METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LINKING COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN DATABASES WITH A NUMERICAL CONTROL MACHINE DATABASE

摘要

An integrated manufacture and design system (100) and a database translator (120) that allows use of a subset of data directly from a CAD database to provide the necessary control data for use in a CAM assembly system (140). A database translator according to the present invention can examine the CAD data specifying a product, determine which of the component parts of that product are unknown to the CAM assembly system, and can insert into the CAM assembly system's database whatever new information the CAM system requires to manufacture the product. The invention may be embodied as a number of software modules on a fixed medium such as a computer readable disk or computer memory.