There are machines that are "self-aware" in the sense that they run a simulation parallel to the NC control, slightly advanded in time, to catch catastrophic crashes and ESTOP the machine. Cutting into the machine bed can be _very_ expensive.

Which machines are you referring to?

How aware? Do they have any vision? Can they "see" or otherwise "know" about the cutters / workholding?

I know of WFL millturns with crashguard.

AFAIK the crash guard is a separate component that relies on 3d models of the machine and the tools, it doesn't see anything.

If you workholding is weak and a piece comes loose the crash guard probably won't make a difference.

>machinist still needs to load everything correctly. It's very easy to make a mistake.

Tool configuration is kinda-sorta solved with ISO 13399, this is being supported in more and more CAM systems and tool vendors, but as you say it is very easy to make a mistake.

Assuming the mistakes are happening when the tool data is reduced from the comprehensive format that ISO 13399 supports to the barebones and simple TxDxHx format that is loaded on CNC machine. Would be nice if machine tools supported a comprehensive format directly.

Not to mention workholding, etc. that might be off.

Tooling data in a G-Code data structure bootstrapped with G65 and M98 would support fixture models.

Certainly a chicken and egg problem though, my ideal future would have CAD files generated from single source of truth CNC files:)

We use a very simple method: overlay the position of the head/arm of the machine on top of the DXF file of the table.

If the supports/bars are in the overlay, the operator DOES NOT run that part and takes it back to design.