 5-Axis Surface Swarf cycle is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘5-Axis Surface Swarf’ or ‘Surface Swarf’ in the index.

Comparison of the Sur face Swar f and Ruled Swar f cycles

The Surface Swarf cycle can offer benefits over the Ruled Swarf cycle.

When cutting the part below with the Ruled Swarf cycle, the tool tilts along the wall because of the difference in length between the upper and lower profile above the boss on the floor of the part.


When using the Surface Swarf cycle, the tool keeps a constant orientation along the wall as it passes over the boss.

A second advantage of the Surface Swarf cycle is that setting a small tolerance will not create an interruption in the tool path like it can with the Ruled Swarf cycle.

Sur face Swar f Technology

The FreeForm feature defines the surfaces that are cut.

Upper and lower profiles put limits on the wall to cut. These profiles must lie on the model and their orientation matters because they define the cutting side.

The technology for the Surface Swarf cycle is quite simple since it only generates a single cut along the wall. The upper and lower profiles are selected from the technology page and then only a few parameters need to be defined.

Cutt ing Side

Cutting Side sets the cutting side based on the direction of the selected upper and lower profiles. The tool can be offset to the left or the right of the profiles.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 17

Stop At Floor and Bottom Wall Extension

When cutting a wall without surfaces limiting the depth of the tool position, set Stop at Floor to No.

Then input a Bottom Wall Extension to specify how much the tool is allowed to move down past the lower edge of the wall. The extension is measured from the lower profile.

Stop At Floor and Stock Allowance Floors

If the depth of the tool position is limited by surfaces, set Stop at Floor to Yes.

Then input a floor stock allowance to stop the tool at a distance away from the floor. You can also input a negative floor stock allowance for the tool to penetrate into the floor.

New Impeller CycleThis new cycle for ESPRIT 2010 is dedicated to roughing and finishing impellers. It performs roughing of the channel limited by two impeller blades. It also supports one splitter blade per channel. The Impeller cycle can also perform hub finishing (on the channel floor).

X This cycle is based on existing stock material. Stock must be created before using this cycle.

How it works

• Ruled features define the blades

• Rough passes can be created to remove the material between the blades

• Finish passes can be created to finish the surface on the hub between the blades

X Complete information about the 5-Axis Impeller cycle is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘5-Axis Impeller’ or ‘Impeller’ in the index.

Impeller Blade Def init ion

The impeller cycle supports 2 types of impeller geometry.

• Standard

• Splitter types

If the impeller to be machined is a Splitter type, an additional shorter blade is present between the main blades.


Def ining the main blades

To define the main blades, the user needs to create ruled features that represent the internal edges of two main blades. One feature needs to be created on the left side of the channel; the other feature on the right side.

Def ining the spli t ter blade

If the impeller has splitter blades you will get a better tool path if you specify two additional ruled features, created from the lateral surfaces of the Splitter-blade. The ruled features must have the same orientation and the orientation must correspond to the direction of the machining.

X It is not mandatory to specify the additional ruled features for a Splitter-type impeller. The volume of material between the main blades will be removed in any case without damaging the Splitter blade. However, when additional ruled features are specified for a Splitter blade, you will get a continuous tool path that goes around the small blade, instead of ‘jumping on’.

Creating the Ruled features for impeller blades

The roughing function of the Impeller cycle is based on a geometric construction that uses only the pair of ruled features as input information. This means that the shape of the upper and lower profiles of the ruled feature is important. You should not have problems extracting the ruled features from the blade surfaces or from curves extracted from the blade surfaces.

X Avoid loops at the beginning and the end of the features, as shown in the following example.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 19

Roughing and Finishing

The Impeller cycle has two cutting strategies: Rough and Finish.

Set the Impeller Strategy to Rough to rough the material between the blades. Roughing is performed with the given incremental depth and the passes are limited to the stock. The system analyzes the actual state of the residual material to avoid “air cutting”. Any movement outside the stock will be removed.

Roughing Direction controls how the incremental depth is applied. The Top Down option creates passes that are parallel to the ‘top edge’ of the blades. The Bottom Up option creates passes that are parallel to the bottom surface of the impeller hub (floor).

Set the Impeller Strategy to Finish in order to finish the impeller hub. Only passes lying on the hub will be created.


Machining Patterns

Two machining patterns are available for the Impeller cycle:

• Parametric Pattern

• Contour Offset

Parametr ic Pat tern

When Parametric Pattern is chosen, the tool path follows the natural isoparametric curves of the auxiliary surface built between the main blades. Options are available that let the user control the direction of the cut on the parametric curves of the surface.

Contour Of fset

When Contour Offset is chosen, the tool path is calculated as a progressive offset of the auxiliary surface borders. Options let the user control the start point for the concentric offset and whether the progressive offset will start at the outside border, inside the area to be machined, or an alternating pattern that works best for machining areas with islands.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 21

New SolidWire Turn-and-Burn and Turn-while-Burn technology

Wire EDMs with rotary axis capabilities are gaining popularity for their useful application in a variety of parts and the ability to cut unusual shapes. Two types of capabilities are available with a rotary axis on an EDM: rotating the workpiece into position before cutting begins (turn and burn) and rotating the workpiece while the machine is burning (turn while burn).

ESPRIT 2010 supports both capabilities with new SolidWire technology for Turn-and-Burn and Turn-while-Burn for all EDM machine types that support rotary motion.

Turn-and-Burn uses the rotary axis as an indexer. Turn-while-Burn uses the rotary axis for simultaneous movement with the wire.

How it works• Rotary motion is defined in SolidWire Machine Setup

• EDM features contain information about the part orientation for indexing operations

• Turn-and-Burn operations are created the same as standard EDM operations

• A Turn-while-Burn command has been added to the SolidWire Platinum toolbar

• Turn-while-Burn operations are created like any 4-Axis Contouring cycle

• Turn-while-Burn operations are based on features created with the Ruled Feature command as opposed to ruled features created with Draft Feature Recognition

X Complete information about rotary EDM is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘Turn While Burn’ or ‘index EDMing’ in the index.

Enabling Rotary MotionTo enable the new rotary technology, a rotary axis must be defined in SolidWire Machine Setup. When a rotary axis is defined for the EDM, the new rotary technology is available for all SolidWire cycles.

A Rotary Axis must be added to the Table in the Assembly tab of Machine Setup. Typically the rotary table is along the A axis (X axis). Once the axis is added you can set its position, change its orientation or even set angular limits.

The position of the rotary axis mounted on the machine table varies from machine to machine, so you must make sure to set it up correctly.


Turn and BurnThe functionality for Turn and Burn is enabled simply by adding a rotary axis in SolidWire Machine Setup.

Indexed operations are created the same way as regular operations. The operations being feature-based, the part orientation is given at the feature level. Therefore it is very easy to generate an indexed operation in ESPRIT 2010.

To support rotary machining at the feature level, Draft Feature Recognition has been updated to allow the creation of a feature in the work plane that requires rotation.

The operations are easily created using the new technology interface:

The simulation in ESPRIT 2010 shows the initial orientation of the part.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 23

If the next operation uses a different orientation, the simulation shows the indexing movement to rotate the part into position before the start of the next operation.

Enhanced EDM Feature Recognit ion

EDM features can now be created in any orientation because the part orientation is now based on the current work plane instead of the global Z-axis.

In ESPRIT 2009, EDM Feature Recognition used the Z-axis of the global coordinate system to define what was vertical and the Origin Point to define Z=0. Work planes were ignored.

In ESPRIT 2010, EDM Feature Recognition always uses the W-axis of the current work plane to define what is vertical and the origin of the work plane to define Z=0.

With the new EDM feature recognition you can create multiple features on a part using different plane orientations. In blue below are the faces that are considered vertical in the XYZ work plane (note the orientation of the UVW axis).

An opposite set of faces are considered vertical in the YZX work plane (note the direction of the W axis).


The Planes Heights in the Draft Feature Recognition pages are now based on the origin of the current Work Plane.

You can reposition the UVW using the commands on the Modify Work Plane toolbar. The Modify Work Plane toolbar is displayed automatically when the Work Planes dialog is opened. From the Edit menu, select Work Plane to display the toolbar.

X Information about work plane transformation is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for Work Planes in the index.

In ESPRIT 2010 you are now able to cut a complex part in a single program. The part shown in this example requires three operations and a positioning rotation.

Two features can be created in the XYZ work plane:

Another feature has to be created in the YZX Work Plane:

As a result the three features are created in different work planes but in the same ESPRIT file using a single model.

ESPRIT 2010 Top 10 + 2 | 25

Turn While BurnThe functionality for Turn While Burn is also enabled by adding a rotary axis in SolidWire Machine Setup. However, this cycle relies on the Ruled feature developed for 5-axis swarf milling operations as opposed to the ruled feature created with Draft Feature Recognition.

The new “Turn While Burn” command is available on the SolidWire Platinum toolbar.

A Turn While Burn operation is created like any 4-Axis Contouring cycle. However, the Turn While Burn Technology page is based on a limited 4 axis page. The limitations are:

• The Offset Type is always G40. G41/G42 can create problems when the tool path is offset at the machine. Therefore this option has been limited to G40.

• The only options for Entry/Exit are Position and Position Radius

• There is no “look ahead” capability

• There is no Cut-off strategy available

• There is no Startup Distance available

• Plane heights have to be set manually

The simulation shows the part rotating while the wire is cutting.


Ruled Feature Recognit ion

Ruled feature recognition is similar to EDM feature recognition, allowing the user to input either solid faces or wire frame geometry. The dialog lets you enter a name and set the Cutting Side. The “Recognize From” parameter is automatically set if you select the input first.

When solid faces are used as input, an edge on the lower profile has to be selected. The tool path is always plotted on the lower profile of the feature.

When wire frame geometry is used as input, upper and lower chains have to be selected.

Ruled feature recognition is similar to EDM feature recognition except:

• The lead-in/lead-out points are not created automatically. The lead-in/lead-out points must be added in the Property Browser.

• There are no plane heights. The heights come from the operation pages only.

• There is no “Die”, “Punch”, “Open Left”, “Open Right”, or “Hole” type

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Face propagation can be used to select solid faces.

X The work plane associated with the feature sets the orientation of the wire at the lead-in position when a Turn-while-Burn operation is created.

Ruled feature recognition lists all the selected faces.

The Lower Edge has to be selected.


The feature is created when OK is clicked.

The Lead-in/lead-out points are missing and have to be added using the Property Browser.

X Information about Ruled features is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for Ruled Feature in the index.

Creating Turn-while-Burn operations

A Turn While Burn operation is created like any 4-axis contouring operation.

Here are a few things to know:

• The work plane associated with the feature sets the orientation of the wire at the lead-in position

• The retract move is performed without rotation. It keeps the orientation of the part at the last point of the cut.

• The tool path is always plotted on the lower profile of the feature no matter what the plane height values are in the technology pages

• The part orientation can be seen by activating the Tool Point-Axis option in the Masks dialog

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Feature-based machining for all FreeForm cycles

When the FreeForm feature was introduced in ESPRIT 2009 it was used as the input for the new SolidMill/SolidMillTurn Mold 5-Axis cycles.

In ESPRIT 2010, the FreeForm feature is now the unique input type for all 3-axis and 5-axis milling cycles.

In ESPRIT 2009, the machining technology for a SolidMill FreeForm operation was defined first and then part, check, and stock surfaces were selected after the technology page was closed. Because of this, the information about the surfaces to machine could not be stored with the operation.

Now all SolidMill FreeForm cycles are feature-based.

How it works• A FreeForm feature must be selected before the technology for 3-axis or 5-axis milling can be defined

• FreeForm features can be selected only in the Feature Manager. Unlike other objects in ESPRIT, FreeForm features do not display in the work area until they are selected in the Feature Manager.

• If a FreeForm feature is not selected first, the interface to create the feature will open automatically so the user can create the feature before proceeding with the definition of the tool path

• Define elements as ‘Part’, ‘Check’, or ‘Stock’

• Color coding makes it easy to see the different elements: part surfaces are displayed in green, check surfaces in red, and stock surfaces in yellow

• Save any number of FreeForm features on a single part model

• FreeForm features are fully editable before and after operations are applied

• The orientation of surfaces can be adjusted to cut on the outside or inside

• For a 3-axis cycle, the W direction of the work plane associated with the FreeFrom feature defines the orientation of the tool relative to the part when machining

X Complete information about how to create and edit FreeForm features is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘FreeForm Feature’ in the index.

The FreeForm feature commandNow that a FreeForm feature can be selected for any 3-axis or 5-axis milling operation, the FreeForm feature command has been moved from the Mold 5-Axis toolbar (in ESPRIT 2009) to the Create Features toolbar.

When the command is clicked, the FreeForm Feature interface displays in the Project Manager.


Part elementsPart elements define the area to be machined. By default, part elements are displayed in green.

Valid element types for part elements are:

• Solid body

• Solid faces

• Surfaces

• STL

Check elementsCheck elements define the area to be avoided. Check elements are displayed in red by default.

Valid element types for check elements are:

• Solid body

• Solid faces

• Surfaces

• STL

For the cycles that consider check elements, the tool path will only be created on part surfaces. Check elements are taken into account during the calculation of the tool path but the tool will stop cutting when it reaches a check element.

It is important to understand that some cycles consider check surfaces the same as part surfaces. For these cycles, any check element of the FreeForm feature will be used as a part element and therefore, check surfaces will be cut.

Cycles that support check elements

FreeForm cycles Mold cycles Mold 5-Axis cycles

Roughing Z-Level Roughing Ruled Swarf

Variable-Z Roughing Parallel Planes Finishing

Surface Swarf

Finishing Z-Level Finishing Contouring

Z-Level Finishing Radial Finishing Composite

Projection Finishing Spiral Finishing Impeller

Remachining Floor Finishing

Pencil Tracing

Corner Remachining

3D Contouring

Concentric Finishing

Between Curves Finishing

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Stock elementsStock elements define the shape of the stock around the part. When stock elements are defined, tool path will be created only between the stock and the part elements. Stock elements are displayed in yellow.

Valid element types for stock elements are:

• Solid body

• Solid faces

• Surfaces

• STL

Stock elements are used only for operations that support roughing.

Cycles that support stock

FreeForm cycles Mold cycles Mold 5-Axis cyclesRoughing Z-Level Roughing Composite

Variable-Z Roughing Impeller

Stock elements and the stock automation engine

The stock automation engine in ESPRIT 2010 will automatically generate a stock model for each operation when the operation is created or modified. This process is run in the background when Stock Automation is enabled in the Options dialog.

In addition to using the calculated stock model for simulation, this stock model can also be used to calculate roughing tool path.

FreeForm cycles

ESPRIT FreeForm roughing cycles do not calculate the tool path based on the calculated stock from stock automation. The stock defined in Simulation Parameters is used.

If you want to create a FreeForm roughing operation based on the stock from a previous roughing operation, you must define the ‘custom’ stock in the FreeForm feature.

Mold cycles

Mold roughing cycles must have a stock. You must create the initial stock in Simulation Parameters before you start creating operations. You should define stock elements in the FreeForm feature only if you want to force a stock that is different than the current stock in the machining process.

With ESPRIT Mold, if the stock is not defined in the FreeForm feature, the operation uses the calculated stock from stock automation. The calculated stock will be used for the tool path calculation for SolidMill Mold 3-axis and 5-axis roughing operations. The calculated stock is also used with Parallel Planes and Z-Level Finishing if Retract Optimization is set to Stock

X An operation will not calculate if stock automation did not calculate any stock and if the FreeForm feature does not have any stock surfaces.

If Stock Automation is disabled (Tools > Options > Machining), Mold cycles still work but instead of calculating the current stock in the background, ESPRIT will calculate the stock on demand when it is needed for the operation.

When calculating an operation with stock automation OFF and no stock in the FreeForm feature, ESPRIT starts by calculating the stock for the operation then it starts the calculation of the operation itself.

FreeForm feature selectionAlong with the usage of a FreeForm feature to create any 3- or 5-axis operation, the selection order when creating an operation has also changed.

In ESPRIT 2010, a FreeForm feature must be selected first. Then select the milling cycle.

X A FreeForm feature can be selected only from the Feature Manager.

If a feature is not selected when starting an operation, ESPRIT starts the creation of a new FreeForm feature. Once the FreeForm feature creation is complete, ESPRIT automatically opens the technology page.


New Pocket Feature Recognit ion

ESPRIT 2010 introduces a completely new advanced feature recognition of pockets. This intelligent method of feature recognition now includes the recognition of tapered walls, chamfers, fillets, and open edges. In addition, undercut areas that cannot be machined with a standard 2-1/2 axis mill are automatically excluded since these areas cannot be reached by the tool.

When these new pocket features are based on native CAD features, the features in ESPRIT have associativity with the original CAD model. If the CAD model changes, the user is notified and can choose whether to update the ESPRIT feature to match the CAD model. This association is maintained from the CAD model to the finished tool path.

How it works• Select a top loop to recognize all pockets inside the loop (great for closed pockets)

• Select a bottom face to recognize an open pocket or a single closed pocket

• Select a chain feature to recognize all pockets inside the boundary (great for noncontinuous faces or multiple open pockets)

• Select faces, loops, or chains prior to running Pocket Feature Recognition to recognize multiple pockets

• Tapered walls, chamfers, and fillets within the selection area are recognized

• Open edges are displayed with dashed lines for easy identification

• Areas that cannot be reached by a standard tool orientation are protected from gouging

• When ESPRIT FX and Pocket Feature Recognition are used together, associativity with the CAD model is maintained

X Complete information about Pocket features is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘Pocket’ in the index.

The Pocket Feature Recognition commandIn ESPRIT 2009, the user had to click the Pocket command on the Create Features toolbar before selecting a boundary for pocket feature recognition. It was not possible to select elements before running Pocket Feature Recognition.

In ESPRIT 2010, the user can select the input before or after running Pocket Feature Recognition. In addition, the user can now select solid models and solid faces as input.

Valid elements that can be used as input for Pocket Feature Recognition in ESPRIT 2010 are:

• Solid body

• Face loop

• Solid face

• Chain feature

X In previous versions of ESPRIT, wire frame geometry could be used as input for pocket features. In ESPRIT 2010, wire frame geometry is no longer accepted as valid input for a pocket feature. In order to use wire frame geometry for pocketing operations, the user will have to create chain features on the geometry. Machining properties such as cutting side and depth can be assigned to chain features in the Property Browser.

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Changes to hole recognit ion in pockets

The new Pocket Feature Recognition no longer recognizes holes as PTOP features as in previous versions of ESPRIT. The user must now use the Holes command to recognize holes.

However, the new Pocket Feature Recognition still uses the Maximum Diameter parameter located in the Feature Parameters dialog to recognize cylindrical pockets. Any cylinder with a diameter equal to or greater than the Maximum Diameter will be recognized as a pocket.

Depending on the diameter, ESPRIT will search the pocket within the cylinder. Since the diameter of the inside pocket in this example is greater than the Maximum Diameter, ESPRIT will find the inside pockets.

Changes to recognit ion of invalid shapes

In ESPRIT 2009, when a shape could not be machined with a standard milling tool orientation, Pocket Feature Recognition would ignore it; therefore the tool path would gouge the part.

In ESPRIT 2010, Pocket Feature Recognition will analyze the shape of the pocket and, if it cannot be machined in a 2-axis machining, the shape will be covered as an island to avoid gouging the part.

In the following part, ESPRIT 2009 ignores the red faces and then the tool path will gouge the area between the two islands.

In ESPRIT 2010, Pocket Feature Recognition covers the shape to avoid gouging the part.


Pocket Feature Recognition on chamfersPocket Feature Recognition now supports chamfers on the solid model. The user only needs to include the chamfer faces as part of the selection when running pocket feature recognition or just make sure the loop/chain feature contains the chamfers.

X The chamfer must be constant along the feature.

Pocket Feature Recognition on top and bottom blendsPocket Feature Recognition now supports blends on the solid model.

In ESPRIT 2009, when the part contained blends, most of the time Pocket Feature Recognition would fail to find the pocket feature because of the blends.

In ESPRIT 2010, the new Pocket Feature Recognition will automatically find top and bottom blends if they are contained in the selected face/boundary.

X The blend must be constant along the feature.

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Pocket Feature Recognition on open pocketsIn ESPRIT 2009, in order to create an open pocket feature, the user could either create the feature and then manually tag edges as open or use the Feature Utilities add-in.

In ESPRIT 2010, Pocket Feature Recognition supports open pocket features. The open edges are shown as dashed lines for a better understanding of the feature.

Simply select a bottom face and Pocket Feature Recognition will automatically find the open edge area from the selection.

When the machining area contains multiple islands/pockets, the easiest way to create the open pocket features is to create and use a chain feature as an outside boundary for Pocket Feature Recognition.

Pocket Feature Recognition on tapered wallsIn ESPRIT 2009, Pocket Feature Recognition ignored tapered walls and the display of the feature ignored the taper angle value if the user manually defined it in the Property Browser. Pocket features were always displayed with straight walls.

In ESPRIT 2010, Pocket Feature Recognition now supports tapered walls and the display of the feature will now use this value. The Draft property is now set to the taper value for each feature.

X The taper must be constant along the feature.


Pocket Feature Recognition and ESPRIT FXIn ESPRIT 2009, CAD associativity with ESPRIT FX was only available with EDM Feature Recognition and Hole Feature Recognition. With the new Pocket Feature Recognition, the user can take advantage of ESPRIT FX with milling machining.

ESPRIT FX with Pocket Feature Recognition works the same way as EDM Feature Recognition: ESPRIT finds the CAD Feature Properties attached to the faces used to create the pocket feature.

X If the user selects multiple faces, ESPRIT will automatically find which face belongs to each feature.

Pocket Feature Recognition with an empty selectionIf the user does not have any face, loop or feature chain selected prior to running Pocket Feature Recognition, ESPRIT will prompt the user to select a Solid, a Loop, a Face or a Chain feature.

Loop as input

When the cavity is a closed pocket, the cavity is usually defined from a top loop. If the user selects a top loop, ESPRIT will automatically find all the pockets and islands within the selected loop. The direction of feature recognition is taken from the plane attached to the selected loop regardless of the active work plane.

This method is the easiest and the most efficient way to create a pocket feature.

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Face as input

When the machining area is an open pocket or if the user wants to machine a specific area in the part, the user can select the bottom face of the pocket. Pocket Feature Recognition will then recognize only the selected pocket.

This method is the most suitable way to select a single level open pocket (not a nested open pocket). Using a bottom face as input is also very useful if the user wants to cut a specific pocket (open or closed).

Pocket Feature Recognition will find all the walls adjacent to the selected bottom face, up to the next horizontal face.

Chain feature as input

When the boundary of the pocket is open, or there is no continuous boundary to define the machining area, the easiest way to create a pocket is to manually create a boundary with a chain feature. ESPRIT will create pocket features from all the visible faces within the selected chain feature (as viewed along the W axis of the work plane associated with the chain).

In this model, a continuous boundary does not exist on the part. Therefore, Pocket Feature Recognition cannot be executed on any outside loop. In order to create pocket features on the part, the user creates a chain boundary that represents the machining area. ESPRIT finds all the pockets within the selected chain.


Pocket Feature Recognition with preselected elementsIn ESPRIT 2010, if the user selects a solid, faces, loops or chains prior to running the Pocket command, ESPRIT will use the selection to run Pocket Feature Recognition.

Using this method, the user can create multiple pocket features on different areas at once. This behavior is the same as the Pocket Feature Recognition API.

Loops as input

If the user selects one or more face loops before running Pocket Feature Recognition, ESPRIT will automatically run the recognition on each selected loop.

ESPRIT will find the Feature Recognition direction from the plane attached to each selected loop. ESPRIT will find the pocket in the direction of the face regardless of the active work plane.

Faces as input

If the user selects one or more solid faces before running Pocket Feature Recognition, ESPRIT will run the recognition on each group of faces (ESPRIT will first group the connected faces together).

For example, when using ESPRIT FX, sometimes the easiest way to select the machining area is to directly select the CAD Features in the ESPRIT FX tree.

Solid as input

When selecting a solid as input, ESPRIT will automatically find the outermost boundary of the solid and then run Pocket Feature Recognition. ESPRIT will find pockets based on the solid boundaries in the active work plane.

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If the selected faces are not connected (do not share an edge), ESPRIT will find the pocket in the direction of the face regardless of the active work plane.

However, Pocket Feature Recognition cannot use the face direction when connected faces are selected. Instead, ESPRIT will use the direction of the active work plane. When the selected faces have different directions, Pocket Feature Recognition may fail to recognize any pocket in the wrong direction.

In the following example, the active plane is “XYZ” and the user selects the shapes “One” and “Five”. Shape “One” is recognized correctly because it is in the same direction as the active work plane. However, shape “Five” is incorrect. In this case, you need to either select the loop of each shape before running Feature Recognition or create the pockets one by one in the correct work plane.

X The latest ESPRIT FX add-in will store the direction of the cut in the CAD Model. Therefore, when selecting connected faces attached to a valid CAD Feature, ESPRIT will be able to recognize each group of faces and create the features. Please note that ESPRIT FX stored the direction of the cut when the model was saved in the CAD software. If the model is rotated in ESPRIT, the direction might be obsolete.


Chains as input

If the user selects one or more chain features before running Pocket Feature Recognition, ESPRIT will automatically run the recognition on each selected loop.

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New Stock Automation Engine

How nice would it be to start a simulation at any step in the machining process without simulating the previous operations first? That scenario is a reality in ESPRIT 2010 with the implementation of the new stock automation engine.

Now the user has better control over the state of the stock when starting a simulation. The stock automation engine offers the ability to start a simulation with the stock that results from the completion of all previous operations. In previous versions of ESPRIT the user could only start a simulation from the initial stock or from stock that was previously saved.

This new mode eliminates the need to simulate all operations from the beginning or to save previous simulation states.

How it works• Stock automation is enabled on the Machining tab in the Options dialog

• Stock automation is a new engine that will automatically generate a stock for each operation when the operation is created or modified

• A simulation can be started any time with the previous operation stock without using the “Simulate from saved state” command

• The calculated stock will be used for the tool path calculation for SolidMill Mold 3-axis and 5-axis operations

• When enabled, stock automation runs in the background on a second CPU (Core) when available and will simulate the material removal of each operation as needed by ESPRIT

• Stock automation works on every cycle in ESPRIT except SolidTurn B-Axis Contouring and all EDM cycles

Enabling Stock AutomationStock Automation is an option of the application; when Stock Automation is enabled, it will be used for all files until it is turned off.

In order to use Stock Automation, the user must check the option “Enable Stock Automation” in the Tools/Options Dialog.

Stock Automation Tolerance

Stock Automation uses the simulation engine in ESPRIT to calculate the material removal. The Stock Automation Tolerance is the simulation tolerance that will be used by the simulation during the calculation of the stock. The smaller the value, the longer it will take for stock automation to generate the stock.


Using Stock AutomationIf stock automation is enabled, the user can start the simulation at any time by selecting the operation the user wants to verify.

If no operation has been selected before running the simulation, the simulation will start with the initial stock. This is the same behavior as previous versions of ESPRIT.

X Since the stock is calculated in the background for each operation, the stock may not be available at the time the user needs it. This may happen on large 3D operations. In the event where the stock is not ready, ESPRIT will prompt the user to start from the initial stock or cancel the simulation (and wait for the stock to be ready).

Displaying the status of Stock AutomationNow that the stock is automatically calculated with the Stock Automation Engine in ESPRIT 2010, users can see the status of the stock calculation for each milling and turning operation in the Operation Manager.

A graphical display in the Operation Manager makes it easy to see whether the stock has been calculated for all operations. The stock is calculated each time a document is opened or when the Rebuild command is used.

X When an operation is rebuilt, the stock for all operations that follow the rebuilt operation is recalculated.

Stock longevity

The stock models created by stock automation are available only in the active session. As soon as the file is reopened, stock automation will need to recalculate the stocks.

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To show or hide the status of the stock calculation:

• In milling, right-click on the header row of the Operation Manager and select Field Chooser. In the list, select Stock to display the column.

• In turning, right-click in the operation list and select Advanced > Field Chooser. In the list, select Stock.

The possible states of the stock are:

• Complete. Ending stock has been calculated and it is up-to-date for this operation.

• Processing. Stock is under calculation. The percentage next to the icon shows the progress.

• Blank (no stock). Ending stock does not exist for the operation. It can be because:

• Initial stock has not been defined. In SolidMill mode, edit the Simulation Parameters to add a stock in the Solid page. In turning, set the stock in the machine setup or in the simulation parameters.In SolidTurn mode, set the stock in Machine Setup or in Simulation Parameters.

• The operation is suppressed

• Stock automation is disabled

• The operation not supported by stock automation. This is the case only with the SolidTurn B-Axis Contouring operation.

• Waiting. The stock needs to be calculated but is waiting for the calculation of previous operations to finish.

• Error. An error occurred during the calculation of the stock.


Associativity

Associativity can be defined as the recognition of a part and its subsequent downstream activities. When the the original CAD model changes, ESPRIT can recognize those changes and update the downstream activities that are associated to the original part, such as CAM features and tool path.

In ESPRIT 2009, associativity with the CAD model was made available for wire EDM features and FreeForm features.

In ESPRIT 2010, associativity with the native CAD model is expanded to Pocket features for 2-1/2 axis milling.

How it works• ESPRIT retains the link to the CAD file as well as to the faces selected when a feature is created on an imported CAD solid in ESPRIT

• If the CAD model changes, ESPRIT recognizes when faces have been changed, added, or deleted and gives the user control over whether to update the associated ESPRIT feature

• When a feature is updated, any tool path associated with the feature will be recalculated

Limitations• Associativity is limited to features created with Draft Feature Recognition for wire EDM, FreeForm features for 3-axis and 5-axis

milling operations, and Pocket features for 2-1/2 axis milling

• Associativity is limited to features created from solid bodies and faces and the selected absolute reference collection

• The collection of CAD faces must never change, and can only be modified (Note: When the ESPRIT FX Add-In can be utilized, the user has fewer restrictions.)

• Available only on files created in ESPRIT 2009 or greater. File properties have been added to the ESPRIT 2009 file format that are not available in earlier versions. When a file from a previous version is opened and the ESPRIT file contains a reference file that has changed, the Update button in the Check Reference File dialog is disabled.

Associativity and ESPRIT FX™The preferred way to use associativity is through ESPRIT FX because there is more control, flexibility and reliability. When using the ESPRIT FX CAD Feature Tree, the user is still limited to solid bodies and faces, and the absolute reference collection; however the absolute reference collection is now mapped to a specific CAD feature. This means that the absolute collection associated to the appropriate CAD Feature can change and associativity will be maintained through the CAD Feature.

In addition, the file status can be viewed and accessed through the CAD Feature manager. The icon preceding the imported Solid model shows the current status.

Current - A check mark is placed on the specific solid modeler icon used (in this example it is SolidWorks).

Modified

Missing

By right-clicking on the name of the imported solid model in the CAD Feature Manager, the Update, Restore and Delete commands can be accessed.

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Additionally, the user can have ESPRIT automatically check the status of the solid model by clicking Advanced > Options. The user can activate the option and set up how often ESPRIT will check the status of the imported file.

Associativity and Pocket Feature RecognitionBy definition associativity can recreate the feature only if the user selects the same faces as input. Therefore, as long as the “face” stays the same, Pocket Feature Recognition will be able to recreate the feature when updating the model.

Rotating, translat ing, or scaling a pocket

When a shape in the CAD model is rotated, translated, or scaled, the faces remain the same since there are no major changes that require rebuilding the model with a new set of faces. However, in ESPRIT, the feature must be recalculated since the tool path should be updated with the new position.

Rotation example

Translation example


Scale example

Adding a pocket

If a new pocket is added to the CAD model, ESPRIT has no knowledge of this new pocket; therefore, when updating the model, the newly created pocket will be ignored.

Removing a pocket

If a pocket is removed from the CAD model, ESPRIT will remove the feature from the document because the faces do not exist in the new model.

Modifying the shape of a pocket

When the user makes a major change to the shape of a pocket by adding or removing faces, associativity will fail to recreate the feature because it cannot find the previous faces. The feature will stay in the document as is.

However, ESPRIT FX provides more flexibility when CAD features are modified because associativity can use the CAD Feature Properties attached to the selected face.

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Since the feature shown below was created based on all the faces of the CAD Feature “Open Pocket”, associativity uses the CAD Feature as the input for Feature Recognition; therefore the individual faces in the CAD feature are irrelevant.

If the user modifies the shape of the Pocket by adding or removing faces using a separate CAD Feature, even with ESPRIT FX turned on, the associativity will not be able to recreate the pocket feature.

For example, the Pocket feature in the original file is created from the CAD Feature “Extrude2”.

In the updated CAD model, the user creates a sub-pocket using another CAD Feature. ESPRIT will try to recreate the feature using all the faces in the original CAD Feature but the associativity will not be able to get the remaining faces to create a full pocket.

When the added or removed faces are blend faces at corners, ESPRIT will be able to recreate the Pocket feature even though all the required faces are not selected.

In this example, even if the corner faces are not used by the associativity because they were created outside of “Extrude2”, Pocket Feature Recognition will be able to recreate the feature correctly.


New SolidWire 4-Axis Pocketing cycle

The wire EDM market thrives on complex shapes that are impossible to cut by any other means. This challenge is welcomed until a shape is encountered that cannot be easily removed as a single “slug”. That is when the task of removing sections of material bit by bit with cumbersome geometric manipulations becomes a real chore.

The new SolidWire 4-Axis Pocketing cycle solves this problem effortlessly without the risk of a tricky slug drop. 4-axis no-core pocketing is often needed when slugs cannot be removed through a normal “slug removal” mechanism.

All the material inside the most complex profile is gradually removed by an intelligent calculation of “core” and “shell” areas. The core, which is removed first, represents the largest area that can be removed with standard 2-axis tool path. The remaining shell area between the core and the desired outer profile is analyzed and removed with no-core pocketing passes.

The result is a complex shape that is cut with the simplest, most intuitive wire path possible.

How it works• Like any 4-axis operation in ESPRIT, the new 4-axis Pocketing cycle only uses EDM Ruled features. Draft conic features and chains are

not supported.

• When the shapes of the UV and XY profiles are similar, a No Core strategy can be used to gradually remove all material inside the cavity with 4-axis no-core pocketing tool path

• When the shapes of the UV and XY profiles are different, a Cylindrical strategy will calculate the largest area shared by the two profiles and give the user the option of removing the core with a 2-axis contouring operation or burning the core with a 2-axis no-core pocketing operation. The remaining areas are then burned separately with 4-axis tool path.

X Complete information about 4-Axis Pocketing is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘4-Axis Pocketing’ or ‘SolidWire’ in the index.

Technology for 4-Axis PocketingThe 4-axis Pocketing technology page looks a lot like the 2-axis Pocketing operation except:

• The Plane Heights matches the 4-axis Contour page

• New strategy parameters have been added

X Mitsubishi, Sodick and the Generic pages use the same Planes Heights parameters for 2-axis and 4-axis pocketing.

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Generic Planes Heights

Cores and Shells

In 4-Axis Pocketing there are 2 areas in a cut that will be identified:

• The Core (more precisely the Cylindrical Core)

• The Shell

The Core corresponds to the shadow of the cavity. The shadow is found by projecting the UV profile vertically onto the XY profile.

In this example, the shapes of the UV profile and the XY profile are different.

The core is found by projecting the UV profile vertically onto the XY profile.

The Shell is what we obtain if we were to remove the Cylindrical Core.

Core Strategy

The Core Strategy lets you choose between “No Core” and “Cylindrical”.

• The No Core option calculates an inner core profile and burns the entire shape with a no-core pocketing tool path

• The Cylindrical option calculates a core area and lets the user choose whether the core is burned as if it was a 2-axis Pocketing cycle or the slug is cut and dropped as if it was a 2-axis Contouring cycle


No Core Strategy

The options for the ‘No Core’ strategy are quite simple. The user enters the desired distance between cutting passes and the diameter of the thread hole.

The idea of the “No Core” strategy is to match each synchronization point from the outside shell to its equivalent inner core point.

In no-core 4-axis pocketing, the synchronization is critical because the synchronization match points from the outside shell must be matched to a calculated profile inside the core area for synchronized machining to occur naturally.

Instead of using a standard offset tool path that could potentially cause problems with self-intersecting tool path, the tool path is generated by morphing the shape of the inner core profile and the shape of the outside shell.

X It is important to create enough synchronization, or match, lines between the UV and XY profiles to allow the system to calculate an appropriate inner core profile. The integrity of the part surface could be impaired when an insufficient number of match lines are programmed.

Cylindrical Strategy

The Cylindrical strategy calculates the cylindrical core and uses the Slug Strategy parameter to determine what to do with the core. Slug Strategy can be set to either ‘Burn’ or ‘Drop Slug’.

When Slug Strategy set to “Burn”, the slug is burned as if it was a vertical 2-axis Pocketing cycle.

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When set to “Drop Slug”, the slug is cut as if it was a vertical 2-axis Contouring cycle. When the slug is dropped, the user can specify a cut-off distance and the type of stop to output in the NC code.

After the core has been removed, the Shell areas still need to be cut. The “Clearance Strategy” parameter allows you to choose how the shells are removed. This choice will mostly depend on the shape of the cavity.

The “Uniform” strategy will burn the shell linearly, which requires the thickness between the inner and outer profile to be as uniform as possible to avoid over-burning the thinnest areas.

The “Non-Uniform” strategy will split the shell into smaller pieces. The synchronization match lines are used to determine where the shell is split. Each shell piece is then burned separately.


4 New Knitted Surface commands

A common approach to creating smooth and continuous toolpath in 5-axis machining is to use the parametric lines of a surface to drive the tool.

However, most part models consist of multiple and varied surfaces, and thus the parametric lines of the surfaces are oriented in a way that makes a parametric machining difficult if not impossible.

New to ESPRIT 2010 is a knitted surface option that creates a single surface from any number of faces on a solid model. This knitted surface can then be used to drive a parametric machining pattern resulting in a smooth and continuous tool path flowing across the parametric lines.

ESPRIT 2010 introduces 4 new commands to knit a surface from a group of faces of a solid.

How it works• New knitted surface commands are grouped under the menu Create > Knitted Surfaces

• After a command is selected, the interface appears in a tab in the Project Manager. The same interface is used for all four commands.

• To create a knitted surface, select all the faces to knit together and one or more vertexes depending on the knitted surface command

• Selected faces must be continuously connected

• Selected vertexes must be on the border of the group of faces selected

X Complete information about how to create knitted surfaces is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for “Knitted Surfaces” in the index.

Face selectionFaces are added to the selection by first clicking inside the ‘Faces’ frame and then selecting faces on the solid model. Use the Grouping Properties command to easily select multiple faces.

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There can be an opening in the middle of the selection but this hole must be inside a single face. If the opening is valid, it will be covered by the knitted surface.

The input is invalid if the hole touches more than one face.

Vertex selectionVertexes define the limits of the borders or the start points of the parametric lines.

Each vertex must be on the border of the group of faces selected.

ToleranceThe tolerance controls the precision when calculating the surface. The knitted surface command requires intense calculation; therefore a small tolerance can result in a very long calculation.

If the surface will be used as a drive surface for a machining pattern, high precision is not needed.


4 Borders Knitted Sur faceThe first command will create a surface with 4 borders. Parametric lines of the resulting surface are morphed from the 2 opposite borders of the selection.

The 4 Borders knitted surface requires the selection of:

A group of faces

4 vertexes that define the extremity points of the 4 borders

3 Borders Knitted Sur faceThe second command will create a surface with 3 borders. Parametric lines in one direction of the resulting surface will all go through the first vertex selected in the list.

The 3 Borders knitted surface requires the selection of:

• A group of faces

• 3 vertexes that define the extremity points of the 3 borders

X The first vertex selected is the principal vertex of the new surface.

Closed Knitted Sur faceThe third command will create a closed surface. The resulting surface is a periodic surface; the parametric lines in one direction are closed loops.

The Closed knitted surface requires the selection of:

• A group of faces that define a closed loop

• 2 vertexes that define the starting parametric line on the surface

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Radial Knitted Sur faceThe fourth and last command will create a radial surface. The resulting surface has parametric lines in one direction that follow an offset pattern.

The Radial knitted surface requires the selection of:

• A group of faces

Optionally, a single vertex can be selected that defines the position of the first parametric line on the surface. When a vertex is not selected, the system decides where parametric lines should start.

Using a Knitted Sur face as a Drive Sur faceWhen cutting along several surfaces, parametric lines might not be tangent from one face to another. The effect on the tool path is a change in the machining direction; therefore the tool path is not smooth.

A second problem is that when cutting a trimmed surface, parametric lines are often not parallel to the border of the cutting area. This results in interrupted passes that do not follow the border of the zone to cut.

If all the faces of the cutting area can be knitted into a single surface, both problems should disappear.

Another advantage of the knitted surface is the possibility to use the new Spiral pattern of the Composite cycle. This cycle accepts a unique surface as a drive surface. A closed knitted surface is therefore a perfect candidate for the drive surface.

In the example below, notice the lack of continuity and tangency between parametric lines of the different surfaces.

Using a knitted surface, a spiral parametric pattern is applied. The result is a single continuous pass that cuts the whole group of faces.

X The FreeForm feature includes the original faces of the model as part elements. The knitted surface is only used for the machining pattern; therefore the accuracy of the surface is not critical.


In this second example, again a closed knitted surface allowed the creation of a single spiral pass that cuts 40 different faces.

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Support for 3 Rotary Axes

A number of highly-specialized machine tools have been introduced that support three rotary axes. These machines offer maximum flexibility in the positioning of the tool. While the vast majority of CNC machine tools on the market have at most two rotary axes, ESPRIT recognizes the value of supporting the unique requirements of specialized machine tools.

While a machine tool with 2 rotary axes limits the choice of axis orientation to only one or at most two, the introduction of a third rotary axis in ESPRIT 2010 gives almost infinite choices of rotary axis positions to yield an ideal tool orientation. ESPRIT gives the user control over these limitless choices. The third rotary axis is defined in Machine Setup just like any other rotary axis. The user can then fix one axis at any position in the Property Browser. This is done per machining operation. ESPRIT controls the remaining two axes.

How it works• ESPRIT supports up to 3 rotary axes simultaneously

• Rotary axes are defined in the machine setup assembly. The machine axis type can be ‘Rotary’ or ‘Tool Change’. Axes of both types are considered in the rotary axis count.

• It does not matter whether the axes are on the tool or on the table. The limit is that the total number of available rotary axes when cutting with a tool on a stock should not exceed 3.

• For kinematic reasons, the rotary axis should not be parallel

• Use meaningful labels for the axis in the machine setup. Axis labels are used for referencing the axis in the operation properties.

• All ESPRIT milling cycles support 3 rotary axes, including 5-axis simultaneous

Milling machine example: Tool/Tool/TableOn the tool side, this machine has 2 rotary axes: A axis (rotating about the X axis) mounted on a B axis (rotating about the Y-axis).

The whole table can rotate with a C-axis (rotating about the Z axis).

MillTurn machine example: Tool/Tool/TableThe total count for this machine is 5 rotary axes, but only 3 rotary axes can be used simultaneously so this is a valid configuration.

Axis count:

• Upper turret: B-axis + Tool change axis

• Lower turret: Tool change axis

• Main Spindle: C-axis

• Sub Spindle: C-axis


Controlling the axis positionWhen a machine configuration includes 3 rotary axes, one rotary axis is fixed to a position while the position of the 2 other axes is set by ESPRIT in order to reach the machining position.

When creating a new operation, ESPRIT decides the default position and behaviors of the rotary axes. After creation, you can decide which axes are moving and edit the position of the fixed axis. Positions of the rotary axes are controlled by the operation properties that can be accessed through the Property Browser.

The user can control:

• Which axes are the motion axes (the remaining axis is fixed)

• The position of the fixed axis

• If more than one angle combination can achieve the machining orientation, the angle for the motion axis can be changed

Motion Axes

The Motion Axes property lists the combinations of moving axes. If the machine has A, B and C axes then motion axes can be:

• A & B (C is the fixed axis)

• B & C (A is the fixed axis)

• A & C (B is the fixed axis)

X For Mill-Turn machine setup, the C-axis of the spindle is implicit and it must not be added to the assembly.

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Axis Posit ions

The fixed axis position can be set to any position within the axis limits.

If the machining orientation can be achieved with more than one angle combination within the machine axis limits, then you can change the position of the 2 motion axes.

Tool Change Axis Posit ion

A tool change axis type can only be a fixed axis. When one of the 3 axes is a Tool Change type, then the motion axis property is not listed.

In this example, ‘Index’ is a tool change axis. It is always fixed.

When setting the position of a Tool Change axis, the angle is incremental from the station angle.

0 degree corresponds to the station angle of the station the tool is mounted on; 180 degrees adds 180 degrees to the station angle.


New Licensing System

New security has been added to ESPRIT 2010. After ESPRIT 2010 is installed, the user is now required to activate the license. Plus, users can now see the registered owner of their software license, the expiration date for their license and the expiration date for their SMC.

New License ActivationThe new Security Manager is used to activate the software license. There are two ways to access the Security Manager:

• After ESPRIT 2010 is installed and the user runs the program for the first time, the Security Manager automatically displays

• The Security Manager is also available from the Windows Start menu. On the Windows Start menu, click All Programs > DP Technology > Security > Security Manager.

Activating a l icense

First, make sure the USB module is inserted in a USB port. Then, on the Tools menu, click Activation.

Select 3-Safe Net Dongle to highlight it and click Next.

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Enter a unique Customer Code and Serial Number and click Next.

Verify that the company information is correct and click Finish to activate the license.

A green check mark shows that the license is the default. Double-clicking on a license sets the default status. Click File > Exit to close the Security Manager.

Verifying the ESPRIT license informationAfter a license is activated, details about the license are shown in the Security Manager. It is important to verify the Company information and the License Details to make sure they are accurate.

X If the Company information is incorrect, please send an e-mail directly to [email protected] to have your customer information corrected.

Be sure to verify the expiration date of your license and your SMC. ESPRIT will not run if the license is expired. The SMC Expiration Date controls which versions of ESPRIT you can run.


ESPRIT will run only if the release date of the software is earlier or the same as the SMC expiration date. If the date of the release is later than the SMC expiration date, ESPRIT will not run.

X Users are not prevented from downloading and installing a newer version of ESPRIT. However, the software will not run if the SMC Expiration Date is earlier than the release date of the newly installed software.

Each time ESPRIT 2010 is run, a screen displays with the release date of the software, who the software is licensed to, and how many days remain for the license and the SMC. If the license is for demonstration purposes only (not purchased by the company), this information is also displayed.

If the information is correct, click OK to start using ESPRIT. Click Cancel if you want to exit ESPRIT. If the information is incorrect (for example, you have a demo license even though you have paid for the software), notify DP Technology directly to have the issue resolved.

63

What’s New in SolidMillA lot of great changes have been added to the SolidMill cycles. In addition to an updated technology interface for all SolidMill cycles, the 5-Axis Composite and 5-Axis Ruled Swarf cycles have been improved with extra options for controlling the tool orientation and a new machining pattern for the Composite cycle. New options have been added to Grouping Properties to make it easier to group the faces of pockets and to quickly select faces along parametric flow lines for 3D machining. Plus, setting the Open Edge attribute on elements in a chain feature has been simplified so that the Feature Utilities Add-in is no longer required.

Enhanced 5-Axis Composite cycle .63

Enhanced 5-Axis Ruled Swarf cycle 69

New SolidMill Traditional technology 71

New SolidMill Production technology 84

New SolidMill FreeForm technology 91

New options for face propagation 97

New sub-element selection of a chain feature ...................................................... 101

Enhanced 5-Axis Composite cycle

New features have been added to the 5-Axis Composite cycle in ESPRIT 2010:

• New Project Spiral machining pattern

• Single Pass option

• Rough Passes options

• Auto Tilt options

New spiral machining patternThe most important parameter for the calculation of the tool path is the machining pattern. Curves are plotted on the model defining the tool path flow. The machining pattern defines the way those curves are generated.

A new pattern called Project Spiral has been added to the Composite cycle.


This pattern requires a separate drive surface that does not belong to the part.

First a curve is created with a spiral pattern using the parametric lines of the drive surface. This curve is then projected on the model. The projection is normal to the drive surface.

To obtain a continuous tool path the parametric lines used for the spiral must be closed (start and end points are the same).

When using the Project Spiral pattern, the step increment is an indication for the step over. The real step over on the part may be bigger than the programmed step increment. It depends on the parametric line spacing along the surface.

The direction of projection is, by default, the opposite direction of the natural Normal direction of the drive surface. That means that if the normal of the drive surface is pointing ‘up’, points will be projected toward the ‘down’ direction.

When the drive surface is on both sides of the model surfaces, the direction of the drive surface normal should point toward the tool. Even if the drive surface is sometimes inside and sometimes outside the model, ESPRIT will still be able to project the curves.

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If the surface direction is not correct, use the option ‘Reverse Projection Side’ to change the direction of projection.

The value for Projection Distance controls the maximum distance when points are projected on the model. This value can be reduced if you see that points are projected on undesired surfaces that are behind the target surface.

New Single Pass optionWhen Machining Pattern is set to Parametric or Project Parametric, a new Single Pass option is now available. This new option will create a single pass at the percentage of the drive surface where you want the tool positioned.

Set Single Pass to Yes and set Pass Position Percent to a percentage of the drive surface. 0% is the start of the drive surface (the direction of the surface is displayed by the arrows when selecting the surface). 100% is the end of the drive surface.

In the example below, Pass Position Percent is set to 10. The tool is positioned close to the start of the surface.


New Rough Passes optionsNew options are available to enable rough passes with any of the machining patterns.

Rough passes are created using the same rules as the latest pass except that the model is offset by ‘n’ times the incremental depth value based on the starting distance.

The Incremental Depth value is a 3D offset applied to the whole tool path.

The Starting Distance is the distance, measured from the model, on which to apply the incremental offset.

For example, if Starting Distance is set to 10mm and Incremental Depth is 5mm then 3 passes will be created:

1. 10mm away from the model.

2. 5 mm away from the model.

3. On the model.

In this example, Pass Position Percent is set to 50. The tool is positioned in the middle of the surface.


New Auto Tilt optionsAuto Tilt options offer better alternatives for collision avoidance in the Composite cycle. If a collision will occur with the tool axis orientation defined for the operation, auto tilt will try alternative orientations.

In this example, Auto Tilt is not used. You can see that the tool cannot cut the vertical wall in its current tool orientation and the tool holder is in danger of colliding with the wall.

When Auto Tilt is enabled, the tool is allowed to tilt when it encounters an area that cannot be cut with the base orientation.

The rule to calculate alternative tool orientations is set by Auto Tilt Mode.

Limit Passes to Stock is used to limit rough passes to the stock limit. When this option is set to Yes, rough passes are not created outside the stock model.

X When rough passes are activated, only the Bridge link is available and only the Vertical approach is available.


Across

The tool can tilt around an axis defined by the tangent to the moving direction.

Along

The tool can tilt along an axis defined by the tangent to the moving direction.

Free

The tool can tilt around the tool center in any direction.

Around Axis

The tool can tilt around a given reference axis. In this example, the tool is allowed to tilt around the X axis.

Along Axis

The tool can tilt along a given reference axis. In this example, the tool is allowed to tilt along the Y axis.

Maximum Tilt Angle

This angle sets the maximum rotation allowed from the reference orientation.


Enhanced 5-Axis Ruled Swarf cycle

The 5-Axis Swarf cycle from ESPRIT 2009 has been renamed and improved. It is now called 5-Axis Ruled Swarf because this operation requires a Ruled feature as a guide.

The 2010 cycle offers new options for the tool orientation along the ruled feature.

Profiles SynchronizationThe profile synchronization controls the way the upper profile and the lower profile of the ruled feature are synchronized.

Use Ruled Match Lines

This mode corresponds to the default mode in ESPRIT 2009.

ESPRIT uses the match lines from the selected Ruled feature to control the orientation of the tool along the wall. In between 2 match lines, the tool moves with a constant speed to reach the next match line simultaneously on the upper and on the lower profile.

In the example below, orange segments show the synchronizations between the two profiles. In between 2 match lines, the tool reaches the middle position of the upper profile at the same time it reaches the middle position of the lower profile.

Perpendicular to Lower Curves

This mode ignores the match lines of the ruled feature.

ESPRIT creates its own match lines by creating segments between the 2 profiles that are perpendicular to the lower profile.

The orange segments show the synchronization between the two profiles. The segments are all perpendicular to the lower profile.


Radial Around Axis


ESPRIT creates its own match lines by creating segments between the 2 profiles that are radial to the given reference axis (segments created by intersection of a plane going through the reference axis and the 2 profiles.)

Perpendicular to Axis


ESPRIT creates its own match lines by creating segments between the 2 profiles that are in a plane perpendicular to the given reference axis.

This mode is useful for 4-axis programming. It forces the tool to be in a plane perpendicular to the reference axis.

If synchronization is perpendicular to the rotary axis, the tool stays perpendicular to the rotary axis and the tool path is a strict 4-axis cut.

Angle LimitationTwo options are available:

• No Limit: The tool axis is free to assume the slope defined by the profile synchronization

• Fixed Angle With: The tool axis will keep a fixed slope relative to the reference axis. When using this option the upper profile is ignored.

X Complete information about the 5-Axis Ruled Swarf cycle is available in ESPRIT Help. Look for ‘5-Axis Ruled Swarf Milling’ in the index.


New SolidMill Tradit ional technology

Now that all input is stored with the technology, new machining parameters have been added to allow the selection of elements from the technology page.

Consistent General, Strategy, and Links tabsAll SolidMill technology is more consistent with an improved General tab and new tabs for Strategy and Links.

The General tab contains all the general information about the operation such as the tool, the feeds and speeds, the operation name, and a comment area.

The Strategy tab contains the machining parameters that affect the tool path. These are the same parameters as ESPRIT 2009 arranged in a more logical way.


The Links tab contains the parameters that affect the way the tool moves in and out of the part and within the part.

Enhanced depth selectionIn ESPRIT 2009, if you wanted to select a point to define the total depth or the start depth, the point had to exist in the document. When working with a solid model, the user had to smash the solid in order to allow the selection of a point.

In ESPRIT 2010, the user can now digitize a point on the solid (vertex) to define the Start Depth or the Total Depth.

Facing technologyThe new facing interface is divided into four tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Islands

• Links

New Islands tab

The new Islands tab lets the user select all the islands that must be avoided by the tool path. This tab is only visible if the user set the parameter “Include Islands” to Yes. Include Islands is located on the Strategy tab.

When “Include Islands” is set to No, the Islands tab will be hidden and ESPRIT will create a tool path with no consideration for islands.

X If the input feature is a Feature Set (features contained in a folder), the facing operation does not allow the user to select any islands other than the islands contained in the Feature Set. Therefore the parameter “Include Islands” and the Islands tab will be hidden.

When “Include Islands” is set to Yes, the user can select Island Features, Non Cross Pocket Features, and Cross Pocket Features. To select a feature, click in the area corresponding to the type of island and then select the feature in the document. You can add as many features as you want. The name of the object is displayed followed by its element number: “Object Name (element number)”.


X Now that the machining interface is integrated into the Project Manager, the user can select features either in the work area or from the Feature Manager.

Since the new Interface shows the feature selected for the island, the user can now add or remove the features from the technology interface when editing an existing operation. The user can also turn on or off the “Include Islands” parameter on an existing operation.

Valid input for Facing operations

Facing technology supports the following types of features:

• Chains

• Feature Sets

• Feature Groups

With the new Pocket Feature Recognition, the Facing interface also supports the selection of the following sub-elements from a solid model:

• Face

• Loop

When a face or loop is selected, ESPRIT will automatically create the feature for the operation based on the selected face(s). If the user selects multiple faces (not connected), ESPRIT will create a feature per face and will group them into a feature group.

In the following example, two separate faces are selected.


Pocketing technologyThe new pocketing interface is divided into seven tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Pocket

• Rough

• Wall Finish

• Floor Finish

• Links

The Strategy tab

The display of the Rough, Wall Finish, and Floor Finish tabs is controlled on the Strategy tab. These tabs will only display when the corresponding parameter is set to Yes.

New Wall Finish Pass parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, in order to enable a Wall Finish Pass on the Pocket cycle, the user had to set the number of wall finish passes to a value greater than zero.

When the Facing command is clicked, ESPRIT creates a chain feature for each face and places them in a feature group.

ESPRIT then applies the operation to both features.


In ESPRIT 2010, the user can control whether or not to create a finish pass using the parameter “Wall Finish Pass”. When this parameter is set to Yes, ESPRIT will then automatically show the Wall Finish tab.

The Pocket tab

The Pocket tab contains the advanced options for the Pocketing cycle such as the Taper, Open Pocketing, and Island Features.

The Open Pocketing group of parameters is hidden if the input feature is not an open pocket feature.

The Island Features parameter is hidden if the user selects a feature set as input since the tool path will automatically find the islands from the feature set.

New Island Features parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, when creating a pocket operation from a chain feature, the user had to select the chains describing the islands after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the boundary feature is selected as input for the pocket and then the user can add the island features using the new Island Features parameter.

X When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically set the parameter to the selected islands.

Since the new interface shows the features selected for the islands, the user can now add/remove the feature islands from the technology interface when editing an existing operation.

New Entry Points parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, the Pocketing cycle allowed the user to select one or more entry points for each cavity after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the selection of the point(s) for the entry/exit has been changed to introduce a new way of selecting multiple points.

The selection of the point is now split into two categories:

• Define an entry point from a single point

• Define multiple entry points from a PTOP feature

In cases where the user only needs to define one entry point, ESPRIT will let you either enter manually the X, Y coordinate of the Entry Point, or select an existing point/vertex in the document.

In cases where the user needs to select multiple entry points (usually one per cavity), the user will have to create a PTOP feature first (each point of the PTOP will be an entry point).

In the ESPRIT 2010 interface, when the user selects an entry mode that requires an entry point, the new interface will show the new parameter “From Predefined Points” to prompt the user whether the entry point will be from an existing PTOP feature or from a single point.

Def ine a single entry point

To define a single entry point, set “From Predefined Points” to No. ESPRIT will then show the new control “Entry Point X, Y”. The user can either select a point in the graphic area using the selection arrow or manually enter the X, Y coordinates of the point.


X The coordinates of the point are expressed in the Feature Work Plane.

Def ine mult iple entry points

To define multiple entry points from a PTOP feature, set “From Predefined Points” to Yes. ESPRIT will then show the new control “Predefined Points”. The user can select a PTOP feature in the graphic area using the selection arrow.

Valid input for Pocketing operations

Pocketing technology supports the following types of features:

• Chains

• Feature Sets

• Feature Groups

With the new Pocket Feature Recognition, the Pocketing interface also supports the selection of the following sub-elements from a solid model:

• Face

• Loop

The user can now select the faces or face loops of the pocket before loading the operation technology without having to create a feature first. ESPRIT will automatically create the feature for the operation based on the selected face(s). If the user selects multiple faces (not connected), ESPRIT will create a feature per face and will group them into a feature group.

X When selecting multiple connected faces, make sure the active work plane corresponds to the direction of the machining. Please see the section on Pocket Feature Recognition for more information.

Trochoidal Pocketing technologyThe new trochoidal interface is divided into four tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Pocket

• Links

The Trochoidal Pocketing cycle has new parameters for:

• Island Features on the Pocket tab (the same as the Pocketing cycle)

• Entry points on the Links tab (the same as the Pocketing cycle)


Contouring technologyThe new contouring interface is divided into five tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Finish

• Advanced

• Links

New Trim Feature parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, when creating a contouring operation with the trim feature option, the user had to select the chain feature describing the trim profile after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the feature for the contour is selected first and then the user can add the the trim feature using the new “Trim Feature” parameter on the Advanced tab. The feature is selected by clicking the selection arrow and then selecting the feature in the work area or from the Feature Manager.

X The Trim Feature parameter will be visible only if the user selects the trimming option “Trim Feature”, otherwise it will be hidden.

When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically set the parameter to the selected trim feature.

Since the new interface shows the feature selected for the trim feature, the user can now add/remove the trim feature from the technology interface when editing an existing operation.

New Lead- In/Out Point parameters

In ESPRIT 2009, when creating a contouring operation with the Position option for the Lead-In or Lead-Out, the user had to select the Lead-In/Out points after the dialog was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, if the user selects a Lead-In or Lead-Out that requires a point, ESPRIT will then show the new control “Lead-In Point X, Y” or “Lead-Out Point X,Y”. The user can either select a point in the graphic area using the selection arrow or manually enter the X, Y coordinates of the point.

X The coordinates are expressed in the Feature Work Plane.

Valid input for Trochoidal Pocketing operations

Trochoidal Pocketing supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Sets

• Feature Groups

• Faces

• Loops


When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically load the Lead-In/Out position of the ESPRIT 2009 file.

New Finish Pass parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, in order to enable a Finish Pass on the contouring cycle, the user had to set the number of finish passes to a value greater than zero.

In ESPRIT 2010, the user can control whether or not to create a finish pass using the parameter “Finish Pass” on the Strategy tab. ESPRIT will then automatically show the Finish tab.

Valid input for Contouring operations

Contouring supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Groups

• Faces

• Loops

Limitat ions when faces or loops are selected as input

Feature recognition with the Contouring command is based on Pocket Feature Recognition. For this reason, the user cannot select faces that represent an open profile since this is not supported.

On an open profile, Pocket Feature Recognition will fail. A feature will not be created.


However, in this case Pocket Feature Recognition will create an open pocket and the operation will succeed.

Pocket Feature Recognition always creates a “Pocket Feature”. Therefore, there are some rules to follow when selecting faces before creating a contouring operation.

When selecting only the side walls of islands, Pocket Feature Recognition will ignore the top of the island and create a Pocket feature (Material Removal = Inside). Since some defaults in the contouring cycle use the material removal property, you should make sure all the machining parameters are correct or select different faces.

When selecting all faces of the islands, Pocket Feature Recognition will create an island feature (Material Removal = Outside). This is the correct way to select the faces.

When selecting all faces of the island including the bottom open face, Pocket Feature Recognition will create an open pocket feature. This type of feature is not supported by the Contouring cycle; ESPRIT will fail to launch the technology page.


Rest Machining technologyThe new rest machining interface is divided into three tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Links

The Strategy tab contains the machining parameters for the rest machining cycle such as the cutting strategy, depths, area clearing, and corner clearing.

No new parameters have been added to this cycle in ESPRIT 2010.

Valid input for Rest Machining operations

Rest Machining supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Sets

• Feature Groups

• Operations

Drilling technologyThe new drilling interface is divided into only two tabs:

• General

• Drill

Valid input for Dril l ing operations

Drilling supports the following types of input:

• PTOP features

• Feature Groups

• Faces

• Loops

Faces and loops as input for Dril l ing operations

When faces or loops are selected before the Drilling command is clicked, ESPRIT will run Hole Feature Recognition before launching the drilling technology page. Depending on the Maximum Diameter parameter in the Feature Parameters dialog a PTOP feature may not be created, causing the drilling technology page to fail.

Select ing the faces of holes

When creating a new drilling operation, the user can select the faces of the holes either from the CAD Feature tree or directly from the graphic area. ESPRIT will then automatically create a PTOP feature from the selection.

Hole Feature Recognition creates the PTOP features from the selected faces.


X An easy way to group the faces of holes is to use the Grouping Properties option for Holes in a solid body or the Revolved Faces option for a selected loop or face.

Select ing holes on a cylindrical face

When the holes are on a cylindrical face and the user does not have the CAD Feature tree, it is sometime easier to select the wrap face that contains the holes rather than manually select the faces of the holes.

Hole Feature Recognition creates the PTOPS from the loops that belong to the selected face.

Select ing holes on a planar face

When the user does not have the CAD Feature tree, it is sometimes easier to select the top face that contains the holes rather than manually select the faces of the holes.

Hole Feature Recognition creates the PTOPS from the loops that belong to the selected face.

Select ing holes from loops

Hole Feature Recognition supports loops as input. The user can select the loop directly above the hole before launching the drilling operation. ESPRIT will then find the hole below the loop and feed it to the drilling cycle.

X Loops are not highlighted in the graphic area. In the example below, all four hole loops are selected.

Spiraling technologyThe new spiraling interface is divided into three tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Links



The spiraling cycle will use the new Lead-In Point/Lead-Out Point parameters in order to define the points for the lead-in and lead-out of the spiraling pocket.

Valid input for Spiraling operations

Spiraling supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• PTOP features

• Feature Groups

• Faces

• Loops

Since this operation supports both chain features and PTOP features, ESPRIT will run Pocket Feature Recognition as well as Hole Feature Recognition on the selected faces or loops. Depending on the Maximum Diameter parameter in the Feature Parameters dialog, you may get a PTOP or a chain.

Since the Maximum Hole Diameter is 30 mm in this example, the hole with a radius of 14 mm will be created as a PTOP and the 35 mm radius hole as a chain.

Limitat ion on feature recognit ion

If the feature created by Hole or Pocket Feature Recognition is not suitable for the Spiraling technology, ESPRIT will return an error message. For example, if the selected face will not create a cylindrical profile, ESPRIT will not use the selected face.


Threading technologyThe new threading interface is divided into three tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Links

Valid input for Threading operations

Threading supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• PTOP features

• Feature Groups

• Faces

• Loops

Manual Milling technologyThe new manual milling interface is divided into only two tabs:

• General

• Manual

Valid input for Manual Mill ing operations

When creating a manual operation, the user does not have to select any input. ESPRIT will automatically ignore all the selected items when launching the manual milling technology page. The user will be prompted to select the tool path elements when the page is validated.

After the user clicks the OK button, the technology will stay open until the user is done with the tool path selection and clicks Cycle Stop.

X The user can modify the technology page as needed even during the tool path selection.

Wire Frame technologyThe new drilling interface is divided into only two tabs:

• General

• Wire Frame

New Drive Curve parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, when creating a wire frame operation, the user had to select the drive curve chain after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the basic curve feature is selected first and then the user can add the drive curve feature using the new Drive Curve parameter.

When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically set the parameter to the selected Drive Curve.

Since the new Interface shows the feature selected for the Drive Curve, the user can now modify the Drive Curve feature from the technology interface when editing an existing operation.

Valid input for Wire Frame Mill ing operations

Wire frame milling supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Groups


New SolidMill Production technology

Like the SolidMill Traditional technology, SolidMill Production cycles have been updated with an enhanced General tab and the new Strategy and Links tabs.

In addition, a new Wrap tab has been added that contains parameters for rotary machining.

Wrap Pocketing technologyThe new wrap pocketing interface is divided into seven tabs:

• General

• Wrap

• Strategy

• Rough

• Wall Finish

• Floor Finish

• Links

New Wall Finish Pass parameter

In ESPRIT 2009, finishing passes on the walls could be created only when the number of passes was set to a value greater than zero.

In ESPRIT 2010, the Wrap Pocketing cycle uses the new Wall Finish Pass parameter on the Strategy tab to activate/deactivate the Wall Finish Pass.

In addition, the Floor Finish tab displays only when the Floor Finish Pass parameter is set to Yes.


New Island Features parameter

Like the Pocketing cycle, the Wrap Pocketing cycle uses the new Island Features parameter in order to define the islands of the pocket.

New Entry Points parameter

The Wrap Pocketing technology allows the user to select an entry point from an existing point in the document.

The input of the entry point for the wrap pocketing operation is either a PTOP or a 3D point.

X The coordinates of the point are expressed in the global XYZ.

Cylindrical Interpolat ion and Cutter Compensation

Since, in ESPRIT 2010, all the parameters that are not used are hidden from the user, here is the rule on how to set wrap compensation for wall finish passes.

• Cylindrical Interpolation on the Wrap tab is available only when Wall Type is set to “Radial Tool Axis”

• Cutter compensation on the Wall Finish tab is only available when Cylindrical Interpolation is set to Yes, otherwise it is hidden


Valid input for Wrap Pocketing operations

Wrap Pocketing supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Sets

• Feature Groups

Wrap Contouring technologyThe new wrap contouring interface is divided into five tabs:

• General

• Wrap

• Strategy

• Advanced

• Links

Cylindrical Interpolat ion

Cylindrical Interpolation and Cutter Comp NC in ESPRIT are only available in the cylindrical plane (all moves must be wrapped) and therefore they are not compatible with an axis offset (Radial Tool Axis only).

Since, in ESPRIT 2010, all the parameters that are not used are hidden from the user, here is the rule on how to set the wrap compensation.

• Cutter Compensation on the Strategy tab is only available when Cylindrical Interpolation is set to Yes, otherwise it is hidden

• Cylindrical Interpolation is available only under the following conditions:

• Move Type on the Wrap tab is set to Radial Tool Axis

• Wrap Lead-In Move and Wrap Lead-Out Move (on the Links tab) are set to Yes


Valid input for Wrap Contouring operations

Wrap Contouring supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Groups

Wrap Drilling technologyThe new wrap drilling interface is divided into only two tabs:

• General

• Drill

Valid input for Wrap Dril l ing operations

Wrap Drilling supports the following types of input:

• PTOP features

• Feature Groups

• Faces

• Loops

When faces or loops are selected before launching the Wrap Drilling technology, ESPRIT will run Hole Feature Recognition on the selected faces/loops. Depending on the Maximum Diameter parameter in the Feature Parameters dialog a PTOP feature might not be created, causing the wrap drilling technology page to fail.


When a wrap drilling operation is created on the face of the stock, you can select either the face that contains the holes or the faces of the holes.

In order to create a wrap drilling operation on the diameter, all the holes must be connected into one PTOP feature. However, when selecting multiple holes on a diameter, Hole Feature Recognition will create one PTOP per hole. As a result, wrap drilling will not work (ESPRIT will try to apply the wrap drilling operation on each hole).

It is recommended not to use faces as input when creating a wrap drilling operation on the diameter. Instead, create hole features connected with one PTOP using manual selection of the face.

Rotary Face Pocketing, Rotary Face ContouringThe new Rotary Face Pocketing and Contouring interface/inputs are identical to the Pocketing and Contouring interface/inputs.

The only difference is the Rotary Machining group on the Strategy tab to define the polar interpolation.

Legacy Wrap PocketingThe new legacy wrap pocketing interface is divided into three tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Links

New Entry/Exit Point parameters

The Legacy Wrap Pocketing technology allows the user to select an entry point from an existing point in the document.

The input of the entry point for legacy wrap pocketing is a 3D point when Auto Positioning is set to No.


New Island Feature parameter

The Legacy Wrap Pocketing cycle uses the new Island Feature parameter in order to define the islands of the pocket.


Legacy Wrap ContouringThe new legacy wrap contouring interface is divided into four tabs:

• General

• Strategy

• Advanced

• Links


The Legacy Wrap Contouring technology allows the user to select Lead-In/Out points from existing points in the document.

The input of the entry point for the Legacy Wrap Contouring operation is a 3D point.


When an ESPRIT 2009 file is opened, ESPRIT 2010 will automatically load the Lead-In/Out Position.

New Star t /End Element parameters

In ESPRIT 2009, when creating a legacy wrap contouring operation with the trim Start/End Condition, the user had to select the Start/End Condition element after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the user can select the Start/End Element directly from the Legacy Wrap Contouring interface. The Start/End Element control will be visible only if the user selects the option “Up To Edge” or “Overcut Past Edge”.

When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically set the parameter to the selected Start/End Condition Element.

Since the new interface shows the object selected for the Start/End Condition, the user can now add/remove the Start/End Condition Element from the technology interface when editing an existing operation.

Valid input for Legacy Wrap Pocketing operations

Legacy Wrap Pocketing supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Sets

• Feature Groups


Valid input for Wrap Contouring operations

Wrap Contouring supports the following types of input:

• Chain features

• Feature Groups


New SolidMill FreeForm technology

Like the SolidMill Traditional technology, SolidMill FreeForm cycles have been updated with an enhanced General tab and the new Strategy and Links tabs.

In addition, FreeForm cycles have new Covering and Limits tabs.

New Covering and Limits tabsIn ESPRIT 2010, all feature covering options have been moved to a single tab called “Covering”. The Covering tab contains all covering options available for the cycle.

This tab is only visible if the user sets the parameter “Feature Covering” to Yes on the Strategy tab.


The Limits tab contains the parameters that define the boundary of the tool path as well as the stock automation parameters.

New feature selection for all FreeForm cyclesAll SolidMill and SolidMillTurn Freeform technology requires the selection of a FreeForm feature before launching the technology. FreeForm features can be selected only in the Feature Manager.

FreeForm features are not displayed like other graphic elements of ESPRIT. FreeForm features appear only when selected or when edited. The work plane of the FreeForm feature is displayed with the feature itself.

Enhanced Top/Bottom Z Limit selectionIn ESPRIT 2009, if you wanted to select a point to define the top and bottom Z limit, the point had to exist in the document. Therefore, when dealing with a solid model, the user had to smash the solid in order to select a point.

In ESPRIT 2010, you can now digitize a point on the solid (vertex) to define the Top and Bottom Z Limit.


New PTOP feature selection for entry movesWhen the user selected the entry mode “Plunge at PTOP Feature” or “Helical at PTOP Feature” in ESPRIT 2009, the user was prompted to select the PTOP feature for the entry movement after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, if the entry mode requires a PTOP feature, the new interface will show the control “Ptop Feature” to let the user select the entry PTOP from the graphic area using the arrow button.

New parameters for boundary featuresIn ESPRIT 2009, when the user set “Boundary Contour” to Feature, the user had to select the Boundary Feature and the Boundary Island Feature after the interface was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, when “Boundary Contour” requires a boundary and islands, ESPRIT will show the controls “Boundary Feature” and “Boundary Island Features” to let the user select the features in the graphic area.

X When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically define the boundary and boundary islands features in the technology page.

Since the new interface now allows the user to select the boundary features, the user can modify the boundary contour when editing a technology page (the boundary contour parameter was grayed out in ESPRIT 2009).

New parameters for Stock AutomationIn ESPRIT 2009, when stock automation was used, the user had to select the previous operations for the stock automation after the technology was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, if stock automation is enabled and the parameter “All Previous Operations” is disabled, the new interface will show the control “Previous Operations” to let the user select the operation(s) used for the stock automation in the graphic area.

X When importing an ESPRIT 2009 file, ESPRIT will automatically define the previous operations in the technology page.

Since the new interface now allows the user to select the previous operation, the user can modify the stock automation options (all Stock Automation parameters were grayed out in ESPRIT 2009).


New Tool Motion Pattern parameters for FinishingIn ESPRIT 2009, the Finishing cycle prompted the user to select the tool motion element required for the tool path calculation depending on the selected tool motion pattern. The selection of those elements was done after the technology was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the new interface shows the new selection parameters according to the selected tool motion pattern.

The new interface also allows the user to modify the tool motion pattern as well as the required tool motion element when editing an existing operation (Tool Motion Pattern was grayed out in ESPRIT 2009).

When Tool Motion is set to “Translation”, “Spiral”, or “Spiral Out”, the new interface will show the new Profile control to let the user select the translation profile (Arc, Segment, Circle or Chain Feature) or spiral profile (Arc, Circle or Chain Feature).

When Tool Motion is set to “Normal”, the new interface will show the new Profile control to let the user select the Base Element Profile (Arc, Segment, Circle or Chain Feature) and the “Drive Segment” control to select the drive segment.

When Tool Motion is set to “Rotation”, the new interface will show the new Profile control to let the user select the Profile (Arc, Segment, Circle or Chain Feature) and the “Center of Rotation” control to select the center of rotation element (Line or Point).

When Tool Motion is set to “Offset” or “Offset Out”, the new interface will show the new Profile control to let the user select the Profile (Arc, Segment, Circle or Chain Feature).

When Tool Motion is set to “Parametric”, “Parametric Spiral”, “Parametric Feature”, or “Parametric Spiral Feature”, the new interface will show the new Drive Surface control to let the user select the Solid Face or Surface required for the parametric tool path.


Since the selection of the “Surface Vector along which to machine” is not available in ESPRIT 2010, the user has to describe the machining direction and cutting direction on the parametric surface using three new controls:

• Cutting Direction

• Reverse Cutting Direction

• Reverse Step Over Direction

X The dynamic interface in ESPRIT 2010 will display the Parametric Motion parameters only when Tool Motion Pattern is set to a parametric pattern.

To select the Drive Surface, click the selection arrow and select a surface or solid face in the work area. The drive surface must belong to the model being cut. The U (red) and V (green) cutting directions are displayed on the selected drive surface. A white arrow shows the normal direction of the drive surface.

The main Cutting Direction can be set to either the U Direction or V Direction of the drive surface. U Direction cuts in the same direction as the red arrow. V Direction cuts in the same direction as the green arrow.

If U Direction is selected then V is the step over direction. If V Direction is selected then U is the step over direction.

By default the tool follows the main cutting direction in the direction of the arrow. Set “Reverse Cutting Direction” to Yes to reverse the cutting direction.

By default the step over goes in the same direction as the arrow on the screen. If “Reverse Step Over Direction” is set to Yes, the step over goes in the opposite direction.


When Tool Motion is set to “Morph In”, “Morph Out”, “Morph Spiral In” or “Morph Spiral Out”, the new interface will show new controls to let the user select the Outside Profile (Arc, Circle or Chain Feature) and the Inside Profile (Arc, Segment, Circle or Chain Feature).

New selection of projection elementIn ESPRIT 2009, the Projection Finishing operation prompted the user to select the Project Element required for the tool path calculation after the technology was closed.

In ESPRIT 2010, the user selects the project element for the tool path directly from the new interface using the Project Element control.

Conversion of old f ilesWhen a file from a previous version of ESPRIT is loaded with 3D machining, ESPRIT will:

1. Convert all 3D machining geometric inputs to the new technology page parameters.

2. Attempt to create and assign FreeForm features for each operation. ESPRIT will share FreeForm features when possible (same feature data, work coordinate and work plane).

After loading the operations, the Feature Manager will either show no difference if ESPRIT could not determine the FreeForm feature or it will show the newly created FreeForm feature as the parent object to the operation(s).

When ESPRIT cannot create a FreeForm feature from the operation, it is because a surface was used that came from a Face of a solid. A rebuild will correct this unless the solid has been previously deleted.

Process Manager, KnowledgeBase, and APIIn ESPRIT 2010, all FreeForm cycles behave like other feature-based cycles of ESPRIT:

• Feature Manager: You can load and apply a process on a FreeForm feature directly from the Feature Manager

• Process Manager: It is possible to apply a process on a FreeForm feature using the Process Manager

• KBM: FreeForm features and FreeForm cycles are fully compatible with the KnowledgeBase

• API: FreeForm cycles can be created through the API


New options for face propagation

The new Pocket Feature Recognition is based on new options in Grouping Properties for pocket propagation in ESPRIT 2010. Use these two new propagation methods to select solid faces in a more efficient way.

In addition, a parametric option has been added that makes it easier to select solid faces for FreeForm features.

How it works• Visible Faces in Loop groups all the faces visible within a boundary in one direction

• Visible Faces in Loop also allows the selection of a chain feature to define the boundary

• Wall Faces of Bottom Face groups all wall faces adjacent to the selected bottom face and will stop as soon as it reaches a horizontal face

• Along Parametric groups all faces that share parametric lines

New options in Grouping Proper tiesThe new Pocket Feature Recognition in ESPRIT 2010 now supports faces as input to create a feature. The easiest way to select multiple faces in ESPRIT is to use the propagation functions (also called Grouping Properties).

The propagations commands are available in the Grouping Properties dialog from the Edit tool bar.

When the user holds down the Shift key during the selection process, multiple solid faces will be selected automatically based on the selection object.

In ESPRIT 2010, there are two new propagation options created for Pocket Feature Recognition:

• Visible Faces in Loop when a face loop is selected

• Wall Faces of Bottom Face when a bottom face is selected

There is also a new option to select parametric faces for 3-axis and 5-axis milling. This option replaces the Feature Propagation Parameters that were available in the Options dialog in ESPRIT 2009. Now all propagation functions are located in Grouping Properties.


Find the visible faces within a boundaryBy definition, a pocket feature represents what a tool can machine in a given direction. Since Pocket Feature Recognition has been improved to allow the selection of faces, the input faces for the feature recognition must follow the same rule. The tool can indeed only machine what it can reach in a given direction: the visible faces. The new Propagation method “Visible faces in loop” allows the user to group all the faces visible within a boundary in one direction.

ESPRIT selects all the visible faces within the selected loop excluding the bottom faces because they are not visible in the given direction.

Direction of propagation

When running propagation with the “Visible faces in Loop” option, ESPRIT needs to get the direction of the propagation in order to define whether or not a face is visible. When selecting a loop as input for the propagation, ESPRIT will get the face that contains the selected loop, and then from the face get the direction of the propagation.

Visible faces from a 3D loop

When selecting a planar loop, the face that contains the loop is planar too. Therefore, the normal of the face is the direction of the propagation.

However, when the selection is a 3D loop, the face does not have a constant normal along the surfaces. Therefore, ESPRIT will use the active work plane as the direction of propagation.

Par tial visible faces

By definition, the “Visible faces in Loop” propagation is selecting all the faces visible within a boundary. In the event where a face is partially in the boundary, the propagation will also select the face. Due to the complexity of some CAD models, you may want to unselect this partial face when using Feature Recognition.


Visible faces from a chain feature

“Visible Faces in Loop” also works with chain features. All visible faces within the chain are selected. When there is no loop that goes around the model, this selection method is the easiest way to select the faces without doing it manually.

Find faces that share parametric linesIn ESPRIT 2009, the options for grouping parametric faces were located on the Machining tab of the ESPRIT Options dialog. These options were used to group faces for FreeForm milling operations. Now that FreeForm operations accept FreeForm features as input, the Feature Propagation options are unnecessary.

In ESPRIT 2010, the Along Parametric option has been moved from the Options dialog to Grouping Properties. This option groups faces along parametric lines.

When a face is selected with this option, the parametric flow lines are displayed on the face. Faces will be selected in the direction of the parametric flow lines.

Find the adjacent walls from a bottom faceWhen the user needs to select the faces of an open pocket or a simple pocket, the easiest way is to select the bottom face of the pocket and run the “Wall Faces of Bottom Face” propagation.

The propagation will find all the adjacent wall faces from the selected face. The propagation will also find the bottom blend and chamfer if they exist and propagation will stop as soon as a horizontal face is reached.


To use the opposite parametric flow lines, right-click to respond No when the incorrect flow lines are displayed. Then respond Yes to select the opposite flow lines.

Along Parametric has two properties that can be used to control the selection of faces.

Maximum Tangent Angle Between Faces

By default, the tangency angle used for propagation is 15 degrees. Propagation will continue until the tangency angle between faces exceeds the maximum tangent angle. Then propagation will stop. For the part shown below, propagation stops when it reaches the face with a 30 degree angle.

Maximum Parametric Angle Between Faces

By default, the slope angle used for propagation is 30 degrees. Propagation will continue until the slope angle between faces exceeds the maximum parametric angle. Then propagation will stop. For the part shown below, propagation starts at the vertical wall and stops at the face with a 35 degree slope.

Propagation and Pocket Feature RecognitionThe new Pocket Feature Recognition is actually based on face propagation. Depending on the input selected for feature recognition, ESPRIT first runs the proper propagation on the selected input.

In the event where pocket feature recognition fails, the cause might be that propagation selected invalid faces as input.

The quickest way to fix a problem with feature recognition is to run the propagation on the same input as the pocket feature recognition, making sure that the selection is correct. Once the selection is fixed, the user can run feature recognition on the modified selection.


New sub-element selection of a chain feature

The selection of sub-elements in a chain feature has been added in ESPRIT 2010. Previously, the user could only select the entire chain.

In ESPRIT 2009, the user had to select the chain and then toggle through each sub-element in the Property Browser to change an attribute. This was a tedious task when multiple sub-elements were involved. As a result, the Feature Utilities Add-in was created to make it easier to change edges to open or closed.

Now sub-elements can be selected directly in the feature and modified quickly in the Property Browser. The primary benefit of this change is to quickly designate open edges on a chain feature for open pocketing operations.

To make open edges easier to see, they are displayed with dashed lines.

This new functionality that is built into ESPRIT makes the Feature Utilities Add-in obsolete.


Selecting multiple sub-elements has also been improved with propagation from a starting element to an ending element.

1. Select a start element.

2. Press Ctrl and select an end element.

3. Press Ctrl+Shift and select any element between the first two.

All feature sub-elements between the start and the end are grouped.

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What’s New in SolidTurnSolidTurn users will appreciate the ability to select and modify the locations for part transfers directly in the new machining technology interface. Plus, it is now easier to change the orientation of the selected turning tool.

Enhanced Turning Tool Orientation ..103

New SolidTurn technology .................. 105

Enhanced Turning Tool Orientation

After selecting a tool in a SolidTurn operation page, ESPRIT displays the tool orientation. By default this orientation is the orientation set in the tool page.

Under certain conditions, the orientation can be changed per operation.

Changing the tool orientation in ESPRIT 2009In ESPRIT 2009, the orientation of the operation page was unlocked if the turret or the spindle had a B-axis and if the B-axis milling license was active.

For a few machines, the user needed to add a ‘fake’ B-axis just to enable tool orientation changes in the operation page.


Changing the tool orientation in ESPRIT 2010In ESPRIT 2010, conditions have changed.

The tool orientation can be changed if the spindle or the turret has a rotary axis or a tool change axis that is not a C-axis (around Z-axis).

The 2 machines above do not need ‘fake’ B-axis anymore. The user is responsible for choosing an orientation that is compatible with the machine kinematics (otherwise the simulation will display the error “Cannot reach this position, need another axis”).

In this example, the lower turret has a tool change axis collinear with the X-axis. A fake B-axis was required in ESPRIT 2009 in order to change the tool orientation from 2V to 1V for cutting on the sub-spindle.

This upper turret has a 45 degree axis allowing the same tool to be used 3V or 3H.

What’s New in SolidTurn | 105

New SolidTurn technology

Now that all input is stored with the technology, new machining parameters have been added to allow the selection of elements from the technology page.

In ESPRIT 2009, the following cycles required the selection of a point after the technology page was closed. Now the point is defined directly in the technology, allowing the user to change the position of the point when editing an existing operation:

• Bar Feed: the user can now enter the bar feed position directly in the new Position X, Y, Z parameter on the Bar Feed tab

• Pickup: the user can now enter the pickup position directly in the new Position X, Y, Z parameter on the Pickup tab

• Release: the user can now enter the release position directly in the new Position X, Y, Z parameter on the Release tab

• Tailstock: the user can now enter the tailstock position directly in the new Position X, Y, Z parameter on the Tailstock tab

X When an ESPRIT 2009 file is opened, ESPRIT 2010 will automatically load the position from the ESPRIT 2009 file.

Enhanced input for the Drilling cycleIn addition to PTOP features, SolidTurn Drilling now supports the input of a face or loop. When the face or top loop of a hole is selected before launching the Drilling technology, ESPRIT will use Hole Feature Recognition to create the feature automatically.

Dynamic Inter faceThe new ESPRIT 2010 Interface is built upon a dynamic interface that will hide and show parameters based on what the user is currently changing.

The following SolidTurn cycles have been updated to hide or show parameters as they are needed.

Roughing

The Finish tab is shown only when Finish Pass is set to Yes on the Strategy tab.


Balanced Roughing

The Rough and Finish tabs are shown only when they are enabled on the Strategy tab.

Grooving


Threading

In ESPRIT 2009, the button for the Thread Database was grayed when the thread definition was set to “From Profile”. In ESPRIT 2010, the database button will be visible only if the Thread Definition is set to “From Database”.

Otherwise, the database button will be hidden.

In ESPRIT 2010, the button to access the manual thread depth input dialog will be visible only when Depth Variation is set to “Specify Depths”.

What’s New in SolidTurn | 107

Otherwise, the thread depth button will be hidden.

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What’s New in SolidWire

All of the SolidWire technology pages are completely consistent now so users know exactly where to find the parameters they need regardless of the type of EDM they are programming. Plus, owners of Charmilles machines will enjoy the fact that the parameters for command files are now located on a tab in Part Setup instead of each machining cycle. In addition, it is now much easier to insert taper changes into an EDM feature using the Property Browser instead of the Taper Change command.

New SolidWire technology .................. 109

New Charmilles Part Setup ................. 112

New Charmilles-Fanuc and Charmilles-Millenium Part Setup... 116

Enhanced taper changes on EDM features .................................................................... 118

New SolidWire technology

All SolidWire technology is more consistent with all parameters for 2-axis and 4-axis contouring and pocketing cycles arranged on four tabs regardless of machine type.


Consistent inter faceNow all EDM machine types use the same interface to group machining parameters in a consistent way.

General tab

The General tab contains all the general information about the operation such as the operation name, the machining strategy, information about the workpiece, cut-off moves, and a comment area.

What’s New in SolidWire | 111

Cut Data tab

The Cut Data tab contains the machining parameters for the primary and land cuts. This tab replaces the Contour or Pocket tabs in ESPRIT 2009.

Approaches tab

The Approaches tab contains the parameters that affect the way the wire moves in and out of the part and between skim cuts.


Advanced tab

The Advanced tab contains the parameters that give the user more control over the wire path, such as optimized wire path, taper information, and control over machine functions.

New Charmilles Part Setup

The Part Setup command for Charmilles machines has been improved to include the parameters for command files.

In ESPRIT 2009, parameters for a command file were defined for each operation.

In ESPRIT 2010, the parameters for the command file have been moved to a new tab in Part Setup. When ‘Process As Command File’ is set to Yes, the new CMD Settings tab displays. By default the tab is hidden.


Now the name of the command file and the parameters are set up only once in Part Setup.

Only the ISO file name is defined per operation on the General tab. When CMD Settings are disabled in Part Setup, the CMD File control is hidden on the technology page.

New options for Pickup ModeIn ESPRIT 2009, Pickup Mode was used to automatically position the wire with respect to the corner or center of the workpiece. The following settings were available: None, Center, Lower Left, Lower Right, Upper Right, Upper Left.

The options for Pickup Mode have been updated in ESPRIT 2010 to support the Charmilles measuring cycles.

• None: A measurement cycle is not performed

• CAL: Semi-automatic measurement of the alignment of two holes

• CEN: Automatic centering of the wire in a hole

• CRN: Automatic position of the wire in relation to the corner of a rectangular part

• EDG: Automatic positioning of the wire from a reference face


• EXC: Determines the center of a cylindrical part

• EXM: Determines the midpoint between two parallel faces

• MID: Automatic center of the wire between two parallel faces

• PAL: Measurement of the alignment error of a reference face

When Pickup Mode is set to any cycle other than None, the NC code string for the cycle displays along with the values that can be defined. When a value is entered, the NC code is updated automatically.

CAL, X, Y, R

Determines the angle between the X axis and the line linking the centers of two holes according to the rotation angle (R). X and Y values are what the machine axis will be set to at the end of the alignment cycle. R is a modal function.

CEN, X, Y, R

Determines the wire center in a hole with the electrical touches oriented according to the rotation angle (R). X and Y values are what the machine axis will be set to at the end of the centering cycle. R is used for rotation.

CRN, DX, DY, G, X, Y

Determines the corner position of a rectangular part. Corner was designed for the lower left-hand corner.

• DX = Incremental distance the wire will travel in the X axis (Modal)

• DY = Incremental distance the wire will travel in the Y axis (Modal)

• G = Spark gap (Modal)

• X and Y = Values used to describe the corner position

X If rotation is needed, the ROT (Modal) user parameter can be used.

EDG, ±X or Y (axis), X or Y (value)

Finds an edge by electrical touches in the direction defined by the sign and the axis.

• A = Axis. Axis can be set to -X, X, -Y, or Y

• X or Y = Distance along the axis.


EXC, R, D, X, Y

Determines the center of a cylindrical part by 3 external edge measurements performed 120 degrees apart according to the defined distance (D) and rotation (R).

EXM, R, D

Determines the midpoint between 2 parallel external faces of a part from 2 edge measurements made 180 degrees apart according to the defined distance (D) and rotation (R).

MID, R, X, Y

Determines the midpoint between 2 parallel faces. R is used for rotation.

PAL, D, R

Measures the alignment error of a reference face according to the defined distance (D) and the assumed angle (R).


The Part Setup command for Charmilles-Fanuc and Charmilles-Millenium machines has been improved to include the parameters for program files.

In ESPRIT 2009, parameters for a command file were defined for each operation.

In ESPRIT 2010, the parameters for the main and sub program files have been moved to a new tab in Part Setup. When ‘Process Main and Sub Files’ is set to Yes, the new CMD Settings tab displays. By default the tab is hidden.

Now the number of the main program, the travel mode, measurement cycle, and pallet changer are set up only once in Part Setup.

When an operation is created, the user only needs to define the point number on the General tab. When CMD Settings are disabled in Part Setup, the CMD File control is hidden on the technology page.

New Charmilles-Fanuc and Charmilles-Millenium Part Setup


New options for Pickup ModeIn ESPRIT 2009, Pickup Mode was used to automatically position the wire with respect to the corner or center of the workpiece. The following settings were available: None, Center, Lower Left, Lower Right, Upper Right, Upper Left.

The options for Pickup Mode have been updated in ESPRIT 2010 to support the Charmilles-Fanuc measuring cycles.

• None: A measurement cycle is not performed

• G70 Edging

• G71 Centering

• G72 Slit Centering

• G78 Corner Point

• G79 Horizontal Alignment

• G79 Circle Center Point

Additional options are provided for Charmilles-Millenium machines.

• G940 Corner Cycle

• G941 Align Edge Cycle

• G942 External Middle Cycle

• G943 External Centering Cycle

• G945 Hole Alignment Cycle


Enhanced taper changes on EDM features

In ESPRIT 2009, the only way to insert a taper change into a draft conic feature was to use the Taper Change command located on either the SolidWire Gold toolbar or on the Edit Features toolbar.

In ESPRIT 2010, taper changes can be inserted using the Property Browser. Simply select the sub-elements in the draft conic feature and change the Draft property in the Property Browser.

This method is ideal for adding a constant taper to multiple sub-elements.

The method for selecting a large group of sub-elements is quite easy.

1. Select a start element.

2. Press Ctrl and select an end element.

3. Press Ctrl+Shift and select any element between the first two.

X Refer to your machine manual for descriptions of the measuring cycles.When Pickup Mode is set to any cycle other than None, the NC code string for the cycle displays along with the values that can be defined. When a value is entered, the NC code is updated automatically.


All feature sub-elements between the start and the end are grouped.

X When a corner is isometric it does not have a Draft property. Therefore, when a group of sub-elements includes an isometric corner, the Draft property does not display in the Property Browser. This is because the Property Browser only displays properties that are shared by all the sub-elements in a group. A taper can only be inserted with the Taper Change command.

Although a gradual taper can be inserted with the Property Browser, it is recommended to use the Taper Change command for gradual tapers on multiple sub-elements. When the Property Browser is used, the taper is added to each sub-element, not the entire group of sub-elements.

To insert a gradual taper from a starting element to an ending element, the Taper Change command must be used.


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What’s New in the ESPRIT 2010 API

For those of you who like you customize ESPRIT to your unique requirements, please review all the changes to the ESPRIT Application Programming Interface (API) in the ESPRIT 2010 product.

Major Addit ions and Changes

The new functionality and enhancements in ESPRIT 2010 have prompted additions and changes to the ESPRIT API as well.

• Support for additional rotary axes configurations. Multiple rotary axes can be programmed, with the two axes that are used for any one particular Operation set with the new SetRotaryMotionAxes method. The other rotary axes are fixed via the SetRotaryAxisPosition method. Which rotary axes have been set as the motion axes and which are fixed and what their positions are can then be interrogated with the GetRotaryMotionAxes, GetRotaryAxisFixed, and GetRotaryAxisPosition methods.

• There are also new GetLinearAxes and GetRotaryAxes methods on the Operation object, so that all of the available linear and rotary axes can be retrieved without having to go through all of the CustomMachineAxes collections in the machine setup and test each CustomMachineAxis for its axis type.

• There is a new GetStartStock method to get the start stock from a file prior to simulating an Operation, and a GetEndStock to save the simulation to a file after the Operation has been simulated.

• Several methods for creating a knitting surface were added to the FeatureRecognition object in the API, including CreateKnittedSurface3Borders, CreateKnittedSurface4Borders, CreateKnittedSurfaceClosedSurface, and CreateKnittedSurfaceRadialSurface.

• A CreatePocketFeatures2 method was also added to FeatureRecognition. Unlike the previous methods for creating pocket features, this new method only requires an array of the objects on which to create the pocket as its lone argument.

• Instead of saving and opening Technology objects and processes to files, those entire entities can be dealt with as single strings. The SaveProcessToString and SaveToString methods return the strings that would correspond to an entire process or Technology object. Essentially what would be the contents of the .prc process file are returned as a String instead. The corresponding Technology objects can be recreated from those strings, then, via the OpenProcessFromString and OpenFromString methods.

• OnActivateTool and OnSelectTool events have been added to the FullSimu, Rapid3Simu, and Rapid45Simu objects used for custom simulation applications created with the EspritSimulation library.

• Several items related to stock automation have been added, including a GetStockCalculationTime method on the Operation object and OnStockCalculationAbort, OnStockCalculationEnd, OnStockCalculationError, and OnStockCalculationStart events for the Operations collection.

Technology Addit ions and Changes

• Support for all of the SolidMill Mold and SolidMillTurn Mold machining operations from ESPRIT Mold was integrated into the ESPRIT API. The corresponding Technology objects include TechMold3dContour, TechMoldBetweenCurves, TechMoldConcentricFinishing, TechMoldCornerRemachining, TechMoldFloorFinishing, TechMoldParallelPlanes, TechMoldPencilTracing, TechMoldRadial, TechMoldRoughing, TechMoldSpiral, and TechMoldZlevel for SolidMill Mold work and TechLatheMold3dContour, TechLatheMoldBetweenCurves, TechLatheMoldConcentricFinishing, TechLatheMoldCornerRemachining, TechLatheMoldFloorFinishing, TechLatheMoldParallelPlanes, TechLatheMoldPencilTracing, TechLatheMoldRadial, TechLatheMoldRoughing, TechLatheMoldSpiral, and TechLatheMoldZlevel for SolidMillTurn Mold. The TechMoldApproach and TechMoldFeedLink objects were also added to define the approach moves to and feed link moves between these operations.

• The technology for two more types of 5x simultaneous operations was also added. TechLatheMill5xImpeller and TechLatheMill5xSurfaceSwarf are the new Technology objects for the SolidMillTurn Mold 5-Axis Impeller and Surface Swarf Milling operations, while TechMill5xImpeller and TechMill5xSurfaceSwarf are the new Technology objects for the SolidMill Mold 5-Axis Impeller and Surface Swarf Milling operations.


Other Enhancements

• PropagationAlongParametric was added as another type of propagation. It is accessed through the AlongParametric property of the PropagationSetting object. All propagation related settings are available through the PropagationSettings in the Configuration.

• A RhinoFile object was added to the Configuration for support of exporting Rhino format (.3dm) CAD files.

• SolidVertex objects and a corresponding SolidVertices collection were implemented in the EspritSolids library. They are another type of SolidEntity. The EspritSolids library and all of the SolidEntity types are accessed through the SolidSession interface on the Document.

• A GetNameValuePair method was added to the TechnologyUtility to help make Technology objects easier to work with by returning both the Name and Value corresponding to a certain CL Code. A new NameValuePair structure is used for the return value from this method.

• The TechnologyUtility also has helper methods now to aid with certain complex calculations. The new methods are ComputeThreadPassNumberFromStartDepth, ComputeThreadStartDepthFromPassNumber, and GetDrillChamferDepth.

• Solids can be associated to CadFeature objects by using the new AddSolidID method to associate the ID of the solid to the CadFeature. There are also new RemoveSolidId and RemoveAllSolidIds methods.

• The new selection propagation methods PropagateByBottomFace, PropagateByChain, and PropagateByVisibleFaces have been added to the ISolidSelections object in the EspritSolids library.

Problem Fixes

• Resetting the FileName property of the Document to a null string was previously causing a crash. Now resetting the FileName causes the Windows Save dialog to appear when the Save method is called, instead of automatically resaving as the same name.

• Some of the derived inverse trigonometry functions that were copied from Microsoft’s VBA documentation and used in the CommonMath module inside the KBMRuleEvaluator project were incorrect, especially the arcsecant function (ArcSec). Those functions have been rewritten and all of the derived trigonometry and hyperbolic functions have been checked against multiple mathematical references and tested to make sure they are correct.

Updates to the Help Documentation

• Added topics for all of the new items added above, of course.

• Made minor revisions to many macros to clarify the use of the Left$, Mid$, and Right$ string manipulation functions, as Left, Mid, and Right alone were sometimes causing compilation errors due to ambiguities.

• LaunchPad 3 and 4 sections were added.

Note that the “What’s New” from versions previous to the current one can be found in the What Was New topic in the Appendix.

• Support for 4 axis no-core EDM pocketing was added for all EDM machine types through the new Technology objects TechEDM_Agie123Pocket4x, TechEDM_AgieVisionPocket4x, TechEDM_CharmillesFanucPocket4x, TechEDM_CharmillesMillenniumPocket4x, TechEDM_CharmillesOrangePocket4x, TechEDM_CharmillesOrangePocket4x, TechEDM_CharmillesPocket4x, TechEDM_FanucPocket4x, TechEDM_GenericPocket4x, TechEDM_MakinoPocket4x, TechEDM_MitsubishiPocket4x, TechEDM_OnaArionPocket4x, TechEDM_OnaPrimaPocket4x, and TechEDM_SodickPocket4x.

• Support for turn while burn EDM with rotary axis movement was added for all EDM machine types through the new Technology objects TechEDM_Agie123TurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_AgieVisionTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_CharmillesFanucTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_CharmillesMillenniumTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_CharmillesOrangeTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_CharmillesOrangeTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_CharmillesTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_FanucTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_GenericTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_MakinoTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_MitsubishiTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_OnaArionTurnWhileBurn, TechEDM_OnaPrimaTurnWhileBurn, and TechEDM_SodickTurnWhileBurn.

• In order to support the creation of all FreeForm and Mold cycles via the API and Process Manager, it was necessary to include information about all of the graphical entities that are selected or used in addition to the feature chosen. Such graphical entities are chosen for tool motion pattern and boundary information, for example, and also used for stock automation. That graphic information was implemented as specially encoded strings on the individual Technology objects. Some of those string properties include BoundaryFeature, BoundaryIslandFeatures, BoundaryProfiles, CenterOfRotation, CrossPocketFeatures, CuttingProfiles, DriveCurve, DriveSegment, EndElement, InsideProfile, IslandFeatures, LowerProfile, MachiningProfiles, NonCrossPocketFeatures, OutsideProfile, PredefinedPoints, PreviousOperations, ProjectElement, PunchProfile, StartElement, TrimFeature, and UpperProfile.

123

What’s new in the Post ProcessorFor those of you who like you customize your post processor, please review all the changes in the ESPRIT 2010 product.

Addit ions and Enhancements• Support for additional rotary axes configurations has been added. Multiple combinations of rotary axes can now be

programmed within a single ESPRIT file, with the 2 rotary axes used for motion at any particular time set on a per machining operation basis. The output of these rotary axes is done via the formatable codes ROTARYAXIS1 through ROTARYAXIS9, or ROTARYAXIS1INCREMENTAL through ROTARYAXIS9INCREMENTAL should the output need to be incremental from the previous rotary axis position.

• For machines that output G or M codes for the direction of rotary axes (where the angle value is for position only and does not signify direction), the symbolic switches ROTARYAXIS1DIRECTION through ROTARYAXIS9DIRECTION were added, where each one will switch between the corresponding codes for clockwise or counter-clockwise direction (.e.g. ROTARYAXIS1CW and ROTARYAXIS1CCW for ROTARYAXIS1DIRECTION).

• The initial position of each of the rotary axes for the next machining operation can be access using the new system variables ROTARYAXIS1NEXT through ROTARYAXIS9NEXT.

• Formatable codes XGLOBALDIM, YGLOBALDIM, and ZGLOBALDIM were added to output the global dimension coordinates.

• The ability to create secure, compiled .pst post processors was implemented. By including the new system variable keywords SECURITYOEMID, SECURITYPRODUCTID, and SECURITYPOSTNUMBER in the .asc machine format file and then compiling and distributing it as .pst.

Problem FixesThe list below describes just some of the more general items that were fixed for ESPRIT 2010. In addition, many other, more detailed, items were fixed. Those items usually involved very specific combinations of settings that produced NC code that was not 100% correct.

• There was a problem assigning tool change comments such as TOOLCHANGECOMMENT and TOOLCHANGE2COMMENT to string variables. That has been fixed to work like other comments so that now any type of comment can be assigned to a string variable.

• There was a problem with calculating the metric value for RPMATCURRENTDIAMETER that has been corrected.


125

Obsolete Operations , Product Features and Functions

This document describes the operations, product features, and functions that have been marked as obsolete in ESPRIT 2010. They have been or will be removed from the software. They are no longer supported in ESPRIT 2010.Items marked as obsolete have been replaced in functionality.

Add-insThe Feature Utilities Add-in is no longer necessary because of the improvements to Pocket Feature Recognition and the new ability to select and change the properties of sub-elements on chain features.

The following add-ins were planned for retirement in ESPRIT 2010. However, in recognition of the high customer usage of these add-ins, we have decided that these add-ins will be maintained and supported contrary to our published ESPRIT 2009 Obsolescence List.

• EDM Features Add-in: maintained

• Group Manager Add-in: maintained

• Monster Add-in: maintained

APIThe following cutting cycles are deprecated features of the API and are removed.

espTechMillContour

espTechMillPocket

espTechMillPocket1

espTechLatheMillContour

espTechLatheMillPocket

espTechLatheMillDrill

espTechLatheContour

espTechLatheRough

espTechLathePocket

espTechLatheCopyRough

espTechLatheBalanceRough

espTechLatheGroove

espTechLatheCutoff

espTechLatheThread

ESPRIT 2009 Generation Pocket Feature Recognition APIs. These will be available until the ESPRIT 2011 product.

LicMan.lib security library, this will be replaced by new security system libraries.

Features

Pocket Feature RecognitionPrior to ESPRIT 2010 Pocket Feature Recognition would run the hole recognition in addition to the pocket command. In ESPRIT 2010 the user will have to run pocket and hole recognition as separate commands.

Prior to ESPRIT 2010 Pocket Feature Recognition would run on wire frame geometry. In ESPRIT 2010 Pocket Feature Recognition will only run on solid models.


SurfacesThe following commands on the FreeForm toolbar are obsolete. The functionality exists as part of the FreeForm Feature.

• Change Surface Element Type

• Change Surface Side

• Deselect Surface

SystemESPRIT.RegistrationWizard.exe: System utility used during the installation to register add-ins, controls and dlls. Advanced users may have relied upon this utility to register their own add-ins. This system utility is no longer necessary.

User Inter faceThe following settings on the Machining tab of the Tools » Options dialog are obsolete:

• Tech Page Defaults – Icons: This setting controlled whether or not the technology pages would show a bitmap for certain enumerated parameters or a simple text list. This option is removed. ESPRIT will show the bitmaps.

• 3D Milling Input: All settings with the exception of the Stock Transparency have been replaced by the FreeForm Feature.

• Feature Propagation Parameters: All settings have been removed and are replaced with the Grouping Properties parameters.

Obsolete Operations in ESPRIT 2010

ESPRIT 2009 Technology PagesThe technology dialogs that were used to create operations in ESPRIT 2009, with the exception of the new Mold 5-Axis cycles, have been replaced. All operations will be created in the interface that was created for the 5-axis cycles. All pages will be converted to this style. It is not possible to revert back to the previous ESPRIT style.

Verb – Noun Operation CreationPrevious versions of ESPRIT supported the idea that you could pick the operation first and then the feature where you wanted to apply the operation, commonly referred to as Verb (operation)-Noun (feature). With the new ESPRIT 2010 operation interface all operations will be processed as Noun (feature) and then Verb (operation). If a feature is not selected before the operation, you will be prompted to select or create a feature first.

SecurityDemo Licenses: Anonymous, unlimited and unregistered demo use of the software is no longer possible. All installations will require registration and activation of the software before use of the software is granted.

SimulationComparison: Simulation function that would compare the stock against the target model. Last support version will be ESPRIT 2010.

Simulation Parameters » Options » Simulation Type – Rapid: Displays a rapid simulation of 3 axis milling. Last supported version will be ESPRIT 2010.

Simulation Parameters » Options » Simulation Type – Rapid Index: Displays a rapid simulation of multi-axis milling. Last supported version will be ESPRIT 2010.

Date post:	28-Apr-2015
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