z  Readily available tools and methods 
z  No additional data structure to deal with STEP-NC 
file in Visual C++ programming for XML file itself 
can be the structure. 
z  Easy adjustment of the system to Internet 
environment and connection with other e-business 
since other e-businesses use XML format for their 
standard of data exchange and storage. 
z  XML support from Microsoft and IBM  
To deal with the XML file, in this research, DOM 
structure is constructed in Visual C++ program by 
MSXML. The MSXML is the XML parser produced by 
Microsoft for Visual C++ programming. It makes the 
Fig. 2 Part of XML file used for data input 
DOM structure and enables to control it with Visual C++ 
functions. 
 
4. STEP-NC milling machine software 
 
The software of this research divides into three 
modules. The first is the main program that loads and 
analyzes the XML and activates the tool path generator. 
The second is the tool path  generator that makes tool 
paths of two5D features  with STEP-NC information 
loaded by the main program. The third is the tool motion 
generator that transforms tool paths to motor motions. 
All software modules are written in Visual C++.  
Detailed explanation of each module is as follows. 
 
4.1 STEP-NC interpreter 
This module loads the XML file and activates each 
module. The XML file is loaded in the Visual C++ and 
parsed by MSXML. This module searches the 
WORKPLAN entity, activates tool path generator for 
each feature of workingstep along the order written in 
WORKPLAN, and, if necessary, calculates machining 
information. The information loaded by this module is as 
follows, 
z  Geometric information: sort, boundary, depth, 
position, and boss of features 
z  Machining information: cutting speed, RPM of 
spindle, machining tool 
z  NC variables: NC commands not involved to axis 
interpolation. 
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