The “Add Support Tags” command in the Edit Machining menu has been enhanced to make it quicker and easier to use, while also providing better feedback to the user.

Instead of picking individual toolpaths with the mouse, a new area selector can be positioned over multiple toolpaths and the support tags automatically added to all toolpaths intersecting with the circle.

This is achieved by showing a fixed-sized circular geometry at the mouse cursor and allowing the user to zoom in/out to control how many toolpaths intersect with the circle. Once the toolpaths have been selected, aligned tags will be created on all the toolpaths.

A Status Bar message indicates how many support tags have been added to the drawing.

The second enhancement provides a visual clue that tags have been added. This is particularly useful in 2D views where it is not possible to see the changes to the toolpaths after a support tag has been added.

Each tag is represented visually by adding coloured balls at the start and end of each tag. The balls are in the same colour as their toolpath and are visible while the “Add Support Tags…” command is active.

Any preexisting tags in the drawing will also be given coloured ball markers, making it easier to see where tags have been previously located.

A third enhancement has been implemented for removing support tags. When selecting “Remove Support Tags” from the “Edit Machining” menu the visual aid showing where the support tags are located is displayed, the user can now either individually or window select support tags that they wish to remove.

Once the command is finished by right clicking, pressing the Esc key or clicking “Finish” in the input bar, a message box displays indicating how many support tags have been removed from the drawing.

With the new changes, adding and removing support tags to nested sheets is much quicker and no longer requires constantly changing views to see if the tags have been inserted at the desired locations.

Automatic Rapid Manager is being improved to better manage different types of Rapid about the part.

Here we have added a new type: “Cylindrical Clearance” When used the user can define the axis and Radial distance for the creation of the Cylindrical Helical moves.

Note: This functionality requires xSimultaneous

A further enhancement has been made to the “Automatic Rapid Manager,” it is now possible to pick the rapid level from the drawing using the newly implemented “Pick Buttons” located next to each manual entry box.

“Managed Rapids” has been added to ALPHACAM and is located in the “Special Edits” section of the Machining tab of the Ribbon. 

Inserting a Managed Rapid is used to override Global Rapid Manager settings. 

When the option “Apply to consecutive Operations” is ticked the current “Managed Rapid” options are applied to all operations following until another Managed Rapid is applied with different options. When the option is unticked the Rapids Manager settings are only used by the subsequent operation.  

For example, if a sequence of operations requires the use of Cylindrical Rapids this can be applied to all the operations in that sequence and will remain applied until an additional “Managed Rapids” is applied with an alternative Rapid movement option or the “Use Automatic Rapids” is switched off, at which point the Global Rapid Manager settings will be