Individual NC Program menu

Use the individual NC Program menu to manage and edit the select NC program.

To display the menu, in the Explorer, right-click an NC program.

Simulate from Start — Click to simulate the NC program. Use the Simulation tab to simulate the NC program.

Note: This is for visualisation purposes only; it does not check for collisions.

Write — Select to postprocess the NC program, provided you have specified the machine option file and any other preferences. For more information, see postprocessing toolpaths.

View File — Select to display a postprocessed NC program file in an information dialog.

Open in External Program — Select to open a postprocessed NC program in an associated external program, for example, Windows Notepad.

Automatic Order — Deselect to enable manual ordering of toolpaths in the NC program. This enables you to fine-tune your process by minimising the number of tool changes and the distance traversed during connection moves. When Automatic Order is deselected, the hand icon is displayed on the NC program icon.

Reorder — Select to reorder the toolpaths in an NC program. The reordering options consider any toolpath dependencies so a toolpath is never placed above its reference toolpath. For example, if you sort by tool number, a rest roughing toolpath is always below its corresponding area clearance toolpath, even if the tool number dictates otherwise.

Note: This is useful when generating toolpaths automatically using a method.

Setup Sheets — Select to display the Setup Sheets menu options. The options enable you to specify the settings for the setup sheets, as well as generate setup sheets.

Activate — When selected, activates this NC program and de-activates any currently active NC program. When deselected, de-activates this NC program.

Activate Workplane — Select to active the workplane used to create the NC program and the workplane used on the machine tool.

Setup Fixture Offsets — Select to display the Setups in NC Program dialog.

Settings — Select to change the settings from those you specified when you created the NC program. Any changes made here affect the selected NC program, but not new ones. This displays the NC Program dialog. For more information, see Creating toolpaths in an NC program.

Edit Selected — Select to change the settings from those you specified when you created the NC program. Any changes made here affect the selected NC programs, but not new ones. This displays the Edit Selected NC Programs dialog.

Statistics— Select to display the length and time of all the leads, links, and cutting moves, as well as the number of lifts in the selected NC program.

Setup View — Toggle between a view of the setups in an NC program, or the toolpaths contained in the setups.

Show Connections — Select to show connections between items in the NC Program.

Hide Connections — Select to hide connections between items in the NC Program.

Verify — Select to display the NC program verification dialog.

Clear Verification — Select to clear verification for the selected NC program.

Draw — When selected, displays the NC program. Deselect to "hide" it. This option toggles between and .

Draw toolpaths — Select to draw all the toolpaths in the NC program.

Undraw toolpaths — Select to undraw all the toolpaths in the NC program.

Add to Folder — Select to add the entity to the active folder. If the Folder option is unavailable then activate the folder.

Note: You can add an entity only to a folder within that entity type. For example, you cannot add a toolpath entity to a NC program folder.

Rename — Select to rename the entity.

Text Block — Select to add a command item to the NC program. Commands are passed directly to the machine tool. Use the Insert option to insert the Text Block into the NC program.

Insert — Select to insert workplanes, tool change points, and text blocks into the NC program.

• Tool Changes — Select to insert the current active workplane as a tool change point before each toolpath in an NC program.
• Workplanes — Select to insert the active workplane before each toolpath in an NC program. Adding a workplane at the start of an NC Program automatically makes it a tool change point.
• Text Blocks — Select to insert a text block before each toolpath in an NC program.

Edit — Select to edit the NC program.

• Copy NC Program — Select to create a copy of the NC program that contains all the toolpaths of the original. The new NC program has the same name as the original with the addition of -1. For example, a copy of xyz becomes xyz_1.
• User Defined Settings — Select to display the Settings for NC Program dialog.
• Fixture Offsets — Select to display the Fixture Offset for NC Program dialog.

Remove from Folder — Select to remove the NC program from the current folder.

Delete NC Program — Select to delete the NC program.