CAM Software Leaders Praise Hurco for G-Code Capabilities

Indianapolis, IN – Hurco is known for its conversational control, which only makes sense considering the company’s co-founder Gerald Roch invented that form of CNC programming, and it remains the most powerful and intuitive conversational programming on the market today. However, a growing number of machine shops who use G-code and rely on CAD/CAM software have found increased productivity by leveraging Hurco’s powerful G-code processing.

“Some people think of Hurco as having that conversational control, but the G-code capability of the integrated Hurco control is considered even more powerful than other controls due to the speed it processes code, as well as other usability features,” said Mike Cope, a Hurco product technical specialist. “At Hurco, the skills gap and labor shortages our customers face drive us to make sure the Hurco control is easy to learn, easy to use, and is the most versatile control in the industry whether a shop uses CAD/CAM or conversational.”

Whether you’re using G-code or conversational, the Hurco control powered by WinMax® is the most flexible and intuitive control in the industry.

CAM software leaders are impressed by Hurco as well, lauding the control for its ability to process their programs. Hurco recently sat down with experts from three popular CAM software companies — Mastercam, WORKNC, and SolidCAM — to ask for their thoughts on the control.

“It was moving through code at an unbelievable pace, and really at a level far above the price point Hurco is at. There are machines that cost double, triple what this machine costs and don’t move as well.” — Mastercam Applications Engineer Jesse Trinque.

“Not every control can process points the same way; the WinMax® control is one of the best on the market that we’ve seen for reading the data and processing the points and producing a good finish.” — WORKNC Applications Engineering Supervisor Ryan Hostetler.

“We needed a machine that would move very smooth, that could consume as much G-code as we could feed it and as fast as we fed it, and found that the Hurco machine was fantastic for that, especially with the Ultimotion®.” — SolidCAM Chief Operations Officer Ken Merritt.

Due to the robust NC capabilities of the Hurco control, shops that are comfortable with CAM software can use their existing programs and don’t have to change their current processes. This was the case with CSI Shocks (Brownsburg, Indiana) when they decided to bring their machining in-house and purchased six Hurcos.

“Originally, we designed all of our parts in Fusion (360), but since we had experience with Fusion, we started there,” explained owner Garrett Andrews. “It was so easy to program parts in Fusion for the Hurco machines that we just never went down the path of doing the conversational programming.”

Andrews went on to say, “We have some very complex parts… over 100,000 lines of code, it’s a 50-minute cycle time, so there’s a lot going on there. The Hurco machine handled it with ease, there were no issues.”

The unrivaled flexibility of the Hurco control is further enhanced by NC/Conversational Merge, a powerful control feature exclusive to Hurco that allows users to apply conversational features, such as pattern operations, scaling, tool probing, part probing, and an abundance of work offsets, to NC programs.

Regardless of whether a machinist uses conversational or NC programming, the Hurco control has several helpful features that apply to both. A few of the features deemed customer favorites include UltiMotion®, Advanced Verification Graphics with 3D Solid Rendering, 3D Import, Data Block Search, and Interrupt Cycle.

• UltiMotion® is Hurco’s patented motion control technology. With a 10,000-block lookahead, UltiMotion® automatically plans out the optimal toolpath and feeds/speeds, producing both greatly improved surface finishes and reductions in cycle times of up to 30%.
• The Advanced Verification Graphics feature lets the user view a solid rendering of the tool path that displays dynamic rotation, tool cut simulation, and dynamic view manipulation. This feature reduces scrap, programming time, and proves out the part program.
• 3D Import includes Solid Model Import and 3D DXF. Solid Model Import allows the user to program at the CNC control directly from a STP file. The efficiency provided by the Solid Model Import feature is further enhanced with 5-sided programming because it automatically creates the necessary Transform Plane blocks. 3D DXF provides the ability to gather Z-depth information from the DXF file and program from splines.
• The Hurco control also simplifies the tedious task of searching for a data block or line of code during the editing process with its Data Block Search Users can easily touch the selection they need to edit on the graphics screen, and the cursor will jump to the corresponding program selection.
• Interrupt Cycle eliminates the need to teach the control the path the tool takes when it retracts and returns to the part. When the Interrupt button on the control is pressed, the spindle stops cutting, the coolant shuts off, and the tool automatically retracts to Z home. The operator can jog the machine in any direction to check the part or change tool inserts. Then, simply press two buttons, and the cycle automatically resumes right where it left off and at the speed you choose.

Powered by WinMax^®, Hurco’s control also boasts technical specifications (standard, not an upcharge) that are better than any CNC control in the industry. Some of the control’s robust technical specifications include 128-GB solid-state hard drives, 4 GBs of RAM, 2.7-GHz dual-core processors, and 15-inch LCD touchscreen control console monitors.

Hurco is dedicated to continuous innovation to add functionality that helps customers increase productivity and profitability, and to maintain Hurco’s status as the easiest control to program, which helps customers navigate labor shortages and the skills gap.

To learn more about Hurco’s G-code capabilities, go to Hurco.com/G-Code