The CNC control system on your milling machine determines whether it can do 3D work and most of the new control systems can run in 3D mode. If your machine is only a couple of years old it probably can be used with ArtCAM MillWizard.

If you are unsure, please contact your machine manufacturer.

ArtCAM MillWizard has been designed to make machining in 3D as easy as possible. You are taken through each step using intuitive Wizard pages that allow you to start cutting jobs in within minutes.

No prior machining knowledge is required apart from knowing how to load a tool into your CNC mill and transfer a cutterpath file to it.

The program can be used to cut:

• Jewelry moulds and master models
• Cookie / biscuit / chocolate moulds
• Plastic injection moulding
• Dimensional signage into wood, foam, plexi
• Prototype engineering models and moulds
• Ceramic moulds and models Etc.

The list is almost endless

Most 3D modelling programs can usually output designs in one of the file formats supported by ArtCAM MillWizard.

The formats supported in ArtCAM MillWizard are:

• 3D DXF .dxf
• 3D Studio .3ds
• STL .stl

Software programs such as 3D Studio, Rhino 3D, TrueSpace, AutoCAD, Imagine 3D, LightWave 3D, 3D Builder and RayDream Studio can all be used to design 3D models that can be cut using ArtCAM MillWizard.

If you don't have one of these programs try searching on the Internet for files with extensions .3ds, .dxf and .stl. You will find lots of web sites offering some models free of charge, but most will be selling their models.

The milling machine you have determines what materials you can cut. Generally, the more expensive the mill the harder / tougher the materials it can cut. There are lots of materials that can be used for 3D work:

• Foam, High & Low density,
• Precision Board,
• SignFoam,
• Plixiglass,
• Corian, Plastic,
• Wood,
• Aluminium,
• Brass,
• Copper,
• Resin board etc.

No! The view of the model that you see assumes you are looking from the FRONT of the machine, along the Y-axis, to the back and that the cutting tool will be coming down from the top of the screen.

There are two stepover values which are proportianal to each other, that have conditions which are:

• a physical width/step in mm or inches
• and a percentage of the tool diameter

Whichever way you do it the other edit field will update automatically. If you change the diameter, the percentage stepover will remain the same.

Yes you can. ArtCAM MillWizard allows the 3D model to be orientated first to cut the front face and then rotated through 180' for the back, giving you a complete 3D model. Please remember that ArtCAM MillWizard will only produce 3-Axis toolpaths and it cannot machine undercuts that exist on a model.

3D designs will take longer to cut than 2D shapes. This is because the tool has to pass backwards and forwards over the whole model, with a small, incremental step-over between each pass. To obtain good quality surface finishes the smaller the tool radius, the smaller step-over and the more passes needed.

The milling machine will carve high quality 3D shapes and models that would normally require highly skilled, expensive hand-carvers and crafts persons. Using ArtCAM MillWizards 3D scaling functionality you can cut exact replica models at any size.

Remember that the milling machine can be left run unattended, even overnight so the 'real' cost of manufacture is quite low.

The stepover between passes determines the surface finish produced on the machined component. Generally, the smaller the stepover the smoother the surface finish, and the longer the machining time.

No! ArtCAM MillWizard is only compatible with PC's
The recommended PC specification is:

Pentium PC 100 MHz or higher
Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT 4.0
32 MB RAM
4 MB Free disk space
800 x 600 display resolution

Yes, you can either create your own postprocessor or modify an existing one. Download the Postprocessor manual, this explains how to make changes to the postprocessors used by ArtCAM MillWizard.

Download postprocessors manual!

Windows 95, 98

Pentium PC 100 MHz or higher
32 Mb Memory (RAM)
800 x 600 Screen display
256 colour, 16 bit
4 MB Free disk space

This is due to problems with some versions of windows. To fix the problem, follow the steps below

1. Download the fix file by clicking here
2. Browse to the windows folder where you downloaded the fix file and unzip it
3. Refer to the readme.txt file in the unzipped folder and follow the instructions within
4. The problem should now be fixed, restart the Insignia E demo installer

ArtCAM Millwizard can export toolpath data directly to a large number of CNC machines. These include:

Apex	MultiCAM Toolchanger (inch)
Bostomatic	MultiCAM (mm)
Boxford V10 (mm)	Precix (inch)
Boxford V4 (mm)	Primacon
Boxford V5 (mm)	Roland (*.rol)
Cipher	Servo (inch)
CAM TECH (inch)	Servo (mm)
CAM TECH (mm)	Techno-Isel
Cielle	Tryax
Dyna	Axyz
Fanuc	CAM TECH Toolchanger
Fagor	Denford (inch)
Heidenhain	Denford (mm)
Heidenhain Toolchanger	G-Code (inch)
Hurco	G-Code (mm)
Hurco Toolchanger	Isel G-Code
Kuhlman	Magnum
Koerner	Model Master
Light Machine	Pacer
Mimaki (*.mmk)	Pacer Toolchanger
Model Master 500 (inch)	Rotary (X-axis)
Model Master 500 (mm) (*.mms)	Shopbot (inch)
Modela (mm)
MultiCAM (inch)