2PM Reminder and Picture of a STEP-NC control

[st-announce at steptools.com]

All,

The enclosed picture show a STEP-NC control prototype that was
demonstrated at Watervliet Arsenal yesterday.

The foreground shows a GE Fanuc control that is executing the
STEP-NC program shown in the background on the projector screen.
In the picture the green lines represent tool paths in the
current workingstep that have not yet been executed by the
control and the red lines represent the tool paths that have
been machined.

On the left side of the screen the open folder shows the 
workingsteps that are going to be executed using the current
tool, and the highlighted item is the working step that is
currently being executed. The feed speed for this working step
is shown on the right hand side of the screen and the AP-224
part feature that is  being manufactured is highlighted in
the graphics.

We made the data for this demonstration using Mastercam. The
data was saved to an AP-238 file and read into the control for
immediate execution after some lightweight re-formatting to the
GE Fanuc codes. The projection screen shows a prototype HMI for
the control.

This is an AP-238 CC4 control prototype because the product 
geometry and AP-224 features are included in the data. If the
HMI did not know about the features then it would be a CC2 control
and if it did not know about the product geometry then it would be
a CC1 control. The X, Y and Z coordinates that are being executed
on the control are shown in the foreground.

The most exiting thing about the demonstration is the CNC machine
independence of the AP-238 data not the improved HMI. The device
independence means that the same program can be run on any control. 
This device independence has already been shown at Boeing and NIST
and in February we want to prove it beyond all doubt by taking
CNC programs created by multiple users who did not know the machine
configuration and running them on Siemens and GE Fanuc controls
during the OMAC meeting. 

Please join us for the conference call at 2PM today.
Call in info below.

Date: 12/17/04 - Friday 
Time: 2:00-3:00 EST, 1:00-2:00 CST. 11:00-12:00 PST 
Telephone number: 1-866-350-0777 or 425-717-7000 
Passcode: 21308#
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