Customizing

Most manufacturing companies have specific tasks that are repetitive from project to project. In addition to a variety of automatic functions, the GrayTech NC system allows you to create and use special functions that conform to your company’s standard practices. Several customizing techniques help you increase productivity, independently of the specific NC programming options you use.

ON-SCREEN MENU

Features: On-screen menus allow the novice or the expert to perform complex tasks quickly and easily. User-defined graphic icon "buttons" are used to answer interactive prompts, select geometry, enter often-used commands or run special programs.

Benefits: Tasks are performed with speed and repeatability while conforming to your company’s standard machining practices. Additionally, costly training time for new users is reduced because there are no complex command languages to learn.

MACHINING PARAMETER FILES

Features: Machining parameter files allow you to store and retrieve information about machining feeds, speeds, coolant conditions and other information that you use frequently. This information can be saved and retrieved for each machine tool or project in the shop.

Benefits: You save time because important and often used machining parameters need not be reentered manually as they are used. Required parameters are established automatically from prerecorded data files that allow you to maintain department standards and eliminate errors that occur when data is entered manually.

USER-DEFINED TOOL IMAGES AND VIEWING SIMULATION

Features: You can define cutting tool and holder shapes to be used in on-screen tool motion simulation. Entire sets of standard tooling can be defined, related to a machine tool in the shop and stored for use by all NC programmers. When a cutting tool is desired, you simply activate the list of tools for a given machine and select the desired tool. When a tool is selected, a related NC macro can be activated automatically to control the tool and simulate its motion. Whenever the tool path editor is activated, the exact tool image you used to create the path is used for tool motion animation. This tool image animation gives you a detailed view of how the tool motion will occur as the machine cuts the part.

Benefits: You can spot possible problem area and correct them before the data are released for production. Scrap is reduced and expensive machine tool collisions are avoided. You save significant production time because tools are selected from controlled lists. Your perishable tooling costs are reduced and confusion about tool usage is minimized.

USER-DEFINED NC MACROS

Features: Each machine in the shop may require a special set of input sequences to accomplish predetermined functions. You can easily define, store and retrieve these often-used command sequences within NC system macro files. Each NC macro file can contain individual commands to position the cutting tool, start or stop the spindle, change tools, activate machine cycles and control other machine functions like coolant and cutting feed rates. NC macros allow you to insert groups of post-processor commands and tool motions at any position within the tool path. Within a macro, each command can contain variable parameters that can be used to alter the specific macro behavior when it is used. NC macros also have unique capabilities to prompt you interactively for data input when the macro is activated.

Benefits: All NC programmers can use the same sets of functions to control machines and produce machining data of consistently high quality. When you define your own macros you can minimize confusion and uncertainty in the shop because NC data output is standardized across your organization. In this way, NC macros can provide general and customized production control for higher reliability and greater efficiency.

APT LANGUAGE SUPPORT

Features: APT major and minor words can be altered and stored in NC files.

Benefits: You can continue to use familiar postprocessor commands and formats that have become standardized in your manufacturing practices.

EAGLE AND APPLICATIONS INTERFACE (AI) PROGRAMS

Features: If you generate automated families of parts, you can use GrayTech’s EAGLE and AI programming options to create geometry and tool motion automatically. Each of these programming options offers a set of commands that allow you to generate menu prompts and activate customized functions of your own design. Because the EAGLE and AI programs are compiled they operate as fast as standard system functions.