INTEGRATION OF CAD AND CAM SYSTEM USING MACROFUNCTION

The macrofunction in the computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system is executed based on the macrocode which is transformed by a series of operations input by the user. By the use of this function, operations which should be performed by the user can be simplified. Therefore, if the transformation from mechanical drawings to NC code can be changed directly into macrocode, NC machining can be achieved easily. In our study, a function for transforming macrocode from data of CAD drawing to CAM data is developed. However, drawing data of a CAD system (''CAD-drawing'') does not always coincide with drawing data of a CAM system (''CAM-drawing''), because in a CAM system, restricted conditions, such as machining conditions, must be considered. Consequently, drawing data must be represented by a structure and function which include information about restricted conditions. Thus, the concept of the relationship between ''master and servant'' for definitely expressing structure and function in an object model is specifically incorporated. As a result, even in the case where structure and function are changed, the knowledge base can be consistently maintained. This paper describes representation of knowledge in the knowledge base and method for generating a macrocode using the knowledge base.