Section
35
PROGRAM MOVE AND EXPAND
These functions are helpful to the programmer in that they allow patterns to be moved
around the drilling bed of the Micromat and to be re-positioned to make the best use of
laminate blanks.
The MOVE routine simply re-positions a drilling or routing pattern, complete with any RPT
or bracket commands.
The EXPAND routine is not only able to re-position the pattern relative to RPT commands,
but it will remove any RPT and bracket commands and re-enter the program as though it
had been entered as individual commands for every position.
EXPAND only operates on a complete entered program. Everything is changed, from the
first block of data in memory to the END command.
The MOVE routine operates from current command within a program, and will change
everything from that point to the end command.
Since there is only one button on the Micromat control panel for both of these commands,
the TOOL SWITCH setting is used to determine which function will operate as follows:-
EXPAND operates only if the TOOL SWITCH is set to 9, when M/EXP button is pressed.
MOVE operates with any other setting, ie. 0 to 8 or 10 to 15 when M/EXP is pressed.
0 to 8 = MOVE
9 = EXPAND
10 to 15 = MOVE
MOVE has an advantage over EXPAND where large programs are involved since it
requires no extra memory space within the system. It can therefore be used to move a
program which occupies more than half of the available memory space, such as a large
program loaded from disk or paper tape, which may need re-positioning on the drilling bed.
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