Part program creation method

Claim 1

A part program creation method for creating an NC part program in an apparatus having a memory, a graphic input device and a display unit, the program comprising a graphic definition statement defining a graphic, a motion definition statement defining a tool path including auxiliary machining information including feed velocity and spindle rotational velocity, said method comprising the steps of: (a) storing in the memory a plurality of motion definition statements, each statement associated with a corresponding shape; (b) defining a graphic using a graphic input device to generate a defined graphic definition statement correpsonding to an associated motion statement among the plurality of motion definition statements, by performing at least two of: (i) specifying a point of the graphic, (ii) specifying two points defining a straight line of the graphic, (iii) specifying three points on a circular arc of the graphic, wherein said three points have coordinates defining a location in an orthogonal coordinate system; (c) creating a part program comprising the defined graphic definition statement and the associated motion statement; (d) entering an identifier corresponding to the associated motion statement and to the defined graphic definition statement; (e) storing in the memory image information for tool path patterns defined by the motion definition statements; (f) displaying a selected tool path pattern, defined by the associated motion statement, on the display unit in dependence upon the image information for the selected tool path pattern; and (g) displaying on the display unit a predetermined element from among a point, a straight line and a circular arc, to be entered next.