How can I get the text of all the drill cycles of current machine from a CHook. e.g I want following text and if there is a customized cycle, the text of the customized cycle

"Drill/Counterbore"

"Peck Drill"

"Chip Break"

.

.

.

"Modified Cycle 18"

"Custom Cycle 19"

"Custom Cycle 20"

Thanks

Why would you ask my hardware lock number?

Roger,

If the function get_ttfont_number only returns(or adds) a true type font from the list, then which function should I use to get the number of the default fonts that are present in the list? Or should I hardcode knowing that these fonts always have the same number(e.g the Roman font has number 1 always)?

And I am positive about the second problem.I've checked it again. Can it be due to different version number? My version is X2(11.0.3.25)

Hi all,

I am using 'get_ttfont_number' function to get a font number. Its mentioned here

http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/ultimatebb.p...t=000002#000005

It takes a font name and adds it to the font list in Drafting Options(Create->Drafting->Drafting Options) dialog box. I have two questions regarding it.

First Q:This function doesn't return the number of the font even if the font is already present in the list. e.g font name "Stick" is already there in the list but when I call get_ttfont_number("Stick", FALSE, FALSE) it adds another entry in the list with name "Stick" and returns 8, instead of 0. Isn't it the wrong behaviour?

Second Q: If I do this:

a)Open Create->Drafting->Create note...

b)Click on properties to open the Note Text dialog box

c)On note text dialog box I add a new font by clicking 'Add True Type'(say I added Arial font)

d)Click ok

e)Type something in the note text dialog box

f)Click ok

g)Make a note in the drawing area

h)Start a new file

i)Do steps 'a' to 'g' again with a different font in step 'c'(say Courier New)

I don't get the new note in Courier New but in Arial with bad character spaces. Is it a bug?

Thanks

I was thinking on the similar lines but my lack of familiarity with the sdk prevented me from converting my ideas into code. Now you have shown me how to code, after trying it I found it working. Thanks Takashi. You are great. Cheers!

Takashi,

I've tried your method of using a color not in use but this function(drw_str) draws only straight lines of the text in the color specified the curves are drawn in the default color so this method can't be used.

Hmm... that is doable and I'll try it but it is kinda hackish. Isn't there some clean method using which I can directly get the pointers to the entities I want , like a function or something, without resorting to these "tricks"?

Takashi,

I am afraid that would not be a good approach because my CHook creates other entities as well besides text, and as the whole process of creating entities is very fast I don't think checking the time when they were created would be a good way of checking if the entities comprise the text. Thanks for your reply though.

Hi,

I want to create a text engraving through my CHook. I am able to create the text using either as told here

http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/ultimatebb.p...t=000355#000001

or here

http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/ultimatebb.p...t=000002#000000

The first method creates the text but I don't know how to get a pointer to all the line and arc entities of the text, so that I can add a contour toolpath on it. The second method creates the whole text as a single entity and I have the pointer to the entity, but before I can add a contour toolpath I'll have to break it into lines and arcs and I don't know how to do that. So please either tell me:-

1)How do I get a pointer to all the line and arc entities of a text that I've just created?

or

2)How do I break a (v8_note) note entity into lines and arcs? Is there a function that takes a pointer to v8_note entity and gives a set of pointers to all the broken lines & arcs?

Thanks in advance.

Thank you guys for helping me, I've got some idea now how to do it.

Yes I am talking about Macros in CNC machines not the ones used in Mastercam itself to automate tasks. I want to know what settings you change in Mastercam so that when you create the NC code there are Macro statements in it. Somewhere on the forums I read that you can use custom drill cycles for that, is that true? I am a novice, so my talk may sound crap to you but thank you guys for responding. Please lead me in the right direction.

Nevermind, thanks for your help anyway.

I am using MastercamX2. I am basically a developer and I don't have any experience with machining. I am developing a CHook(a kind of plugin) for MastercamX2 and one of our customers wants to use macros and I have no idea what a macro does, I thought you guys might know.

Hi,

I am new to MastercamX2 and I don't know how to use macros within it. Can anybody please help?

Thanks

Forgot to mention that I am writing the C-Hook for Mastercam X2.

Hi,

I am creating a new operation from my C-Hook and I am setting the coolant to either OFF, FLOOD, MIST or THRU-TOOL using CFLAG_COOL_OFF, CFLAG_COOL_FLOOD etc. as was advised here:

http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=000285#000000

Using this method the coolant is set only for some of the machines e.g. it works for "GENERIC HAAS 4X MILL.MMD", "MILL DEFAULT.MMD" and other GENERIC mills but for others it doesn't work e.g. for "MILL 3-AXIS HMC.MMD" and all 3,4, and 5 axis it doesn't. (I am using only milling machines)

The coolant dialog box for these two machine types also differs greatly from each other, can it be due to that. What should I do to set the coolant for any kind of machine?

Thanks

Hey pogo,

It's been a while since I checked these forums. I'll try and do that, thanks.

Hi,

I have a C-Hook and I want to make an installer for it. I can copy the .dll and .ft files to the appropriate files using the installer alright but I also want to set up the icon for my chook using the installer only, is there a way to do that or can that be done by the user only(by customising)?

TIA

If you want you can turn these warning messages off by defining "_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE" in your preprocessor definitions but if you are concerned about security(hackers, crackers exploiting buffer overflows in your code) and otherwise too if you want your code to be robust you should use the more secure versions of these functions.

And I forgot to mention the "Struct member alignment" is set to default, so I have to do nothing much

Pete,

Thank you so much for your elaborate replies. Well, the code you've written works for me too now(only after choosing some machine from 'Machine Type' menu). The change which I made after which the code started working was that I made a new C-Hook project and copied the old files from the previous one. I guess my project was being linked to old sdk because there were files of old sdk littered around in the previous version of the project.

Thanks

Some more info:

The code that I said worked is working only after I add some machine and fails if no machine is added and secondly even after I get a pointer in tl_head, the tool parameters are all either zero or garbage values. It seems the memory location being retured in tl_head is not correct.

Hi MasterShake,

After your post I tried this:

SetToolLibrary("MILLTOOLSTOOLS.TOOLS");

list_manager(TL_ID, const_cast(ToolLibraryStr()), LSTMGR_GET, (void**)&tl_head);

and it worked, but I don't know why can't the code below work for me?

list_manager(TL_ID, "MILLTOOLSTOOLS.TOOLS", LSTMGR_GET, (void**)&tl_head);

Thank you for giving valuable information.

Hi Pete,

Although I have been able to start debugging but I am still stuck here at this list_manager() problem , Could you please help me?

Thanks

Hi Pete,

I checked (even triple-checked ) but my directories were set correctly. The good news is that finally the debugging is working because I reinstalled the sdk in a different folder(D:sdk). Thank you for your help.