Every picture tells a story, as the old rock song goes. But now, imagine a picture of your part, whether it?s milled or turned . . . including that tricky front side . . . that not only detects possible tool collisions, but also calculates complete, true machining time for you.

Many CNC builders have claimed their controls could achieve it, but all were dealing in just a top and a side view. Now it?s possible and very desirable to have the control show various workpiece views, display any tool movement with actual offsets, allow zooming to a precise location or the smallest corner on the part without the need for interruption of the simulation or a restart, plus calculate and display the actual machining time for estimating true part production costs. Think the boss would like that?

An up-to-date CNC on even the most basic milling or turning machine should provide such data, plus accomplish an actual CNC machining simulation, using the geometric data of the tools installed on the machine, combined with the kinematic transformations. This applies to the front and peripheral surfaces on a turned part, as well as the rotated machining planes on a milled workpiece.

Optimum viewing has long been a problem for lower-powered or less sophisticated CNC models, as they could not allow zooming into a small corner or show a complex intersection without exhausting the memory or requiring a restart of the simulation cycle.

Modern CNC is much more powerful and the graphics can display the most intricate cutting paths and corners, while the simulation can be interrupted as needed and controlled for speed calculations. In this way, not even the smallest detail on the part is overlooked and the true cost of production can be derived. Again, a real plus for the busy job shop and for the large moldmaker, as both need to calculate true cost, nowadays more than ever.

Such a simulation feature on your CNC will provide you the optimum in process and production stability, plus the efficiency you need to run a profitable operation, every day.

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Randy Pearson is the sales support manager for U.S. dealers and OEMs of Siemens Energy & Automation, Motion Control Business, 390 Kent Avenue, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, www.siemenscnc.com . A veteran of the machine tool industry, his interest is the training aspect on CNC machine tools, through classes conducted at votech schools, shops and Siemens training facilities. For questions or comments on this column, contact Randy at 847-952-4250 or randy.pearson@siemens.com .