Cutter Path Editing

The Perfect Program

When tackling complex 3D jobs, there’s probably no such thing as a "perfect program".  Whether you’ve created a program from scratch in Prospector or imported another programmers’ work, there’s many times the perfectionist in you wishes to touch it up just a little bit before running it on the machine.  The powerful editing tools in Prospector lets you modify portions of a program or the entire program.

Editing Features

• Mirror about X or Y axis.  The mirrored program is automatically updated to maintain climb or conventional cutting convention just like the original.
• Translate with option to leave original.
• Rotate incremental to create a circular array or absolute angles to create discrete program(s) at any angle(s) specified.
• Preview feature for mirror, translate and rotate provides graphical feedback before you commit to the edit.
• Cut, Copy, Paste lets you reorder programs within a project.  You can also Cut or Copy from one session of Prospector then Paste into a different session.  This is an very handy feature when working on duplicate or nearly identical jobs.
• Program trimming. Option to keep  interior or exterior regions when trimming parallel style strategies.  Trim levels or extents of Z-Planar programs.  In all cases, programs are reassembled to maintain the original ordering of the cuts and connect regions with interference free paths.

• Delete or move discrete point(s) within a cutter path.
• Insert rapid, feed or plunge-feed movements at any point in a program.
• Program / Update function lets you re-enter the New Program Wizard to review and change any of the characteristics of a program such as cutter containment boundaries, flow curves and start points.
• Change any program parameter on-the-fly by choosing Program / Properties.

Program Properties dialog lets you quickly inspect all program parameters and make any adjustments needed.	The General tab of the Program Properties dialog includes machine time so you can judge the effect of any program edits on the efficiency of the program.

• Modify the tool axis. 
• Unlimited UNDO and REDO to roll-back and roll-forward each edit operation.
• Program Restore feature allows the original program to be restored to it's original form regardless of when the program was edited or how many edits have been made to it since it was originally created.

Unhappy with the way programs from another CAM system are running on the machine?  You can edit programs from many different CAM systems inside Prospector.  Use the Program/Import feature to bring in cutter paths, inspect them for gouges or stock collisions and make any appropriate edits.  Post process the edited program and get on with the job.