Autolink - "the seamless link" for Busellato.

Autolink is a tool designed to assist companies of the woodworking industry who have found it necessary to use Computer Aided Design (CAD) in the development and production of their products. CAD has been instrumental in reducing man hours and increasing flexibility in the design and manufacture of furniture products. In fact, there are a number of CAD packages that will automatically resize all the parts of a cabinet to produce a cabinet of a different size in a matter of seconds.

Combination CNC machines are becoming more and more popular because of multi-functionality. One machine can drill, route and saw a part by computer control very quickly. The PC manufacturers have invested billions of dollars of research and development in computer technology which is now available to machine manufacturers who have the foresight to utilize this technology. The resources of companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Quarterdeck, Novell and many others have provided an operator interface and machine control that manufacturers who simply build or contract their own cannot hope to match.

The process of converting CAD drawings to machine instructions is an essential step in utilizing CAD or CNC technology. Formally, this step could require more time than programming the machine manually or generating the drawing on CAD. This is, in part, due to the fact that most of the software available for completing this task is software adapted from the metal working or other industries or was developed by companies that had little or no first hand knowledge of point-to-point woodworking machines. AutoCut research working together with Stefani Group America (SGA) has gained first hand knowledge of the machines and the woodworking industry. The development staff of AutoCut Research has spent hundreds of hours over the past three years working with the machines at the actual job sites across the U.S. and interviewing the personnel. The result is a truly innovative product which makes the conversion process as quick and effortless as saving a drawing file.

The metal working industry has used commercial software packages for posting CAD generated drawings into machine code for years, however, the application of these packages for panel processing imposed several problems; such as the utilization of multiple tools simultaneously on the panel. The suppliers of CNC machining centers, like Busellato, have developed sophisticated graphics editors to simplify the generation of the "G" codes required for the machining center.

Autolink bridges the gap between a CAD generated drawing and the graphics editor for the machine. Using AutoCAD as an example (Autolink interfaces with most professional CAD packages), Autolink can be configured to seamlessly convert the CAD drawing to a machine program without human intervention. In addition, the AutoCAD R12 user can easily flip between CAD and the CNC90 graphics editor. In effect, Autolink enables you to write your machine programs with CAD. Since Busellato uses a 486 PC, as the operator interface, networking is very simple and straightforward, choosing from any DOS compatible network on the market. This process, in essence, gives the CAD operator real time and dynamic control of the part drawing to machine program without ever having to physically visit the machine.

In addition to seamless linking with CAD, a database with part dimension information can be created and seamlessly posted to the machine without ever having to actually write the code or draw the part. For example, Cutrite, Drillmate and Kreate can export a file dynamically (based on the order and cabinet dimensions) and Autolink can immediately process this file for seamless generation of the machine code. Once the program is no longer needed, it can be discarded as the user creates programs on an as needed basis, not an archival basis.

Autolink is not one of those adapted conversion systems that wears many hats. It was designed to enable a furniture designer to program Busellato's CNC90 with his design drawings and do it like nothing else on the market.

For more information on Busellato products, contact SGA at 43ss Piedmont Pkwy., Greensboro, NC 27410; [phone].