The FastCAM® development team has combined features to improve cutting speeds and reduce piercing whilst at the same time ensuring that NC programmers can keep up with the latest in technology demands. Today's CAD files contain an enormous amount of information and are much bigger in size, however FastCAM® v7 can now examine even the largest drawings microscopically, without loss of speed.

FastCAM® System v7 highlights :

• Support for huge CAD files :

• Entities in a single drawing up to 500,000 (from 32,767).

• Long integers up to 1 billion without loss of accuracy. (Previously 32,767).

• Double precision for DXF files: 16 digit accuracy.

• Faster CAD Clean analysis with high speed linearization and automatic closure on the whole drawing. CAD Fix also now finds and repairs the smallest breaks and discontinuities on these very large DXF files. Results in less stoppages, faster cutting and better part quality using new and improved logic/calculation.

• Automatic true offset arrays in FastNEST®. Also known as triangular nesting or when parts aren't quite rectangular such as diamond shapes, odd shapes (e.g. flanges).

• EdgeSmart (Patented) improvements - Edge starting is a technique that uses the edge of the material to begin the cutting process. By avoiding long pre-heat times especially on heavy materials productivity increases dramatically.

• Kerf Start - places the torch on a previous cut edge allowing rapid starts within the body of the nest.

• Box Start - creates 'opportunities' or strategic torch entry points within a nest. Whilst cutting the torch moves away from the cut path creating a small void, the torch then returns to the cut path. The resulting box created is used for the next pierce point. As well as increasing productivity these boxes reduce potential damage to cut parts from the piercing process.

• Auto plate breakup before part removal - for convenience and improved safety in skeleton removal.

• Plate edge starts for zero pierce nests - Edge Starting begins each cutting job on the plate edge, when combined with kerf and or box starts it is possible to create zero pierce nests.

• Dual kerf cutting to minimize movement - This balanced cutting technique minimizes part movement by cutting first one way and then the other, typically used to cut long rectangular parts. By using two start points the thermal movement is balanced resulting in higher accuracy.

• Entries automatically positioned to minimize movement for a given cut sequence - Intelligent placement of pierce points within a nest has multiple benefits; reduces head travel between parts, avoids previously cut components and potential head crashes improves productivity generally.

• Ability to move entries (lead-ins) and exits (lead-outs) after allocation in FastCAM® and after pathing in FastNEST®.

• Support for 2 ½ axis routers with multiple pass and variable height tabs.

• More types of moveable bridges: Positive, negative, single tabs, opposite tabs, tabs with entries.

• Fully automatic common cutting (pairs and complete nests). Parts are even kerf compensated on output.

• Variable multi torch pass which examines the nest and looks for patterns or arrays within a nest, improving speed.

• New class of Holes - Small Hole, Medium Hole, Large Hole and Outside Contour Distinctions for using different Feedrates and different M-codes.

• Movement (thermal) Analysis to highlight parts in danger of heat distortion.

• Multi stage corner and hole size deceleration and acceleration in NC output option improves cut quality on corners and small holes.

• Automatic NC collision checker (in both FastNEST® and FastPLOT^TM) to prevent overlap cutting mistakes. Especially valuable in big complex nests.

• Enhanced StruCAD DSTV file support: DSTV XML input, Bulk DSTV to DXF conversion (for XSTEEL). - This is a cost-plus option - call for pricing.

• Supports new Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System.