Tutorial 1

Getting Started
Tutorial 1 getting started with the CNCSimulator Pro

The purpose of this tutorial is to learn the basic concepts of how to use the CNCSimulator Pro
from scratch. We are going to make a very simple part, milling a slot and drilling four holes on a
100 x 100 x 20 millimeter workpiece. For simplicity we are going to ignore radius compensation
and we work only in absolute coordinates.

This is the part we are going to make:

First of all, we need to set millimeters as units and load an appropriate machine for our project.

From the main menu, select Settings and click on Settings.

Ensure that you have millimeters selected as this tutorial is made in millimeters.

Click OK to close the settings dialog.

Click File Load Machine from the main menu or click the open machine button

In the dialog that shows, please deselect Open demo. Then click on the Milling Center
button.

Fine, now let's get started by defining our workpiece. Press F2 on the keyboard to open the
Inventory Browser.

Click on the Mill Workpieces tab at the top of the dialog.

Click on the green plus button to add a new workpiece.

In the Workpiece Name field, enter a name for your new workpiece, let's call it Tutorial1.
Enter X, Y and Z size as 100, 100 and 20.
Take a mental note of the workpiece index number. Here we did not have any workpieces before
in the registry, hence the index number became 1. In your case, the number could be different.
See the red arrow.

Ignore the rest of the settings and click OK to close the Inventory Browser.

Now we need to call up our new workpiece from the program. We do that by using the command
$AddRegPart followed by the workpiece index number (we use 1) and the table displacement
values.

We are going to put our new workpiece 30 millimeter from the machine zero in both X and Y.
The machine zero is placed near the lower left corner of the machine table and it is marked by a
cross symbol (could be somewhat hard to spot).

To call up our workpiece number one (or your index number if different) on X30 Y30 from the
machine zero, we write ($AddRegPart 1, 30, 30)
Now you can go ahead and click on the Play button
workpiece shows up on the table.
In the lower toolbar, click this button

(simulation start) to see that your

to zoom in on the machine table.

At this moment, please note that you can click in the simulation window with the left mouse
button and drag the mouse around to rotate the view. If you click with the right mouse button and
drag you will pan the view. Also please note that you can roll the mouse wheel to zoom in and
out.

OK, let's get started with the actual CNC program!

As we moved the workpiece in on the machine table and away from the machine zero our lower
left corner on the workpiece now is at X30 Y30. That is not very practical so let's move the
programming zero point to X30 Y30 Z20. This will result in a zero point in the upper (Z) lower
left corner (XY) of the workpiece.

We move the programming zero point by using the G-code G92. (This can also be done from a
zero point registry using G54 to G59 but that is out of scope of this tutorial).

Type G92 X30 Y30 Z20 in the editor.

Click on the Play button again and note how the zero point moves to the corner of your
workpiece.

Now, we need tools to mill the 10 mm wide slot and drill the diameter 10 mm holes.

Again, press F2 on the keyboard to open the Inventory Browser (or select Settings Inventory
Browser from the main menu).

In this tutorial, we assume you have no previous custom made tools, if you do, please add these
two new tools at the end of your list and use the tool index you get.

Select My milling tools and click on the button with the green plus icon, the Add button.

First we will add the tool to mill the slot. Select a flat tool tip, enter 10 as diameter and 50 as
length. Enter the name of the tool Tutorial1 flat mill. Ignore all other settings and click OK.

In our case, this new tool will get tool index number 1 (take a note of yours).

Now, we repeat the procedure adding the drilling tool. Click the Add button again.

This time, select a pointed tool tip and enter diameter 10, length 50 and tip angle 80 degrees.
Name it Tutorial1 drill. Click OK.

Click on the X in the upper right corner of the Tool Browser to close it.

Congratulations! Now we have a workpiece and tools and can start programming the rest of our
part.

To call up our new milling tool we use T1 (or your tool index number) followed by M06 to tell
the virtual machine to go to its tool change position and execute the tool change.
T1 M06

Next, let us move the tool to the start position. We have decided to use the lower left corner of
the slot as the start where we will drill down into the material.

We use G-code G00 to move with rapid speed to the position stopping 2 mm over the workpiece.
G00 X15 Y15 Z2

Now, press Play to see that the positioning works.

We now enter the G-code G01 for feed movement down to working depth. We also need to start
the spindle (M03) and set the Feed rate (F) and spindle RPM (S).
G01 Z-5 F250 S2000 M03

Now we will move the mill to the start point of the arc, there is no need to type G01 in this block
as the code is modal meaning it will remember the G01 code from the previous block (block =
line).
Y70

From now on, feel free to click the Play button at any time to check the simulation.

Now, let's program the clockwise arc movement. To do so, we use the G02 code followed by the
X/Y coordinates of the endpoint and the I/J coordinates of the relative center point (I stands for
incremental distance from starting point to center in X and J is the same in Y).
G02 X30 Y85 I15 J0

Great! Let's enter the rest of the blocks to finish the slot.
G01 X85
Y15
X15

How about that? We are back to where we started. Let's go up in Z to a safe position and then
change tool for the drilling.
G00 Z2
T2 M06

Make sure you use your tool index after T for the drilling tool we created.

Now we can come back from the tool change position and put the drill over the first hole.
G00 X30 Y30 Z2

Next, we will start a drill cycle. We only need to start it and then it will drill on each position we
program until we tell it to stop. For this we use a common drill G-code called G81. We tell the
cycle to drill to a total depth of 15 mm and a start depth of 1 mm above the workpiece. As we
have changed tool, we need to start the spindle again (M03). This time, let us also use coolant
water (M08) to not overheat the tool.
G81 Z-15 R1 M03 M08

Now we can just position over each hole center and the drilling will start automatically.

Y70
X70
Y30

Now we need to end the drilling cycle using the G80 code.
G80

Finally we go up in Z and the write M30 to end the program.

Z50
M30

Congratulations! You have done your first CNC program in the famous CNCSimulator!

The complete program:

$AddRegPart 1, 30, 30

G92 X30 Y30 Z20

T1 M06
G00 X15 Y15 Z2
G01 Z-5 F250 S2000 M03
Y70
G02 X30 Y85 I15 J0
G01 X85
Y15
X15
G00 Z2
T2 M06
G00 X30 Y30 Z2
G81 Z-15 R1 M03 M08
Y70
X70
Y30
G80
Z50
M30

utorial 2 getting started with the CNCSimulator Pro Turning

The purpose of this tutorial is to learn the basic concepts of how to use the CNCSimulator Pro
turning from scratch. We are going to make a very simple part, taking a few rough cuts, fine cuts
and drill a hole.
This is the part we are going to make:

This tutorial is made in millimeters, so the first thing we have to do is to ensure we have
millimeters set as units in the program settings. Click Settings Settings from the main menu.

While we are at it, set all other settings like in the picture above. Click OK.

Now what we have to do is to load a machine for the project. Click on the Open Machine button
to show the Select Machine dialog. You can also click File Load Machine from the main
menu.

Uncheck the Open demo checkbox and click on the Turning Center machine button.
This is how your CNCSimulator Pro window should look like now.

utorial 2 getting started with the CNCSimulator Pro Turning

The purpose of this tutorial is to learn the basic concepts of how to use the CNCSimulator Pro
turning from scratch. We are going to make a very simple part, taking a few rough cuts, fine cuts
and drill a hole.
This is the part we are going to make:

This tutorial is made in millimeters, so the first thing we have to do is to ensure we have
millimeters set as units in the program settings. Click Settings Settings from the main menu.

While we are at it, set all other settings like in the picture above. Click OK.

Now what we have to do is to load a machine for the project. Click on the Open Machine button
to show the Select Machine dialog. You can also click File Load Machine from the main
menu.

Uncheck the Open demo checkbox and click on the Turning Center machine button.
This is how your CNCSimulator Pro window should look like now.

OK, now we need to create a workpiece for your project. Press F2 to open the Inventory Browser
where we keep all our tools, workpieces, materials and offsets.
Click the Lathe Workpieces tab.

If you have not previously created any workpieces, this is what you will see.

Click on the Add button to add a new workpiece.

Enter 50 for diameter, 100 for length and ignore all other settings.

As you can see on the blue bar below the workpiece picture, our index for this workpiece is one.
Yours might be another index if you already had workpieces stored.
OK great, now let's start writing the CNC program!
We start with a special CNCSimulator Pro command to put the workpiece we just created in the
chuck. It is called $AddRegPart. You can either type in the command by hand followed by the
index number for the workpiece or take a shortcut by clicking the Insert at cursor button. This
button will automatically put the command in the editor.

Put the cursor at the end of the first line and press enter. This is to ensure that the next command
we insert will end up on a new line.
Next step is to select a tool to use for our rough cuts.
Press F2 again to open the Inventory Browser. This time we are going to stay on the first page
(Tools) and click on the Embedded lathe tools option.

We are going to use one of the fixed embedded tools that come with the CNCSimulator Pro.
Actually, we are going to use the first one so you could just go ahead and click the Insert at
cursor button again.

This is what you should have in the editor at the moment:

Normally, to select a tool you use only the code T but as this is an embedded tool, we use ET as
in Embedded Tool. If you create your own tools later, you will use only T for tool selections.
Besides selecting the tool, we need to execute the actual tool change by putting the code M06
after the tool selection. Note when you press M (or G or any other recognized code) a list of
available codes will pop-up.

Either type 6 or select M06 from the list by using the mouse or the arrow keys on the keyboard.
OK, by now we are all set to start cutting the workpiece.
Click the Reset View button to zoom in on the workpiece.

Zoom in a bit further by clicking in the 3D view and rolling the mouse wheel away from you.
Click the Start Simulation button to execute the commands we have entered so far.

Now, this is what the 3D view should look like:

As you can see, the workpiece that we made and the tool we selected are in place.
Let's move the tool in position for the first rough cut by using the G00 code.
Important! The CNCSimulator Pro does automatically put the zero point at the right plane of the
jaws. The distance from the plane to the spindle is 23 millimeter. That means that the right end of
our 100 mm long workpiece is at (100-23) 77 in the Z axis. This rule goes for all lathes in the
CNCSimulator Pro. Always take the 23 millimeters into account!

We want to take away 10 millimeter from the diameter per cut (5 mm material) so we should put
the tool on 40 as our initial diameter is 50. Let us also put the tool on Z 80 so we have some
space (3 mm) between the tool and the workpiece end plane.
Type G00 X40 Z80 and press Enter.
Fine, now let's take the first actual cut.
Type G01 Z50 F250 S1000 M04 M08 and press Enter.
If you move the mouse over the codes in the block above, you will see tooltip windows
explaining what they do.

OK, now we back out the tool a bit before going with fast traverse back to Z80.
Type X44 Z52 and press Enter.
Note that we did not have to write G01 again as it is already activated. The code is modal.
To help us see clearly the tool moves we do, we can turn on the toolpath display. Click on the
glasses button and check the Feeds and Fast Traverses checkboxes.

Now, if you simulate you will see feed movements (G01-G03) in green and fast traverses (G00)
in red.

We continue by going back to 80 in the Z axis with fast traverse.

Type G00 Z80 and press Enter.
We go down to diameter 30.
Type X30 and press Enter.
Type G01 Z60 and press Enter.
Again, we back off a little.
Type X34 Z62 and press Enter.
Now we need another tool for the fine cut. Press F2 to open the inventory browser again, then
select Embedded lathe tools and click the blue right arrow to go to the second tool.
Click the Insert at cursor button.

Without pressing Enter, write M06 to execute the tool change, then press Enter.
After a tool change, the tool is at the tool change position of the machine and we need to go back
to the workpiece.
Type G00 X28 Z80 and press Enter.
Enter the following blocks to finish the fine cut:

G01 Z59
X38
Z49
X45
X50 Z45
This is how your program should look by now:

Back off again as we did earlier.

Type X54 Z47 and press Enter.

Time to select a drilling tool to make the hole.

Press F2 on the keyboard, click Embedded lathe tools and browse to tool number 17 (drill
diameter 10 mm).
Click the Insert at cursor button.
Enter M06 and press Enter.
We will now take the tool back from the tool change position and place it in the center of the
workpiece.
Type G00 X0 Z80 and press Enter.
We are going to use a canned drilling cycle to make the hole.
Type G81 Z60 R78 and press Enter.
Type G00 X100 Z200 and press Enter.
Type M30 to end the program and press Enter.
Excellent! We are done. Simulate the program and then click the cutting (knife) button.

Check the Show inside checkbox.

The final program:

$AddRegPart 1
ET1 M06
G00 X40 Z80
G01 Z50 F250 S1000 M04 M08
X44 Z52
G00 Z80
X30
G01 Z60
X34 Z62
ET2 M06
G00 X28 Z80
G01 Z59

X38
Z49
X45
X50 Z45
X54 Z47
ET17 M06
G00 X0 Z80
G81 Z60 R78
G00 X100 Z200
M30

OK, now we need to create a workpiece for your project. Press F2 to open the Inventory Browser
where we keep all our tools, workpieces, materials and offsets.
Click the Lathe Workpieces tab.

If you have not previously created any workpieces, this is what you will see.

Click on the Add button to add a new workpiece.

Enter 50 for diameter, 100 for length and ignore all other settings.

As you can see on the blue bar below the workpiece picture, our index for this workpiece is one.
Yours might be another index if you already had workpieces stored.
OK great, now let's start writing the CNC program!
We start with a special CNCSimulator Pro command to put the workpiece we just created in the
chuck. It is called $AddRegPart. You can either type in the command by hand followed by the
index number for the workpiece or take a shortcut by clicking the Insert at cursor button. This
button will automatically put the command in the editor.

Put the cursor at the end of the first line and press enter. This is to ensure that the next command
we insert will end up on a new line.
Next step is to select a tool to use for our rough cuts.
Press F2 again to open the Inventory Browser. This time we are going to stay on the first page
(Tools) and click on the Embedded lathe tools option.

We are going to use one of the fixed embedded tools that come with the CNCSimulator Pro.
Actually, we are going to use the first one so you could just go ahead and click the Insert at
cursor button again.

This is what you should have in the editor at the moment:

Normally, to select a tool you use only the code T but as this is an embedded tool, we use ET as
in Embedded Tool. If you create your own tools later, you will use only T for tool selections.
Besides selecting the tool, we need to execute the actual tool change by putting the code M06
after the tool selection. Note when you press M (or G or any other recognized code) a list of
available codes will pop-up.

Either type 6 or select M06 from the list by using the mouse or the arrow keys on the keyboard.
OK, by now we are all set to start cutting the workpiece.
Click the Reset View button to zoom in on the workpiece.

Zoom in a bit further by clicking in the 3D view and rolling the mouse wheel away from you.
Click the Start Simulation button to execute the commands we have entered so far.

Now, this is what the 3D view should look like:

As you can see, the workpiece that we made and the tool we selected are in place.
Let's move the tool in position for the first rough cut by using the G00 code.
Important! The CNCSimulator Pro does automatically put the zero point at the right plane of the
jaws. The distance from the plane to the spindle is 23 millimeter. That means that the right end of
our 100 mm long workpiece is at (100-23) 77 in the Z axis. This rule goes for all lathes in the
CNCSimulator Pro. Always take the 23 millimeters into account!

We want to take away 10 millimeter from the diameter per cut (5 mm material) so we should put
the tool on 40 as our initial diameter is 50. Let us also put the tool on Z 80 so we have some
space (3 mm) between the tool and the workpiece end plane.
Type G00 X40 Z80 and press Enter.
Fine, now let's take the first actual cut.
Type G01 Z50 F250 S1000 M04 M08 and press Enter.
If you move the mouse over the codes in the block above, you will see tooltip windows
explaining what they do.

OK, now we back out the tool a bit before going with fast traverse back to Z80.
Type X44 Z52 and press Enter.
Note that we did not have to write G01 again as it is already activated. The code is modal.
To help us see clearly the tool moves we do, we can turn on the toolpath display. Click on the
glasses button and check the Feeds and Fast Traverses checkboxes.

Now, if you simulate you will see feed movements (G01-G03) in green and fast traverses (G00)
in red.

We continue by going back to 80 in the Z axis with fast traverse.

Type G00 Z80 and press Enter.
We go down to diameter 30.
Type X30 and press Enter.
Type G01 Z60 and press Enter.
Again, we back off a little.
Type X34 Z62 and press Enter.
Now we need another tool for the fine cut. Press F2 to open the inventory browser again, then
select Embedded lathe tools and click the blue right arrow to go to the second tool.
Click the Insert at cursor button.

Without pressing Enter, write M06 to execute the tool change, then press Enter.
After a tool change, the tool is at the tool change position of the machine and we need to go back
to the workpiece.
Type G00 X28 Z80 and press Enter.
Enter the following blocks to finish the fine cut:

G01 Z59
X38
Z49
X45
X50 Z45
This is how your program should look by now:

Back off again as we did earlier.

Type X54 Z47 and press Enter.

Time to select a drilling tool to make the hole.

Press F2 on the keyboard, click Embedded lathe tools and browse to tool number 17 (drill
diameter 10 mm).
Click the Insert at cursor button.
Enter M06 and press Enter.
We will now take the tool back from the tool change position and place it in the center of the
workpiece.
Type G00 X0 Z80 and press Enter.
We are going to use a canned drilling cycle to make the hole.
Type G81 Z60 R78 and press Enter.
Type G00 X100 Z200 and press Enter.
Type M30 to end the program and press Enter.
Excellent! We are done. Simulate the program and then click the cutting (knife) button.

Check the Show inside checkbox.

The final program:

$AddRegPart 1
ET1 M06
G00 X40 Z80
G01 Z50 F250 S1000 M04 M08
X44 Z52
G00 Z80
X30
G01 Z60
X34 Z62
ET2 M06
G00 X28 Z80
G01 Z59

X38
Z49
X45
X50 Z45
X54 Z47
ET17 M06
G00 X0 Z80
G81 Z60 R78
G00 X100 Z200
M30

Tutorial 1 Milling
SimCam Tutorials
Welcome to this SimCam tutorial where we are going to make a canon wheel. Our goal is not to
teach you all about the program but rather to get you started with some basic concepts of
SimCam.
Here is a video of the steps in the tutorial. Use it as a companion (pause and play as needed)
during the tutorial.

The tutorial is made for millimeters. First go to the Program Settings by selecting Settings Settings and choose the Program tab. Select "Use millimeters" and click on the OK button. Then
load the machine by clicking this button
to uncheck the "Open demo" checkbox.

and select the Milling Center machine. Do not forget

The next thing we have to do is make sure we have a workpiece matching the drawing in our
workpiece registry.
Click Settings Inventory Browser (F2) in the main menu and select the Mill Workpieces tab.
Now, click on the green plus button in the upper right corner to add a new workpiece (only if you
do not already have a workpiece with these measurements of course.)

Enter X100, Y100 and Z20 and type in a name for the workpiece, then click OK
Click on the SimCam tab to switch over to the SimCam view, then click [More] [Workpiece]
from the SimCam menu.

Select the workpiece you created (or already had).

Tips! Always start a new project by adding a workpiece.
You should now see a blue rectangle representing the workpiece on screen. With the mouse
wheel, you can zoom out to a screen size you like.
SimCam uses so called Guides Lines and Circles to define the geometry. As you can see, four
guide lines have already been added for you. SimCam has also added some useful points.

We will start by drawing the radius 45 circle at the center of the workpiece.
From the SimCam menu, click [Circle] [Center Radius]
Move the mouse to the center of the workpiece and see how it snaps to the center point
automatically added for us. Click when the mouse has locked to the center.

Drag the mouse until you read 45 for its radius and make another click.
OK, we have the outer contour for the wheel. Let's add guide lines to help us define one of the
wedge pockets.
From the SimCam menu, click [Line].

Click the center and the right extreme point of the circle. The mouse hair cross will snap
automatically to these points.
A horizontal guide line will be added to the drawing.
Now, let's draw a line from the center and out in a 45 degrees angle. We could of course just
draw the line from the center of the circle to the upper right corner of the workpiece, but we want
to teach you a technique for drawing lines using polar coordinates.
Again, click [Line] in the menu and click the center of the circle for starting point. Then click
[Enter angle] in the menu to show the angle input field.
You can now either enter the angle (45) in the input field and click OK or move the mouse and
make a click when you read angle 45 at the angle gauge.

This is what you should have now. And that is actually all guides we need to make our entire
canon wheel!

Now it is time to add a contour for making one of the wedge pockets.
From the SimCam menu, click [More] [Contour].
Click the center of the circle.

Now you will see the Tracker. He will follow your steps until you are done with the contour.
To show the tracker where to go, click on as many snap points along the way as possible.
Click the intersection between the horizontal line and the circle. Continue by clicking the
intersection point between the 45 degrees line and the circle and end by clicking the center of the
circle again. Finally, click on [Done] in the SimCam menu.
Now your contour should look like this:

Information: Note the big arrows showing the toolpath direction of the contour and the small
arrows showing the so called toolside. The toolside can be either left, right or on contour. If you
click on the contour, a menu will be shown allowing the user to change toolside and contour
direction.

There is no need to change anything on this contour as the default toolside already is on the
inside.
It is time to set the parameters for the contour layer.
Click on the

button at the lower left corner to show the layers dialog.

As you can see, two layers have been automatically created for us. One guide layer and one
contour layer.

At any time you can show/ hide and enable/ disable a layer. Each contour layer has a gear button
to open its parameters.
On the contour layer, click the gear button.

The Cutting Operation Parameters dialog will be shown.

At the top, enter the name of the operation and select operation type. We will use this contour to
pocket mill the inside.

For the moment, we can leave all other parameters as is. Click OK to close the dialog.
As you can see, the pocket cuts have been automatically calculated for us, and a CNC program is
already produced!

Well, let's get back to the parameters and set some more data for the pocket to be as we want it.
Click on the gear button again on the contour layer.

Enter 2 for Save for fine cut and 10 for Cutting Depth.

Let's say our machine or tool does not allow us to cut the whole depth at once. To solve this,
click on the Stepping tab and check Use Stepping.

Fill out the values from the image.

Now, click OK to close the parameters dialog and note how the program and drawing has
changed.
At this point, we can check the CNC program by clicking the play button.

The view will automatically change to the 3D view and simulation will start.

Click on the SimCam tab to get back to the SimCam view.

Now we are going to add seven rotated copies of the layer to make all pockets.

In the layers dialog, click on the contour layer to select it.

A selected layer gets a dark gray background.

Now, at the bottom of the dialog, click on the Duplicate Layer button.

You will get an identical copy of your contour layer. Click on its gear button to open the
parameters for the new layer.
Click on the Transformation tab to see the transformation settings.
Under rotate fill in 45 for angle and 70, 70 for X and Y rotation center.

Click on OK. Now you should have a rotated copy looking like this:

Now for the magic, as the second copy has a rotation transformation, all copies from now on will
get rotated 45 degrees. Click six times on the Duplicate layer button and see for yourself!
This is what you should have now:

If you want, click on the play button now to simulate what we got so far. Also, it might be a good
idea to save your work at this time. Do this by selecting File Save SimCam file from the main
menu.

Now it is time to add a contour for the outside pocket operation (please note that we call all
operations pocket operations even if we are not talking about an actual pocket with outer
borders).
So, to take away the material outside of the circle, we need to define the outer contour of the
workpiece as a pocket with the circle as an island (to be left untouched).
First of all, let's hide all pocket layers while we do our final work. Click on the bulb button at the
bottom of the layers dialog and select "Hide All" to hide all layers.

Show the guide layer by clicking the "Eye" button.

From the SimCam menu, click [More] [Contour].

Click all four corners of the workpiece rectangle in a clockwise order starting with the lower left
corner. End by clicking the first corner point again and then on [Done] in the SimCam menu.

Important information! Every time we create a new contour a new contour layer will be added
for us if a guide layer is the selected layer. The selected layer has a dark gray background. As we
are going to make a pocket with an island, we need more than one contour on the same layer and
hence we need to make the contour layer the selected one to avoid automatic creation of a new
layer.
In the layers dialog, click the contour layer we just created to select it.

Now we can define the second contour that will end up on the same layer.
From the SimCam menu, click [More] [Contour].
Click on the left extreme point on the circle (the point most to the left, there will be a snap point
there).

Click on the upper extreme point, then to right one, the bottom one and finally on the left one
again to close the contour.
Now your drawing should look like this:

This final layer contains two contours. The second (and following) contour(s) will automatically
be treated as islands when we make it a pocket layer.
As you can see from the circle contour, there are small arrows pointing outwards from the
contour. That is good as we want the tool to stay on the outside of the circular island. But the
square contour defining the outside of the pocket operation also has outwards arrows. Let us
correct that by changing the toolside of that contour.
To be able to click on a contour, we have to disable the guide layer to avoid confusion with the
guide lines and circles.
At the top layer, the guide layer, click on the Padlock to deactivate it.

Now, click on the outer rectangular contour and click on Flip toolside once so that the arrows
disappear.
The final step is to open up the parameters for the new layer and make it a pocket layer. Also fill
out the cutting data as shown.

If you want, activate stepping on this layer as well, just like we did before with the wedge
pocket.
Click OK when ready.

Click on the bulb button to show all layers.

This is how your part should look like now:

Now, click on the play button.

Congratulations, you have just finished your first SimCam tutorial!

Tutorial 2 Milling
SimCam Tutorials
In this exercise, we are going to manufacture a geometrically challenging part with unknown
points to put SimCams mathematical skills to a test.
Here is a video of the steps in the tutorial. Use it as a companion (pause and play as needed)
during the tutorial.

This is the part we are going to do in this exercise:

Size of the workpiece is X140, Y100 and Z30 millimeters.

As you can see, we know the center of some of the arcs but not all. Other arcs just have a known
radius. For SimCam, this is not a problem!
The tutorial is made for millimeters. First go to the Program Settings by selecting Settings Settings and choose the Program tab. Select "Use millimeters" and click on the OK button. Then
load the machine by clicking this button
to uncheck the "Open demo" checkbox.

and select the Milling Center machine. Do not forget

The next thing we have to do is make sure we have a workpiece matching the drawing in our
workpiece registry.
Click Settings Inventory Browser (F2) in the main menu and select the Mill Workpieces tab.
Now, click on the green plus button in the upper right corner to add a new workpiece.

Enter X140, Y100 and Z30 and type in a name for the workpiece, then click OK.
Great! Now let's start by adding the workpiece to the drawing.
Click the SimCam tab to switch view to SimCam.
From the SimCam menu, click [More] [Workpiece] in the menu and select the workpiece
created above.

You should now see a blue rectangle representing the workpiece on screen. With the mouse
wheel, you can zoom out to a screen size you like.
SimCam uses so called Guides Lines and Circles to define the geometry. As you can see, four
guide lines have already been added for you. SimCam has also added some useful points.

When you move the mouse over the objects on the screen, you will see information about them
and the mouse will snap to intersections, points, circle centers, etc.

As you can see from the drawing, there are certain key measurements we can use to draw our
geometry. Here they are marked by red lines. Let's start by drawing them with guide lines.
To put vertical lines at 38 and 115, we can use the offset function to make offset copies of one of
the guide lines automatically created when we added the workpiece.
From the SimCam menu, click [Offset]
Click on [Distance] and enter 38.

Click on the vertical line at the left side of the workpiece.

Click somewhere to the right of the line to create an offset copy at the distance 38.

Click [Distance] again and enter 115 this time. Repeat the procedure to create an offset copy at
the distance 115.

Now, use the same technique to make horizontal offset copies from the bottom line at Y 25, 50
and 75.

Result when all guide lines are in place.

Next step will be to add guide circles in the intersections between the lines. To the left we add a
circle with radius 28 and to the right we add two circles with radius 16.

From the SimCam menu, click [Circle] [Center Radius].

Hover the mouse cursor over the center left intersection and note how the hair cross snaps to the
point when you get near (snap points has gravity).

Click once to fix the circle center point.

Now, drag the mouse until you read 28 for its radius and click one more time.

If you hold the mouse over the circle, this is what you should see.

The X and Y coordinates are 20 mm larger than might be expected but this is because we
accepted the default X20, Y20 workpiece offset when we added it.
Now, repeat the steps to add the two radius 16 circles to the right. Now your drawing should look
like this:

Look at the drawing at the beginning of the tutorial. As you can see we have a tangential arc of
radius 56 at the top and another on of radius 38 to the right. We do not know the center nor the
start and end point of these arcs. To draw them, we have to use the other circle drawing function.
From the SimCam menu, click [Circle] [Two or three points]
Click on the left circle (be careful not to click on a snap point but rather directly on the circle
border). Be careful to click near where you think the arc will tangent.

Click on the upper right circle.

Drag the mouse until you read 56 for the radius, make a final click.

Congratulations!
Repeat the steps to draw the radius 38 circle to the right.
Please note that you can type in the radius as well. You do that by clicking [Enter radius] in the
SimCam menu.

Final step to complete our guides is to add the straight line that tangents to lower circles.
From the SimCam menu, click [Line].
Click on the first and second circle just as you did when drawing the tangential circles. Be
careful to click on the object itself and not on a snap point, zoom in if necessary.
Now your drawing should look like this:

It is a good time to save the drawing now. Click File Save SimCam file from the main menu.
Type a name and click OK.
Now comes the fun part! Let's add a contour that will be used for creating the CNC codes.
From the SimCam menu, click [More] [Contour].
Click the lower right intersection to set a start point for the contour.

Now you will see the Tracker. He will follow your steps until you are done with the contour.
To show the tracker where to go, click on as many snap points along the way as possible.

When you are done, your drawing should look like this.
When you reach the last point (8) do a final click and then click on [Done] in the SimCam menu.

Your drawing should now look like this:

It is time to set the parameters for the contour layer.

Click on the

button at the lower left corner to show the layers dialog.

As you can see, two layers have been automatically created for us. One guide layer and one
contour layer.

To the left on each layer, you see a thumbnail presentation of the layer. At any time you can
show/ hide and enable/ disable a layer. Each contour layer has a gear button to open its
parameters.
On the contour layer, click the gear button.

The Cutting Operation Parameters dialog will be shown.

At the top, enter the name of the operation and select operation type. We will use this contour to
pocket mill the inside.

For the moment, we can leave all other parameters as is. Click OK to close the dialog.
As you can see, the pocket cuts have been automatically calculated for us, and a CNC program is
already produced!

One detail though, as you can see, the cuts goes on the outside of the contour. We need to correct
that.
Disable the guide layer by clicking the Padlock button once so it becomes locked.

Now, click on the contour to show its context menu.

Click on [Flip toolside] until the cuts shows up on the inside.

Like this!
As you can see, there are small orange arrows pointing in the perpendicular direction from the
contour. These show the contours toolside. It can be either outside, inside or on the contour (no
arrows).
But hey, look at the drawing again! We should have a 10 mm thick wall outside the inner pocket.
Let's do that by putting in value 10 as Save for fine cut in the parameters.
Click the gear button again on the contour layer to show the parameters dialog.
Type in 10 in Save for fine cut.

Click OK again and note the change in both the drawing and the CNC program.

At this point, we can check the CNC program by clicking the play button.

The view will automatically change to the 3D view and simulation will start.

Now we will add contours to make an outside pocket operation to take away the rest of the
material.
Click on the SimCam tab to get back to the SimCam view.
Re-enable the guide layer and hide the contour layer for easier drawing.

We will define a new contour around the workpiece borders using the same technique as before.
From the SimCam menu, click [More] [Contour].
Click the lower left corner of the workpiece rectangle and then the upper left corner followed by
the rest to end the contour. Finally, click [Done].
Important! Every time we create a new contour a new contour layer will be added for us if a
guide layer is the selected layer. The selected layer has a dark gray background. As we are going
to make a pocket with an island, we need more than one contour on the same layer and hence we
need to make the contour layer the selected one to avoid automatic creation of a new layer.
In the layers dialog, click the info panel of the contour we just created to select it.

Now we can define the second contour that will end up on the same layer. Define the contour
with the arcs and line just as we did with the first contour.
Now your layers and drawing should look like this:

The third and final layer contains two contours. The second (and following) contour(s) will
automatically be treated as an island(s) when we make it a pocket layer.
Now, disable the guide layer by clicking the "Padlock" button.
Click on the outer rectangular contour and select Flip toolside once so that the small
directional arrows disappears meaning that the toolside is ON the contour.
Final step is to set the parameters for this layer too. Click on the gear button.
As before, type in the name of the operation and select pocket for the operation type.

Click OK to close the parameters dialog.

Make the second layer visible again by clicking the "Eye" button. Please note that only visible
layers make CNC code.
Now you should see this:

Click the play button again to simulate the result.

Great job!
Now, feel free to experiment with the parameters to customize the output. Try to add drilling,
stepping and ramping operations. And remember to have fun!

Tutorial for Turning

SimCam Tutorials
Valid for version 1.2.0.0 and later. This tutorial is made for the Turning Center machine set to
millimeters.
Part one: Basic operation for external turning.
Load the machine and make sure you have millimeters selected as units in settings.

Now we will create a workpiece to use in the tutorial.

Press the F2 key to open the Inventory Browser and click on the Lathe Workpieces tab.
Click on the "Add" button and enter the name "Tutorial Part" and the Diameter 70, Length 100.
Do not select a material as the default Aluminum material will be used.

Click on OK to close the Inventory Browser.

Click on the SimCam tab to view the SimCam window.
Click on "More" - "Workpiece" in the SimCam menu and browse to the workpiece we have just
created. Click on OK to insert it in our document.

Now we are going to add a roughing layer and draw a contour for the shape of the final
workpiece.
Click on the Layers button in the lower left corner of the SimCam Window to view the Layers
panel.

Let us first go through the most important things on the layers panel.

These three buttons are the most important to know. You use the refresh button as soon as you
want to update the thumbnail images as well as the CNC code with the latest changes. The gear
button to the right in the layers panel toolbar is used to create new operation layers and finally,
the gear button at each layer is used to open the parameters for that operation layer. Please also
note that you can open the parameters for the layer by double clicking the cyan colored
information box at the layer.
Another handy trick to know is that you can hold down CTRL on the keyboard and click the
cyan colored box to make that layer the only selected and visible one. Try it out!
OK, let's continue:
Click on the gear button at the bottom of the layers panel and select Roughing from the popup
menu.

You should now see two layers in the layers panel.

Close the layers panel or move it out of the way for now.
From the toolbar at the bottom of the SimCam window, click on the grid snap button and select
1.

Click "More" - "Contour" - "Follow mouse" in the SimCam menu.

Move the mouse to X0 Z98 and click for the start point. Zoom in if needed.
Move the mouse straight up to X30 and make the next click.

Move the mouse straight to the left to Z80 and click.

Continue by clicking at the following coordinates:

X26 Z79
X26 Z60
X60 Z60
X60 Z40
X68 Z40
X68 Z0
To end the contour, make a right click with the mouse or hit ESC on the keyboard.
This is how your drawing should look like.

No zoom in on the corner at X26, Z60 and click on the contour. Click "Modify" - "Fillet" and
enter 10 in the value box shown at the bottom of the window. Finally press Enter.

Now, do the same thing at the X60 Z60 corner, this time selecting "Chamfer" from the "Modify"
menu. Enter 2 and press Enter.

This is how your drawing should look like, please notice the automatically created ghost line that
helps you see the contour as a drawing part.

It is a good time to save the drawing now. From the main menu, select "Save SimCam File" and
enter a name for the drawing, for example SimCamTurningTutorial1.
OK, good work! Now, let's start cutting!
At the bottom of the layers panel, click the leftmost button (refresh) to create the CNC code from
the drawing. Remember that you should always click this button when you want to force
SimCam to recreate the CNC code.

As you can see in the editor window, there was not much of a CNC program created. Also the
roughing layer turned red/pink to notify you that there is a problem. Don't worry, it is normal. If
you click the information button on the layer, you will see that SimCam is missing two points on
the layer to define the workspace.

The two corner points of the workspace tells SimCam where you want to start cutting and where
you want to end. Let us add the points now.
From the SimCam menu, select "Point" and then click at X68 Z102.
You will see an orange point indicating the start point of the workspace.
Make another click at X26 Z10.

Click the refresh button at the bottom of the layers panel.

We got cuts created, but something is not as it should!

As you can see, the cuts do not stop at the contour. They all go to the end point of the workspace.
This is because we have not decided the toolside of the contour yet. If you look closely there are
small arrows pointing out from the contour.

They point to the left side by default. In our case, we need them to point to the right side of the
contour so that SimCam understands that it is where we want the cuts to stop.
Click on the contour and select "Flip toolside" from the menu.

Click two times so that the arrows point to the right of the contour.
Note how the cuts change, they now stop at the contour. Always remember to set the toolside
correctly on all contours.

Let's change the depth of cut to a slightly smaller value.

Double click on the cyan colored box on the layer, or click on the gear button to open the
parameters for the operation.

Set the Depth of Cut parameter to 3 mm.

Click OK to close the parameters and see the result on the cuts.
Now we will add a facing operation.
At the bottom of the layers panel, click on the gear button and select Facing.
The Facing operation needs a workspace just like with Roughing. Select "Point" from the
SimCam menu and make the first click at X32 Z100 and the second click at X-2 Z98. This gives
us a millimeter of overcut.
Note! If you have problems clicking coordinates because the mouse snaps to other objects, make
the other layers inactive (and invisible if you want). If you hold down the CTRL key on the
keyboard while clicking on the cyan colored box on a layer, that layer will become the only
visible and selected layer in the document.
Now open the parameters for the new layer and select tool number 27 (make sure to check the
"Use Embedded tool" checkbox).

Set 1 mm for depth of cut this time.

Info! Tools in the browser are drawn with the insert at the top. In machines where the tool holder
points upwards (like the Turning Center) the tool simply gets mirrored around the Z axis. This is
automatically handled by the CNCSimulator so that we do not have to draw two of each tool.
Close the parameters by clicking OK and look at the result.

Click on the Play button to simulate the work we have made so far.

Press CTRL - S on the keyboard to save the SimCam drawing at this stage.
Let us now add a finishing cut.
Click on the gear button at the bottom of the layers panel and select "Finishing" from the popup
menu.

Add a point at X68 Z99.

Add another point at X26 Z40.
Open the parameters for the new layer and select embedded tool number 28.
Click OK to close the parameters. Still no finishing cut will be created. This is because we need
the contour on this layer as well.

Click on the contour and select "Copy" from the menu. Make sure the contour layer is enabled.

Click on the thumbnail image of the Finishing layer to make sure it becomes the selected layer.

The selected layer has a dark gray background.

From the SimCam menu, select "More" - "Paste" to insert the copied contour on the Finishing
layer.

Click the refresh button at the bottom of the Layers Panel to recreate the CNC code.

Press CTRL - S to save, then click on the play button to simulate the part.
Before, after or during simulation, click on the little knife button at the bottom of the simulation
screen and check the "Show inside" checkbox. This is how the part should look now.

This concludes the first part of the tutorial. You can now choose to play around with SimCam on
your own before doing part two, or to directly continue by reading on.

Part 2: Adding drilling and threading operations.

Welcome back! Let's drill a hole in the workpiece.
Add a drilling operation layer to the document.

Open the parameters for the layer and select the embedded tool number 17. Then click on the
Drilling tab and enter 70 for "Drill to Z".

Click OK to close the parameters and select "Point" from the SimCam menu.
Click at X0 Z100.
Click the refresh button at the bottom of the Layers Panel to recreate the CNC code.
Save the drawing and simulate again to check what we have done so far.

Congratulations! One operation left to go!

Add a Threading layer to the document.

Add two points for the threading workspace. The first point at X30 Z98 and the second point at
X26 Z79.
Open the parameters for the layer and select the embedded tool number 25.
For the threads to look nice when simulating, we need to boost up the resolution temporarily.
You can add the special command $OverrideBufferQualitySetting 8 to the very top of the CNC
code to get a better resolution (and slower simulation speed).

Please note as soon as you refresh the program, SimCam will overwrite your manual change in
the CNC code, so the $Override... command will go away.

Great! This concludes part 2 and the tutorial. We have showed you how to use common
operations. As you have noticed, we did not focus too much on cutting parameters and mostly
accepted the default ones in this tutorial.
Now, try to do your own first work using the methods we have showed you here.
Good luck!

Tutorial Add/Edit Custom Lathe tools

SimCam Tutorials
How to add and edit custom lathe tools in SimCam.

User lathe tools are saved in a SimCam document named ToolDefs.simcam in the LatheTools
subfolder of the CNCSimulator Pro installation folder. If you do changes to this file, please put it
in a custom folder outside of the CNCSimulator Pro installation folder so that it will not be
overwritten at the next program update. Also make sure you keep backups of all files to avoid
losing work.
This file comes preloaded with demonstration tools to make it easy for users getting started.
If you want to create your own tools, you can either create a new tool definition file from scratch
(you will then lose all the demonstration tools) or you can add new tools to the existing ones.
To create a new tool definition file from scratch, select "Create Lathe Tool Def File" from the
File menu.

Then add your tools (see below) and when you are done, select "Save SimCam file As..." from
the File menu and navigate to the LatheTools folder. Then simply overwrite the current file and
you are done. Remember that by using this method you will lose the demonstration tools.
To add and/or edit current tools use the following method instead.
Press F2 on the keyboard to open the Inventory browser. Then select "My lathe tools" and click
the "Edit" button.

Now the tool definition file will be opened in SimCam.

Open the Layers form by click on the "Layers" button in the lower left corner of the SimCam
window.

As you can see, each tool is defined in its own separate layer.
Let's add our own tool.

Click on the little gear button in the Layers form toolbar. Then click on "Tool Definition".

This creates a new layer that we can draw our new tool on.
Scroll down to the last layer (our new layer) and click on the gear button to open the parameters
for the layer.

Name your new tool by entering the name in the Operation Name textbox.

Let's start by creating an external tool. Click "External" in the "Tool Type" box.

Now select colors for the Insert and the Holder.

We continue by clicking the "External Tool" tab.

Enter values for the thickness of the cutter insert, the tool holder and the nose radius.

Click on OK to close the layer parameters. It is time to start drawing the tool.
The tool consists of two contours on the same layer. The first contour you draw will represent the
insert and the second one will be the holder.
Now make the new layer the only selected and visible one by holding down the CTRL (control)
key on the keyboard and left-clicking the layer information field.

You should now see a blank SimCam window.

Important! Draw the tool insert downwards independent of how you will mount the tool in the
machine.
For this tutorial, the tool insert will be a simple rounded square.
In the SimCam menu, click "More" - "Contour" - "Rectangle".
Click the coordinate system origin (the mouse will snap to this point) and then make another
click 10 mm down and 10 mm to the right. You will see a 10 by 10 mm square and also another
larger gray square that you can ignore for now.
The orange square is your tool insert contour.

The tool will be mirrored so that you can see how it would look like in a machine where the tool
comes from above.
Also please note that we draw all tools in millimeters regardless of the unit type you will be
using on the machine. If you are used to working in inches, you will need to multiply all inch
values by 25.4 before drawing the tool.
Let us round the corners to 0.8 millimeters.
Move the mouse cursor over the contour until it highlights and then make a click near the corner
where you want to round the corner. Click "Modify" - "Fillet" in the menu shown and enter 0.8
in the radius box at the bottom of the SimCam window.

Repeat on all four corners.

Our insert is done! Let's continue by drawing the holder.

Click "More" - "Contour" - "Follow mouse".

Click your way around to create the holder. For this tutorial we just click some points not caring
too much about the measurements of the holder. In your case, you may have measured up a
holder and you will then have to click or type in real coordinates.

Each contour has its own origin. The origin of the tool holder defines where the tool will be
placed in the machine tool clamp. That clamp is represented by the gray rectangle. Now let us
move it to a more proper position.
Highlight the tool holder contour and click "Modify" - "Origin" from the menu shown. Move the
origin of the tool holder contour to a position similar to the one shown in the picture below.

Open the layers form again and scroll down until you see your tool. Take a note of the layer
number as it will be your new tool number. In our case, it is 35.

Now, save the document.

You will have to restart CNCSimulator Pro to enable the changes to the tool definition file.
Let's test our new tool.

Hit play and see your new tool in action!

Some final tips before we end this tutorial.

If you for some reason happen to draw the holder before the insert, the simulator will think that
the holder is the insert and vice versa. There is an easy fix though. You simply click on the insert
contour and select "Order" - "Move up" from the menu. This will move the insert contour up in
the internal list of contours hence fixing the problem.

If you want your tool to have another tool number, simply select the tool layer in the layers form
and click the up and down arrows in the toolbar to move the tool to the index position you want.

For example, moving the layer all the way to the top will give it tool number 1.
If you want to create internal tools and drills we suggest you click on the gear button on one of
the demonstration tools to see how we defined them. When creating a drilling tool, you do not
need to draw anything. It is enough to just enter the parameters for the layer.

For internal tools, you need only to draw the insert. The simulator will figure out how to draw
the holder (a basic rectangle) from the parameters you enter.
That was all! Good luck and have fun making your own customized lathe tools.