Method and system for testing a machine tool

A machine tool comprising a processing circuitry which is arranged to be programmed and a material remover arranged to be controlled by the processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to perform the following:

• a) receive a test path arranged to cause the material remover of the machine tool to move along a predetermined path;
• b) execute the test path and move the material remover along the test path;
• c) timing at least one of the performance of the processing circuitry and the movement of the material remover along the test path to generate machine tool timings;
• and
• c) use the machine tool timings to set limits which are subsequently used when cutting paths are generated for the machine tool for which the test path has been generated.

A non-transient machine readable medium containing instructions to cause a processing circuitry to generate a test path for a material remover arranged to be controlled by a further processing circuitry of a machine tool, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to:

• a) generate a test path arranged to cause the material remover of the machine tool to move along a predetermined path;
• b) wherein the test path is arranged to cause the further processing circuitry to move a material remover along the test path;
• c) time at least one of the performance of the processing circuitry and the movement of the material remover along the test path to generate machine tool timings;
• and
• d) use the machine tool timings to set limits which are arranged to subsequently be used when cutting paths are generated for the machine tool for which the test path has been generated.

A method of generating a cutting path for a material remover of a machine tool, the machine tool comprising processing circuitry arranged to control a material remover of the machine tool and the method comprising:

• a) generating a test path to be processed by the processing circuitry to cause the material remover of the machine tool to move along a predetermined path;
• b) causing the processing circuitry to execute the test path and move the material remover along the test path;
• c) timing at least one of the performance of the processing circuitry and the movement of the material remover along the test path to generate machine tool timings;
• d) using the machine tool timings to set limits which are used to generate in the generation of the cutting paths for the machine tool for which the test path has been generated, and/or querying the processing circuitry of the machine tool to obtain the limits;
• and
• e) generating the cutting path using the limits from step d.