Patent ID: 8577655

Claim:
A method for creating a virtual numerical control (NC) controller to be used in a data processing system for machine tool simulation, the method comprising: receiving, in the data processing system, a NC program readable by a physical machine tool, the NC program containing instructions for manipulating the physical machine tool; parsing, by the data processing system, the instructions in the NC program by searching for occurrences of delimiter commands that cause code blocks of the NC program to be intercepted and translated; examining a virtual machine tool model for kinematic information that includes at least one of a number of NC axes, an axis name, an axis limit, a tool mounting location, a tool mounting orientation, a part mounting location, or a part mounting orientation; translating, by the data processing system, each instruction in the NC program into at least one virtual NC controller command; and executing, by the data processing system, the at least one virtual NC controller command in a machine tool simulation to cause movement of the virtual machine tool.