WELsoft Website Notes
Note 9
Target audience: Anyone running WELturn or WELmill on an elderly PC
Subject: The, (sometimes, very) long wait when the machining movements for a part is being calculated.
We have made a point of using older PCs for WELturn and WELmill trials rather than the latest and fastest machines. On such PCs the shape of a part with a complex profile or machining routine may take a some minutes to calculate.
What the computer is doing is processing the NC file which has all the G code data and calculating:
1 every step the stepper motors have to make in order to machine the part;
2 in WELturn, all the data for the real time screen display of the machining process;
3 in WELturn, the picture of the part you see on screen when the wait is over.
Its an awful lot of sums. The only way to shorten the wait is to use a much faster computer.
The answers to all these sums can be saved automatically so that, next time you want to make another of the parts, the calculations are not repeated and there is almost no wait.
The rules for the automatic saving of the sums are:
1. the original NC file must be in a folder on the hard drive (we suggest folders called MillData or TurnData)
2. in WELturn and WELmill - File - Settings ... you must have enabled the item called 'Retain calculated Lathe/Mill steps'
Safety feature: if there has been any change to the original NC file and/or any change to the screen display settings, the shape is recalculated - and you will have to wait again.
If the original NC file is picked up from a diskette in drive A, the shape calculations are not retained as the amount of data would exceed the storage capacity of a diskette.
September 2002