It should be noted that the system has an additional option referred to as the Advanced
Milling option which allows users to create and modify coordinate systems into any planar orientation and program positioning moves for milling operations. For the mill/turn
capabilities the Advanced Milling option provides the ability to create additional coordinate systems in any orientation and create milling operations which will use the non-standard coordinate systems for the machining CS. The four base CS’s created by the system
are not modifiable by Advanced Mill.
OVERVIEW
▲ A Coordinate System is a plane in space with an origin and three axes.
The origin is the point at which the axes intersect and serves as a zero reference point. The three
axes are the horizontal, vertical and depth axes. In the standard XY Plane, the X axis is the horizontal axis, the Y axis is the vertical axis and the Z axis is the depth axis. The current coordinate system
is the active coordinate system that is selected in the CS List Dialog. It refers to the CS that is currently being worked in.
▲ A Coordinate System is NOT a Workgroup.
Coordinate systems are completely independent of workgroups. Multiple coordinate systems can be
used in one workgroup and the same coordinate system can be used in multiple workgroups. Often
times it is helpful to have one coordinate system per workgroup, however that is only a convenience, not a rule.
▲ A coordinate system is an attribute of geometry elements (points, lines, circles, etc.).
Geometry is not contained in a coordinate system the way it can be said that geometry is contained
in a workgroup. When geometry is created, dimensional information must be entered to indicate
where the geometry should be located. When locational data is entered, there must be a referencing
system that makes the dimensional data meaningful. This is the role a coordinate system plays in the
creation of geometry. When using the Mill/Turn functionality, turning geometry is created in the ZX
plane and milling geometry is created in the XY plane for face work and the YZ plane for OD work.
CS LIST
Coordinate System button: This button gives the user access to the CS List Pop-Up menu and
the CS List dialog. It is found among the 14 buttons in the Top Level palette.
CS List Pop-Up menu: Holding down the mouse button while selecting
CS Button will bring up a pop-up menu showing all of the coordinate
systems contained in the part file. The user can change the current
coordinate system by selecting one from the list and letting go of the
mouse button. After a coordinate system has been selected, the list will
disappear.