AUTOMATIC EDITING METHOD FOR POLYHEDRON MACHINING PROCESSES

To embody a method for automatically editing multi-faced polyhedron machining processes in a manner capable of efficiently operating a machine tool, a processor of an automatic programming apparatus causes a first one of definition statements associated with upper face machining to be transferred from a first file of a memory device of the programming apparatus to a second file and to be deleted from the first file (S13), and sequentially performs transfer of upper face machining process definition statements, specifying the same tool number as that specified by the first one of the upper face machining process definition statements, to the second file, and deletion of these statements from the first file. Similar processing is sequentially performed for each of different tool numbers, whereby the upper face machining process definition statements for each tool number are collectively stored in the second file. Similarly, side face machining process definition statements for each tool number are collectively stored in the second file in a manner separated from the upper face machining definition statements (S20-S25). As a result, a part program is edited in a manner reducing the number of times of shift between the upper face machining and the side face machining, to thereby make it possible to prepare a program capable of efficiently operating a machine tool of a type inevitably entailing tool exchange attributable to the shift between the upper face machining and the side face machining.