Posting M8 and M9 before and after manual entry stop

[JohnBoy13]

Hello,

I am trying to get mastercam to post an M8 at the start of a tool path operation, then post an M9 before my manual entry stop, then post an M8 again for the next tool path operation. Basically 2 cuts with a stop in between to check size. This is the way we do it here and everything I know or don't know about mastercam was learned on the job so... :-) Thanks.

[crazy^millman]

Yes that is a post edit and if you are not comfortable doing it then getting a hold of your dealer will be the best course of action.

 

HTH

[JohnBoy13]

I'm comfortable editing the posts we use, I do it now. I just don't know what to do for this issue... Our dealer does not help us very much. Do you know what to edit in the posts? Thanks.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

 

[crazy^millman]

Yes, but would need more information to be able to help you. All the dealers I worked with in your area have always been very helpful so not sure why you have had less than good results.

 

Can an admin move this question over to the posts area of the forum?

 

From there we will see what we can do to help you sort all of this out.

[Elmer Fudd]

Check "force tool change" on the second op.

[HayreAss]

Yeah force a tool change, and have either an m0 or m1 in there.

[Dave Allen]

If this is a manual entry M00 can't you type 3 lines into the manual entry.

 

M9

M0

M8

[Colin Gilchrist]

I think Dave Allen has the best solution. Use the Manual Entry to turn off the coolant before the check, then turn it back on yourself during the same ME operation.

 

The reason is due to the way Manual Entry toolpaths are processed. Manual Entry Toolpaths are processed as comments. The way comments are processed is different from normal NC motion output. Comments are read by MP from the NCI file. These comments are collected and stored as strings in an internal buffer file. When the 'comment$' MP command variable is read on an NC line, the comment buffer file is read one line at a time, and MP makes a call to 'pcomment$' for each line. Once the buffer is empty, normal processing resumes.

 

Because the same 'comment' mechanism is used to process all the different comment types in MP, the logic can get a little tricky to be able to know if you are at the start of the file, inside a toolchange (or null toolchange), or even what type of comment you are processing.

 

There are certainly ways to get the output you need, but some are more work than others. Including the coolant off/on codes in your Manual Entry toolpath is by far the easiest way to accomplish your goal. Otherwise there is actually a significant amount of coding to get the Manual Entry to test the current coolant state, turn it off, then turn it back on at the end.

[The Cathedral]

That's what I do--multiple lines in manual entry. The trick there is getting your comment to come out where you want. This thread is a good reference for that:

 

http://www.emastercam.com/board/topic/78561-control-your-comments/

[JohnBoy13]

Thanks for all the input, I work with several other programmers that work off a network. I'm trying to find the best way to go about this. We all pull manual entries from the network so that everything is the same, some of our machines have different requirements for the type of stop we want to use. We also use multiple coolant codes, machine specific m codes that I was hoping to just enter into the post so that I could just post and go? Does that make sense? I'm fine if this post gets moved. Thanks everyone.