ICAM Releases Virtual Machine® V18 Featuring Material Removal

ICAM Technologies Corporation announces the release of Virtual Machine® V18, the latest version of its machine tool simulation solution. Version 18 now supports Material Removal / Verification capabilities for in-process stock collision and gouge detection within a completely simulated machining environment.

Implementing Virtual Machine® with CAM-POST®, ICAM’s NC post-processing development and deployment product, provides a graphical NC post-processing and machine simulation workbench that enables NC programmers to optimize and test programs during post-processing. The benefit to the end-user is the ability to maximize machine productivity while increasing manufacturing process efficiency.

Virtual Machine’s Material Removal / Verification feature, available for 3-axis and 5-axis machining applications, allows NC programmers to compare the processed stock model to the original CAD / CAM design. Virtual Machine computes in-process stock geometry to identify, list and display surface gouges, excess material, inaccessible areas and rapid-motion collisions at any time during the post-processing and verification phase.

Other new and enhanced Virtual Machine V18 features include:

• New tool definition and functions to support probe simulation
• Head attachments can now be defined, modeled and loaded/unloaded during simulation
• New component grouping feature simplifies model definition and utilization
• Improved collision detection definition
• Better control over “time-line” playback function
• Possibility to compare differences between two revisions of a model

ICAM’s complete NC manufacturing product line including Virtual Machine V18 is now available for 64-bit processors and supports Windows Vista^®. The ICAM database supports extended model names and virtually unlimited saved model revisions.

“Implementing Material Removal to our integrated CAM-POST / Virtual Machine product provides an all-in-one post-processing, verification and optimization solution to our customers,” said Brian Francis, ICAM’s Director of Research and Development. “In addition to the collision detection and over-travel avoidance functionalities inherent to Virtual Machine, customers can now post-process, verify in-process stock geometry to test for surface gouges and stock crashes within a single user interface.”