Milling of Letters

To begin the creation of an NC program for the letters milling operation, ensure that ISO Milling is selected as programming format for the NC program in the File Type drop-down list in the Operations toolbar.

Then select the feature Letter Milling by clicking on the icon Mill Letters in the Milling Operations toolbar to generate a CNC-toolpath for milling letters.


The CNC-Calc Letter Milling pane will appear on the left side of the screen as shown. Write the comment LETTER MILLING 'CIMCO 123' in the Comment field. It is a good practice to include the text to machine in the comment for the letter milling operations.


Now click on the Parameters button and enter the values shown below.


Now, use window selection to select the text you want to mill. On the drawing, left-click one corner, hold down the mouse button, and drag diagonally. When the desired text is framed, release the button. The frame disappears and the text will have turned yellow to indicate that it has been selected.


Next click on the Export Editor button, and the NC codes for machining the text will be shown in a new window in the Editor.

To verify the generated toolpath we must simulate it using the integrated Graphical Backplot. To open the backplot window, click on the Backplot tab at the top of the Ribbon and then on the icon Backplot Window.


Your screen should now present "CIMCO 123" in the following way.


Notice the rapid moves, indicated by the yellow lines, retracting to the level we defined using the Parameters dialog.

At the bottom right of the backplot window, start the simulation by clicking the Start / stop simulation icon.

Simulation speed and direction is infinitely variable both forwards and backwards. This is controlled by dragging the slider either to the right (forward) or to the left (backward).

If you want to verify a certain operation in the NC program, simply click on a line of the NC code to the left. The simulation tool will immediately position itself on the corresponding place in the simulation. You can move the tool one line at a time using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard, or skip through the code a page at a time using PageUp and PageDown.

The example text milling program "CIMCO 123" can be used as a subprogram to another program by simply cut-and-paste, but can also be completed as an independent program, providing it is supplied with the code lines for Program Start / Program Stop, Tool Change, and Feed/Speed, which you can quickly add either manually or using the Macro functions in CIMCO Edit v7.