Greyed out boxes

[Randy Morton @ Clem Industrial]

I thought I would revisit an old (old!) topic of the greyed out feed boxes (and retract in my issue). I had this problem a while back, which very annoyingly never got resolved and I have spent the last numerous months fighting with it, and hacking my gcode (no, not Gcode!) everytime I posted.

 

Old Topic

 

Well, today I had in my resellers newest member (if you are reading, thank you, who took the time and actually figured out that when we completly dumped MCX and reinstalled MCX the problem went away. But, when we restored the files I backed up (cnc_machines, config, common, lathe, mill) we had the problem re-occur.

 

Turned out that I have been dragging around a corrupt copy of my config files which have been giving me all the greif what's left of my hair could take!

 

So, if like me you have this problem, try dumping the config (and he replaced the common folder as well with fresh MR2 reinstall) and all may work as well for you as it seems to have for me.

 

Just thought I would share a happy moment in MCX!

 

Enjoy!

[Colin Gilchrist]

Randy,

 

Glad you got the problem fixed.

 

Just for everyones information, you can enable/disable data entry fields in the toolpath dialog boxes by using the Control Definition for your machine.

 

Under the "Text" topic you will see several sub items. The last item in the list is "Router Path Parameters" ( or Mill, Lathe, Wire, depends on the machine def type).

 

In the "(your machine) Path Parameters" section you can enable/disable any of the data entry fields by placing a set of double quotation mark in the text entry field (""). This disables that data entry field in all of your toolpath dialog boxes. We do this to our Feedrate, Retract rate, Plunge rate, and spindle speed.

 

Why would we want to disable them you ask?

 

Because it prevents our programmers from changing those values. The values are imported from the Tool definitions in our tool library. So if a programmer uses our "T24" for example, the Feed, Plunge, Retract rate and Spindle speed are pre-set.

 

If we need to deviate from the standard speeds/feeds then we create a new tool and fill out the new information in the Tool Definition dialog box.

 

Not everyone will want to use this feature, but it is nice to have the ability to be able to when you need it.

 

You can also use these text entry fields in the Control Definition file to rename the labels on the data entry fields and buttons in your toolpath dialog boxes.

 

Why?

 

For example I rename the "Canned Text" button to "M Codes" because this is what I use that functionality for. "Canned Text" is not very intuitive for the new programmer (we have a few). You could (and I did in one of my classes once, just for fun!!!), rename a button to the "Chewbacca" button (Sorry I'm partial to Star Wars). You should have seen the look on my students faces when someone noticed that.

 

"What the heck is the Chewbacca button????"

 

I was LMAO.

 

The point is that you can enable/disable features and rename the titles of buttons and data entry fields by using the Control Definition file.

 

Happy coding,

 

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

[Colin Gilchrist]

BTW,

 

I also rename the "Planes" button to "G54's/Plane".

 

Just a way to help everyone know where to look for that work offset number.....

[Thad]

In years to come, as people change jobs, they'll be here at the forum asking where the "G54's/Plane" button is. "I see a Plane button. Is that the same as the old G54's/Plane button?"

 

 

Thanks for the follow up, Randy.

 

Thad

[kinglouie V]

quote:

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"What the heck is the Chewbacca button????"

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my guess would be the "delete all operations" in the op mgr. That would make me sound like chewbacca if I ever accidently hit that thing.