CALIFORNIA SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

California Software Systems develops, sells, and supports its' own standard products. We are not a consulting firm, a value added reseller, nor do we seek development contracts. However we will customize our products so they "look and feel" the way you want. We make computers do the job the way you want it done. Here are a few examples of some of our more interesting "customization" projects.

California Software Systems has always provided the ability to select groups of hole to drill by using either a window or picking individual holes, one at a time. However, one of our customers had an unusual problem. In general, the optimizer being used by their CAM department did a great job finding the shortest drilling path. However, when dealing with a large number of holes there were often two dozen, or more, which didn't get picked up on the optimized path. The CAM software would add these left over holes to the end of the new, "optimized", drilling program. The job would drill fine. However, at the very end of the program the machine would swing wildly all over the panels picking up those last, un-optimized, holes. The problem for the machine operator was, if you broke a bit near the end of the program, how could you easily pick up these last remaining holes which were randomly located all over the panel?

3. Enter these first and last hole numbers and let the computer automatically mark all the holes in between.

This works so well that we now include it as a standard feature of our Graphical Drill/Route System 7.52. Now there are three ways to select holes (1.) with a Window, (2.) One hole at a time, or (3.) by "Start" and "Finish" hole numbers.

Pluritec makes an excellent single spindle drill with an automatic loader. Bar code labels are printed and attached to each stack. A Sieb & Meyer PC and a bar code label printer come with the machine. By reading the label the machine finds the correct drilling program, panel size, tools, etc. - regardless of the order in which the stacks are placed in the loader.

Our customer uses the machine principally to drill complex electrical test fixtures. Each fixture is different and requires from 4 to 12 different plates. However, the Pluritec software is designed to create and print only one label at a time. If the days work required drilling four new fixtures, the machine operator, had to setup and print between 16 and 48 different labels - one at a time! In addition, he had to manually create, edit, or move several files into different subdirectories on the PC for each label in order for the machine to run correctly. This was a complex, error prone, time consuming, process which required an hour or two every day.

After trying for more than a year to obtain help from the machine manufacturer, our customer brought the problem to California Software Systems. We wrote a new label printing program which runs on the PC connected to the machine. Now all the operator has to do is enter the job number. All of the files are properly setup and the labels printed for a complete fixture in one burst which typically takes less than a minute.

This is an example of our creating something completely new to solve a new problem. If you have a computer related bottle neck in your production process, California Software Systems can help.

Pluritec Single Spindle Drill With Auto Loader

Most CAM systems allow you to write "scripts" to automate complex or common tasks. However, there are times when scripts are simply not up the task. This is where California Software Systems can help. We are not limited to scripts. We write our software principally in "C", Visual Basic, and Assembly language. The final product is complied into executable programs. This means we can make the computer do almost anything to your want. Here's a good example.

Our customer wanted to combine the 2nd drill, route tooling, and panelized route program for the entire panel in a particular sequence. The tools needed to be renumbered. Tool compensation (G40, G41, and G42) had to be turned "on" and "off" at the appropriate places to produce the correct finished dimensions. Then an M48 header had to be created and M30 and M00 commands inserted as necessary. Next the whole thing had to be optimized for minimum drill path length. Lastly the routing portion of the program needed to be optimize for the continuous use of one tool over the entire panel before picking up a different size router bit.

California Software Systems wrote a custom program which pulled the needed files from various computers on the network , automatically created the desired drill and route programs, and then stored everything in a compressed "JOB" file on the drill room file server.

Your requirements may not be nearly this complex. However, the idea is the same. If you're having trouble with your scripts call us. We can probably do the job better and faster using a high level programming language rather than the scripting tools provided with your CAM system.

Fox was one of our competitors who is no longer in business. Some of their installations used a chronological subdirectory structure. There were directories named LINK, DRL30, DRL90, DRL180, DRL19MON, DRL1YEAR, and DRL2YEAR which corresponded to 30, 90, and 180 days , etc. . Different versions of the same file with the same name could be stored in each subdirectory. Each time the file server was rebooted all the drill and route programs got re-shuffled according to dates.

We had a customer who wanted to install additional machines on a Microsoft network using our Graphical Drilling System while continuing to support their older drills and routers on their Fox system . They also wanted to continue to use software and procedures they had established for the Fox system in their "Programming" department. .

California Software Systems solved the problem by installing our standard System 6 on the new machines and supplying one custom utility program. The custom program searched the Fox data base, located the correct file, and placed a copy in the "CURRENT" subdirectory used by our Graphical Drill/Route System. The customer was then able to use all the graphical capability of our System 6 while still being able to run the same programs on their other machines. They were also able to continue to use their existing methods to create and modify drill and route programs.

Within a year they replaced the Fox installations on all their machines with California Software Systems. They then updated their CAM software and eliminated the Fox server.

California Software Systems has a good, inexpensive, Gerber Editing System. However, we no longer promote it because, frankly, there is to much competition in the market. In addition, many customer want us to train employees who have no background in the design of printed circuit boards or in the use of a photoplotter. The result is it's simply to expensive for us to provide our normal, exceptionally high, level of support. However, if you have an employee who is willing to read and educate themselves about Gerber files, we may have the right product for you. Please call us to discuss your needs. We want to help.

WWW.CALIFORNIASOFTWARESYSTEMS.COM 1791 San Juan Canyon Road San Juan Bautista, CA. 95045 (831) 623-1707