APT (programming language)
Numerical control | |
---|---|
Designed by | Douglas T. Ross |
First appeared | 1956 |
Influenced | |
Computer-aided manufacturing systems |
APT (Automatically Programmed Tool)
Programming language
APT is used to program numerically-controlled machine tools to create complex parts using a cutting tool moving in space. It is used to calculate a path that a tool must follow to generate a desired form. APT is a special-purpose language and the predecessor to modern
APT shares many similarities with other computer programming languages such as FORTRAN. A general-purpose computer language takes source text and converts the statements to instructions that can be processed internally by a computer. APT converts source statements into programs for driving numerically-controlled machine tools. The output from an APT processor may be a
Example program

PARTNO APT-1
CLPRNT
UNITS / MM
NOPOST
$$ GEOMETRY DEFINITION
P1 = POINT / 50, 50, 0
P2 = POINT / -50, -50, 0
L1 = LINE / P1, PARLEL, (LINE / YAXIS)
L2 = LINE / P2, PERPTO, L1
L3 = LINE / P2, PARLEL, L1
L4 = LINE / P1, PERPTO, L1
C1 = CIRCLE / XSMALL, L1, YLARGE, L2, RADIUS, 30
C2 = CIRCLE / XLARGE, L3, YSMALL, L4, RADIUS, 20
PLAN1 = PLANE / 0, 0, 1, 0
PLAN2 = PLANE / PARLEL, PLAN1, ZSMALL, 16
$$ MOTION COMMANDS
LOAD / TOOL, 1
CUTTER / 20
SPINDL / 3000, CLW
FROM / (STRTPT = POINT / 70, 70, 0)
RAPID
GO / TO, L1, TO, PLAN2, TO, L4
FEDRAT / 900, PERMIN
TLLFT, GOLFT / L1, TANTO, C1
GOFWD / C1, TANTO, L2
GOFWD / L2, PAST, L3
GORGT / L3, TANTO, C2
GOFWD / C2, TANTO, L4
GOFWD / L4, PAST, L1
RAPID
GOTO / STRTPT
FINI
Derivatives
Further derivatives of APT were developed, initially mainly to allow the programs to run on minicomputers instead of mainframes. These included
Further reading
- Douglas T. Ross (1978).[4] In: ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 13, No. 8, August 1978
- MIT CADCAM 50 Years of CAD
- MIT TechTV – "Automatically Programmed Tools" (1959) - Science Reporter TV Series
- mit :: whirlwind :: apt :: APT System Volume 1 General Description of the APT System 1959
References
- ^ Automatically Programmed Tool http://aptos.sourceforge.net/
- ^ "1970 Interview by NCWorld". groups.csail.mit.edu.
- ^ "ISO 4343:2000". ISO.
- ^ ISSN 0362-1340.
- ^ CAD/CAM: Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, M.Groover & E.Zimmers
- ^ "Download - Registrierung erforderlich". DMG MORI. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ "AptStepMaker Programming Class". www.steptools.com.
- ISBN 978-3-662-02442-3.