Alphacam Routers

Ease-of-use is just one of the reasons that Alphacam is the industry standard and system of choice for programming CNC routers. Tooling and machining techniques unique to this industry are accommodated by Alphacam’s dedicated Router modules.

Horizontal aggregates for machining parts such as hinge reliefs and lock mortices, are easy to control using Alphacam. Standard fixtures can be created and saved within the system and inserted on to work planes when required, providing significant time savings.

Head mounted rotary axis on CNC routers can be programd at any workplane. Aggregates with a programmable rotary axis and manual tilt are fully supported, as well as routers with fully interpolating 5-axis heads. Safe rapid moves between planes are automatically controlled and verified using advanced solid simulation. Alphacam’s powerful post-processing ability means that the advanced functionality of all CNC controllers is utilised, including plane rotation.

Artwork and text can be easily created and machined using Alphacam’s powerful 3D engraving. This command contours geometries with a form tool, and on meeting a sharp corner automatically retracts the tool to produce a sharp corner, often referred to as embossing.

Multiple 3D rough and finish machining strategies of Solids, surfaces and even STL files are available within Alphacam. These strategies can be applied to any work plane, allowing for 3 plus 2 machining to be programd on machines with 4 and 5-axis rotary heads. Alphacam’s 5-axis module is cable of 4 and 5-axis simultaneous machining of surfaces and 3D trim curves, often used for finishing chair backs.

Maximizing material utilization is made easy using Alphacam’s automatic nesting functionality. Parts can be selected from the screen or a kit of parts, their orientation fixed (if grain direction needs to be maintained) or rotated to any angle. Nesting supports tool lead in/out, support tags for small parts and multiple depth parts where an onion skin is required.

Using Alphacam’s Constraint Manager, geometry can be made parametric, rules such as tangency can be applied between individual elements, and variables such as distance set between them. By changing the variables, the geometry is automatically resized and resolved and because of the rules applied its integrity maintained. This makes creation and subsequent machining of families of parts very quick and easy.

Using Alphacam’s Multi Drilling command toolpaths can be optimised for any drill unit. Holes are matched to the drill diameters and automatically machined; multiple drills are selected at the same time when a standard 32mm pitch is matched.

Alphacam is a completely integrated CAD CAM software solution with advanced features. It is designed to offer your business enhanced productivity, exceptional reliability and additional flexibility. Alphacam’s ongoing program of development and enhancement ensures it not only keeps pace with the changing needs of users throughout the woodworking industry, but also delivers maximum return on your CAM investment. Alphacam also offers you the latest front end CAD part modelling facilities via our solid modeller.