Post question

[JAMMAN]

How does the post designate between in contour and entry/ exit? or does it? When I select "adjust feed on arc moves" I would like it to only affect the contour and not the entry/exit radii. I can't afford time off to take the post class.(fell sorry for me now)

[JAMMAN]

I really need help with this. I felt like I had been condemmed to "change at hell" last night. I kept a 300 value in my paste buffer for over an hour and used it 50 or 60 times.

[Glenn Bouman]

It can be done with a bit of logic added to your post.

The variable "cstart" is set to 1 on the first move after the leadin is completed and "cend" is set to 1 on the last move before the leadout starts.

[JAMMAN]

It looks as if someone was poking around in this area previously. Here are the actual post lines:

pctr_flags1 # Look for 'CSTART' flag (START of actual contour)

if cstart > 0, in_contour = YES

#if cstart > 0, "CSTART"

pctr_flags2 # Look for 'CEND' flag (END of actual contour)

if cend > 0, in_contour = NO

#if cend > 0, "CEND"

I sent the entire post to Roger Martin at AxSys about a year and a half ago and he had it almost right; I don't think he quite understood what I was explaining because I left out some key info. I compared what he did with an old copy of my post and the first thing I changed back made it function again.

A. ALL my form contours are right side of line, no exceptions.

B. Entry and exit radii must be unaltered (at tool feedrate).

C. All G2 moves IN CONTOUR must be affected by the "adjust feed on arc move" in job setup.

D.(the one Roger missed) if a G3 happens immediately after a G2 in contour, the feed rate needs to be reset to tool feedrate.

I didn't keep a copy of Rogers post. Keep in mind Roger is a great guy and did everything I asked for free- I didn't ask right and take the blame for the post not working. It worked just fine if there was a line between the G2 and G3, just not if the G2 was tangent to the G3.

[gstephens]

I don't think the post is what controls the "change feed on arc moves" though. I believe it's done in the .nci by the executable. You'd have to override the feedrate on the leadin/out moves, but not the rest of the contour. I guess you could check to see if cstart = 1 then set a flag that you are in the contour (cstart = 1 on the first move that uses the chained geometry) and therefore do not override the feedrate (and cend = 1 for the last piece of chained geo. and override again after that). Doesn't seems that complicated, just alot of if/then logic.

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: gstephens ]