About Manufacturing Parameters
Click
Manufacturing >
Machine Tool Setup >
Parameter UI to customize NC sequence parameters in the Edit Parameters dialog box.
The types of manufacturing parameters are:
• Feeds and Speeds—Acceleration and Feed parameters.
• Cut Depth and Allowances—Cut parameters, such as step depth, stock allowance.
• Cutting Motions—Parameters that define the type of the cut, such as scan type, cycle type.
• Entry/Exit Motions—Parameters that define the entry and exit path for the tool, such as plunge angle, lead-in, approach and exit path.
• Machine Settings—Machine-related parameters, such as speeds, registers, coolant.
• General—Machine and NC data file names.
The value of a parameter can be:
• a number.
• a mathematical expression containing tool parameters or other parameters in the same NC sequence. Example:
STEP_OVER = CUTTER_DIAM/2
Any change made to the cutter diameter automatically updates STEP_OVER distance as well. You can define complex relationships by using the Relations dialog box.
• a model dimension symbol in assembly format, such as d12:0, or a user-defined parameter that is already defined in relations for the model
• one of the pre-defined set of values, such as TYPE_1, TYPE_2, and so on for the SCAN_TYPE parameter
Parameter Inheritance
All levels of manufacturing features automatically inherit their parameters from an upper-level feature, unless you explicitly modify (customize) a parameter at the current level. That is, Tool Motions inherit their parameters from the parent NC sequence, while NC sequences may (under certain circumstances) inherit their parameters from sites.
The following are the rules for the NC sequence parameter inheritance:
• If, at the time of creating an NC sequence, a site of appropriate type is associated with the current workcell, the NC sequence will inherit the parameters of this site. This is called implicit inheritance. If you later modify the parameters of the site, the NC sequence parameter values will update accordingly. Also, if you later replace the associated site with another one (of the same type) the NC sequence parameters will update to the values in the new site associated with the workcell.
|  If you disassociate a site from the workcell (without replacing it with another site of the same type), existing NC sequences that implicitly inherit their parameters from this site will keep the inheritance link. |
• If you initialize the NC sequence parameters using a site other than the one associated with the workcell (by activating or selecting a different site using Edit > Inherit From Site in the Edit Parameters dialog box), then the NC sequence will inherit the parameters of this site. This is called explicit inheritance. If you later modify the parameters of the site, the NC sequence parameter values will update accordingly. However, changing the site associated with the workcell, or the workcell itself, will not affect the parameters of this NC sequence.
• If you initialize the NC sequence parameters using the File > Open Site option in the Edit Parameters dialog box, these parameters will be marked as edited.
• If you initialize the NC sequence parameters using the Edit > Copy from Step option in the Edit Parameters dialog box and the previous NC sequence inherits its parameters from a site, the current NC sequence will not automatically inherit from the same site. The following situations are possible:
◦ If both the previous and the current NC sequence implicitly inherit from the same site, the inherited (non-customized) parameters used from the previous NC sequence will also be marked as inherited in the current NC sequence.
◦ If the previous NC sequence explicitly inherits from a site, and you want the new NC sequence inherit from the same site, use the Site option first to initialize the NC sequence parameters, then use the Edit > Copy from Step option in the Edit Parameters dialog box. In this case, all the inherited parameters used from the previous NC sequence will also be marked as inherited in the current NC sequence.
◦ If the previous and current NC sequences inherit from different sites, or if one of them does not have an inheritance source, then all the parameters used from the previous NC sequence will be marked as customized.
Parameters marked as inherited will automatically update all the way down if you change a parameter value at the upper level. However, if you have explicitly modified a parameter value at a certain level, this parameter will be marked as customized and will not change when you modify parameters at an upper level. Customized parameters can also be inherited by the lower-level features. In other words, if you modify CUT_FEED at the NC sequence level, it will no longer change if you later modify CUT_FEED in the parent site file, but the Automatic Cut motion CUT_FEED will update to the new NC sequence value (unless you explicitly customize it at the Tool Motion level, too).
When you look at the parameters of an NC sequence or Tool Motion, the inherited parameter values appear in parentheses. However, if you save a parameters file to disk (using the File > Save As option in the Edit Parameters dialog box), this file will list all the parameters without parentheses (because when you retrieve this file into another NC sequence, these parameters will be marked as customized).