GE Fanuc Software introduces the latest edition of CIMPLICITY Motion, version 2.10. This new release includes a wide variety of new features and supports a wider range of motion controllers including the GE Fanuc S2K series and Whedco IMC, IMCjr (IMJ), and SMJ series motion controllers.

CIMPLICITY Motion is part of the CIMPLICITY Machine Edition family of products providing powerful, integrated machine level development tools for MMI, Motion, and Control applications.

What’s New in this Release

The Motion Scope utility lets you graphically tune the motion controller or view plots for up to three parameters. As you make changes to the controller's gain parameters, the results are plotted in a chart. The Motion Scope supports resolutions down to 2 ms and zoom/pan functions allow detailed analysis of the resulting plots. The print function allows hard copy archiving of data plots.

The local CIMPLICITY Motion Developer computer can now communicate with motion controllers over DeviceNet networks. You can configure DeviceNet communications with new properties of a motion controller or motion drive target. The ‘Download All" feature allows you to configure or update complete multiaxis systems with a single mouse click.

The Configuration and Programming wizards have been redesigned to be more consistent and easier to use. In particular, the program flowchart editor has been greatly improved. It can now be used for all four programs and is no longer limited to when the motion program was first created. Range checking and data type validation has been added to many of the wizard functions and a new Motion Flowchart drawer in the Toolchest provides drag and drop command additions to the flowchart editor.

Improved Motion Calculator

The Motion Calculator (used to design new motion blocks) now lets you create triangular and trapezoidal motions. Enter the desired motion parameters into the table and view the motion velocity profile on the resulting graph. In addition, motions created using the Motion Calculator can be graphically edited at any time using the calculator.

You are no longer limited to downloading an entire application at once to the motion controller. You can download individual motion blocks, motion programs, and the controller's configuration script.

If you have a motion application saved as a text file, you can now import that application into your project. This is especially useful for projects created with CCS For Windows^TM.

Printing capabilities

You can now print your motion program flowchart, Motion Scope plots, and other things to the default printer.

CAM Editor

With the Motion Developer CAM Editor, you can graphically create and save CAM profiles. The editor supports drag and drop profile editing and point insertion. Profiles can be displayed using 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd order curve-fitting while the zoom and pan functions allow detailed analysis of your profiles. A CAM profile can then be downloaded to the motion controller as a series of CAM points.

• Support for downloading motion control firmware revisions, including new registers and script functions.
• The terminal window now supports a Monitor mode to display serial communications traffic.
• Whedco and GE Fanuc motion products can now be included in the same project.
• Improved support for SMJ and S2K drive-only motion control devices.
• The Controller Functions page has been enhanced to include On-line Jog functions.

Bruce Fuller