Numerical control unit - Patent Review 5544046

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for storing operation data used to operate a numerical control unit having a screen display comprising the steps of:

formatting the operation data in an array data format of at least one dimension by formatting the operation data in accordance with a screen number, a row number and a column number, in such a manner that the array data format corresponds to a display format utilized by the numerical control unit to display the data on the screen display; and

storing the data formatted in accordance with the screen number, the row number and the column number in a memory of the numerical control unit in accordance with the array data format.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the array data format includes a header part and a data part, and the header part contains

(a) the screen number indicating a particular screen, the particular screen corresponding to the data stored in the data part;

(b) the row number indicating the number of display format rows of data included in the data part; and

(c) the column number indicating the number of display format columns included in the data part.

3. A method according to claim 2, the header part further comprising:

(d) a data type indicator indicating the type of data stored in the data part.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of outputting the data to a character code converting unit for conversion into character code format and outputting the converted data to an external input/output unit.

5. A method of editing data for use in a numerical control unit used for automatically machining a workpiece comprising the steps of:

while executing data relating to a present machining job, retrieving stored data pertaining to a future machining job from an internal data store of the numerical control unit;

inputting data edit information for editing the stored data

determining whether editing of the retrieved data is currently forbidden;

if the editing is not forbidden, directly editing the retrieved data with the data edit information;

if the editing is forbidden, converting the data edit information to character codes, storing the character codes, determining when the editing of the retrieved data is no longer forbidden, and thereafter editing the retrieved data with the data edit information.

6. A method according to claim 5 further comprising the steps of: displaying the retrieved data and the data edit information on a screen and highlighting the data edit information to distinguish the data edit information from the retrieved data.

7. A method according to claim 5 wherein the data edit information for correcting the retrieved data relating to a future machining job is input to the unit through an external input/output device and is converted from character code format to machine code format once the edit information is input to the unit from the input/output device.

8. A method according to claim 5 further comprising the step of: storing history data relating to a plurality of previously performed editing steps in a storage area.

9. A unit according to claim 8 wherein the history data is structured according to an array structure, corresponding to a display format of a display unit.

10. A unit according to claim 9 wherein the array structure includes a header part and a data part, said header part containing:

(a) a screen number indicating a particular screen, the particular screen corresponding to the data stored in the data part;

(b) a row number indicating the number of display format rows of data included in the data part; and

(c) a column number indicating the number of display format columns included in the data part.

11. A unit according to claim 8 further comprising the steps of: retrieving the stored history data and editing the retrieved history data.

12. A unit according to claim 11, wherein said step of editing the retrieved history data comprises: copying specified areas of a storage area storing the history data into a correction area and performing said step of editing the retrieved data pertaining to a future machining job by utilizing the copied areas.

13. A unit according to claim 5 further comprising the steps of: confirming the data edit information by:

confirming input of the data edit information;

displaying a screen corresponding to the retrieved data;

displaying the data edit information; and

confirming substitution of the data edit information into the retrieved data.

14. A method for editing data for use in a numerical control unit comprising the steps of:

storing an original program comprising a list of instructions for performing a desired machining of a workpiece in a memory of the numerical control unit;

creating a backup version of the original program when the original program is to be edited; and

editing the backup version while the original program is being executed by the numerical control unit;

wherein the backup version has a first extension code type and the original program has a second extension code type; and

further comprising the steps of:

once said step of editing the backup version is performed,

replacing the first extension code type of the edited backup version with the second extension code type; and

replacing the second extension code type of the original program with a third extension code type;

wherein the third extension code type can assume a plurality of values so that a corresponding plurality of original programs may be stored.

15. A numerical control unit comprising:

machining program generating means for generating a machining program in which all values in the program relating to machining operations are actual numerical values;

specifying means for specifying certain ones of the values to be described by variables instead of by the actual numerical values;

defining means for defining the variables; and

replacing means for replacing the certain ones of the values specified by said specifying means with the variables defined using said defining means, wherein at least a portion of the variables are mathematical expressions containing variable components and operators.

16. A unit according to claim 15 further comprising a value assigning means for assigning actual values to the variables inserted by said replacing means.

17. A unit according to claim 16 further comp