Posting # variables

[Zoober]

Dunno if this is possible or not, but perhaps James or some of you other Fanuc macro and probing geeks can assist with this.

 

We are doing some "probe and adjust" machining on our parts. All of our probe routines are being added as manual toolpaths, so they are there when I re-post. This works good.

Now, the tough part. I want to use # variables (ie:#924) for machining positions.

 

here is a snippet-

.......

N387G1Z[#924+.100]F8.56(***note variable****)

N388X2.9136Y-3.1879F9.78

N389X3.4769Y-2.7149

N390X1.1404Y.0682

N391X1.7037Y.5412

N392X4.0402Y-2.242

N393X4.6036Y-1.7691

N394X2.267Y1.0141

N395X.577Y-.4047

N403Z[#924+.06]F8.56 (***note variable****)

.................

 

My question is, has anyone considered a way to post these variable values (perhaps using misc. values to replace xyz values at post time), or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I really don't want to re-edit by hand whenever I make changes to my mcx file (near 200 ops)as I am probing around 20 different features at various points in the program.

[Guest]

Custom drill cycles, do a search for custom drill cycles.

 

posting out variables can be done like such

 

pbld, n$, 35, no_spc, "924", e$

 

should post out

 

#924

 

[ 06-26-2006, 06:20 PM: Message edited by: John Paris @ Kevlin Microwave ]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I have used Misc. Reals to generate Variable Values. I've created Custom Drill Cycles to do probing and with the Custome Drill Parameters you can do any number of things with them.

 

It's all in how imaginitive and skilled you are.

[Zoober]

I'm in the process of using custom drill cycles for the probing (and actually have 4 routines working), but my imagination level is much higher than my skill level on MC as this makes about 4 mos. now that I have been using it.

I was hoping (probably unrealistically)that someone would say "yea, just check this box to enter parametric info for depth" or something like that.

 

Thanks for the help.

[Guest]

Another idea.

 

I have a couple of routines I run that I wrote macros for that reside in the control. During the post process the post will query for certain bits of information that are then pick up by the macros.

 

Just another option.

[Zoober]

Hey James or John,

If I wanted to add variables to say contour or other milling ops, wouldn't I have to add the logic to all of the prapidout,plinout, etc. & other positioning post blocks to check the misc. reals?

Thx again,

[Zoober]

John, I've actually considered using key #'s (like Z+999.1234) to trigger replacement in the program via macro conditionals...

That way my ops stay postable.

Hmmm.....

[Zoober]

Hey James,

O/T,

How 'bout those beavers?

I was at all 3 baseball super-reigonals against SC last year. Great series!!

Even tho I live here in the great wet NW, I'm still an SC fan (I grew up in the valley), and have a kid we're steering towards trojan land.

[Travis_Buchanan]

Zoober, I punch in off the wall values in my programs like that sometimes, making notes on a sticky and use search and replace to get the desired result after posting. It's also a good ideal to note that you did that in the op comments box so a year from now when you pull up that file you can remember what you did. Else I am like WTF is this crap?

[Guest]

quote:

---

If I wanted to add variables to say contour or other milling ops, wouldn't I have to add the logic to all of the prapidout,plinout, etc. & other positioning post blocks to check the misc. reals?

---

Depending on what you were trying to do, a macro might be the easiest to achieve some of this stuff.

 

If your thinking you can use the same program to do different things just using a variable to get what you need. This falls right into what a parametric macro would give you. If you choose that path, then you only have editing to the post to be able to get your values into the macro, but that really is fairly easy to accomplish.

[Tim Johnson]

If you're going to use "probe and adjust" machining you probably would be better off adjusting your offsets rather than using variables on the motion commands. I haven't used my probe for adjusting offsets yet but I do use adjustment probing to "square in" castings. My custom drill cycles are used up and I need to compact them before I can even think about adding offset adjustment probing cycles. Depending on what probe you have though, you may be able to let your probe software do most of the work. Do a search on custom drill cycles or probing and you'll find more than enough to get you started.

[Zoober]

The custom drill cycles are coming along for creating the probing routines (we are also looking at renishaw's productivity + software), and I can even pass along variables, but setting up the actual contour op or other operation to RECEIVE the value is where I am getting stumped. Like travis, I put my variables in my op comment block (or even in a manual entry as a comment prior to my op) and then hand edit the Gcode to change the actual xyz values to something like

G1Z[#970+#972]F50.(Z17.8445 -A- FACE).

I guess I wasn't clear about the usage. The macros and probe cycles are the easy part. It's the # in the operation that I want to be able to post.

So far, I can only do what Travis is saying.

 

As far as changing offsets with the probe and adjust, I can't. We utilize preset tooling and hard offsets (G10L20), are shooting for lights out cells with tool life management and redundant tooling. Our methods are pretty much in stone.

 

We use our probes (MP10, & MP700) pretty heavily to adjust for cast features and tight tolerances, and are IMHO pretty good at it, but I just want to be able to enter the variables in the MC ops so I don't have any hand editing.

[Travis_Buchanan]

To output a "#" with the post, you have to use the ascii equiv which is 35.

 

pbld,sgcode,"Z",35,e will output

 

/G01Z#

 

Sorry I see someone else already stated this.

 

[ 06-27-2006, 11:13 AM: Message edited by: Travis Buchanan ]

[Zoober]

Thanks gang,

This give me a starting place.

I'll play with my motion outputs and reals to see if I can get where I want without completely hosing myself on my 4th and 5th axis ops.

I know.......backup first