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52 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST August/September 2018 after finding that his previous CAM system could no lon- ger meet the company’s needs. “We could see that our old software wasn’t moving along in development like the other systems, and we got Surfcam so that we could do more advanced program- ming on more advanced machinery,” Franklin says. Franklin recently also acquired, and is now transition- ing into, the latest version of Surfcam to address the com- plexities of driving his new mill-turn machine. However, he continues to rely on Surfcam Traditional due to its ability to generate accurate, specialized toolpath. He pro- grams his five mills and four lathes with Surfcam Tradi- tional, and will use the latest version of Surfcam to power his new mill-turn machine tool. Though the company doesn’t specialize in design work, DKW does work with customer design teams to make parts more manufacturable. To create or edit computer-aided-design (CAD) mod- els that can be imported into Surfcam, DKW uses the SOLIDWORKS® CAD solution, by Dassault Systèmes, to generate or edit solid models that can be imported into Surfcam Traditional. The software’s seamless and simple interoperability with the CAD solution allows users to open SOLIDWORKS files right within the Surfcam Tra- ditional interface. This feature increases ease of use for users of both systems and ensures that CAM data is up- dated when changes are made to the design. “Even if you make a change in the SOLIDWORKS file, it will automatically update in Surfcam,” says Franklin, who adds that the interaction between CAD and CAM solutions simplifies the design process. DKW does not perform a significant amount of pro- duction, and so lot sizes typically range between one and 200 parts. About 70 percent of jobs are machined in alu- minum, though the company also works with plenty of stainless steel, titanium, and pre-hardened metals. Franklin appreciates the toolpath control offered with Surfcam Traditional, which allows him to create custom Leadman Jason Franklin changes out a part on DKW’s YCM TV188 50 taper CNC mill with 70 x 34 x 31 travel and a 10,000 RPM spindle.