5-axis Solid Simulation in CIMCO Edit

Solid Simulation in CIMCO Edit is currently being updated with new features and improvements including support for 5-axis toolpaths. We have included two videos below that show the new Solid Simulation in action – simulating both 3 and 5-axis toolpaths.

Solid Simulation has been available in CIMCO Edit for several years with support for both 3-axis and turning. In the updated version, 5-axis is made possible thanks to a new engine, which also enables higher precision rendering in general. Additional tools are now also supported such as flat, ball, bull, taper, chamfer and drill – and support for undercut tools and holders are coming.

Program scanning, stock and tool management

When opening an NC program in CIMCO Edit and entering Solid Simulation, the G-code is automatically scanned for information about the initial stock geometry and the tools used. Often, this information is sufficient to run the simulation right away, however, both stock geometry and tools can be configured and adjusted manually if required. The dedicated Tool Setup dialog enables modification of tools identified and new tools can be created or imported from a tool library (or exported).

Solid Simulation currently supports defining a rectangle or cylinder as initial stock. Support for using STL models has also been implemented, but will be made available later due to additional work required on the GUI side.

Fast and accurate visualisations

To keep the simulation smooth and responsive, Solid Simulation is now fully multi-threaded and takes advantage of all the CPUs available. While simulation is running, quality is slightly decreased to ensure the correct speed of the animation is maintained. While paused or stopped, the screen is recalculated with higher precision to provide a more accurate representation of the current step in the program. If required, the rendering quality can be adjusted manually.

Image below: Left image shows quality while simulation is runnning and right image while paused/stopped.

When zooming in on a particular region, to analyse the simulation and see exactly what is going on, Solid Simulation includes the option “Zoom / Regenerate Solid”. When clicking this, only the region visible on the screen is recalculated, but with a much higher precision.

Release

With the updated version, Solid Simulation in CIMCO Edit will support 3, 4, 5-axis milling and 2-axis turning. We expect to release a Preview version within 1-2 months and a Stable version during Q3.