The following screenshot shows a simple example of a fully configured machining assembly:

Machining assembly with one version of a file

Often you will find that the early stages of a part corresponds to the actual stock of your part. In such cases, it can be useful to make a configuration called "Before" (or "Stock" or similar) and one called "After" (or "Final" or similar). You can then suppress all the features to be cut from the Before configuration, and use that as the stock for your machining operations.

• Add the configurations to your part with the appropriate features suppressed in the Before configuration.

Before configuration

Machining parts with different configurations

A very flexible way to machine different configurations of a part is to insert the part in an assembly in multiple configurations.

When using HSMWorks in an assembly, you have a great deal of flexibility in defining stock, fixtures and rest material since you can use all of the SolidWorks modeling facilities to construct these as individual components in the assembly.

Normally each component is saved as a separate file. This is fine if you are using the component in multiple assemblies, but adds a bit of unnecessary work if the component is only used in a single assembly.

HSMWorks fully supports splitting the SolidWorks feature manager. This allows you to see two different views of the operation manager at the same time - one in the bottom and one in the top part of the feature manager. This feature opens up for new ways to manage operations, since you are allowed to see the top operation manager while editing an operation in the bottom (which is normally locked).

To show the top operation manager, either drag the splitter located just above the tabs, or simply click the operation manager tab:

If you do many similar parts from time to time, re-using an existing machining assembly with a set of toolpaths can save you a lot of time.

In HSMWorks as in SolidWorks - the units that values are entered and shown in do not depend on the internal representation of parameters, geometry and toolpaths.

As such, it is possible to change the units on the fly without any conversion of parameters, geometry or toolpath.

The display units can be changed by changing the unit of the SolidWorks document.

1. Open the Tools menu
2. Choose Options
3. Go to the Document Properties tab
4. Choose Units
5. Select the Unit System and individual units you wish to use

HSMWorks 2010 R2 introduces as new way to easily create fixed planes from the current view. This feature is often convenient if you have to apply 5-axis indexed toolpath to a model and the exact tool orientation is not important when machining.

The feature is called "Create Plane From Current View" and is found in Helpers menu located in the HSMWorks main menu.

The helper menu.