Part setup is the task of orienting, aligning, and clamping a part on a machine so that a particular operation or sequence of operations can be performed on it. (Note that part setup is different from batch setup, which must be performed once for every manufacturing run of a set of identical parts.) Consider, for example, a shoe-box shaped part that has a top, a bottom, and four sides, and suppose there is a hole in each of the four sides. For a machine whose tool approaches horizontally, making this part’s holes requires a top-up or bottom-up orientation. On a 4-axis mill, which can rotate the part around a vertical axis (as well as translate the tool along three dimensions), a single setup (such as top up) can be used to make all four holes. Different rotations of the part make different holes accessible to the tool.

On a 3-axis mill (which cannot rotate the part) whose tool approaches vertically, making one of this part’s holes requires the part to be oriented with the side that contains the hole facing up, so that the hole is accessible to the tool. Each hole requires a different orientation, or setup.

When aPriori costs a part for a particular routing, it takes into account part setup costs. aPriori includes in the fully burdened cost the labor and overhead cost to re-orient, correctly align, and re-clamp the part for each setup that the routing requires. It also takes into account setup requirements when determining operation feasibility. For example, if an operation on a surface requires a dedicated setup (a setup that is not used by any other operation), that operation is sometimes deemed infeasible. The feasibility rules help aPriori to choose the best operation sequences with the fewest setups for a given part and process routing.

More information about setups is contained in the following sections:

See also Setup Axes and Operation Feasibility for more information on how aPriori chooses operation sequences and setups.

See Setup Operation Times and Costs for more information on how aPriori determines setup costs.