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- Mastercam Solids allows Blackpoint to import, create, and program their solids in the same easy-to-use interface.
- They can import Parasolids®, SAT and inventor™ files as solids, surfaces and/or wireframes, as well as export Parasolids® and SAT files. Another nice feature is the ability to open SolidWorks® and SolidEdge® files directly.
- The Mastercam Mill/Mastercam Solids combination gave them full associativity between their design, engineering, solid model, and toolpath. They could make a quick change to the solid model, and get an updated toolpath with a single mouse click.
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Seven million intrepid American sportsmen engage in paintball gamesmanship, making it the tenth most popular sport in the country. Blackpoint Engineering of Goshen , Indiana has been for eight years, one of the most innovative contributors to the development of this multi-billion dollar industry. Paintball is more than just fun and games. It's serious business for Mil-Sim (Military Simulation) where "scenario paintball" is a key element in Special Forces training.
Blackpoint invents and supplies a broad line of original paintball accessories for the industry. Products range from various shoulder stocks, barrels, launchers, to land mine devices. Blackpoint will soon be offering military combat paintball guns. How does a small but growing company like Blackpoint stay competitive in the high visibility sports products world, and also meet the demanding high accuracy mil specs for battle training? "Well," says Steve Wygant of Blackpoint, "When you're small, you need to find a big advantage that is very efficient." Blackpoint worked with their local Mastercam reseller as they developed their machining expertise. Wygant found out quickly that Mastercam products were very easy to use and produced big results.
"For the machinist in me," observes Wygant, "How could I not like the intelligence of Mastercam's Feed Rate Optimization or the inherent efficiency of a software package built upon full associativity?" Now, Steve was looking at improving his quick response design capability. His current system for modifying custom parts was like drudgery. And, it seemed that today's customers were requesting modifications for more and more parts on an accelerated schedule. At the same time, the company was expanding its own new product development program.
Blackpoint decided on the Mastercam Solids add-on. This would allow Blackpoint to import, create, and program their solids in the same easy-to-use interface. They can import Parasolids®, SAT and inventor™ files as solids, surfaces and/or wireframes, as well as export Parasolids® and SAT files. Another nice feature is the ability to open SolidWorks® and SolidEdge® files directly.
What Mr. Wygant liked best was that the Mastercam Mill / Mastercam Solids combination gave him full associativity between his design, engineering, solid model, and toolpath. He could make a quick change to his solid model, and get an updated toolpath with a single mouse click. It was software that helped him implement engineering genius. As Steve Wygant notes, "With the Solids upgrade I could go from design to machine ten times faster. What once took me weeks, is now days."
Good machining software with the flexibility of powerful add-ons like the new Mastercam Solids package is essential to the efficiency of businesses like Blackpoint. Design to toolpath without wasted time is necessary to compete. |