ISO 3592:2000

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 3592
Second edition
2000-09-15
Corrected
2001-03-15
Industrial automation systems — Numerical
control of machines — NC processor
output — File structure and language
format
Systèmes d'automatisation industrielle — Commande numérique des
machines — Informations de sortie des processeurs CN — Structure de
fichier et format de langage
Reference number
©
ISO 2000
PDF disclaimer
This PDF file may contain embedded typefaces. In accordance with Adobe's licensing policy, this file may be printed or viewed but shall not
be edited unless the typefaces which are embedded are licensed to and installed on the computer performing the editing. In downloading this
file, parties accept therein the responsibility of not infringing Adobe's licensing policy. The ISO Central Secretariat accepts no liability in this
area.
Adobe is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Details of the software products used to create this PDF file can be found in the General Info relative to the file; the PDF-creation parameters
were optimized for printing. Every care has been taken to ensure that the file is suitable for use by ISO member bodies. In the unlikely event
that a problem relating to it is found, please inform the Central Secretariat at the address given below.
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from either ISO at the address below or ISO's member body
in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
Case postale 56 � CH-1211 Geneva 20
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 749 09 47
E-mail copyright@iso.ch
Web www.iso.ch
Printed in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2000 – All rights reserved

Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
1Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Normative references. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 Co-ordinate system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
4 General structure of CLDATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
5 CLDATA file structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.1 General comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.2 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.3 Digits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5.4 Special characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5.5 Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.6 Symbol for literal delimiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.7 Literal character strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.8 Symbol for unary operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.9 Integer numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.10 Real numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.11 Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.12 Symbol for element separator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.13 Elements
5.14 Symbol for record separator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.15 Records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.16 Symbol for file separator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.17 File
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6 Record structure
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.1 General comments
6.2 Original program sequence identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.3 Integer code type post processor command . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.4 Surface data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.5 Relative tool position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.6 Tool position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.7 Post processor information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.8 Starting information record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.9 Relative tool direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.10 Post processor parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.11 Part program termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.12 Unsegmented tool path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.13 Part contour description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.14 Literal type post processor command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.15 Deferred processing record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.16 Proprietary records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Annex A (normative)
Rules for representing the RL on record oriented media. . . . . . . . 55
Annex B (normative) Rules used in the syntax definitions . . . . . . . . . . . 56
iv © ISO 2000 – All rights reserved

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide
federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work
of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for
which a technical committee has been established has the right to be
represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO
collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in
the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 3.
Draft International Standards adopted by the technical committees are
circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an International
Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies
casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this
International Standard may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not
be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard ISO 3592 was prepared by Technical Committee
ISO/TC 184, Industrial automation systems and integration, Subcommittee
SC 1, Physical device control.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 3592:1978),
which has been technically revised.
Annexes A and B form a normative part of this International Standard.
Introduction
The output of a general purpose numerical control processor is information used as
input to a post processor. This information is called CLDATA, which was originally
derived from “cutter location data.”
CLDATA provides a general language to pass manufacturing information from a
numerical control processor to a post processor, where the general language is
converted to the specific format required by the particular numerical control equip-
ment.
Numerical control is applied to many types of machines, but the language defined
in this International Standard has been developed primarily for numerically control-
led machine tools – hence the words “tool” and “part” are used in the description of
the language to indicate the working element and processed element respectively.
Many of the vocabulary words are also derived from metal working terminology.
The CLDATA reference language (RL) is stream oriented, containing special
characters to delimit the elements of the RL. Annex A describes the rules for
representing the RL on record oriented media, and it is this representation that is
used for the purpose of describing the RL in this International Standard.
vi © ISO 2000 – All rights reserved

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD
Industrial automation systems — Numerical control of
machines — NC processor output — File structure and
language format
1 Scope 3 Co-ordinate system
ISO 841 is the basis for defining the co-ordinate system of
This International Standard defines a file structure format
CLDATA.
and a language format for the representation of CLDATA
on physical media.
The co-ordinate system is a right-handed rectangular
Cartesian system, related to a part mounted on a machine
The CLDATA reference language (RL) is used for the and aligned with the principal linear slideways of that
machining of parts. It provides for the control of technologi- machine. The positive direction of movement of a compo-
cal functions and movement at the numerical control ma- nent of a machine is that which causes an increasing
chine. positive dimension on the part.
In the CLDATA, the reference axes of the co-ordinate
Each processor using one of the numerical control pro-
system are x, y and z. Co-ordinates refer to a reference
gramming languages shall be capable of producing
point on a tool (usually the center of the tip) relative to the
CLDATA as defined in this International Standard.
part co-ordinate system. CLDATA can define the following
location and orientation components:
Each post processor shall be capable of using the
CLDATA defined in this International Standard as input. x Dimension parallel to X
y Dimension parallel to Y
z Dimension parallel to Z
The RL has been developed primarily for numerically
i X axis component of the tool axis vector
controlled machine tools.
j Y axis component of the tool axis vector
k Z axis component of the tool axis vector
l X axis component of a secondary orientation vector
2 Normative references
m Y axis component of a secondary orientation vector
n Z axis component of a secondary orientation vector
The following normative documents contain provisions
which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions
When specifying angles of planes, the positive direction is
of this International Standard. For dated references,
counterclockwise and the reference axis is as shown in
subsequent amendments to, or revisions of, any of these
table 1. The positive direction of angle is counterclockwise
publications do not apply. However, parties to
from the reference axis.
agreements based on this International Standard are
encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the
Table 1 – Reference axes
most recent editions of the normative documents
indicated below. For undated references, the latest edition
of the normative documents referred to applies. Members
Plane Reference axis
of ISO and IEC maintain registers of currently valid
International Standards.
XY X
YZ Y
ISO/IEC 646:1991, Information technology – ISO 7-bit
ZX Z
coded character set for information interchange.
1)
ISO 841:— , Numerical control of machines – Axis and
Angles are expressed in degrees and decimal fractions of
motion nomenclature.
a degree.
ISO 4342:1985, Numerical control of machines – NC pro-
cessor input – Basic part program reference language.
4 General structure of CLDATA
ISO 4343:2000, Industrial automation systems – Numeri-
cal control of machines – NC processor output – Post CLDATA consists of a sequence of one or more records,
processor commands. which together comprise a CLDATA file.
1) To be published. (Revision of ISO 841:1974)
Each record consists of a sequence of elements, to a The first two elements of a record are always integers.
maximum of 245, where an element is capable of repre-
senting: The remaining elements can be any combination of integer
numbers, real numbers, literal character strings or key-
a) an integer number; words, respecting the syntax of the particular record.
b) a real number;
The first element of each record contains a sequence
number, commencing with 1, and incremented by 1.
c) a literal character string;
d) a keyword.
The second element contains a record type code as shown
in table 2.
Each element is composed of characters from the set of
characters defined by ISO/IEC 646.
Table 2 – CLDATA record types
Type Name Explanation
1 000 Original program sequence This record carries the sequence and identification of the statements
identification of the original numerical control programming language.
2 000 Integer code type post processor This record carries specific instructions for the post processor.
command
3 000 Surface data This record carries the canonical form of the input geometry.
4 000 Relative tool position This record carries the tool position with respect to the drive and
part surfaces.
5 000 Tool position This record carries tool position and motion vector information
relating to the tool.
6 000 Post processor information This record carries one type of information of tolerance, cutter or cut
flag information.
7 000 Starting information This record carries the tool position with respect to the startup
surfaces.
8 000 Relative tool direction This record carries information indicating tool direction with respect
to the last move.
9 000 Post processor parameters This record carries one type of multi-axis or base unit parameters.
14 000 Part program termination This record carries the termination record.
15 000 Unsegmented tool path This record carries unsegmented information concerning non linear
tool paths.
16 000 Workpiece contour description This record carries the workpiece contour description.
20 000 Literal type post processor This record carries specific instructions for the post processor.
command
21 000 Deferred processing command This record is under consideration to permit user-selected input
language statements to be passed to the CLDATA file in a literal
form for subsequent processing.
28 000
t
...