Wire Array Structure

The first block of data is a header block. The external procedure GETHEADER reads this and sets up these user variables:

 

Procedure: GETHEADER

Index

XPOINT()

YPOINT()

ZPOINT()

1

#XYSTARTBEAR

Start bearing of XY element

#XYENDBEAR

End bearing of XY element

#UVSTARTBEAR

Start bearing of UV element

2

#UVENDBEAR

End bearing of UV element

#STARTLEAD

Start lead angle

#ENDLEAD

End lead angle

3

#STARTSIDE

Start side angle

#ENDSIDE

End side angle

#XYUVPAIRS

Number of xyuv pairs for long hand output

4

#XYELEMENT

Element type on XY profile, see below

#UVELEMENT

Element type on UV profile, see below

#TYPE

Element type couple

See below

5

#XYNEXTSTARTBEAR

Start bearing of next XY element

#UVNEXTSTARTBEAR

End bearing of next UV element

Not used

6

#XYNEXTELEMENT

Next element type on XY profile

#UVNEXTELEMENT

Next element type on UV profile

#NEXTTYPE

Next element couple type

 

EdgeCAM Wire Erosion can effectively link any two of four entity types to each other, giving a possible sixteen combinations, for example a Line can be linked to a Point.

The four entities are POINT, LINE, ARC, and CONIC (not arc). The user defined variable #TYPE is set up to identify which type of link is occurring:

 

#TYPE

 

XY

UV

Line

1

16

Point

2

32

Arc

4

64

Conic

8

128

 

#TYPE returns the sum of the XY and UV couple.

For example:

%IF #TYPE=33 %THEN %CALL=LINE_TO_POINT

When TYPE is checked, an internal procedure to handle this case can be called. Within this procedure, a check is made to determine whether to use long hand output or cycle output.