New things in Beta 1.2.0.

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Serial communication.
You can now send and receive CNC code to and from your machine using the serial interface (RS232).
For this to work, you need to have a serial connector on your computer or a USB to RS232 adapter. You
also need a working serial cable connected to you machine. Serial communication is an advanced topic
involving soldering a special cable (different machines use different connections) as well as setting
communication parameters on both the PC and the machine side. We do not help with the cable or
these settings so you will need to contact an experienced technician if you are setting up the serial
communication for the first time.
When you have everything setup you can send and receive CNC code using the menu items "Send via
serial port" and "Receive via serial port" in the File menu.

The settings for the serial communication is reached from the Settings menu.

Here you can set a lot of parameters that will affect the communication.

The serial communication is a Platinum Edition only feature.

Import and Export of DXF Files.

From the File menu, you can now import and export DXF files.

When you import DXF files, they will become guide lines and circles in SimCam. These can then be used
to create contours for various operations. Please note that imported arcs will become circles as there is
no such thing as guide arcs. This is not a bug.
Let's import a sample DXF File.
In the Samples\DXF file folder there is a lathe.dxf and a mill.dxf file. We click File - Import DXF as SimCam
guides and select the mill one.

As you can see, the import function converted the corner arc to a SimCam guide circle. It also converter
all lines in the DXF file to SimCam guide lines.
We can now easily make a contour of the guides by clicking More - Contour - Track in the SimCam menu.

We can also go the other way around by exporting SimCam contours to a DXF file. For example if you
want to make a drawing in a CAD program from a SimCam document.
When you select the Export function, you will be asked to tell the preferred DXF format.

If you are not sure which format works with your CAD software, experiment by selecting the first one in
the list, going to the second one (if the first one fails) and so on. You should be able to find a format that
you can import into your CAD software.
DXF support is a Platinum Edition only feature.

New keyboard commands.

Simulation Speed shortcuts
When the 3D simulation view has focus (you have clicked on it) you can control the simulation speed by
pressing the + (plus) and - (minus) keys on the keyboard.
You can also start and stop fast forward (FF) mode by pressing the spacebar.
Most Recent Used Files (MRU).
In the file menu, you will now find a list of most recent used CNC files and SimCam files. Each time you
load a file into the editor or into SimCam, this list will be updated. The purpose is to help you open files
that you have used recently, faster.

New Open File dialogs.

When you open CNC, SimCam or Machine files you will now see a new type of dialog with preview
capabilities. Just single click a file and you will see a thumbnail representation of it in the upper right
corner of the dialog.
When it comes to CNC files, a small speedy mini-simulator is used to quickly create the preview. This
simulator has to be very fast so it is by nature simplified. Basically it just looks at the G01, G02 and G03s
of the code to make a small picture. This will of course not always give you a correct representation but
can many times be enough just to give the user and idea of what the file contains before opening it.

If you look in the upper right corner of the dialog, there is a small star-like icon.

In this menu you can create shortcuts to folders that you use often. This is another way of making it
easier for the user to find and open files.

New SimCam functionality.

In this version, SimCam has got a lot of new functionality.
There are now two new ways of creating contours. Besides tracking guides you can now create contour
rectangles and create contour by "Follow mouse".

If you create contours with these two new functions, no arcs will be created. This is not a problem
though as we have added functions to modify the contour too (adding arcs to corners for example).

Two contours, the upper one created with "Follow mouse" and the bottom one with Rectangle.
If you click on a contour you will see a popup menu. In that menu we have added functions to modify
the contour in various ways.

Let's start from the top going down.

Delete

Here you can select if you want to delete the whole contour or just the last object. Please note that if
you want to delete the first object in the contour, you can just reverse the contour by using the function
"Reverse contour".

Move
You can move a contour. The reference point for moving is set by the Origin function. See Origin below.

If you hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard when you click the new position of the contour, a copy
will be created.
You can also type in the new position using the coordinate bar that will be shown at the bottom of the
SimCam screen.

Rotate
With this function, you can rotate the contour around its origin point (see Origin below).

Same here, you can hold down SHIFT to make a copy.

The angle can be entered at the bottom of the SimCam screen.

Mirror
To mirror a contour you need to create a guide line to be used as the "mirror".

Here we created a mirrored contour holding down shift to make a copy.

Scale
Used to scale up or down a contour. If you want to make the contour double the size, enter 2 in the
scale value input box shown. If you want to make it half the size, put 0.5 in the box. The scaling will be
done around the contour origin (see Origin below).
Origin
When a new contour is created, the origin of it will be X0 Y0 (X0 Z0 in Lathe machines).
The origin of the contour will affect moving, scaling and rotating operations.
With this function, you can move the origin of the contour to a place that makes more sense to you.
The origin is shown as a small green/orange dot when you hold the mouse over the contour.

Fillet
Click near a corner where you want to add a fillet radius. Select Modify - Fillet and enter the radius in the
Radius input box at the bottom of the SimCam screen and press Enter.

Chamfer
Click near a corner where you want to add a chamfer. Select Modify - Chamfer and enter the chamfer
distance in the input box at the bottom of the SimCam screen and press Enter.

Append
You can append (extend) an existing contour with this function. There are two options, one to use the
tracker to follow existing guide lines and circles and the other to follow the mouse.

That was all functions in the Modify menu. Let us have a look at other new SimCam functionality.
Layers panel transparency
When the Layers panel gets out of focus (you are doing other things) it automatically becomes semitransparent. That is to avoid that the window blocks other windows. You will always see what is under
it. Remember that you can always make it 100% visible again by moving the mouse pointer over it.

Layer panel shortcuts

If you hold down the CTRL (Control) key on the keyboard while you click the cyan colored info box that
layer will be activated, current and visible while all other layers will be deactivated and invisible (egoistic
mode).

If you on the other hand double click the cyan colored info box, the parameters for that layer will open
(same as clicking the small gear button).
SimCam contour Copy and Paste
You can now copy and paste contours on the same, or onto different layers. To copy a contour, click it
and select Copy from the popup menu.

Now you can switch to another layer (or stay at the same if you want two identical contours on the
same layer). Then select More - Paste from the SimCam main menu.

Order of contours
If you create more that one contour on a layer, they will be post processed to CNC code in the order
they were created. If you want to change the order of a contour, click it and select Order from the
popup menu and select if you want to move it up (make it become processed earlier) or down (later) in
the order of contours in the layer.

User blocks
There is a new layer operation type called "User blocks" now.

This operation is for the user to be allowed to put in own blocks in SimCam documents. He or she might
want to add code for a cycle not supported by SimCam, a comment or extra blocks for movements. This
can all be done with the User Blocks layer operation type.
When you open the parameters for a User Blocks layer you will see the following dialog.

To create movement operations (linear fast and feed movements) enter the position values in the X, Y
and Z fields, select the type of movement and click the "Add" button.
You can also add completely free blocks by typing them in the "Free User Blocks" text box. When post
processing, SimCam will first add the movements (if there are any) and then the free blocks.
Built-in CNC-codes help information
Under the Help menu, you will find a "Codes..." menu item. When you click it you will see information
about the loaded machine as well as tabs for the CNC codes that the particular machine type supports.
We will take away the codes in the online-help as we are moving towards supporting customized
machines. Instead all machines that you load into the simulator will show its own codes when you open
this window.

This window you can keep open when you work in the CNCSimulator. It is convenient to have it open as
a reference especially if you are a beginner on this particular machine.
New functionality for SimCam Turning as well as how to create Turning tools will be presented in
another document.