If only it were as simple as shoving a block of metal into your CNC and pressing go. To do this, the machine needs to understand the position of the stock in physical space. However, something like a milling machine has to subtract material away from an external object.
There’s no question about where the piece starts on the build plate.
Why Do Coordinates Matter for CNC Milling?Īdditive machines build a part from the bottom up. In this article, we’ll be covering the basics of the CNC coordinate system, including the Cartesian coordinate system, work coordinate system (WCS), and offsets. The technology might change, but the fundamentals remain essentially the same. Even the latest CNC machines are the same at their core: they use an X, Y, and Z-axis to define the coordinate space inside the machine, and a tool (sometimes an endmill, sometimes an extruder, sometimes a laser beam) moves around that space. You’ll use your CNC milling coordinate system fundamentals everywhere, not just for one particular CNC machine. Français (French ) Italiano (Italian ) Deutsch (German ) 日本語 (Japanese )
