FAQs
Laser
Can you do automatic ramping and/or corner slowdowns?
We have several methods of ensuring your part corners cut cleanly. Depending on what works best with your particular laser, we can add dwells to corners, or even automatically segment the toolpath as we approach and exit a corner and change the cut conditions as needed to ensure the corner cuts as cleanly as possible. It is also possible to automatically add small radii (fillets) to corners.
Can your software automatically add radiuses to sharp corners so they cut better?
The Automatic Fillet Insertion feature allows you to specify the fillet radius, required angle change, and whether or not to insert the fillets on concave and/or convex corners. Furthermore, you can control these settings on a per-material basis.
Can you reduce the size of slugs inside holes so that they are small enough to fall through the slats?
Our Cross-Hair Destruction feature can automatically add extra cuts inside cutouts to ensure all scrap pieces are below a particular dimension.
Can your software add cuts to reduce the left-over nest skeleton into smaller pieces?
We can automatically make vertical and/or horizontal cuts in the skeleton at set increments. Furthermore, we can make the cuts before, during, or after the parts are cut.
If I have a large part that is scrapped or obsolete, rather than throwing it away, can I use it as a raw material and nest parts on it?
Our Irregular Material Nesting feature allows you to import irregular-shaped materials that can be nested on. AxiomVE™ will nest inside the irregular shape and even nest around existing holes.
Turret Punch and Routing
For part quality, certain toolpaths on our router need to be cut twice. On some materials, we want to do a rough cut followed by a finishing cut. On others, we want to make to identical passes. Can you do this?
Our “Duplicate Router Path Generation” feature will automatically generate the duplicate paths. Per material, you can specify the offset distance for the extra pass and whether or not to add duplicate paths to internal paths, external paths, or both.
Can you do automatic common punching?
Yes we can! AxiomVE has the ability to common punch same-side, equal-length, or completely included sides of parts automatically. You can set VE to common punch the way you want it to globally for all parts or on a part-by-part basis.
I have more than 200 tools for my punch press but it can only hold 40 tools at a time. Can your software allow me to use a standard tool list wherever possible and only change tools when absolutely necessary?
You can set up Preferred Tool Lists which are subsets of your standard tool list. When we program your parts automatically, we will use your Preferred Tool List wherever possible. Additional tools will only be used if absolutely necessary. We have a proprietary way to minimize the number of tool changes which greatly reduces setup cost and increases production time.
Plasma
Do you have any features to reduce the number pierces on a nest (primarily for plasma and oxy)?
Yes we do! We have an Auto-Edge Start feature that can greatly reduce the number of pierces by edge-starting external toolpaths on the sheet edge and in the kerf of previously cut parts. We also have advanced automatic part bridging.
Composite
Our company does a lot of work with composite materials. Our parts are made of many plies cut at particular angles and in varying quantities. How do you handle this?
You can put a “grain line” on your plies that will be automatically recognized by Optimation®. We will orient these plies such that the grain line will always run along the long dimension of your material. Furthermore, you can specify “required quantities”. When you order your parts, you can order by part number and we will automatically find all the plies associated with a particular part name and then multiply your part order quantity by the “required quantity” of plies to insure you get the needed quantity of each ply required for each part.
Order Entry
Can you give feedback to our MRP or scheduling system?
We provide a large variety of information about the nests that have been processed, including order status, material utilization and efficiency, and part areas. Custom reports can be returned to your systems for inventory management, part costing, and labor reporting to name a few.
Material Inventory
For any given material, I have multiple sheet sizes available. Can the software automatically choose the best size?
AxiomVE can automatically consider all available sheet sizes and choose the best size based on the parts on order.
Can Optimation® tell me which sheet size is the best one to purchase from my supplier?
You can use the software to automatically nest large quantities of your parts on different sheet sizes and provide you with statistical information to help you decide which sheet size is the most economical for your particular mix of parts.
Nesting Kits
I have certain parts that I always want nested together as kits so they can quickly be passed along to the next process. Is there a way to do this automatically?
Our Sub-Assembly Nest feature allows you to interactively place parts you want nested together and save them as a Sub-Assembly Nest (SAN). From then on, AxiomVE will automatically recognize when those same parts are on order and will nest the SAN of those parts automatically. This feature gives you the benefits of “static nests” in a dynamic nesting environment without the typical drawbacks of static nesting.
Labels
Can your software generate labels for my parts?
We can custom generate labels to your specification.
Reporting
I have extra information about my parts and/or orders that I'd like to come out in the nest summary reports. Is there a way to pass it through?
Our User-Defined Text fields allow you to add extra information to your parts and/or part orders that can be passed through to summaries that can be customized to your specification.