Tool path milling interface for integrating STEP-NC to open-architecture PC-based NC milling

Standard for exchange of product model data (step) is a standard associated with representation of product data model to enable data communication between different computer-aided design (cad),computer-aided manufacturing (cam) and other engineering systems without any ambiguities and any possible data losses. the development of open architecture (pc-based) numerical control (oapc-nc) interpolator has enhanced the possibilities of data communication between the systems. a tool path data interface to oapc-nc interpolator is proposed and developed; and a hierarchical-based algorithm is used to extract the tool path data from step-nc tool path file of a product model. the generated output of the interpolated data is computer simulated for 3d straight-line path to verify the validity of the interpolator input generated by the proposed interface. © 2015,penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.