Apt is an acronym for Automatically Programmed Tools. It is a special-purpose
language created to run automatically controlled machine tools such as
milling machines and lathes.
Apt360 is a port of IBM's Apt program from the 60's that ran on the s/360.
References from that era, such as "CARDS" and "TAPE" abound in the code.
Apt is considered by many to be obsolete, but it still is good for many tasks
a machinist does daily that are not handled easily by modern graphical systems.
These include family of parts programs, math-oriented geometry, and 4 and 5
axis contouring.
As far as I know, the original source code in Fortran that is included in
this package was made public domain by IBM many years ago. As such, that
portion of the present package is available for any purpose whatsoever.
The c code however, is made available with the GNU GPL.
Known Issues:
*The TRANTO command currently does not work. This a program flow instruction
that works inside tool movement commands. It is rather arcane instruction
and probably won't be a problem for most tasks.
*The SYN command is not implemented. However, the perl script unsyn.pl is
included to help somewhat. This will probably be eventually incorporated
into the 'apt' script.
*Large Macros cannot yet be stored to tape as in the original.
*The program has not been ported to 64 bit systems.
INSTALLING:
the install of apt360 works in the usual fashion of the GNU autotools:
type:
./configure
make
make install
if you are not familiar with the GNU autotools, be aware that many more
options exist.
Also used for the some math issues in the TABCYL command is the Gnu
scientific library gsl. The program will compile without it, and the TABCYL
command will often work ok, but be aware of the problem. The command will
fail with an error message if the gsl library is required for a TABCYL
definition.
There is currently no support for 64 bit machines. Until I get a 64 bit
machine, or someone offers to patch the code, you may have issues running
it.
If you are compiling on a bigendian machine (e.g., Mac OSX, Solaris sparc,etc.)
the code will not work. Since the code was originally for the bigendian
OS/360 machine, the conversion to bigendian will only require the writing
of one file (ADFPRL.ASM.S) and undefining some macros. If the demand is
there, I will try to work on this.
To generate the final post from the cl-file that apt creates, you will
need a post-processor. Postp, from the same site as this package, is being
developed for this purpose. It works hand-in-hand with the apt360 package,
and generates the final g-code. You will definitely need this package to
use it in your machine.
You will want some way of viewing your geometry. Sean Dolan's vapt project
has been developed for this purpose. Get it at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vapt/
I also have a copy at the aptos site for convenience.
I've also included a vim syntax file in the /vim directory. If you use vim,
you may want to install these files in your ~/.vim directory.
Installing f2c:
f2c is now part of the distribution and should compile and link while building
the rest of the program.
