Color enhanced display for a numerical control system
First Claim
1. A method of enhancing the visual display of a computer numerical control machining system by the addition of color thereto, comprising the steps of:
- (a) generating and entering color assignment records in a stored machine set up data (MSD) source file containing data for the generation of a visual display of predetermined information relating to system operation;
(b) processing said records of said source file and generating therefrom an MSD binary file;
(c) transferring color assignment data from said MSD binary file to a display control system;
(d) generating a visual display in color in response to signals generated by processing said display control file; and
(e) modifying the color assignment data in accordance with changing conditions of the numerical control system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Color is added to the standard video display (18) of a computer numerical control system for controlling the operation of a machine tool (10) in the performance of specified operations with respect to a workpiece. Color assignment records (62) are included in the machine setup data (MSD) source file (54) for implementing background color, reverse video color, forms character color, data character color, errors and/or alarm color, operator required response color, and high-lite color. The MSD source file (54) is processed to generate a binary MSD file (56) which is then read into the numerical control basic (NC) software (24) which operates to generate both text and graphic displays. The original or default color assignments may be dynamically modified or changed through an MSD file editor (58). Additionally, the background color and data character color are programmed to change to other colors to bring the operator'"'"'s attention to an error or alarm condition through the machine control logic (MCL) (28) which generates calls through a software interface (26) to the NC software (24).
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of enhancing the visual display of a computer numerical control machining system by the addition of color thereto, comprising the steps of:
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(a) generating and entering color assignment records in a stored machine set up data (MSD) source file containing data for the generation of a visual display of predetermined information relating to system operation; (b) processing said records of said source file and generating therefrom an MSD binary file; (c) transferring color assignment data from said MSD binary file to a display control system; (d) generating a visual display in color in response to signals generated by processing said display control file; and (e) modifying the color assignment data in accordance with changing conditions of the numerical control system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for adding color to the video display of a computer numerical control machining system, comprising:
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a first data file containing color assignment records for the generation of color displays of predetermined information relating to system operation; means for processing said records of said first data file and generating therefrom a second data file in machine usable form; means for transferring color assignment record data from said second data file to a display control system; means for generating a visual display in color in response to said video display producing signals; and means for modifying the color assignment data in accordance with changing conditions of the computer numerical control machining system. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification