Default Data File
- Last UpdatedJan 30, 2023
- 7 minute read
The Default data file contains parameters specifying the machine controller and variant, burner type, format of output, machine restrictions, fixed speeds. This file is tailored by the user to suit the particular requirements of the machine controller.
The general format of each line of the file is:
|
keyword |
= value |
The lines may occur in any order. The keywords are described below. Note that all distance values are given in millimeters. Defaults will be used if a keyword or value is omitted. Some keywords are applicable only to specific combinations of controller and variant.
The following mandatory parameters are used to control the logic of the program to produce output for a particular machine controller.
|
CONTROLLER |
= controller |
|
VARIANT |
= variant |
The following mandatory parameters are used to control the set of auxiliary functions to be output.
|
BURNER_TYPE |
= GAS or PLASMA |
|
MARKING_TYPE |
= PUNCH or POWDER |
The following parameters are used to control the geometry to be output and should be changed to suit a particular machine controller. The first two parameters are mandatory. The line and arc geometry in the generic file may be altered accordingly.
|
UNITS_MM_OR_INCH |
= MM or INCH (millimeters or inches) |
|
INCR_OR_ABS |
= INCR or ABS (incremental or absolute geometry) |
|
INCREMENT |
= geometry increment (for example, 0.1) |
|
RADIUS_MIN |
= minimum radius (default 8.0) |
|
RADIUS_MAX |
= maximum radius (default 100000.0) |
|
STRAIGHT_LINE_MIN |
= minimum line distance (default 8.0) |
|
STRAIGHT_LINE_MAX |
= maximum line distance (default 100000) |
|
AMPLITUDE_MIN |
= amplitude minimum (default 0.0) |
|
AMPLITUDE_TOLERANCE |
= amplitude tolerance (default 0.5) |
The following parameters are used to modify the geometry to include torch sensing points (normally at corner loops) when burning. A torch sensing point will only be inserted when the segment distance is greater than the torch sensor distance.
|
TORCH_SENSOR_DISTANCE |
= distance (default 0.0) |
|
TORCH_SENSOR_END_HOOK_ |
= distance before end hook (default 0.0) |
|
DISTANCE |
|
|
TORCH_SENSOR_MINIMUM |
= minimum distance (default 0.0) |
The following parameters control the names of the output file(s).
|
TAPE_FILE_EXTENSION |
= output file extension (default TAP) |
|
TEXT_FILE_EXTENSION |
= text file extension (default TXT) Only used if an additional text file is output. |
The following parameter specifies the head height and is used to calculate the kerf compensation for given bevel angle and depth using data in the Kerf data file.
|
HEAD_HEIGHT |
= height of burning head above the plate (mm) |
The following parameters may be used to check whether bevel angles have been defined which the controller cannot handle. Warnings are output is this occurs.
|
MAX_BEVEL_ANGLE |
= maximum bevel angle (default 90) |
|
MIN_BEVEL_ANGLE |
= minimum bevel angle (default 0) |
|
BEVEL_TS_MAX |
= maximum bevel THIS SIDE angle (default 90) |
|
BEVEL_TS_MIN |
= minimum bevel OTHER SIDE angle (default 90) |
The following parameters may be used to define maximum and minimum values.
|
MAX_BEVEL_DEPTH |
= maximum bevel depth (default is thickness of the plate) |
|
MIN_BEVEL_DEPTH |
= minimum bevel depth (default 0) |
|
MAX_DELAY_TIME |
= maximum delay time (default 0) |
|
MIN_DELAY_TIME |
= minimum delay time (default 0) |
The following parameters are used to control the acceleration at knuckle points between successive line segments. At knuckle angles greater than the specified value an ACCELERATION ON auxiliary code is output.
|
ACCELERATION_CONTROL |
= Y or N If Y acceleration control is required and the knuckle angle is calculated for testing (default N) |
|
KNUCKLE_ANGLE |
= knuckle angle (default 1000.0) |
|
KNUCKLE_CUTOUT |
= knuckle angle cutout distance (default 0.0) Allows internal corners to be cut diagonally. |
The following parameter is used to specify a dwell time code which will be output after each marking operation.
|
MARK_DWELL_CODE |
= dwell time code for Marking operations |
The following parameters are used to control whether height control auxiliary functions are required for specified operations. The defaults are N for not required.
|
BLAST_HEIGHT_CONTROL |
= Y or N |
|
MARK_HEIGHT_CONTROL |
= Y or N |
The following parameters are used to specify the fixed feed rates or speeds to be output for the particular operations.
|
BLASTING_FEEDRATE |
= feed rate for blasting (default none) |
|
MARKING_FEEDRATE |
= feed rate for marking (default none) |
|
BURNING_FEEDRATE |
= feed rate for burning (default none) |
|
SIGNING_FEEDRATE |
= feed rate for text labelling (default none) |
The following parameters are used currently for one particular controller and variant to determine the burning feed rate and kerf offset value for a given bevel angle and bevel depth. They are used to interpolate values from stored values in the Kerf data file.
|
BURNING_THICKNESS_MIN |
= minimum plate thickness |
|
BURNING_THICKNESS_MAX |
= maximum plate thickness |
|
BURNING_FEEDRATE_MIN |
= minimum burning feed rate |
|
BURNING_FEEDRATE_MAX |
= maximum burning feed rate |
The following parameters are used to specify that additional plate boundary geometry is to be produced at the start or at the end of the output. The geometry may be either rapid marking or burning. The defaults are N for not required.
|
PLATE_FIRST_RAPID |
= Y or N (If Y rapid marking at start) |
|
PLATE_FIRST_MARK |
= Y or N (If Y marking at start) |
|
PLATE_FIRST_BURN |
= Y or N (If Y burning at start) |
|
PLATE_FIRST_BURN_CORNERS |
= Y or N (If Y burning corners only at start) |
|
PLATE_LAST_RAPID |
= Y or N (If Y rapid marking at end) |
|
PLATE_LAST_MARK |
= Y or N (If Y marking at end) |
|
PLATE_LAST_BURN |
= Y or N (If Y burning at end) |
|
PLATE_LAST_BURN_CORNERS |
= Y or N (If Y burning corners only at end) |
|
BURN_CORNER_DISTANCE |
= corner distance (mm) |
The following parameters are also used to skip or add geometry at the end of the output. The defaults are N for not required.
|
SKIP_LAST_IDLE |
= Y or N (If Y the last idle geometry is omitted) |
|
RETURN_TO_ZERO |
= Y or N (if Y the geometry returns to (0,0) |
The following parameters are used to skip particular functions. The defaults are N for not required.
|
IGNORE_MARKING |
= Y or N (If Y marking data and associated idle movements are ignored) |
|
IGNORE_BLASTING |
= Y or N (If Y blasting data and associated idle movements are ignored) |
|
IGNORE_GSD |
= Y or N (If Y GOD data and associated idle movements are ignored) |
|
IGNORE_LABEL_TEXT |
= Y or N (If Y text and associated idle movements are ignored) |
|
IGNORE_BEVEL |
= Y or N (If Y any bevel data is ignored) |
|
IGNORE_MULTI_PASS_BEVEL |
= Y or N (If Y only V bevel data is processed) |
|
IGNORE_CORNER_LOOPS |
= Y or N (If Y any corner loops are ignored) |
The following parameters are used to control the marking and blasting operations and the idle movements between them for ESSI output only. The defaults are N for not required.
|
MARK_FIRST |
= Y or N (if Y all the marking is processed first) |
|
RAPID_MARK |
= Y or N (if Y the whole of the marking is rapid) |
|
RAPID_BLAST |
= Y or N (if Y the whole of the blasting is rapid) |
|
MARK_IDLE |
= Y or N (if Y the idle movements between markings is done at marking speed) |
|
BLAST_IDLE |
= Y or N (If Y similar to MARK_IDLE) |
|
MARK_IDLE_ALL |
= Y or N (if Y all idle movements between markings are done as marking) |
|
BLAST_IDLE_ALL |
= Y or N (if Y all idle movements between blastings are done as blasting) |
|
MINIMUM_RAPID_LENGTH |
= minimum rapid length (default 0.0) |
|
If a value is specified, any idle movements less than this will not be done rapidly. |
The following parameters are used to define the relative (dx, dy) offsets to be applied before and after the marking output.
|
MARKING_OFFSET_DX |
= dx offset distance (default 0.0) |
|
MARKING_OFFSET_DY |
= dy offset distance (default 0.0) |
The following parameters are used to produce a stop code after particular operations. The defaults are N for not required.
|
STOP_AFTER_BLASTING |
= Y or N (that means, after the raw plate boundary is output) |
|
STOP_AFTER_BLASTING |
= Y or N |
|
STOP_AFTER_GSD |
= Y or N |
|
STOP_AFTER_MARKING |
= Y or N |
|
STOP_AFTER_BURNING |
= Y or N |
|
STOP_AFTER_LABELLING |
= Y or N |
The following parameters are used to produce a comment string after particular operations. For ESSI output, the comment is enclosed by 3 and 4 codes. The defaults are blank for not required.
|
COMMENT_AFTER_RAWPLATE |
= string |
|
COMMENT_AFTER_BLASTING |
= string |
|
COMMENT_AFTER_GSD |
= string |
|
COMMENT_AFTER_MARKING |
= string |
|
COMMENT_AFTER_BURNING |
= string |
|
COMMENT_AFTER_LABELLING |
= string |
|
AFTER_EACH_ACTION |
= string |
|
CODE_AFTER_PLATE_COMMENT |
= string |
The following parameters are used to produce a comment string before particular operations. The defaults are blank for not required.
|
COMMENT_BEFORE_BLASTING |
= string |
|
COMMENT_BEFORE_GSD |
= string |
|
COMMENT_BEFORE_MARKING |
= string |
|
COMMENT_BEFORE_BURNING |
= string |
|
COMMENT_BEFORE_LABELLING |
= string |
The following parameter is used to output a comment containing the position number of a part being burned. The default is N for not required.
|
COMMENT_POSNO_IF_BURNING |
= Y or N |
The following parameters are used to output additional lines of output at the start (that means, header) or the end (that means, trailer) of the output. The additional lines are input between the _START and _END keywords.
|
HEADER_START header lines HEADER_END |
= = |
|
TRAILER_START trailer lines TRAILER_END |
= = |
The following parameters are used to specify the format of the initial comments output (between 3 and 4 for ESSI) and additional lines of output after initial comments. The comment lines are input between the _START and _END keywords.
|
INITIAL_COMMENTS_START initial comment lines |
= |
|
INITIAL_COMMENT_END |
= |
|
INITIAL_CODES_START initial codes lines |
= |
|
INITIAL_CODES_END |
= |
Each comment line may contain description text and optionally one or more general data parameters whose stored value is required in the output. The name of a parameter is enclosed in square brackets [ ]. If the parameter is a real number, the number of decimal places and scale factor may be specified after the name. The default is 1 decimal place. The names of the parameters are those in the GENERAL_DATA block of the generic file.
for example,
|
INITIAL_COMMENTS_START |
= |
|
Nest name : [NEST_NAME] Plate size : [RAW_LENGTH 0] x [RAW_WIDTH 0] x [RAW_THICKNESS] Quality : [QUALITY] Material: 129+[RAW_Thickness 0 S10] |
|
|
INITIAL_COMMENTS_END |
= |
The following parameter is used to remove zero co-ordinates from ESSI output. The default is N for not required.
|
ESSI_NO_ZEROS |
= Y or N |
The following parameters are used to modify the program output.
|
UPPERCASE_REQUIRED |
= Y or N |
|
END_OF_EACH_LINE |
= string to be added to the end of each line |
The following parameters are used to pack the ESSI output onto several lines with each original line separated by a specified separator. Sequence numbers may also be output at the end of each new line.
|
PACK_OUTPUT |
= Y or N (default N for not required) |
|
PACK_SEPARATOR |
= character (normally a dot) |
|
PACK_LINE_WIDTH |
= number of characters on line (default 72) |
|
PACK_SEQUENCE_REQUIRED |
= Y or N (default N for no sequence numbers) |
|
PACK_SEQUENCE_INCREMENT |
= sequence number increment (default 1) |
|
PACK_SEQUENCE_SPACE_WIDTH |
= number of characters between packed output and sequence number (default 1) |
|
PACK_SEQUENCE_FIELD_WIDTH |
= number of characters in sequence field (default 8) |
|
PACK_SEQUENCE_ZERO_FILLED |
= Y or N (If Y the sequence numbers are filled with leading zeros). Default N. |
The following parameters are used to specify distances to be used when positioning auxiliary functions in a corner loop.
|
BLOCK_AHC_BEFORE_KERF |
= distance (mm) before crossing a previous kerf that height control (AHC) is blocked |
|
BLOCK_AHC_AFTER_KERF |
= distance (mm) after crossing a previous kerf |
|
TORCH_TILT_DISTANCE |
= distance (mm) over which the torch is tilted when new bevel angle specified |
The following parameters are used to specify the names of data files containing speed data.
|
BURNING_LINE_SPEEDS_FILE |
= file name |
|
BURNING_ARC_SPEEDS_FILE |
= file name |