●      DSI, the US’s largest Solution Provider for Autodesk Fusion, will sell CloudNC’s CAM Assist, the world’s first AI solution for CNC machine programming, to North American precision CNC workshops. This strategic partnership aims to accelerate the adoption of CAM Assist in the US market.

●      CAM Assist is a revolutionary tool that automatically generates professional machining strategies with AI in seconds at the click of a button, saving an average workshop over 300 hours of CAM programming and estimating time a year.

CloudNC - a manufacturing technology company backed by Autodesk and Lockheed Martin - today announces that Design and Software International (DSI) will sell CAM Assist, the world’s first AI solution for CNC machine programming, to its North American customer base.

DSI, a manufacturing software specialist and the US’s largest reseller for Autodesk Fusion, already has relationships with thousands of North American CAM CAD programmers. Its new reseller partnership with CloudNC will immediately make CAM Assist available to its active, engaged user base.

CAM Assist was released in 2023 and is used by hundreds of CAM programmers worldwide, but the partnership with DSI will make it much more accessible to existing Fusion customers, enabling even more US and Canada manufacturers to benefit from its efficiency gains.

Theo Saville, founder of CloudNC, said: “CAM Assist is a game-changer for precision machining, and this agreement with DSI brings its benefits to US users far faster. DSI’s credibility as a CAD CAM software provider is well established, and with its support, more programmers will apply CAM Assist to increase machine uptime, slash lead times, improve process stability, and upskill staff to become expert machinists more quickly.”

Jon Caliguri, President of DSI, said: “This partnership with Cloud NC offers an innovative solution to some of the most pressing challenges in the manufacturing sector. CAM Assist is designed to help manufacturers break through the barriers that traditionally hinder the scaling of programming operations. It significantly shortens the learning curve for new programmers and unlocks new efficiency gains in existing programming teams. Moreover, CAM Assist can be a useful tool in quoting jobs more accurately, in less time by users with minimal training or experience. CAM Assist is a testament to our belief in the power of technology to transform the industry, making sophisticated manufacturing accessible and manageable for businesses of all sizes.”

CAM Assist uses advanced computer science techniques and AI to generate professional machining strategies for 3-axis parts in seconds, which could take CNC machine programmers hours or even days to manually create.

As a result, the amount of time it takes to program a CNC machine to make a component - a bottleneck in many factories – is greatly reduced, compared to the previous manual programming process, as is the time spent to estimate how much a new component will cost to program. That gain enables manufacturers using CAM Assist to raise productivity and shorten lead times, while also estimating for more work, more quickly - saving an average workshop over 300 hours of programming and estimating time a year.

Previously, depending on complexity, it could take a CAM programmer between an hour to several days to determine the best strategy to CNC machine a new component. This includes selecting the correct tools, strategies, and techniques - determining between hundreds of thousands of potential variables and approaches.

Instead, CAM Assist rapidly determines a professional strategy and the toolset needed to manufacture a part, along with approach directions and appropriate cutting speeds and feeds. In minutes or seconds, depending on part complexity, CAM Assist drafts the code required to instruct a CNC machine how to make it, within the user’s existing CAM platform.

While the software today performs best with 3-axis components, multi-axis is currently undergoing beta testing and will be available to users later in 2024.