This is the mode selection screen that first comes
up when you log on. Your company name is placed on this screen at
the time of order, and can be changed at any time. Three modes of
operation are available from this screen.
1) Digital Interactive
2) Run
3) Program
The Digital Interactive mode allows you to do single vector straight line moves in 3 dimensions using either polar or rectangular coordinates. When in the PRESET mode, simply move the cursor to the POLAR or CARTESIAN area of the screen and use the space bar to toggle coordinate systems.
Moves can be made using either ABSOLUTE, RELATIVE, or INCREMENTAL references. Simply place the cursor in this area of the screen and toggle between these references. Absolute moves will move in reference to the ABSOLUTE readout on the screen. Relative moves would move in reference to the RELATIVE readout on the screen. Incremental moves will move without reference to either readouts.
When in POLAR mode, the inputs are:
r = radius
theta = angular displacement in x-y plane
alpha = angular displacement up from x-y plane
When in CARTESIAN mode, the inputs will be:
X
Y
Z
After your inputs are entered, type "y" to move
the motors.
The <F1> and <F2> keys set
the motor speed.
The RUN mode will allow you to LOAD, SIMULATE,
ZOOM, and SEND (move motors) programs.
Option switches include:
- TOOL WIDTH ON/OFF
- Total Run TIMER ON/OFF
- Time Remaining COUNTDOWN ON/OFF
The RUN MENU screen shows the simulation work
area in the center of the screen.
The ABSOLUTE POSITION readout is shown at the
left of the screen.
The right of the screen shows the current tool
diameter and length and the vertical (Z-axis) position of the tool.
The various colors show how deep the tool cuts in the simulation.
The numbers on each side of the work area dimensions.
In this case:
X-
= 0
X+
= 20
Y-
= 0
Y+
= 20
The MAIN MENU of the Program mode is usually the most used mode of operation. Programs can be created, edited, saved, loaded, simulated, and sent in this mode. A simulation run can be seen in the above screen. The upper left corner shows the TOTAL RUN TIME and TIME REMAINING counters turned on. A program line scrolled horizontally can also be seen just above the menu icons.
The icons are grouped and color coded according
to function.
The RED icons are program editing functions.
The BROWN icons are load and save functions.
The BLUE icons are simulation and send functions.
The GREEN icon is TEXT EDIT which allows you
to view your program in a vertical fashion.
The Gray icons are your programming functions.
For detailed descriptions of this screen and others,
it is recommended that you download our illustrated 80 page software manual
from the download section of our home page
Programs are created by selecting an icon of the function you wish. Selecting an icon can be done with either a computer mouse, or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard, or by using either method interchangeably.
As you create a program by selecting the various icons, the icon will highlight as shown above. In the above example, a PCKT (Pocket) function was selected. The software had then prompted for CIRCULAR or RECTANGULAR pockets. In the above example, RECTANGULAR pockets was selected, and the resulting RECTANGULAR POCKET MILLING menu is showing. You would simply fill in the values for the parameters for this function, and the software automatically creates the instruction, and immediately simulates that instruction on the screen. In this way you can catch mistakes as they are made and correct them.
The created instruction is abbreviation of the
function as shown on the various icons. For example: MOVE REL (move
relative) would create an instruction like: MR1.0,2.3,4.5 The instructions
are put into a text file which becomes your program. You never have
to look at that file, but you can if you want to. Our software manual
shows all details of these instructions. You can be downloaded this
manual from our download web page.
The MISC MENU allows you to set program simulation
parameters such as:
-
DEPTH COLORS (simulates different depths with different colors)
-
TIMER ON/OFF (Total program run time estimator for running actual
program)
-
COUNTDOWN ON/OFF (Time remaining estimator - estimates time remaining
to end of program)
-
NEW DIMENSIONS (Simulation work area)
-
TOOL WIDTH simulation (as opposed to tool path simulation)
MANUAL MOTION CONTROL is also selected from this menu.
MODIFY TOOL TABLE allows you to program in a set of tools.
CONFIGURE allows you set set hardware and other configuration parameters.
We will now go into detail on some of the above
mentioned MISC MENU functions.
(Text Engrave, Three Dimension,
and Password are not operative at this time)
With this function you are able to pick colors
from the color bucket in the upper left of the screen and these become
your new simulation colors. As you pick the colors, they appear in
the order you pick them in the center of the screen. The upper right
of the screen shows your current color setting.
With this function you are able to manually control
your motion motors. The F1 and F2 keys control the speed of movement.
The F3 and F4 keys control the motion factor. Each time you press
the key, your machine will move the "Motion Factor" distance. The
Motion Factor ranges are:
0.0001
inch
0.001
inch
0.01
inch
0.1
inch
0.5
inch
1.0
inch
2.0
inches
A movement is performed by pressing the appropriate
ARROW key for the particular axis you with to move as indicated in the
above screen. When doing large moves, you can hold the arrow key down for
continuous motion. Usually the motion factor is set to 0.1 inch for
doing course moves.
The NEW DIMENSIONS function allows you to set
the material dimensions of the piece you are working on, or the table size
of the machine to which you have this control attached. This sizes
the simulation, to the simulation area, on the MAIN MENU screen.
This function allows you to ADD, DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, and BROWSE tools. The control does not support an automatic tool changer, however this function is useful for letting the software know that a tool change was done. Some functions such as pocketing need to know the tool size. You can also change default the tool size with in the CONFIGURATION Sub Menu as will be discussed later.
Tools can be either English or Metric. When
entering a new tool, the first thing you enter is the tools diameter following
by either an "mm" for metric or "in" for inch. You then enter the
diameter wear, tool length, and length wear. The system is smart
enough to which is an english tool and what is a metric tool.
Since all the above menus are similar, we will only show one of them below: