PowerMill provides a library of functions. Click Help
> Documentation > Parameters > Reference to view them listed under
Functions in the
Parameter Reference list.
You can use functions in most fields in PowerMill.
We recommend that functions are used only by advanced users of PowerMill with programming experience.
Function example
The SELECT function returns one value if a condition you specify evaluates to true, and another value if that condition evaluates to false.
The general syntax of the SELECT function is:
select(logical_test; value_if_true; value_if_false)
The SELECT function syntax has the following arguments:
- logical_test — an expression that can be evaluated to true or false. For example, stepover > 1 is a logical expression. If stepover is greater than 1, the expression is true; otherwise, the expression is false.
- value_if_true — the value that you want to be returned if the logical_test expression evaluates to true.
- value_if_false — the value that you want to be returned if the logical_test expression evaluates to false.
Arguments can be expressions. Each argument must be separated by a ; character. Any enumerator or string must be enclosed in single quotes, for example 'tip_radiused'.
Creating an expression using functions
The following expression calculates a stepover value by evaluating the Tool.Type parameter:
select(Tool.Type=='tip_radiused'; Tool.TipRadius*0.6; Tool.Diameter*0.3)
When the tool is:
- a tip-radiused tool, the stepover value is calculated as 0.6 times the tool tip radius: Tool.TipRadius*0.6.
- not a tip-radiused tool, the stepover value is calculated as 0.3 times the tool diameter: Tool.Diameter*0.3.
The
Parameter Summary list (available from Help
> Documentation > Parameters > Summary) contains a list of all the parameters that you can use to construct expressions.
The
Parameter Reference list (available from Help
> Documentation > Parameters > Reference) contains a list of all the parameters and parameter values that you can use to construct expressions.