Many clients visiting our company often ask why we develop two software products — one for 3D offline programming and another for production system simulation. What exactly is the technical difference between offline programming and production system simulation? I'm afraid even many seasoned industry professionals may not be entirely clear on this. According to CIMDATA's definition, both software types fall under the CAX (Computer Aided product innovation tools) category. CAX encompasses CAD/CAM/CAE etc. CAD (Computer Aided Design) is the foundation and platform of CAX. Offline programming belongs to CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), while production system simulation belongs to CAE (Computer Aided Engineering).
CAD software is typically used for 3D modeling and mechanical design. For example, robot body models and production system 3D models are all created by engineers using CAD software. Solidworks from the US (acquired by France's Dassault) is a mid-range CAD software with distinctive parametric mechanical design features — easy to learn and use — which has made it dominant in China's robot body and integrator 3D design market. Robots performing machining require trajectory planning.
Generally speaking, simple trajectory planning can be accomplished using the teach pendant that comes with the robot. However, for complex 3D trajectories, manual teaching is impossible, and this is where CAM offline programming software becomes essential. CAM software imports the 3D CAD model of parts for trajectory planning, then uses the simulation module to virtually validate the generated trajectory points — checking for collisions, joint compliance, and other rationality issues. Problematic points are adjusted through software tools, and after re-validation is complete, the trajectory points and process parameters are simultaneously output to the specified robot for machining through the designated brand's robot post-processor.
Different machining methods — such as milling, grinding, polishing, cutting, flat welding, intersecting line welding, 3D printing, etc. — have completely different processes and trajectory generation methods, which is why CAM software is highly segmented by industry. This is why the market has countless CAM software products, and no single software can dominate all segments. Internationally, many CAM software companies have just a few to a dozen employees, focusing on a niche area and a good CAD/CAM platform, developing a CAM software for a specific industry segment, and gradually accumulating experience to form technical barriers.
The technologies used in robot offline programming are primarily computer graphics, robot kinematics, path planning, and motion control — the overall technical difficulty is actually not that high. I looked into domestic companies producing similar products and found over a dozen. So why do foreign software products still dominate in enterprise applications, and domestic software cannot break through? The main issue is that industrial applications require high stability and ease of use from software, and it needs to work in various complex environments. Just like the CNC control system market, the technical threshold is no longer high, and there are many domestic products, but the market is still dominated by FANUC and Siemens.
Given this situation, when our company began independent CAM R&D in 2009, we avoided the mainstream industrial robot application market and focused on the more niche 5-axis laser cutting market to develop the corresponding offline programming software, Pentacut. After 10 years of gradual accumulation, this software now essentially monopolizes the domestic 5-axis laser cutting market and has been exported to South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Building on the HedraCAM Pentacut 5-axis laser cutting offline programming software, our company began developing the HedraCAM offline programming software for industrial robot applications in 2014, still focusing on laser and sheet metal fields such as cutting, plate welding, intersecting line welding, laser cladding, and additive manufacturing.
The software is now being promoted to enterprises, and customer feedback has been positive. Besides HedraCAM, other major 3D robot offline programming software products include: Canada's Robotmaster, which was originally developed as a secondary application based on Mastercam, a well-established offline programming software primarily for 3D milling, so Robotmaster has always been strong in robot milling.
However, the limitations of the Mastercam platform became very apparent, so a couple of years ago the company abandoned that platform and switched to Dassault's Catia CAD platform, hoping to break into other machining fields. But the cost was enormous — the new version's price increased, stability decreased, customer reviews were unfavorable, and it currently faces significant resistance in international promotion. Russia's SprutCAM was only introduced to China in the past couple of years, with agents promoting it aggressively using a low-price strategy, and it has now been deployed at some customer sites.
From overall evaluation, this software has some distinctive algorithmic features, but its overall architecture design, stability, process applications, and technological advancement are underwhelming. The reason is related to Russia's relatively backward industry, which lacks sufficient robot testing environments and scenarios. RobotDK is a non-commercial software from Canada whose algorithms and processes have not undergone extensive validation; enterprise applications are relatively few, and it mainly serves the education market. RobotArt was developed based on Beihang University's CAXA platform and originally imitated Israel's RobotWorks (developed on the Solidworks platform, now defunct).
Like RobotDK, this software has been promoted primarily in the education market and has never broken into the enterprise market. Other international products include DELCAM (which added robot modules on top of its milling base, now acquired by AUTODESK) and Germany's FASTCURVE (developed as a secondary application on Delmia), but these are relatively expensive and have not been widely promoted in China. From the user perspective, most users of 3D offline programming software are frontline industrial robot operators and technicians, trained at vocational and technical schools that cultivate frontline technical talent.
User requirements focus on maximizing programming speed and increasing robot productive hours to improve overall efficiency. Software requirements include accurate algorithms, efficient motion trajectories, and ease of use — following the principle of making it as simple as possible. In the future, offline programming CAM will gradually evolve toward intelligent perception-based automatic task programming, where robots collect on-site data through 3D vision technology and automatically adjust and optimize trajectories generated from 3D CAD models. During the offline programming process, a simulation module is needed to validate rationality. This simulation environment typically creates a virtual robot cell identical to the real one, analyzing the robot's machining trajectories within the cell.
Our robot production system simulation software HedraSMF evolved from the simulation module developed during HedraCAM's offline programming R&D. In the early days, industrial robots were mostly standalone unit applications, so simulation was primarily for rationality analysis of offline programming trajectories. With the development of PLC and other automation technologies, many factories linked robot cells together using logistics systems, and accordingly, software requirements also changed. During automated production system planning, 3D CAD software is typically used for design, then models are transferred to CAE planning and analysis software. In a virtual environment, rationality analysis is performed on the positions, cycle times, robot reachability, collisions, and signal control of robots, machine tools, conveyors, and personnel on the production system. The generated cycle time data is further used to analyze capacity and form planning schemes for factory planning and design personnel.
HedraSMF production system simulation software Robot CAE simulation software mainly has several application areas: one is dynamic analysis of mechanical structures in the mechanical design phase; another is production system planning simulation analysis, which basically belongs to discrete manufacturing, and HedraSMF falls into this sub-field; the third is dynamic complex system analysis, such as terrain scenarios, applied in service robots, intelligent transportation, etc. Besides HedraSMF, other major robot production system simulation software includes: users of production system planning simulation software are mostly engineers with CAD mechanical design backgrounds, trained in universities through industrial engineering and automation programs, with career directions mostly in solution design and planning at robot manufacturers and integrators, and design departments of large manufacturing enterprises.
Software requirements typically include providing extensive component databases for quickly building production systems, accurate motion control algorithms for various robots, various sensor and PLC simulators, scene rendering capabilities, and output of accurate cycle time data and simulation scene animations. Future production system simulation will integrate digital twin and real-time data-driven technologies. Digital twins mean that whatever physical characteristics exist in the real world, the virtual world has the same characteristics, with real-time communication between virtual and actual systems — any change in the actual system also causes dynamic changes in the virtual system.
In summary, in robotics applications, 3D offline programming CAM software and production system simulation CAE software are technically intertwined — each contains elements of the other — but differ significantly in their application focus and emphasis. Finally, regarding software bundled with robot manufacturers: ABB's RobotStudio, Yaskawa's Motosim, KUKA's Simpro, and FANUC's Roboguide. Most of these were developed by third-party software companies as OEM products for robot manufacturers — for example, Simpro comes from Finland's Visual Components.
Strictly speaking, these are not 3D offline programming software, but rather simplified versions of production system simulation software, providing some basic offline programming and production system simulation functions, primarily for downstream integrators to create proposals supporting sales. For end customers who need offline programming for complex 3D parts or workshop-level production simulation planning and analysis, purchasing professional software is recommended.