PART PROGRAM GENERATING SYSTEM

摘要

The present invention is a system that takes a drawing definition produced by a CAD/CAM system 10 and produces a debugged program to machine apart by numerical control. The drawing definition is a list of the surfaces which create the part. A list of surface features from a drawing is scanned by a process planner 14 and a list of primitive shapes and transition points in each shape is created to produce a process tree which controls regions for machining. The process also specifies tools, feeds and speeds necessary for rough machining the part. An appropriate machine is selected based first on the rough stock dimensions of the stock to be used to make the part and then on the number of tools that can be held by the machine and possible feed speeds of the machine. A code generator 16 completes macrocalls corresponding to processes required to make the part. The resulting part program is transferred to a code processor 18 which produces the machine tool code for the particular machine 20 selected.