Delcam hosts 250 customers at UK user meetings

More than 250 customers attended a series of user meetings held by Delcam during November. Events were held in Bolton, Durham, Manchester, Portsmouth and Birmingham. The Birmingham meeting, at Delcam’s headquarters, proved to be so popular that a second event had to be organised to cope with the high demand.

Delegates to the meetings had their first opportunity to see the new version of Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM software for high-speed and five-axis machining. This offers existing customers a more complete solution for complex machining operations, together with more control for experienced users that know exactly how they wish to machine a particular part. Users were shown how the new version can increase their productivity with its streamlined user interface, faster calculation times, and more efficient toolpath ordering, especially for roughing and rest machining.

The other main highlight of the meetings was the new Tribrid Modelling technology in Delcam’s PowerSHAPE CAD software and CopyCAD reverse engineering system. Tribrid Modelling offers a better way of working for all companies developing new variants from existing designs, especially those making products that need to be personalised for a particular customer. The combination of solid modelling, surface modelling and triangle modelling in a single package provides a unique design system that reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines the whole product development process.

Delegates were also shown enhancements across the complete range of functionality in the latest release of the FeatureCAM feature-based machining system. These new developments included increased options for more complex machines, such as mill-turn equipment, and four- and five-axis mills, allowing users to tackle more sophisticated parts than could be programmed before. Improvements were also demonstrated in the more fundamental machining operations, including turning and three-axis milling.

The sessions were completed with demonstrations of version 5 of the PowerINSPECT inspection software. This includes support for five-axis scanning with Renishaw’s REVO probe, the ability to use multiple alignments within parts or assemblies, improved connectivity to a wide range of co-ordinate measuring machines and more flexible report generation.