Writing CHOOKS

[butch_shaw]

Is there anywhere I can get more information on writing chooks. The CHDEV directory is limited on how to the use the C++ functions.

 

[ProductDevelopmentGuy]

Unless some kind soul responds with an answer you like better, let it be known that you can always send specific questions regarding C-Hook development to [email protected]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Unfortunately Butch, I've got to tell you that "It's who you know". Unless you have somebody that you know that writes C-Hooks, it's virtually impossible to learn. You can learn C++ Programming but ther are some specific issues with "Hooking" to Mastercam.

I count myself Blessed because Dave Friedman (a long time writer of C-Hooks) lives about 4 miles from my house and he is teaching me. His only requirements of me are 1) ambition to learn and 2) That I pass on what I learn to at least two other people. Basically there are only a handful of people in the world doing this type of stuff. A few at CNC Software, 4-D Engineering, In-House Solutions(The marvelous hosts of this wonderful Forum), Moldplus, Camaix, Cimsoftek, and Dave. That's pretty much it.

James Meyette

Applications Engineer

 

[Guest]

James,

I thought about getting into C-Hooks, why don't they have VB-Hooks??

How much of a learning curve will be involved in learning C-Hooks if I already know Visual Basic??

Thanks,

Rekd

[Webby]

Flattery will get you everywhere James.

[Bullines]

butch_shaw,

The C-Hook Developer's Guide that is included with the SDK in DOC format is what got me started. The "shapes" sample is good example to get a basic understanding of how C-Hooks are launched, input/output data and a little MFC GUI developement is thrown in for good measure C-Hooks will keep MFC alive since Microsoft is trying killing it off with C# and Visual Studio .Net

 

[ProductDevelopmentGuy]

James M. - It really isn't all that hard!!

 

[Luther Heggs]

First you need to know how to code in C++. Then just look at the sample programs supplied and the function definitions in the manual and in the .h files. Cake.

[butch_shaw]

Thank you all for your insight. I am a beginning C++ programmer and a long time user of Mastercam. I will dig into the sample files in the CHDEV directory. Take one thing at a time. It sure would have been nice if Mastercam would of had a HELP file to write C++ programs like Cadkey does. Right now I have a C++ program that runs in Cadkey to output NC code. But I would like to use the Operations Manager in Mastercam to provide the user with more flexibility of defining the operations than he already has. Have to make things as automatic as possible to remain competitive. Thank You All.

 

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Webmaster, I was sincere about that comment.

Rekd, Basic is more "language" oriented and C seems to be more statement/declaration oriented (from my limited perspective so far)

The doc is pretty good. Of course I'd like to see more in it but look at the post book (Sorry CNC), it's pretty lean when it comes to showing you how to actually accomplish building a post.

Bullines, what's going to hapen when they (MS) kills off C?

PDG, It's not as easy as writing a post unfortunately.

Butch, Keep on plugging away. Maybe someday we'll meet and we can swap beginner compiling stories.

James Meyette

 

 

[Bullines]

James,

With Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft is heavily pushing its new C# (pronounced C-sharp) language. C#, IMO, is a retaliation against Sun and Java. C# aims to be a Java-killer and I think it's a step backwards; we already have Java, we don't need another one.

Hopefully, the new incarnations of Visual C++ .NET and Visual Basic .NET won't be too web-oriented (but it's shaping up that way). If my MSDN subscription was more prompt, I'd have a beta to play with by now .

If the next version of Visual Studio leaves C-Hook and application developers in the cold, I'd be more than happy to fall back onto Borland's products; they're what I used the most in university .