Drill Cycles

SolidCAM supports the canned drill cycles of the CNC-Machine such as drilling, pecking, tapping, boring, etc. Whether or not your machine has canned drill cycles of its own, the controller must be customized to support such cycles.

The defined drilling cycles will later be available for selection in Milling and/or Turning operations.

Milling Drill cycles

The Milling Drill Cycles folder enables you to define and manage the drilling cycles available for Milling and Mill-Turn machines when using the current controller.

Turning Drill cycles

The Turning Drill Cycles folder enables you to define and manage the drilling cycles available for Turning and Mill-Turn machines when using the current controller.

To add a new Drill Cycle, right-click the Milling/Turning Drill Cycles folder in the Controller tree and choose Add Cycle from the menu.

Drill cycle Main Parameters

GUI Name	The cycle name, which can be written in any language, displayed in the operation.
GPP Name	The cycle name written with Latin characters set only (supported by the post-processor and used in the *.gpp file).
Type	Choose the cycle type from the list of available drilling cycles.
Use Cycle by Default	Defines the availability of the cycle in the operation.
Custom Picture	The cycle illustration displayed in the operation (SolidCAM’s default picture is used).

Parameters within a cycle

Each Drill Cycle can also include any number of optional parameters, enabling you to control its functionality.

Parameters can be added using the Drill Cycle right-click menu.

Each parameter is defined as follows:

GUI Name	The parameter name, which can be written in any language, displayed in the Drill options of the selected drilling cycle. The Drill options dialog box appears upon clicking the Data button in the operation.
GPP Name	The cycle name written with Latin characters set only (supported by the post-processor and used in the *.gpp file).
Type	Choose the parameter type from the list: NUMERIC, LOGICAL, INTEGER or STRING).
Default Value	Defines the default value of the parameter, which can be later modified in the Drill options dialog box.

Using the respective right-click menus, you can manage existing drill cycles and optional parameters with the following commands:

Expand or Collapse	Expands or collapses the list of defined cycles/parameters.
Add Cycle/Parameter	Adds a new cycle/parameter.
Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete	Cuts, copies, pastes or deletes the selected cycle/parameter.
Delete All	Deletes all cycles from the selected Drill Cycles list.
Paste Parameter	Pastes a parameter copied from another cycle.
Delete All Parameters	Deletes all parameters from the selected cycle.
Copy to Clipboard	Deletes all parameters from the selected cycle.
Paste from Clipboard	Pastes the selected cycle/parameter from the clipboard.