What is Alphacam? A CAD/CAM guide for furniture and wood CNC

Alphacam is a CAD/CAM package developed by Hexagon: it produces the drawing (CAD) and the toolpath the CNC machine will run (CAM) in one program. It is common in shops machining wood, MDF, plastics, composites and stone, and it is one of the programs you meet most often on CNC routers in furniture and kitchen production. This article answers "which part does what" for someone hearing about the program for the first time or just starting at the machine.

Alphacam modules: Router, Mill, Lathe, Profiling, Stone

Alphacam is not one program but a family of modules split by process. Furniture makers use Router: sheet machining, door routing, holes and grooves, nesting. The others serve other industries:

• Router: wood/MDF/plastic sheet machining — furniture, kitchens, doors, signage.
• Mill: metal milling; moulds and machine parts.
• Lathe: turning.
• Profiling: laser, plasma, waterjet, oxy-fuel cutting.
• Stone: marble and granite — worktops, cutting and shaping.
• Wire: wire EDM.

Each module is also sold by level (names such as Essential, Standard, Advanced, Ultimate change between releases); higher levels unlock 3D machining, advanced nesting and automation. Everything in this guide is about the Router module; GMacros add-ins are developed and tested only in Router.

CAD and CAM on one screen: from drawing to toolpath

In the classic flow a part is drawn in a CAD program, exported to a CAM program and toolpaths are defined there. Alphacam merges the two: you draw geometry directly or import DXF/DWG, assign routing, drilling, grooving and pocketing operations to it on the same screen, and a post-processor translates the result into your machine's dialect (G-code). A typical sequence for a kitchen door:

1. Outer contour, surface pattern, handle and hinge holes are drawn as geometry.
2. Each geometry gets an operation: outer contour cut, pattern lines V-routed, holes drilled.
3. Tool, speed, feed and depth are entered; the simulation is checked.
4. The post-processor writes the NC file for the machine; it goes to the controller.

In a shop drawing a hundred doors a day, steps 1 and 2 eat most of the time. Alphacam has two mechanisms for automating them: Auto Style and add-ins/macros.

Auto Style: operations assigned by layer name

Auto Style is the automation tool that assigns operations to geometry by layer name. You define it once: closed contours on KESIM are cut on the outside, circles on DELIK are drilled, lines on KANAL get an 8 mm groove. From then on, any drawing that lands on the right layers becomes fully machined with one command. Layer names are entirely yours; what matters is that whoever produces the drawing — an operator, a designer sending DXF, a macro — uses the same names. Setup steps: Alphacam Auto Style setup: automatic machining by layer name

Nesting: placing parts on the sheet

Nesting arranges many parts onto as few sheets as possible with minimal waste. In Alphacam Router you provide a part list (quantity, grain direction, priority); the program lays them out for your sheet size and produces one NC file per sheet. Printing labels (part name, order number) is a natural part of nesting — when a part comes off the machine you need to know which cabinet it belongs to. The Part Labelling tool in the Cabinet macros writes that label into the drawing. Settings and waste tactics: Alphacam nesting guide: sheet layout, waste, grain direction and labels

File types: .ard, .arb and others

Two folders in the installation matter: LICOMDIR (configuration, post-processors, the Startup folder) and LICOMDAT (sample drawings, user data). .arb files placed in Startup load automatically when Alphacam starts — that is where add-ins are installed.

Extending Alphacam: VBA, the API and add-ins

Alphacam runs VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) internally — the same macro model as Excel. The VBA editor opens from the API tab; objects like App, Drawing, Path and Layer create or modify geometry, and the result compiles to an .arb. Any shop can therefore write tools for its own work: buttons that draw a door from dimensions, reverse the direction of selected contours, or print part labels. Where to start is covered in Writing VBA macros in Alphacam: where to start; the add-in mechanism in What is an Alphacam add-in, how is it installed and how does it work?.

Who Alphacam is for, and when it is not enough

For shops producing sheet-based parts (doors, cabinet carcasses, interior doors, signage) where 2.5D machining (2D contour plus depth) dominates, the Router module is more than enough. Free-form 3D surfacing (sculpture, moulds) needs a higher level or a different program. The program itself is licensed annually or perpetually from Hexagon's authorised resellers; GMacros does not sell Alphacam — it builds add-ins that run inside it.