STEP-NC feature-oriented high-efficient CNC machining simulation

During the development of CNC machining, the computer-based NC machining simulation has played an important role in verifying the NC programs economically and safely so as to avoid scraps or even accidents. In order to balance the accuracy, efficiency, and fidelity, various simulation methods have been proposed in historical researches, including wireframe, solid, object space-based, and image space-based simulation. All the mentioned methods use G-code as input and take the workpiece blank as a whole part, which causes the difficulty for achieving real-time simulation with acceptable accuracy under limited computing resources. This paper proposed a STEP-NC feature-oriented machining simulation method, which takes the workpiece blank as the combination of several machining features plus the workpiece, and implements customized algorithms for individual features. Using the divide and conquer strategy, high efficiency with guaranteed accuracy and fidelity can be obtained during the real-time simulation. Two demo workpieces with 2.5D features from the STEP-NC standard were tested using the proposed method, and the efficiency was validated by comparing results with the conventional methods.