Environment

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The required environment is:

  • Operating system: Windows 9x
  • The software does not work under Windows NT ou Windows 2000 
  • Hardware: standart PC (starting with 486 range), Frequency >33Mhz is better.
Software Synoptic

The following drawing shows the various files used by the software. The files are

  • Configuration file: *.cnc 
  • Coordinates files: *.dat, *.cor
  • Wire kerf database ("Fichier de rayonnement"): *.db
  • Final cut file ("Fichier de découpe"): *.cut

 


 


*.cut File Format

The *.cut files contains the list of all commands which are going to be send to the stepper motors. correspond a l'ensemble des commandes qui vont être envoyé au moteur pas a pas. Hereafter is an sample file content, without any step details :
T:24.275378 XG:18.458333 YG:27.902834 XD:71.541667 YD:19.857273
T:0.142700 XG:18.230793 YG:27.902834 XD:71.107568 YD:19.857273
T:0.222748 XG:18.882694 YG:28.076824 XD:71.534127 YD:20.010776

In this case, T represents seconds, other numbers are using millimeters unit.

Here is another sample, with step details:
T:63.245553 XG:20.000000 YG:60.000000 XD:20.000000 YD:60.000000
55 +YG +XG +YD +XD
39 +YG +YD
39 +YG +YD
55 +YG +XG +YD +XD
39 +YG +YD
...

In this case, the first number contains a time expressed as a multiple of the interrupt timebase (0.5msec in our case).  A plus sign (+) before a motor name (XG, XD, YD, YG) is a positive displacement, a mins sign is a displacement in the other direction. Only the active motors are mentionned.

If you want to check the operation of the software, you can use the Lit-Cut program (available on Olivier Segouin's site). It will read the *.cut format and draw on the screen the specified (expected) wire travel. 

*.dat & *.cor Files formats

The *.dat or *.cor files contains airfoil section coordinates. The only difference between both types of files is the comment line which may be at the beginning or at the end of the file. Other lines contains X and Y coordinates pair values. These are text files, so they may be displayed and edited without trouble. 
Some samples for the Clark Y section:

*.dat example: 

  • CLARK Y AIRFOIL
  • 1.000000 0.000600
  • 0.990000 0.002970
  • 0.980000 0.005330
  • .....
  • 0.980000 -0.001330
  • 0.990000 -0.000970
  • 1.000000 -0.000600
*.cor example:
  • 1.000000 0.000600
  • 0.990000 0.002970
  • 0.980000 0.005330
  • ....
  • 0.980000 -0.001330
  • 0.990000 -0.000970
  • 1.000000 -0.000600
  • CLARK Y AIRFOIL