Study on Conversion from STEP-NC into G-code

摘要

STEP-NC (ISO 14649) is a newly-proposed standard designed to replace G-code [1] in CNC field. But currently CNC machines in the workshop floors all over the world adopt G-code as their language for exchange and operation. For the sake of bringing STEP-NC into practice, it becomes imperative to investigate the relationship between STEP-NC and G-code and thus to convert STEP-NC codes into G-code list, if possible. Therefore, this contribution attempts to find a method aimed at converting STEP-NC code to G-code. This work is divided into two parts. The first part analyzes the content and structure of STEP-NC for obtaining all necessary information before converting process. The second part develops a "STEP-NC to G-code" converter programmed with Visual C++, which can recognize STEP-NC codes, extract useful information, form actual tool path, and finally output G-code list. The converted G-codes are transferred successfully onto a CNC milling machine tool equipped with SIEMENS 802C for execution.