PRIME MOTIONGlossary
This manual uses each word below in one meaning only.
Positions and coordinates
Machine coordinates (MPos) — where the machine is relative to its own origin, set by homing. They do not change when you set work zero. Travel limits, saved positions and the tool-change position are in machine coordinates.
Work coordinates (WPos) — where the tool is relative to work zero on your stock. Programs are written in work coordinates.
Work zero — the point on your stock that the program calls X0 Y0 Z0.
Work offset — the distance from the machine origin to work zero, held by the controller for each work coordinate system.
Work coordinate system — one of the controller's stored work offsets: G54 to G59, and G59.1 to G59.3 on grblHAL. One is active at a time.
G92 offset — a temporary offset applied on top of the active work coordinate system.
Datum — the reference a coordinate is measured from; in this manual, usually a work zero.
Homing — the cycle that drives each axis to its switch to set the machine origin. See The homing gate.
Travel — how far each axis can physically move.
Soft limits — the controller refusing moves beyond travel, in software. Hard limits — the controller stopping when a limit switch is hit.
Cutting
Feed rate — how fast the tool moves while cutting, in mm/min.
Rapid — a non-cutting move at the machine's top speed (G0).
Plunge — a move straight down into material.
Spindle speed — how fast the cutter turns, in rpm.
Stepdown — how deep each pass cuts. Stepover — how far each pass moves sideways from the last.
Climb / conventional — whether the cutter's edge meets the material as it travels forward or against it.
Stock — the material you are cutting, as a block or a cylinder.
Stock to leave — material deliberately left for a later finishing pass.
Air Run — a run with every Z raised and the spindle off, to rehearse a program. See Rehearsing with Air Run.
Tools
Endmill — a cutter that cuts on its sides as well as its tip. Ball nose — an endmill with a rounded tip. V-bit — a pointed cutter for chamfers, engraving and V-carving.
Flute — a cutting edge of a cutter.
Diameter / radius — a cutter's width, and half of it. Zero X and Zero Y set zero at the cutter's centre, one radius from the edge it touches.
Toolsetter — a fixed sensor on the table that measures each tool's length (Carbide 3D's is the BitSetter).
Touch plate — a plate you set on the stock so the machine can find its surface or corner by probing.
Tool length offset — the difference in length between the loaded tool and the reference tool.
The app
Control — the screen where the machine is driven. It replaced the separate Run and Jog screens.
Position readout — the strip of coordinates across the top of Control, sometimes called the DRO.
Command rail — the column of job and machine buttons down the left of the Control view, and the column of tools down the left of the Design workspaces.
Card — a panel under the Control view: Location, Jog, Run Information and Notes. In landscape the cards sit in a column on the right.
Drawer — a tool's panel that drops down over the screen.
Dock — the floating navigation bar in landscape.
Notes — the Control card that records what happened, job by job, and standing conditions.
Designs, projects and files
Design — a part you model: its sketches, bodies, parameters and Manufacturing work, kept as one .pmd file.
Project — the G-code programs that make one job, in Projects.
Program — a G-code file the machine runs.
Sketch — 2D geometry on a plane. Profile — a closed shape in a sketch that a feature can use.
Body — a solid or surface in a design. Component — a group of bodies and sketches that can be moved and related as one.
Feature — a step in building a design, such as an extrusion or a fillet; listed on the timeline.
Parameter — a named value a dimension or feature can use.
Tool Run — in Manufacturing, a setup: the stock, its origin and the bodies machined, with its operations. Operation — one toolpath strategy, such as a pocket or a contour. Toolpath — the moves an operation generates. Posting — writing toolpaths out as G-code into Projects.
Original / derived body — an imported STEP or STL file is kept unchanged as the original; the body you model with is derived from it.
.pmd — a shared design file. Share writes one; Import design… reads one. A shared copy leaves out Undo history and toolpaths.
Backup — a copy kept somewhere other than the tablet. See Backups.
Remote access
Pairing code — the six-digit code a browser enters to connect to the tablet.
Control seat — the right to operate the screen from a browser. One browser holds it at a time.
View only — paired and watching, without the seat. Stops still work.
See Remote access and the control seat.