www.axismotion.com ® Profiler Software
Axis Motion	Profile Cutting Control Systems

Profiler Software Overview

Axis Motion Profiler is designed to support profile cutting in various manufacturing industries. It provides a single, unified environment with a graphical user interface and it makes it easy to import or create graphical drawing data, modify the data for cutting and directly control a machine during the cutting of the data. The progress of the cutting is displayed in real-time on the PC screen. Profiler runs on any Pentium 200+MHz based computer running MSDOS, provided that the PCI bus interface card provided by Axis Motion is installed.

Profiler supports comprehensive control of the cutting process. The simplest cutting process supported by Profiler can be summarised as follows:

· load DXF files from a CAD program or draw the shapes to be cut out;

· specify the various parameters to control the way in which the shapes will be cut;

· specify any arraying of the drawing;

· automatically generate the cutting path drawing (including job arraying);

· set the machine parameters such as cutting speed and plunging speed and

· start the machine cutting the shapes allowing for operator intervention during the cutting.

For a concise list of many of the features of Profiler see the List of Features.

Drawing In Profiler

A drawing containing the shapes to be cut out can be constructed in a number of ways. Profiler provides drawing facilities enabling circles, rectangles, polylines and polylines with arcs (polyarcs) to be drawn and modified. You can also load any DXF files from any CAD package into Profiler. Profiler also provides a digitizing facility in both two and three dimensions which enables shapes to be specified by manually recording successive positions of the machine tool.

Machine Tool Path Creation In Profiler

The drawings are usually modified in many ways within Profiler in order to obtain the correct tool path. For example, the starting points of shapes can be changed, the direction of shapes can be changed and the shape cutting sequence can be altered. In addition, a machine cutting tool must follow a path which is different from the specified drawing in order to produce the desired shapes. For example, a routing tool has a certain diameter and so, if the cut shape is to have the correct size, its path must be offset from the drawn shape. Within Profilershapes can be assigned to one of eight different groups. The groups define the shape cutting parameters and cutting path creation parameters. Profiler automatically generates the correct cutting path using the group settings which include the required offsets, tags and lead-ins and lead-outs for shapes assigned to the group.

Controlling a Machine From Profiler

Profiler provides comprehensive support for a variety of machining tools including routers, lasers, plasmas and knives. For example, it is possible to specify shapes that require multiple cutting passes, a feature often used on routing machines with a limited cutting depth per pass. For laser and plasma tools a constant height above the job surface can be automatically maintained during cutting. This height control feature is crucial for the effective use of these tools when cutting warped sheets of material, for example. Profiler has also been used to control a variety of other machines such as lathes and mills with specialized punch positioning.

Profiler directly controls all aspects of the machine operation: it generates the motor positioning pulses and tool control information (such as turning a laser on, setting the laser intensity or starting a router tool) and senses the machine state using input information (such as the state of homing switches or the state inputs which control the height of the tool). The machine can be manually moved by either using the computer keyboard or a hand console attached to the computer via a serial link. The machine motion and the progress of the cutting is displayed graphically in real-time so that the position of the machine in relation to the job is always visible.

Profiler is a real-time controller. The current implementation of the machining version uses the MSDOS operating system which enables the hard real-time requirements of the controller to be met. It is a simple operating system which does not interfere with the output pulses which are, in the current implementation, occurring at up to a frequency of about 100kHz. The hard real-time requirement arises because pulses must be created on time - variations in timing can cause problems such as stalling of the stepper motors which they may be driving. The MSDOS version of Profiler provides a full graphical user interface with real-time display of the tool position. The interface is comprehensive and easy to use. It is not unusual for an operator to be taught within an hour or so how to import DXF files, do the necessary machine setup and begin cutting out jobs.

Edit and Machine Versions of Profiler

The Axis Motion Profiler programis supplied in two versions:

· Machining version: provides full program functionality including:

o reading DXF files,

o modifying the cutting sequence,

o setting cutting direction of shapes,

o setting lead ins and outs,

o setting offsets and tabs and many other aspects of the drawings,

o arraying the data,

o producing a tool cutting path description and

o controlling the cutting of the shapes (axis heights, cutting and plunging speeds, pausing and other features).

· Editing only version: provides all of the features of the machining version except for the ability to run and to control the machine. This version could be used on an office computer where drawings can be designed and final tool cutting path files created. These files can be downloaded to the machining version via a serial link. This software is useful by itself since it produces files in DXF format which can be read by CAD packages. See Downloads for details of downloading the software. The editing version of the software is fully functional but must be Registered (free) to enable the saving of drawing files.

Software Manual

A full explanation of the functionality of the software can be found in the Profiler Software General Reference Manual (a 370KB PDF file which requires Acrobat Reader from www.adobe.com for viewing).

Menu and Screen Descriptions

The Menu Hierarchy diagrams give an indication of the functionality provided by Axis Motion Profiler. For a text listing see the List of Features.

The Example Machine Mode Screen Layout shows a schematic layout of the program interface.

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