This would be a good one for a FAQ, if anybody's keeping track... Functionality:
Production Milling (pmill) while it does model in 3 dimensions, is intended primarily for prismatic shapes (horizontal and vertical surface areas). Pmill is commonly but erroneously referred to as 2 1/2 axis product. The definition of 2 1/2 axis support is that the software or CNC, while having 3 axis of motion, can not move in more than 2 axis simultaneously. Pmill will support 3 axis simultaneous movement in the X,Y & Z. Examples of this would be a non planar ramping moves or a 3 dimensional helix. Pmill also will support 4th and 5th axis indexing moves. (while SmartCAM does do 5 axis positioning, it doesn't do it very well) Advanced Production Milling (amill) retains all of the functionality of pmill but is enhanced to support "single" surface machining capability and rotary machining. Amill will support 3 axis simultaneous movement in the X,Y & Z linear axis as well either the A, B or C rotary axis in conjunction with any 2 linear axis. Amill is also capable of creating gouge free tool path (referred to as a mesh) for a variety of surface types. Amill can import ACIS solids (displayed as surfaces) and NURBS surfaces but has no capability to create or edit a surface or solid. A rendering function allows these surfaces to be rendered for visual verification. Construction geometry can be extracted from surfaces and solids and used in machining. Amill can not however utilize the actual surfaces for single or multi-surface machining. Free Form Machining (ffm) retains all of the functionality of amill but is enhanced to support "multiple" surface machining capabilities. Ffm is also capable of creating and editing a variety of NURBS surface types. File compatibility issues: All milling Job Operations Setup (jos) files are fully compatible. All Process Model (pm4) files from the milling products are upwards compatible. This means you can take any file from Production Milling (pmill) and load that file into Advanced Production milling (amill) or Free Form Machining (ffm) and not lose any data. The pm4 files created in amill and ffm are fully compatible with each other but not with pmill. The pm4 files that are created in amill or ffm can contain surface elements. These files can be loaded into pmill but will lose any surface elements upon loading. All other data is retained. Did I miss anything? � ============================================= Fred Lauzus, CAM Programming Coordinator High Steel Structures, Incorporated mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.highsteel.com ============================================= -----Original Message----- From: Michael Senack [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 10:38 AM To: 'genebo'; Michael Cc: Dave Hayden; 'smartcam user group' Subject: RE: [mfg-smartcam] hardware being too fast??? Off topic here... Trying to get some understanding of the various SmartCAM mill packages out there. We use Production Mill V11.5 here because we do mainly 2-1/2 axis vertical mill work and 4-axis horizontal mill with the rotary table B-axis. What is the difference between Production Mill and Advance Mill? Then what is the difference between Advance Mill and FreeForm? Can you take a Production Mill .pm4 file and load it in FreeForm and Advance Mill? -----Original Message----- From: genebo [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 10:01 AM To: Michael Cc: Dave Hayden; 'smartcam user group' Subject: Re: [mfg-smartcam] hardware being too fast??? Eagle Machine is running FreeForm V11.5 on a Pentium III 1000 with no issues. Show cut and Render Image are really fast. Gene Bowen ====================================================================== To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ====================================================================== ====================================================================== To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ====================================================================== ====================================================================== To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================
