CAD/CAM Programming and Lab

Course Description

CAD/CAM Programming and Lab presents both foundational and sophisticated instruction in computer-aided design and manufacturing. Participants employ industry-standard tools to develop and construct two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometry, then generate machine tool paths derived from original designs and imported files. Successful completion requires earning a C grade or higher to fulfil programme graduation requirements.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, PMT is the Precision Metals prefix, and the 0000-level number marks this as PSAV clock-hour instruction. Daytona State publishes it at 150 clock hours with a $108.25 lab fee, offered spring. ⚠ It carries no college credit.

The phrase "and imported files" is the one that describes the actual job. In practice a machinist rarely draws the part — a customer sends a model, frequently in a neutral format, sometimes with errors in it, and the work is to interrogate it, understand how it will be held and machined, and generate toolpaths that produce it economically. CAD/CAM is where machining knowledge becomes leverage: it is the skill that most reliably moves a machinist from operating to programming, and the pay follows.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Apply the CAD/CAM workflow from model to machine.
• Navigate an industry-standard CAD/CAM environment.
• Construct accurate two-dimensional geometry.
• Apply constraints and dimensions to sketched geometry.
• Construct three-dimensional solid and surface geometry.
• Model a part from an engineering drawing.
• Import files in neutral formats and assess their integrity.
• Repair or work around defects in imported geometry.
• Define stock, workholding, and setup within the CAM environment.
• Establish work coordinate systems in CAM consistent with the machine setup.
• Select tools and define tool libraries.
• Apply speeds and feeds appropriate to material and tool.
• Generate two-dimensional milling toolpaths: contour, pocket, and drilling.
• Generate three-dimensional roughing and finishing toolpaths.
• Generate turning toolpaths where applicable.
• Control stepover, stepdown, and lead-in and lead-out moves.
• Apply tool containment and avoid gouging and collisions.
• Simulate toolpaths and verify material removal.
• Interpret simulation results and correct problems.
• Post-process a toolpath to machine-specific G-code.
• Describe post-processors and their role.
• Review and edit generated code for correctness.
• Produce setup documentation for the machine operator.
• Machine a part from your own CAM program and inspect it.

Optional Outcomes

• Apply high-speed and adaptive toolpath strategies.
• Program multi-axis toolpaths.
• Describe design for manufacturability.
• Apply parametric modelling and design revision.
• Describe data exchange, version control, and file management.
• Describe additive manufacturing workflows.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The CAD/CAM workflow
• CAD/CAM environment navigation
• Two-dimensional geometry
• Constraints and dimensions
• Three-dimensional modelling
• Modelling from a drawing
• Importing neutral formats
• Repairing imported geometry
• Stock, workholding, and setup in CAM
• Work coordinate systems in CAM
• Tool selection and libraries
• Speeds and feeds
• Two-dimensional toolpaths
• Three-dimensional roughing and finishing
• Turning toolpaths
• Stepover, stepdown, lead-in and lead-out
• Containment and gouge avoidance
• Toolpath simulation
• Interpreting simulation
• Post-processing to G-code
• Post-processors
• Reviewing generated code
• Setup documentation
• Machining and inspecting your own program

Optional Topics

• High-speed and adaptive toolpaths
• Multi-axis programming
• Design for manufacturability
• Parametric modelling and revision
• Data exchange and file management
• Additive manufacturing workflows

Resources & Tools

• The programme's shop, machines, and open lab hours — the reason to take this in person, and the single highest-return resource here. These are motor skills; hours on the machine are what build them.
• American Welding Society (aws.org) — codes, certification information, and student membership; the authority for anything in this guide about welder qualification.
• NIMS (nims-skills.org) — free credential standards and performance test specifications; read the standard before you sit the test.
• Machinery's Handbook — the machinist's reference, and worth owning even at its price; speeds, feeds, threads, tolerances, and materials.
• Welding Principles and Applications (Jeffus) — the standard welding text.
• Technology of Machine Tools (Krar) and Machine Shop Practice — the standard machining references.
• GD&T references based on ASME Y14.5 — geometric dimensioning and tolerancing is the language of engineering drawings and it is examinable.
• Manufacturer machine and control manuals — Haas, Fanuc, Mazak and others publish extensive free operator and programming documentation.
• Fusion 360 or Mastercam — Fusion 360 has free personal and educational licensing and is widely used for CAD/CAM; practise toolpaths outside lab hours.
• OSHA machine guarding and welding standards (osha.gov) — free, and directly relevant to the safety content of every course here.
• Your own measuring tools — a decent micrometer, calipers, and a dial indicator. Cheap measuring tools produce confident wrong numbers.
• A welding helmet you can actually see through — an auto-darkening helmet with a good lens is the best money a welding student spends.

Career Pathways

• Welder, cutter, solderer, or brazer — SOC 51-4121.
• Machinist — SOC 51-4041.
• Computer numerically controlled tool operator — SOC 51-9161; CNC tool programmer — SOC 51-9162, the better-paid of the two.
• Structural and construction welding — steel erection and fabrication.
• Pipe welding — process plants, utilities, and shutdown work; among the best-paid work in the trade, and 6G qualification is the gateway.
• Marine and shipyard welding and fabrication — a large Florida sector.
• Aerospace machining and welding — precision work to demanding standards, frequently with certification and clearance requirements.
• Job shop and contract machining — where most newly certified machinists start.
• Tool and die making, and mould making — a highly skilled speciality with long training and strong earnings.
• Quality inspection and metrology — CMM operation and first-article inspection; a route off the machines that uses the same knowledge.
• CNC programming and CAD/CAM — the natural progression from operating, and where the pay increases.
• Maintenance and millwright work in manufacturing, utilities, and theme parks — frequently salaried with benefits.
• Welding inspection — the AWS Certified Welding Inspector credential requires documented experience and is a well-paid career step off the tools.
• Mobile welding and self-employment — real in this trade, and a business as much as a craft.

Special Information

⚠ The software will happily generate a toolpath that cannot be machined

• CAM does not know about your fixture, your clamps, your machine's travel limits, or whether the tool is long enough to reach. It generates what you asked for, and verifying that it is actually machinable is your job.
• Model the stock and the workholding in CAM where the software allows it, so simulation can catch collisions with clamps rather than the machine catching them.
• Simulate every program, and watch the whole simulation. Skipping to the end shows the finished part and hides the rapid move that went through the vice.
• Check tool reach and holder clearance — a tool that gouges with its holder is a common and expensive simulation oversight.
• Think about how the part will be held before you program it. Workholding is the first design decision, not the last, and it determines the operation sequence and how many setups are needed.
• Minimise setups where you can. Every re-fixturing introduces error and takes time.
• Read the posted G-code before running it. The post-processor may not be configured as you assume, and reviewing the output is how you find that out safely.
• Use sensible speeds and feeds rather than the library defaults, which are generic and frequently optimistic.
• Still prove out at the machine. Simulation is not proof — single block, low overrides, and hand on the feed hold.

⚠ CAD/CAM is the skill that moves you off the machine

• Programming pays more than operating, and CAD/CAM competence is the most direct route from one to the other.
• Machining knowledge is what makes a good programmer. Someone who has cut metal writes programs that run well; someone who has only used software writes programs that are theoretically correct and awkward in practice.
• Learn one package deeply rather than several superficially. The concepts transfer readily once the first is genuinely fluent.
• Practise outside lab hours. Free personal and educational licensing makes this genuinely possible, and fluency comes from volume.
• Build a portfolio — parts you modelled, programmed, machined, and inspected, with the drawing and the inspection result. That is far more persuasive at interview than a certificate alone.
• Learn to read models critically. Customer files contain errors, unmachinable features, and missing tolerances, and identifying those early saves everyone money.
• Understand design for manufacturability so you can tell a customer why an internal sharp corner is expensive.
• Keep files organised and versioned. Revision confusion scraps parts.

⚠⚠ Rotating machinery — the rule that matters most is about what you wear

• ⚠⚠ Never wear gloves, long sleeves, a tie, jewellery, a watch, or loose hair near a rotating machine. Entanglement in a lathe is the classic fatal machining accident, and it is fast, and nothing you can do afterwards helps. Sleeves rolled and secured, hair tied back and contained, rings off.
• Eye protection every time, without exception — chips leave a machine at speed and they are hot and sharp.
• Never clear chips by hand. Machining chips are razor-sharp and frequently hot — use a brush or a hook, and never while the machine is running.
• Stop the machine before measuring, adjusting, or touching the work. Every time. There is no measurement worth taking on a spinning part.
• Remove the chuck key before starting. A chuck key left in becomes a projectile, and it is the most common serious lathe incident after entanglement.
• Secure the workpiece and the tooling properly. Work thrown from a chuck or a vice is dangerous to everyone in the shop.
• Know where the emergency stop is on every machine before you start it, and be able to reach it from where you stand.
• Keep guards in place. Removing a guard to see better is exactly the decision that precedes an injury.
• Lock out for setup, tool changes, and maintenance on powered equipment.
• Coolant causes dermatitis and the mist is a respiratory irritant — wash hands, keep it off skin, and use the mist extraction where fitted.
• Keep the floor clear and dry. Chips and coolant underfoot are a slip hazard next to a machine you do not want to fall into.
• Never leave a running machine unattended, especially a CNC on its first run of a new program.

⚠ NIMS credentials are the machining equivalent, and employers know them

• The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) issues the industry's recognised competency credentials, and this programme is explicitly aligned to them — CNC Milling and CNC Turning: Programming, Setup & Operations Level 1 are named in the course descriptions.
• NIMS credentials require both a written examination and a performance test — you make a part to specification and it is measured. That combination is why employers value them: the credential certifies you can actually hold a tolerance, not merely describe how.
• Collect every credential the programme offers. They cost little while you are enrolled and the machines and instructors are there.
• The performance test is measured to a written specification. Practise producing parts to print, in-tolerance, on the first attempt — not producing something that looks right.
• Stack the credentials. Measurement and metrology, manual milling and turning, CNC milling and turning, and CAD/CAM together describe a complete machinist.
• Certification fees are usually separate from course fees — budget for them.
• Keep your credential records and your sample parts. A first-piece inspection report and the part it describes are genuinely persuasive at interview.

⚠ A grade of C or better is a progression gate, not a target

• Daytona State states in these course descriptions that a grade of C or better is required to continue in the programme — and in the final courses, to graduate from it.
• This is a cohort programme. Falling below the gate does not merely cost a grade; it can remove you from the sequence until the course is offered again, which may be a full year.
• Ask early what happens if you fall short — repeat policy, how many attempts are permitted, and whether financial aid covers a repeat.
• Practical skill assessments are frequently pass-or-repeat rather than graded on a percentage, and a failed weld test or setup check is exactly the kind of thing that stalls progression.
• Attendance directly affects the outcome in a clock-hour programme where the skill is built by hours on the machine.
• Ask for help before you are behind, not after. Instructors in trade programmes have far more options at week three than at week twelve.
• Use open lab time. The students who pass practical assessments first are almost always the ones putting in unscheduled hours.

⚠⚠ Budget for the laboratory fees and the tools

• Daytona State publishes a laboratory fee for every course in this programme, and in the welding sequence they are substantial — from roughly $390 to $463 per course. The machining courses run lower, roughly $76 to $190.
• PSAV programmes advertise low tuition; the fees and tools are where the real cost sits. Ask the programme for a complete cost sheet before you enrol — tuition, every course fee, tools, textbooks, certification test fees, and personal protective equipment.
• The fees cover genuinely expensive consumables — filler metal, electrodes, shielding gas, plate and pipe stock, cutting tools and inserts, and wear on machines.
• You will need your own personal protective equipment and hand tools. Get the programme's required list early and buy over time. For welding that means a good helmet, jacket, gloves, and safety boots; for machining, measuring tools you will use daily.
• Buy quality where it protects you or determines accuracy. An auto-darkening helmet with a proper shade range, and a decent micrometer and dial indicator, are worth the money; most other things are not.
• Certification test fees are usually separate — NIMS credentials and welder qualification tests both cost extra.
• Ask about workforce funding. Trade programmes frequently have funding routes degree students do not, including employer sponsorship, apprenticeship arrangements, and Florida workforce grants.

⚠⚠ This is a PSAV clock-hour course — it carries no college credit

• The leading zero in the course number is the signal. Under the Florida Statewide Course Numbering System, a 0000-level number denotes postsecondary adult vocational (PSAV) instruction, measured in clock hours rather than semester credit hours. These courses carry zero college credit.
• ⚠ A catalog may display the clock-hour figure under a heading that reads "credit hours." It is not credits. A 0000-level course showing 280 is 280 hours of instruction, not 280 semester credits.
• PSAV hours do not transfer as college credit to an associate or bachelor's degree, and they do not satisfy general education requirements.
• What they produce is a workforce credential — a career certificate plus, in this programme, industry certifications employers ask for by name. For a skilled trade that is frequently exactly the right outcome, reached far faster and more cheaply than a degree.
• Some institutions offer articulation from a PSAV certificate into a related associate degree. ⚠ These are institution-specific and they change. If you intend to continue to a degree, get the articulation in writing from the receiving institution before you enrol.
• Financial aid rules differ for clock-hour programmes — ask the financial aid office specifically about clock-hour programmes.
• Attendance is the currency. Clock-hour programmes track attendance directly and missed hours generally must be made up.

Why metalworking is durable employment in Florida

• Shipbuilding and marine repair — Jacksonville, Tampa, and Port Everglades all support substantial marine fabrication and repair, and marine welding is skilled, well-paid work.
• Aerospace and space — the Space Coast and the wider aerospace supply chain need precision machining and certified welding, frequently to demanding standards.
• Defence contracting across Florida, ⚠ much of which requires U.S. citizenship and sometimes a security clearance.
• Construction and structural steel — sustained Florida construction activity plus storm repair.
• Manufacturing and job shops — general machining work for local industry, and the sector most likely to hire a newly certified machinist.
• Power generation, utilities, and process plants — pipe welding and maintenance, and among the best-paid work in the trade.
• Theme park and attraction fabrication and maintenance — a distinctively Central Florida employer with year-round demand.
• Mobile and rig welding — higher earnings for those who invest in a truck and equipment, though it is a business as much as a trade.
• The workforce is ageing and replacement demand is real — skilled welders and machinists are genuinely scarce, and employers say so.
• Travel and shutdown work pays a substantial premium for those willing to take it.

PMT0260C is 150 clock hours with a $108.25 lab fee, offered spring. ⚠ Clock hours carry no college credit, and a C or better is required for graduation.

It is a prerequisite for PMT0228C and PMT0265C — see those guides.