ACITVE REPORT STEPDOWN

[peon]

Since I haven't seen any positive chatter regarding X+ being updated to X6, I thought I'd take a crack at creating my own using the Active Report Designer. SUCCESS!!! But I have NOT been able to find the XML tag or a way to define "stepdown" in the utility. I'm assuming it is impossible. Anyone succeed outputting the "stepdown" value in your Active Reports?

[Chris In-House Solutions]

Hey Peon,

 

Try MAXSTEP found under the operations in the active report setup. The attached pictures should point you in the correct direction.

[peon]

I've been playing with the "maxstep" for a week and it seems to only accurately display the correct STEPOVER value on the Surface High Speed Area Clearance, Core Roughing and Horizontal toolpath. It does not output stepdown. In fact, I'm gonna remove the "maxstep" from the setup sheet because it will also default to zero or a previous value if toolpath isn't relative to the "maxtep" command. The operators get confused with incorrect data.

[peon]

The Active Report setup sheets also won't output the "stock to leave", "stock to leave z" and "stock to leave xy" on many of the toolpaths. This package seems WAY OVER ENGINEERED and still can't deliver what the simple X+ package offers.

 

Edit: Some of the values seem to work better in X6

[Chris In-House Solutions]

Is the MAXSTEP value working for you in X6? Perhaps the Data Field value is incorrect?

[peon]

In X5 and X6, "MAXSTEP" displays stepover and not stepdown. And, it will display an incorrect value on the Optirough toolpath. The Data Field is correct. X6 will however, display the correct "STOCK TO LEAVE" values.

[Chris In-House Solutions]

Perhaps then MAXSTEP is the max stepover value.

[peon]

Is there any way to create a "STEPDOWN" XML tag that will work with MCAM and Active Reports? I hope I asked that question correctly since I'm not familiar with any kind of XML creation.

[ThRaSH]

You can create additional XML tags. Look in the help file for "Creating custom XML tags".

[peon]

Ok, I didn't explain what I need correctly. I can easily create custom XML tags. I should have asked how to create a new XML file that can be bound as a control in the Report Explorer and linked to MCAM as shown in Chris' snapshot above. He shows an example of "MAXSTEP". I would like to create one named "STEPDOWN".

[ThRaSH]

The XML Datasource for a mill report is SSM.xml. If you open that file up you'll find the MAXSTEP tag. Now you could add one named STEPDOWN, but Mastercam won't know what do with it because it's not tied or bound to a datafield within Mastercam. (It's possible they have added this for X6 - not sure?) Bottom line is you want to output the STEPDOWN value for Surface High Speed Area Clearance, Core Roughing and a few other toolpaths right? It's possible to write some code\script that will execute just for these toolpaths when your report is run. So as your report is being generated in Mastercam, if it comes across one of these toolpaths then you will be prompted to input a STEPDOWN value and that will be included for that toolpath in your report. It would be a work around until they build the STEPDOWN tag into Mastercam...I've actually done something like this in the past.

[peon]

Thanks for the explanation Thrash. I guess I'll just leave the stepdown out of the report then. The operators can always look at the gcode and see the z steps if they really wanna know. I don't understand why so much information is offered in the active reports, but not stepdown. Sounds stupid to me. Especially since X+ offered so much in a little package and generated reports INSTANTLY!

[ThRaSH]

It could be they just missed this one parameter. If you want you could always send a request into QC and include a link to this thread so they have something to reference.

[peon]

Consider it done Thrash. I just sent them a short email linking this thread.

[peon]

XML Tags "MAX-STEPOVER" and "MAX-STEPDOWN" were added to X7 MU1, but only work with surfacing toolpaths. Are there any XML tags for stepover and stepdown for the 2d toolpaths? I couldn't find any in the XML Tag glossary.