To Create a New Template

1. In the Template Editor window, select the feature type by clicking on one of the Features icons, located in the lower-left portion of the window. These icons correspond to the icons in the Expert Machinist toolbar that you use for creating features.

Once you select an icon, the picture to the right of the icons, which contains a schematic visualization of the feature type, changes to reflect the selected feature type.

2. Click

below the feature type icons, or click the New icon located in the top toolbar of the Template Editor window.

The system loads the appropriate template and starts creating the first strategy. The strategy has a default name based on the feature type (for example, Step0). You can change the name by typing it in the Strategy Name text box.

3. Select the desired option from the Machining Tool group:

◦ Prompt for a tool—The template contains no cutting tool information. At the time you apply the template, the system prompts you to select or define the cutting tool.

◦ Specify a tool—Type the name of the cutting tool in the text box. The tool name is stored with the template. At the time you apply the template, make sure the appropriate cutting tool exists on the machine tool currently in use.

4. Use the other options, as needed, to define the machining strategy. The options on the first tab correspond to those that appear in a machining dialog box of this type (for example, if you define a Step strategy, the options on the Step tab are the same as you would get in a Step Milling dialog box). The Properties tab contains the same tabs and options as the Tool Path Properties dialog box.

5. Once a machining strategy is defined, you can add another strategy to the same template. This way, you can, for example, define a rough milling and a finish milling strategy within the same template. When you apply a template with more than one strategy, the system creates the appropriate number of tool paths. To add a new strategy to the template, click Edit > New Strategy. Then define the new strategy as described above.

6. When finished defining the machining strategies, save the template by clicking File > Save. This will save the template with a .tpl extension.

The name of a .tpl file can not be longer than 31 characters and must all be lowercase. You can specify a default directory for storing .tpl files by setting the configuration option mfg_template_dir.

7. Click

in the lower-left corner of the dialog box to return to the main page of the Template Editor dialog box and define another template, for a different type of feature.