NUMERICAL CONTROL PROGRAMMING WITH PERSONAL COMPUTERS.

This article will review one program that uses the APT programming language. Various corporations modified the APT system so that it could create additional geometry and definition formats. For example, IITRI, now Computer-Aided Manufacturing International (CAM-I), produced a sculptured-surface package that permitted definiton and subsequent cutter-path definition of complex, point-defined surfaces. The Boeing Company created additional packages for machining pockets that were not covered by the standard APT pocket routine as well as cutter-path generation for coplex surfaces. These desirable features were integrated into the PC-APT system once the original system was operational.