Contour Mode; Specifying Contour Segments - Galil Motion Control DMC-18 2 Series User Manual

The above example shows how the ECAM program is structured and how the commands can be given
to the controller. The next page provides the results captured by the WSDK program. This shows how
the motion will be seen during the ECAM cycles. The first graph is for the X axis, the second graph
shows the cycle on the Y axis and the third graph shows the cycle of the Z axis.

Contour Mode

The DMC-18x2 also provides a contouring mode. This mode allows any arbitrary position curve to be
prescribed for 1 to 4 axes. This is ideal for following computer generated paths such as parabolic,
spherical or user-defined profiles. The path is not limited to straight line and arc segments and the path
length may be infinite.

Specifying Contour Segments

The Contour Mode is specified with the command, CM. For example, CMXZ specifies contouring on
the X and Z axes. Any axes that are not being used in the contouring mode may be operated in other
modes.
A contour is described by position increments which are described with the command, CD x,y,z,w
over a time interval, DT n. The parameter, n, specifies the time interval. The time interval is defined
n
as 2 ms, where n is a number between 1 and 8. The controller performs linear interpolation between
the specified increments, where one point is generated for each millisecond.
Consider, for example, the trajectory shown in Fig. 6.5. The position X may be described by the
points:
DMC-18x2
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Chapter 6 Programming Motion • 89