Post question on staging tools

[Davidgil]

I have modified the MPMASTER post to work with my FADAL 4525, but I'm having a little trouble with staging tools. The command for staging on the fadal needs to have a '-' minus sign in it, example: T-23 instead of T23. I can't figure out how to get the minus sign in. One idea I had would be to take the next_tool variable, strip off the T, and add back a T-, however I'm not familiar enough with the syntax for commands in the post. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,

Dave

[kccadcam]

David,

Easy to modify:

 

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Toolchange / NC output Variable Formats

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

fmt T- 4 t #Tool No

fmt T 4 first_tool #First Tool Used

fmt T 4 next_tool #Next Tool Used

fmt D 4 tloffno #Diameter Offset No

fmt H 4 tlngno #Length Offset No

fmt G 4 g_wcs #WCS G address

fmt P 4 p_wcs #WCS P address

fmt S 4 speed #Spindle Speed

fmt M 4 gear #Gear range

 

Just add the dash right after the T with no spaces

and it should work.

[Davidgil]

Kevin,

Wow, I guess I was making it way more complicated than it needed to be.

Many thanks for your help. I'll give it a try.

David

[Christian Raebild]

If I understood your description correctly, it is T-4 to stage tool 4 (next tool), and T4 to load tool four for use. If that is the case, than the correct syntax is:

 

fmt T 4 t #Tool No

fmt "T-" 4 first_tool #First Tool Used

fmt "T-" 4 next_tool #Next Tool Used

 

I am fairly certain the double quotes are necessary, but I am not 100% certain of that.

 

If they are not necessary, all they do is make your post processor 4 bytes larger, which should not be an issue with the size of today's hard disks

[kccadcam]

I think your right Christian on first and next tool but I don't think you need the quotes.

[Davidgil]

Thanks Christian and Kevin. I modified first_tool and next_tool and everything works great. I didn't need to add the quotes.

Thanks again,

David

[Christian Raebild]

So the quotes are not necessary now. I am practically certain they were necessary in an earlier version of Mastercam, and have not bothered to test if they were no longer necessary. They are just a few excess bytes, after all.