NCL/Solid is a direct interface that extracts a solid model from SolidWorks and creates an NCL Unibase for use in 5-axis machining. Utilizing the SolidWorks API, NCL/Solid is accessed directly from the SolidWorks menus. Since it is built into SolidWorks, NCL/Solid provides a direct translation of the solid part or assembly without having to go through an intermediate step, such as IGES.In addition, all of the model formats supported by SolidWorks (Step, DXF, UGII, etc.) can also be converted directly to an NCL Unibase after they are read into SolidWorks, thus providing a direct translator to many of the most popular CAD systems on the market today.The user has the option of exporting the boundary curves along with the surfaces in the SolidWorks part or assembly. The attributes of the model will be maintained in the exported NCL Unibase.A multi-pass label matching algorithm allows for models with engineering changes or family-of-parts type models to be labeled using an existing NCL Unibase as reference, taking full advantage of the parametric machining capabilities of NCL.
