Behind the brands
While there are many individual CADCAM brands on the market, behind them are often some of the
same software components. Same too for CNC systems. Two companies, the UK’s MachineWorks and
Germany’s ModuleWorks, are prominent in the supply of such components. Andrew Allcock explains
No negative inferrence should be taken
from the above introduction.
Component technology is rife in just
about any industry these days. Automotive
rms/brands share oor pans, other body
work, engines, gearboxes and more, while
machine tools employ many standardised
components, including CNC units,
ballscrews, linear guideways, motors and
turrets, and all electronic goods draw on
global producers of a variety of standard
hardware and software components.
Granted, the design of an assembly of
standard parts demands expertise and
knowledge, of course. But high volume
manufacture of standard parts delivers the
price competitiveness, high quality and
reliability that underpin today’s
manufactured goods. Standard parts
embody reliable production processes and
their performance rests on the accumulated
design and application knowledge gained
through volume application.
So, that said, let’s get back to our two
companies. MachineWorks (https://is.gd/
edudag) says it supplies the “leading toolkit
for CNC simulation and veri cation”, adding:
“Over 60% of the leading players in the CAM
industry have allowed our dedicated team of
developers to accumulate a world of
experience and know-how in all machining
scenarios.” In addition, the company’s
Polygonica software “is a leading tool for
polygon-mesh modelling and is widely used
in the additive manufacturing, CAE, CAM,
medical, dental, construction and mining
software markets”.
Its CADCAM customers include: DP
Technology, Esprit; Open Mind, hyperMill;
GibbsCAM; Hexagon Production Software
brands of Vero, FeatureCAM and WorkNC;
and Missler’s TopSolid. On the machine tool
maker/CNC side, the company works with
Makino, Okuma, Nakamura-Tome, DMG
Mori, FANUC, Fidia and Heidenhain.
CADCAM & PRODUCTION IT COMPONENT TECHNOLOGY
MachineWorks’ software has
enabled additional capability
within Siemens NX
Earlier this year, MachineWorks
highlighted that its customer MecSoft Corp
had licensed its cloud-computing technology
in support of cloud-hosted software Onshape
(a design, development platform).
MecSoft’s VisualCAMc for Onshape is
MecSoft’s browser-based, rst productionlevel
cloud CAM app for Onshape.
Incorporating MachineWorks’ cloud-based
libraries. VisualCAMc provides the
functionality of MecSoft’s desktop-based
VisualCAM running on the cloud on any
internet-connected device that supports
standard web browsers. Incidentally,
MecSoft’s VisualCAM for SolidWorks is a
Gold Certi ed CAM product that runs fully
integrated inside SolidWorks, just to
highlight that the company does have a
prominent presence in the traditional
CADCAM market.
More recently, Shef eld-based
MachineWorks has helped one of its
partners by adding to Siemens PLM’s NX
CAM software product’s capability with the
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