Patent ID: 8909371

Claim:
A method for operating a processing machine, the processing machine having in a normal mode of operation a permitted movement range for movement of a movable component and a prohibited movement range for the movable component under control of a control device, with the permitted movement range and the prohibited movement range being complementary to one another and together forming a working space within which the movable component can move, the method comprising: moving a pointer under guidance from a user in succession to a plurality of locations in the working space, said pointer having a plurality of first location determining devices arranged at predetermined pointer locations relative to a pointer coordinate system fixed in relation to the pointer, acquiring with the control device data characteristic at least of a geometric relationship of the first location determining devices relative to a plurality of second location determining devices arranged at predetermined machine locations relative to a machine coordinate system fixed in relation to the processing machine through interaction of the first location determining devices with the second location determining devices, determining with the control device a position of the pointer in the working space based on the acquired characteristic data, the predetermined pointer locations and the predetermined machine locations, and subdividing with the control device the working space of the processing machine into the permitted movement range and the prohibited movement range based on the determined position of the pointer.