EdgeCAM operates within an environment which is selectable according to the type of part being designed or manufactured. Selection of an environment determines which construction planes, view port layouts and commands are available. (These terms are explained later in this section.)
An environment provides you with orientations and views of the component that match particular tool types. You can design a component in either environment and change environments at will. This has no effect on the component other than to change the views of the component that the system presents to you.
There are two environments to choose from:
XY Environment
This provides view ports and construction planes for constructing a part with respect to the usual X, Y, Z Cartesian co-ordinate system. This is the default environment when entering EdgeCAM. Typically, the XY environment is used for generating Milling, Wire and CMM components.
ZX Environment
This environment provides view ports and construction planes that simulate the orientation of a turned part in a machine tool during manufacture. In the case of a lathe for example, it is usual to work in the ZX plane where the Z axis is horizontal.
If a turned component is drawn in the XY plane, you can flip the component into the ZX plane using the Transform, Transpose (Edit menu) command.
You can switch between environments when designing a part by selecting one of the XY Environment or ZX Environment commands from the Options menu. These environments are mutually exclusive and the active command is shown with a ‘tick’ againt it.
You can also select an XY or ZX Environment from within the Preferences (Options menu) command.