Single Block

Single block runs one block per cycle start. Press start, one block executes, the machine stops and waits.

It is what you use the first time through a program, after an edit, and any time you are not sure what the next move does.

The path is not the same path

With single block on, every block boundary becomes an exact stop. The machine decelerates to zero at the end of each block instead of carrying speed around the corner. Path compression is switched off as well, so blocks stay individual rather than being merged into a smooth run.

That is what stopping at every block costs:

• Surface finish proved in single block is not the finish you will get. Corners that the control would have blended are stopped at instead.
• Cycle time means nothing here. Every block pays a full decelerate and accelerate.

Use single block to check where the tool goes, not how it moves.

Where it will not stop

Inside a canned cycle, the feed to depth is not interruptible. The tool never stops part way down a hole with the cutter engaged.

The positioning moves around it stop normally: the rapid to XY, the move to the R plane, the retract. So a drilling cycle in single block stops between holes, not inside one.

This is deliberate: a tool left sitting in the cut is a tool that rubs, work-hardens the material and often breaks on restart.

Where to go next

• Canned Cycles covers the cycles whose plunges will not stop.
• Block Search starts part way into a program instead of stepping from the top.