Macro

The processing operations in the CAM module satisfy, in most cases, the need to develop the necessary CNC programs for part processing. However, the increasingly sophisticated furniture hardware emerging on the market requires increasingly complex processing schemes. It is not enough to apply a single operation (e.g. Drill or Mill), but a complex set of operations must be used in order to obtain the recesses in the parts that will allow the hardware to be successfully installed in the furniture. Examples of such hardware could be a Lamell Clamex component, or a lock cut into a door, etc.

Woodwork for Inventor allows the following sequences of operations (Macro) to be pre-defined for the hardware components of a piece of furniture to be attached to a selected sculpt body. By the sculpting command, the Macros are automatically transferred to the content of the part. The CAM module interprets this information and creates a Sculpt Processing operation, where all the Macros assigned to the given sculpt body are lined up. The post-processor interprets the Macros written in the Sculpt Processing operations and the results of the interpretation are then output to the final CNC program.

Hereinafter we will use the following terms to clearly describe the function:

▪	Cutting Component or Fixture Component means a component that cuts an opening in another component to fix itself in the structure. This is usually the case for various fastening hardware or hardware that requires recesses, e.g. door handles.

▪	Cut Component or Cut Part means a structural part of a piece of furniture (usually a furniture panel) from which a piece of furniture is assembled, and which requires various holes to be drilled in order to accommodate the hardware.

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Front-End CAM System means a console system of a CNC machine tool used by the machine operator or the technologist programmer to create a CNC program on the CNC machine. Typical examples of such systems are: Woodwop, Biesse Works, ImaWop, TPA, Xilogic, etc. G-Code can also be considered as a Front-End system if no other is available for a given CNC machine.

▪	JS Macro program or JS Macro means a JavaScript program that is registered in the cut component by means of the Woodwork for Inventor plug-in and used by the Woodwork for Inventor JavaScript interpreter in order to build the Front-End program required by the Front-End system syntax.

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Front-End Program means a program fragment in the syntax of the Front-End CAM system, which is formed by a JS Macro program registered in Woodwork for Inventor in the cutting component. It may be simply a sequence of operations or a Front-End Macro call procedure. This fragment is built into the final CNC program at the time of CNC program output.

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A Front-End Macro means a Macro program in the syntax of the Front-End system. Many Front-End CAM systems themselves support Macro functionality. This means that when writing a program, it is possible to use the Macro call functions in them. Therefore, Front-End systems have mechanisms that allow such Macros to be created, stored in libraries, and used to compile Front-End programs.

▪	A JS Macro operation means a node in the Woodwork for Inventor CAM technology tree that holds all information about a given JS Macro. You can see the expression of this node in the CAM Technology Tree Browser. A JS Macro operation is always inside a Sculpt Processing operation..

The following sections describe the mechanisms for describing such a sequence of operations, how to associate it with the cutting component and how the output of such a sequence occurs when the design of the piece of furniture and the generation of the CNC technology is performed.