Expert Machinist Option is a productivity tool for companies that perform
   production milling of prismatic parts. Expert Machinist leverages the robust
   information contained within the Pro/ENGINEER® solid model and combines it
   with the user's understanding of the machining environment and knowledge
   of the specific type of machining being performed to streamline the NC
   programming process. The first release of Expert Machinist addresses the
   largest segment of the machining market - 2-½ axis production milling - and
   also supports multi-axis positioning. Future releases will expand this
   capability to 3-axis milling, 4- and 5-axis milling, turning, and other market
   segments. Expert Machinist Option builds on the new Adaptive Process
   Feature technology built into Pro/ENGINEER 2000i.
 
 

   Key Product Features:

   Unique Approach to Production Milling
   Expert Machinist reduces programming time and increases program efficiency
   by complementing the skill of the NC programmer. Some competitive products
   – those classified as GNC (generative numerical control) or
   feature-recognition systems – attempt to programmatically duplicate the skill
   of the NC programmer, but fall far short. Others effectively do little more than
   add graphics and number-crunching capabilities to manual programming
   methods. Expert Machinist is the first system on the market that optimally
   divides the part-programming responsibility between the software and the
   NC programmer. The NC programmer makes all crucial decisions about how a
   part should be machined, thereby maintaining complete control over the
   production of the part. Based on these high-level decisions, Expert Machinist
   anticipates the low-level, detailed, time-consuming commands that
   programmers have historically been required to communicate to CAM
   software. Expert Machinist automatically does this work - which is always
   vitally important-yet is always tedious, often difficult, and, consequently,
   often compromised. The result is more efficient part-programs produced more
   efficiently.

   Shop-floor-oriented
   Expert Machinist emulates the thought-process of NC programmers.
   Regardless of the complexity of the part to be machined, NC programmers
   always need to make decisions, such as:

        What is the part to be machined?
        From what stock will it be machined?
        Which machine tool(s) will be utilized?
        How will the part be held and oriented?
        Which volumes of material will be removed, and in what order?
        Which cutting tools will be used?
        What specific path will those cutting tools follow?

   Expert Machinist presents these options to users in the same manner and
   sequence that would take place on the shop floor. In addition, it uses the
   terminology commonly used in a machine shop. As a result, Expert Machinist
   is extremely easy to learn and, for occasional users, extremely easy to
   remember – and provides a great sense of comfort in the predictability of its
   interaction.

   Feature-based
   Expert Machinist is fundamentally feature-based in its approach to machining
   solid models. Machining features differ greatly from design features both in
   naming conventions and in purpose. Consequently, Expert Machinist makes
   no attempt to map design features to machining features or to automatically
   create machining features by analyzing the design model. Instead, the user
   defines features that dictate the manner and order in which material will be
   milled away. The user interface for doing this is simple and intuitive, and, in
   most cases, feature definition is accomplished with a single pick. The
   resulting feature, which is derived from the design model, work piece model,
   and machine type and orientation, contains all topological information
   necessary to efficiently machine it.

   The suite of machining features supported in Pro/ENGINEER 2000i consists of
   Face, Slab, Pocket, Step, Profile, Channel, Slot, Boss-Top, Flange-Face,
   Through-Pocket, Through-Slot, Hole-Pattern, and Entry-Hole. A few others
   will be added in subsequent releases.
 

    Intuitive Icons based
    Graphic User Interface Simple, Rapid Toolpath Creation

    Each type of machining feature is unique in its topology. Expert Machinist leverages
    these differences – establishing default methods of tool entry/exit, cut motion,
    connect motion, and clearance motion specific to each type. The defaults set by
    Expert Machinist reflect machining fundamentals accepted on the shop floor
     for decades. Since, however, machining preferences can vary greatly from shop to
    shop, Expert Machinist provides override-control of these defaults that is
    quick, intuitive, and logical. These defaults and override controls are presented in
    clearly laid-out dialog boxes. This interaction is kept as simple as possible
    by providing access to only those options pertinent to the type of feature being
    machined.
 

   Due to this design, in many cases, the only interaction required to produce a
   logical, efficient toolpath is to select the feature to be machined and choose
   which cutting tool to use. In other cases, a few check boxes and radio
   buttons may need to be checked and pushed.

   Automation
   Each organization can custom-tailor Expert Machinist to its own needs
   through the use of templates. A template captures a user's machining
   decisions and preferences non-programmatically. Templates store the sets of
   options that produce the best toolpath strategies for each feature type in a
   given environment. Once created, a template can be placed on like-features
   elsewhere, automatically machining those features - with the most
   appropriate strategy and with a single interaction. And, in addition to
   dramatically reducing programming time, using templates also ensures that
   more consistent, more predictable part-programs reach the shop floor, since
   a template created by the best programmer in a shop can be used by all
   programmers in that shop.

   NC Post-Processing
   The Expert Machinist Option includes Pro/NC-GPOST, a complete NC
   post-processing solution. Pro/NC-GPOST enables users to create and update
   post-processors for any type of CNC machine, used by the Expert Machinist
   Option to create specific NC code (G&M codes) files. Manufacturing engineers
   and NC part programmers can easily create and modify their post-processors
   to produce "edit free" Machine Control Data (MCD) output from the Expert
   Machinist Option.

   Specifically, Pro/NC-GPOST functionality allows:

        Easy creation and updating of NC post-processors
        Supports of all CNC machine tools
        Use of more than 100 CNC controls defaults
        Download new post-processors from PTC.com
        Complete customization with powerful macro language (FIL)
        Utilization of all NC machine capabilities