Design data in the form of rough sketches, mathematical formula, tabulated data, etc. are used to construct an engineering drawing.
Facilities within the package enable features to be copied, moved or determined from parameters on the drawing and 'off the shelf' items to be retrieved from libraries. Commands may be entered via the keyboard or from on screen menus. Drawing management is handled by a relational Database Management System which groups related components together.
Once complete, the drawing can be plotted and/or used to aid manufacture.

Geometry definitions generated by either an external CAD system or by the surface modellers own geometry constructor are used as a basis for developing a 3D design. Once built it can be manipulated and finely tuned to fulfill any design and/or manufacturing constraints and finally produce 3D pictures of the final component.

Facilities within the modeller include:-

• Generation of splitting/parting lines and associated draft angles in the case of a mould.
• Matching of blend surfaces.
• Constructing finite element meshes.
• Calculating areas, volumes etc.
• Generating machining paths to machine a surface, both roughing and finishing.

When all design is complete and cutter paths have been generated the output is 'post processed' into a machine tool control language. This together with the tooling sheets are then handled by the DNC system.

This facility buffers and manages NC tape files produced by the CAM system and then uploads or downloads them to the appropriate machine tool when required.
DNC enables machine controls to be serviced simultaneously and can perform either direct memory loads or in the case of a long program, 'drip feed' to the control while the machine is cutting. This method of transfer imposes no limits on file size, a PC equipped with a 20 Mb disc can download a file which is the equivalent to 33 miles of paper tape!