2.2.2. Preparing the NC Code for the BB Operation

Unfortunately, the numerical control (NC) code cannot be written by hand in this case, because of the great number of points (sometimes several hundred thousand points) that the BB operation toolpath usually contains. The numerical control system of the most widespread milling machines also do not have preinstalled appropriate canned cycles that can be used for that purpose. However, the NC code needed to perform the BB operation in a suitable CNC milling machine can be obtained automatically, using appropriate CAM software. What particular CAM software is used is not of a great importance as long as it has a suitable milling component that allows the tool to be guided along a predetermined curve (in the present case the polyline, generated in the previous step), and a suitable postprocessor for the specific CNC milling machine that will be used.

After postprocessing the modeled toolpaths in CAM for all the BB operations according to the experimental designs, the corresponding NC codes were obtained.
