Numerical control device with general purpose setting display

Claim 1

A numerical control device for controlling operation of a machine tool, the device comprising: general-purpose setting display means (8), including a display device, for displaying machining data of the machine tool on said display device in one of a group of forms including a first type of character form, a second type of character form, and a graphic form, which form of the machining data can be changed from any one in the group to any other in the group in accordance with a user's desires, said setting display means being further adapted for effecting internal data processing using a high level language; and numerical control means (10), having a data transmitting and receiving section (9) serially interfaced with said general-purpose setting display means, for transmitting display data using said high level language, said numerical control means further comprising a CPU (3) for numerical control of the operation of the tool; and memory means (5c) for temporarily storing said display data, wherein the machining data includes data for controlling the operation and data for monitoring the operation, the data for controlling the operation is unchanged by changes in form within the group, and wherein the first type of character form is a serial data form and the second type of character form is a data code form, whereby the type and format of the data displayed by said display device can be changed as desired by the user.