Glossary of Terms
Terms
Auxiliary (AUX) Axis
- An Auxiliary (AUX) Axis is an axis under control of Compass NC.
- The Auxiliary (AUX) axis is mapped to an FMK Axis for motion execution.
- Auxiliary axis motion is synchronized with Primary axes (XYZ) motion.
- Compass Designer
- User-facing visual designer that allows Machine Tool Builders to customize the looks and functionality of their Compass UI Runtime.
- It allows to create, cofigure and build machine specific Compass UI Runtime instances.
Compass NC
- The G-Code processing, motion look-ahead, and motion control component of Compass.
- Compass NC consists of two separate subsystems connected via Ethernet: (1) A suite of software libraries running on an Industrial PC (IPC) used for machine control, and (2) PLC code running on an iC9200 controller. The libraries running on the IPC manage G-Code processing and motion look-head, while the PLC code running on the controller manages the real-time motion control.
Compass UI Runtime
- User-facing visual aspects and components of the Compass solution. This provides the buttons, default components, and User Interface layout for the system that machine operators will interact with.
- It is created using Compass Designer.
MDI
- Manual Data Input
- Used for single G-code line manual command execution.
- MTB
- Machine Tool Builder
NC Axis
- A virtual axis that Compass NC uses for control and motion calculations that are exclusively commanded by an Compass NC running an NC Program (e.g., G-Code). An NC Axis is then mapped to a physical Axis for motion execution.
PLC Axis
- A PLC Axis is an axis under the control of the PLC program. It's used for application-specific purposes and is not directly controlled by Compass NC.