NC Program reference

Manufacture > Setup > NC Program nc program icon

The NC Program tool performs several tasks. All of these have to do with the output of your toolpath operations:

This document is an overview of the parameters needed to post process your setup or individual operations into NC code.

NC Program - Settings tab

The Setting tab is where you can define presets for post processing. The items you see on this page are determined by the machine you selected in your setup or the post processor you selected. If no post processor is shown, you are prompted to select a post processor from the Post Library.

Machine and post

If your setup includes a machine, you can enable Use machine configuration to access the post processor defined in the selected machine. Otherwise, in the Post pull-down, select the desired post processor to use for this project.

Use cascading post runs a secondary post processor after the first one is finished. It creates an additional code file that can be used for verification packages or 3rd party post processors. Once enabled, you can select the secondary post processor.

Program

Defines file functions for the NC code output.

Post properties

Use these to set the conditional switches that can alter the format of the NC code. The items in this panel will vary depending on the selected post processor and the capabilities of the machine. Multi-axis machines have more items that can be controlled. Each section of control options may have different titles than you see in this example.

These are the kinds of things that you might be able to control. See the code samples for more information.

Post processing

If you selected the setup or individual operations that need to be converted into NC code, selected your post processor and defined the parameters shown above, you are ready to post process the NC program for your machine.

Click Post shown at the bottom of the dialog to create the NC program according to the parameters defined above.

nc program settings

If enabled, the editor opens with the NC code.

When you post process, an NC Programs node is added to the Browser and an NC program is added under the new node. These NC programs can be given meaningful names. Click twice slowly over the NC program to rename it.

nc program group nodes

You can post process the NC program again with the same post processor settings. Right-click the NC program and select Post Process.

nc program group options