Development of a quick 3D machining simulation system in supporting smart manufacturing

Most of the machining toolpath simulation research focused majorly on the correctness of the toolpath and collision detection if the full machine tool 3D model were constructed and included in the simulation. However, it seems that the target of these research was aimed for CAD/CAM engineers. The input of these research was generally cutter location file before post-processing and/or NC program after post-processing. However, the output of the generated toolpath is in the format of NC program that is used by a CNC machine tool operator. There is still high risk that an operator might get a wrong NC program in his/her machining task. This research is therefore focused on the development of a 3D machining simulation system that can be used by an operator to quickly view the shape based on the NC program, related workpiece origin setting, and tool definition. A case study was done by simulating an NC program of about 10,000 blocks. The result has shown that the developed system can successfully assist an operator to quickly see whether the obtained NC program is a correct one that can be used to cut the right component shape.