PAS Creates CMM Code from SolidWorks in a Flash

CHICAGO (IMTS), Sep 13, 2010 - Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) may have added much precision and automated much of the task of ensuring a part is actually manufactured to its specification, but someone still has to do all the drudge work of keying in feature dimensions and other GD&T.

Until now, says Sam Golan, president and CEO of PAS Technology. Sam says that his company has the only product that will read a SolidWorks drawing and automatically create the CMM code that the CMM machine needs to make its measurements. The software is will not only program the CMM machines to take all linear, angular, and feature dimension, it is also capable of understanding GD&T. Hmm, the damn system is actually smarter than I am.

 
PAS will add its own unique numbers to each dimension in a SolidWorks drawing and....

 
PAS will automatically generate the CMM code needed to run your CMM machine 

Here's how it works. PAS will work within the SolidWorks model and drawing and automatically assign a unique number to each dimension. It needs the datums to be labeled on the drawing, and if they are, PAS will take over and generate all the tool paths for each of the dimensions based upon the given datums. The measurements can be shown in an animation, complete with the model of the CMM and the part.

Now that I've seem the PAS product, I've got to wonder why the CMM companies have not thought of this on their own!

Comments

[Andrew]

Quality in engineering has often been treated as second best in the western hemisphere. Japanese manufactures like Mazak allow you to share code with a CMM. Only production engineers often don't communicate with the quality police. The Japanese industry is built on sharing via JIT methods.

I once used an post processor plug in for FeatureCam supplied by a well known CMM maker and we had to spend hours checking and editing. CNC code passed directly form a Mazak control worked instantly.

[Devon T. Sowell]

Interesting.

As you know, dimensions in a SolidWorks Drawing can be imported from the 3D model or created in the Drawing file.

Does this application work with both types of dimensions? What about dimensions that have been "fudged"? Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of these lately.

Thanks,
Devon Sowell
http://www.3-ddesignsolutions.com