Virtual Machine's Results

Monitoring Virtual Machine's Results

Monitoring the simulation is actually the responsibility of CERUN and GENER. GENER monitors the simulation during look-ahead operations (activated by LINTOL/SCAN and the SMARTP command features) in an attempt to avoid positioning or interpolating the machine into situations where collisions might occur. GENER reports all unavoidable collisions and overtravel conditions in the diagnostic window and post-processor listing file. CERUN monitors the simulation at all times and reports all collisions and overtravel conditions in the diagnostic window and control emulator log file. CERUN and GENER perform these actions regardless of whether the Diagnostic and simulation windows are visible or not.

VM provides various controls and features to aid visual monitoring of the simulation. Two of these, the HUD (head-up display) and tool path displays, can both be toggled from the VM Mode toolbar, as well as from the Simulation»Show»Display and Simulation»Show»Tool Path (Ctrl T shortcut) menus. Animation control options, tool path display options and various other miscellaneous options are all controlled from the Simulation»Options menu (Ctrl Alt O shortcut). The animation options are also available from the VM Animation toolbar.

The VM View Filter toolbar provides toggle buttons to display or hide various types of objects in the scene, such as (from left to right): the machine, tools, fixtures, rough stock and design part. When running with MRS (material removal simulation) active, additional toggle buttons are available to view or hide: the in-process stock, in-process stock checkpoints, Boolean overcut and undercut stock (gouge and excess material), a color graduated Boolean difference between part and stock, and a cross section cutout of the stock. These view filter toggles are also available from the Simulation»Show»Filters menu. A Simulation»Compare (Ctrl Q shortcut) menu selection defines settings for colorized differences.

VM provides various functions to measure the distance and angles between objects. Measurement mode is toggled using a button on the VM Mode toolbar. Once in measurement mode, clicking with the left-mouse button causes measurements to be taken between the selected objects. Press and hold the Ctrl key to manipulate the camera with the mouse while taking measurements. Within VM, objects are constructed of triangles. The VM Measure toolbar provides a middle series of three toggle buttons that filter the parts of the triangles that can be selected with the mouse. The left-most toggle on the VM Measure toolbar switches between chained (one to the next) and fanned (one to many) measurements. The rightmost toggle affects the visibility of the objects being measured; when in “overlay” mode they will not be hidden by other objects that might be between you (the viewer) and the measured ones.

VM also provides a Time-Line feature on the VM Controller window that can be used to review and play back the simulation.

Finally, VM provides the ability to synchronize both the timeline display and the simulation window with any of the other tracing windows available with the CERUN and GENER UI. This can be used to see the state of the simulation at a particular CLDATA record, NC block, macro command and operator or diagnostic message (e.g., a collision).

Animation Control

Animation options are controlled from the VM Animation toolbar as well as from the Simulation»Options menu (Ctrl Alt O shortcut).

The animation control options affect the simulation display speed. Selecting the “Continuous” mode will slow the simulation down to a specified factor of real time within the limitations of the CPU and graphics capabilities of your computer. When “Motion Step” is selected, the display is updated at the specified interval in motions, meaning that the simulation display is updated after every n motion steps. A third “Time Interval” method refreshes the display at the specified interval in seconds, which has the least impact in terms of CPU requirements.

When in continuous animation mode, extremely slow motions may give the impression that the software is no longer operating. If unsure, activate the HUD motion display, which will show if axes are in fact moving. The Simulation Options dialog can be activated while the simulation is running (and even mid interpolation), allowing you to change the mode from continuous to another.

Head-Up Display

The HUD superimposes status information on the simulation window. To change the content or position of the HUD, select the Simulation»Display (Ctrl Alt D shortcut) menu to bring up the Display dialog. Status information can be organized into different schemes, which can be labeled by name and saved in the Windows Registry (the Default scheme cannot be changed). You can cycle between different display schemes listed in the simulation window using the Simulation»Show»Next Display and »Previous Display (Ctrl D and Ctrl Shift D) menu selections. Uncheck the “Use default schemes in cycle” box to omit the Default scheme when cycling through different displays. The FPS Status Information item can be selected to measure the simulation window display rate, in the form “FPS a / b” (useful when testing Graphic card setting). The number “a” is the theoretical maximum number of screen updates per second that VM could do if all it had to do was redraw the display. The number “b” is the actual number of updates per second, and takes into account all other processing requirements.

Tool Path Display

Select the Simulation»Show»Tool Path (Ctrl T shortcut) menu toggle to enable and disable tool path tracing. Tool path tracing can also be toggled from the VM Mode toolbar by selecting the left button in the pair shown circled above. Tracing shows the motion of the tool in relation to the part, taking into account the sweep effects caused by rotary motions and the “hockey stick” effect caused by independent axis positioning. The trace is shown fixed in relation to the part (meaning that the trace moves with the part).

Select the Simulation»Show»Tool Path as Overlay menu toggle to control the visibility of the tool path. Tool path visibility can also be toggled from the VM Mode toolbar by selecting the right button in the pair shown circled above. When the tool path is shown in “overlay” mode it will not be hidden by objects that might be between you (the viewer) and the tool path.

Select Simulation»Options (Ctrl Alt O shortcut) to change tool path display options, which will bring up the Simulation Options dialog. Tool path options include: The colors used to distinguish feed motions, rapid motions and motions being “synchronized” with the CERUN and GENER trace windows. Whether to show the tool path trace at the SCP (spindle control point) or the tool tip. The extent of the tool path to display. Tool paths containing many motions slow down the simulation speed due to the CPU requirements to draw each motion. The tool path display can be reduced to show only those motions within a specified period. The tolerance used when tracing curved motions, while respecting an upper limit on the number of segments that should be used to show a curved motion. Note that this tolerance is used for display purposes only and has no effect on collision testing.

VM Controller Time-Line

The VM Virtual Controller includes a Time-Line feature that can be used to review and replay the simulation at any point. The VM controller can be activated from the View toolbar by selecting the button shown circled in the toolbar above. Select the button a second time to either hide the controller window or to restore a controller window that has been minimized. This window can also be controlled by selecting Simulation»Controller from the menu bar. Once the VM Controller window is active, select the Time-Line tab to view a time graph of the process.

The time scale listed horizontally at the top of the window represents the run time of the process. The pale blue vertical bar shows the moment in time that the simulation window is currently showing. The light gray vertical line marks the end of the simulation. When MRS (material removal simulation) is active, all collisions involving the in-process stock (e.g., tool rapids into stock) are identified by horizontal amber bars at the top edge of the window; the left edge of the amber bar marks the start of the motion where a collision occurs and the corresponding right edge marks the start of the next motion where the in-process stock is again collision free. All other non in-process stock related collisions are identified by a red bar; the left edge of the red bar marks the moment in time where a collision occurs and the corresponding right edge marks the point where the simulation is again collision free. Each motion axis is listed horizontally. Motion axes overtravel conditions are individually identified by horizontal light purple bars drawn level with the axis on which an overtravel occurs; the left edge of the light purple bar marks the moment in time where an overtravel occurs and the corresponding right edge marks the point where the axis is once again within travel.

When the simulation is paused, you can click with the left mouse button anywhere within the window to see, in the simulation window, the state of the simulation at that moment in time. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the mouse left and right to replay the simulation forwards and backwards in time. Use the up and down arrow keys or the mouse wheel to adjust the time scale to see more or less detail. The Simulation»Camera»Fit (Ctrl Space) function will fit the entire process within the timeline window. Use the left and right arrow keys or the horizontal scroll bar to move the timescale left and right. The Simulation»Camera»Center (Ctrl Shift Space) function will center the timescale at the current selected time.

Click with the right mouse button anywhere within the window to see a pop-up context menu. The “play from here” choice will replay the simulation from the selected point, using the continuous animation control setting. The “synchronize” choice will synchronize the selected moment in the timeline display with the simulation window and any of the other tracing windows available with the CERUN and GENER UI.

Part vs. Stock Comparison

Comparison between the design part and the in-process stock is only available with a MRS (Material Removal Simulation) license available and enabled via the SIM button on the GENER and CERUN launch panels. The MRS license provides the added functionality to compute the effect of the cutting process of the tool on the rough stock. The resultant shape is called the “in-process stock”.

The left-most of the circled buttons above toggles the display of the in-process stock. The two buttons to its immediate right toggle the display of Boolean Overcut (gouge) and Boolean Undercut (excess) material. The gouge and excess calculations are done using an exact comparison between in-process stock and its associated part. These associations must first be setup using the “Associated Part” setting in the Simulation»Stock (Ctrl Alt S shortcut) dialog (on page 18).

The Boolean excess and overcut results can sometimes be misleading, since it can be difficult to judge the thickness of the excess or gouge material. VM provides a Simulation»Compare (Ctrl Alt Q shortcut) color graduated part/stock comparison feature to address this issue. The comparison colorization settings are applied only to gouge and excess material, which must first be enabled by selecting one or both of the Boolean Overcut and Boolean Undercut filters. Select the Colorized Boolean filter (second from right in the circled buttons above) to compute and view the results.

The comparison is done by sampling the surface of the gouge and/or excess material, and computing the shortest distance to the part. The distance is then used to assign a fixed or graduated color, as defined using the various options of the Compare dialog. If the sample size is small, or the part very large, the colorization process may take a long time to compute. The comparison can be canceled at any time, in which case the displayed results will be incomplete (but perhaps still useful).

When viewing the gouge material in combination with either the part or the in-process stock, it helps to select the part with the mouse so that its surface becomes transparent, allowing the gouged material surface to be seen.