Best way to change material in SW CAM?

[Titaniumboy]

I have been running several projects in aluminum to proof out my CAM generated gcode, but the final product is going to be made of 4140 Annealed or 4140 Prehard.

What Is the best way to change materials like this?

One option is to save the SW file as a copy and then modify the speeds and feeds as necessary. The downside is that there will be two separate sldprt files.

Another option might be to create a second configuration with 4140 as the material. The advantage would be that everything would be in a single sldprt file, but I’m not sure if I will have to recreate the features and toolpaths from scratch.

Thanks!

[MJuric]

The materials in CAM are separate from the materials in Solid works.

You do not have to save the part as a different part in either case unless for some reason you do not want to change the existing part.

If for some reason this is a regular issue where the part is designed in one material, you can't change the original part but want to for programming purposes for some reason, your best option is to create a derived part to program on. Doing so will allow you to make changes to the part you are working on, add holes, sketches etc without changing the original AND any changes in the original will show up in the model you are programming on.

To change the material in SW CAM or CAMWorks RMB on the stock and "Edit". Under stock the very first option will be material. the pull down has multiple materials to choose from. If the material you want is not in there you will have to add it in the Technology Data Base. Changing the material here will only effect your CAM program not the part itself.

To change the material in the part go to the feature tree and RMB on the material, it's typically 4th or 5th option from the top. Typically you will see a list of "Favorite" if not click on "Edit material" and it will pull up all the materials available to you. Unless there is something wrong with your settings you will have access to all of the standard SW materials.

If SW CAM/CAMWorks is set up properly all of your speeds and feeds for each tool will be tied to a combination of material group, operation, tool etc. By changing material your speeds and feeds should update accordingly if pulled either from the library or tool. If you have speeds and feeds set "By operation" then all of that is manual and you would have to redo it.

You can save a TON of time by setting up SW CAM/CAMWorks properly. Speeds/Feeds, Feature recognition, strategies etc all require a decent amount of up front set up to work properly. But if it is set up properly it will save gobs and gobs of time.

[Titaniumboy]

Thanks for the different options and the pros/cons.

I did the initial part programming in aluminum for several reasons.
1) I am a beginner programmer in SW CAM
2) aluminum is less expensive than 4140
3) tool path mistakes in aluminum are easier on the Haas SL-20T than mistakes in 4140

Even though the finished item is going to be 4140, I would like to keep alive the aluminum version.

I am doing this part in a community college CNC lab setting where I am restricted by lab policy to relatively slow SFM's. For example, using aluminum and carbide tooling, my limits are 500 SFM for turning and drilling, 350 SFM for boring and 300 SFM for threading. So I am having to modify the stock library SFM's for each CAM operation. I have no idea yet what the lab policy will be regarding 4140 SFM's.

Given those clarifications, would making a derived part be the way to go? Basically I want to start with the aluminum CAM version and just go in and change speeds and feeds, but yet still have the aluminum CAM version for posterity.

[MJuric]

Given those clarifications, would making a derived part be the way to go? Basically I want to start with the aluminum CAM version and just go in and change speeds and feeds, but yet still have the aluminum CAM version for posterity.

Have you gone over material groups in the Tech Database in your class? If so you can do what you want to do really easily in a single part.

In the Tech DB you can assign speeds and feeds for various material groups to every tool.

When you do your programming under the opertation in the F/S (Feeds and Speeds) tab you have the option to define the speeds and feeds by "Library", "Tool" and "Operation". If you select "Tool" and check the "Link to Tool" SW CAM/CAMWorks will link the Speeds and feeds of that tool to the proper material group.

If all your tools are set up properly, which I highly recommend, then all you have to do is switch the material the SW CAM/CAMWorks file the way I showed earlier and all the speeds and feeds will update accordingly.

So if you wanted to run a 6061 part with the same tool as a 4140 part just switch and done.

The larger question would be...why are you using the same tools for aluminum and 4140?

[Titaniumboy]

Have you gone over material groups in the Tech Database in your class? If so you can do what you want to do really easily in a single part.

That is a big part of my problem. My school's CNC Lab teaches classes in Solidworks and Mastercam, but not Solidworks CAM. So I have been completely on my own with no school help in learning SW CAM. My reason in using Solidworks CAM instead of Mastercam is that I have access to Solidworks CAM at home and on my small CNC mill, whereas with Mastercam I would only have access to it on school computers.

I probably would have given up on SW CAM if I had not gotten so much help here and at the old SW CAM forum.

The larger question would be...why are you using the same tools for aluminum and 4140?

That is a good question. Part of the reason is to minimize tool changeouts. The Haas SL-20 has only a ten tool turret, so very limiting.

Another reason is that I've been faced with Lista drawers chock full of different inserts and tooling. Because of my lack of experience, it has been a challenge for me just to come up with a tool and insert geometry that will work, and then attempt to get SW CAM to mimic that tool and insert. I've been a bit surprised by the amount of iterations I've had to do going back and forth between the physical tool/insert and SW CAM. So insert optimization based on aluminum and 4140 has kind of not even been on the radar screen yet.

I've only been doing this part in SW CAM in order to force myself to learn it. I could have turned this part in my manual lathe a dozen times over in the time I have devoted to doing it in SW CAM and on the Haas SL-20.


I will need to study your suggestions and play around with it.

Thanks for the help!

[MJuric]

I will need to study your suggestions and play around with it.

Thanks for the help!

Not sure what your experience is or where you're at in this process but if you're trying to learn Programming, machining, tooling etc at the same time that's a mouthful. You'll have to do it like you'd eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

Try and find some sources of support, teacher at the school, VAR tech support etc. If you can find a "Master Machinist", not many around anymore, the kind that can do things on a manual machine that most people can't figure out on a CNC, they are priceless.

[Tim R. Halvorsen]

Hi

If you have SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional, then you have CAM configurations.
In your SOLIDWORKS CAM Feature Tree, at the very top, you can see 'configurations'
If you expand it and then right click - copy, you'll get an exact copy of the current configuration.
Only thing then is to edit the Stock, select different material and post process.

Hope this helps you.

Tim

[Titaniumboy]

Tim,

Evidently both the Student Edition and the Student Premium versions of 2020 Solidworks come with Solidworks CAM Professional. So I do have CAM configurations. That is an elegant and simple solution for me.

Not sure what your experience is or where you're at in this process but if you're trying to learn Programming, machining, tooling etc at the same time that's a mouthful. You'll have to do it like you'd eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

Try and find some sources of support, teacher at the school, VAR tech support etc. If you can find a "Master Machinist", not many around anymore, the kind that can do things on a manual machine that most people can't figure out on a CNC, they are priceless.

My situation is not quite that dire. I've had a manual lathe and mill at home for about ten years. I've taken all of the manual machining and CNC classes at the community college as I can. While I have degrees and certificates for both manual and CNC from the community college, I am under no illusions that I would qualify as a real machinist. That said, I am not afraid to tackle most mill or lathe projects at home, and if a job requires some special HSS tool to be hand ground I'm comfortable with that also.

If I was turning this part at home on my manual 10x22 lathe, I would be adjusting my feeds and depth of cut in real time based on how well the material was behaving. Those are the kind of things that is a bit harder for me to figure out on the Haas Sl-20.

Changing tooling on my 10x22 lathe is pretty easy. I'm finding that changing tools on a CNC lathe is a bit more involved. And then there is the added complication of ensuring that the SW CAM tooling accurately reflects the physical tooling.

I'm getting there, but progress has been slow.

[MJuric]

My situation is not quite that dire. I've had a manual lathe and mill at home for about ten years. I've taken all of the manual machining and CNC classes at the community college as I can. While I have degrees and certificates for both manual and CNC from the community college, I am under no illusions that I would qualify as a real machinist. That said, I am not afraid to tackle most mill or lathe projects at home, and if a job requires some special HSS tool to be hand ground I'm comfortable with that also.

If I was turning this part at home on my manual 10x22 lathe, I would be adjusting my feeds and depth of cut in real time based on how well the material was behaving. Those are the kind of things that is a bit harder for me to figure out on the Haas Sl-20.

Going from having machine experience, even a little, to CNC is a LOT, LOT easier than going from having NO machine experience to CNC. Just having some time playing with a manual lathe or mill allows you to see the different effects immediately of your actions and for the most part the effect on a manual machine is typically more drastic than on a CNC. Ask anyone who's tried to climb cut on loose knee mill :-)

I'm by NO means even anything anywhere near a machinist, but I've spent time on lathe's, mills, grinders, hones etc etc. Enough to have some concept of how speeds, feeds, tool geometry, materials etc effect things.

My business partner for years was what I would consider to be a master machinist. Never ceased to amaze me how he would be able to walk out to a machine, CNC, manual of any type, listen to how it was cutting and tell you what was wrong with the tool geometry, set up, speeds, feeds etc.