External files may be created with different standards
Any external file created on a computer conforms to one of the basic 'encoding' formats which are set as industry standards. These set out how each letter such as 'a' and each symbol such as '@' are represented in the file. Import and Export need to be able to read these files using the correct standard. This is often 'invisible' to the user but it becomes important when a program is reading a file created by another program or writing files for use by other programs, especially where Non-Western European languages are used.
‘Unicode’ is a common computing industry standard for the consistent representation of characters and symbols for most languages. It is increasingly used because the earlier ASCII/ANSI standard has limitations when dealing with Non-Western European languages.
The program automatically recognises a file in this format on import or export.
The ‘encoding’ standards supported are:-
ASCII/ANSI
Unicode UTF-8
Unicode UTF-16(LE)
Where an option supports Unicode this is shown in the option name.
Part list order ASCII/Unicode CSV (PNX)
Import parts, boards, patterns
The following import processes support Unicode format files:-
Parts
Part list order - ASCII/Unicode CSV (PNX)
Code and quantity - ASCII/Unicode CSV (PNX)
Batch - part list order (BTX & PNX)
Batch - code and quantity (BTX & PNX)
User defined order - ASCII/Unicode CSV
Batch - user defined order (BTX)
Parts & boards - ASCII/Unicode CSV (PTX)
Boards
Board list order - ASCII/Unicode CSV (BDX)
User defined order - ASCII/Unicode CSV
Patterns
Pattern exchange - ASCII/Unicode CSV (PTX)
Saw transfer
The following transfer modes include an option to set the format of the generated files.
6 - CADmatic 3/4/5
11 - ASCII/Unicode PTX
See the following help topic.
ASCII or Unicode (Saw transfer parameters)
Machining centre transfer
The following transfer modes include an option to set the format of the generated files.
8 - Homag WoodWop V4 > V8 (MPR/X)
9 - 2D DXF nested layered
11 - ASCII/Unicode PTX
See the following help topics.
ASCII or Unicode - PTX (Machining centre transfer parameters)
ASCII or Unicode - Nesting (Machining centre transfer parameters)
Export cutting list
The ‘export cutting list’ process includes a system parameter to set the format for the exported cutting list (Main screen – Parameters – System parameters – Rules 1)
See the following help topics.
Create data for
Notes
- Where the option refers to ‘ASCII’ this means the ANSI standard using ASCII encoding with a regional setting (‘codepage’) for the extended character set
- If a Unicode format file is used where it is not supported an error is displayed.
- Where the software cannot display a Unicode character ‘?‘ is used instead
