ditto on the right click!

I agree that the MPMaster is a good post; it is the "Gold Standard" we should all start with. I never said it would not work, it works fine. I just had a small complaint about the program formatting, and feel that the post could be rearranged just a little to make cleaner more professional code. I am anal I know, but working with machinist on the shop floor, and running programs formatted with the stock MPMaster I realize it could be rearranged just a little, then the MPMaster could be shipped and used virtually as is. Working and teaching this stuff has revealed to me how many shops do things so differently. One of my biggest frustrations is many CNC Machinist run the machines but have no real clue what the program is really doing. I can ask three guys to explain to me what G43 does and how it works with the WCO system and I will get three answers. I still have guys tell me they use different height offset registers when running a program with multiple WCO registers being used. One of my students told me how the shop he worked at can never use positive offsets because there machines will crash…………… When I looked at one of the program formats it contained “G49Z0” as a tool retract line. I asked why that line was there, he said it was how the machine would retract the tool to the machine home position (WRONG), but could not tell me why it would crash…….. Our industry needs to work smarter, CAD/CAM does much of this for us, and we ALL benefit from it, but knowledge still needs to be passed down to the shop floor, to the guys who are “making the chips”. I understand format is just a silly thing but streamlining simplifying, standardizing things will do a lot for the shop floor machinist. Me as a programmer I do not care what the program looks like either, I push cycle start and let it rip, but as a Programmer, and teacher I understand the importance of the “Guy on the floor” and like to help them understand what they are doing, and not just go thru the motions of every day life making chips.

Does any one know of a good PDA software for DNC use? I want to use a PDA for this purpose. I will get what ever PDA I need. I have seen many older PDA on Ebay so what ever you all recomend I will get. Software too.

It as you stated a personal preference, but I have talked to many guys who are not programmers, but set up people. They will do simple modifications to programs, like combine operations with two vises ect. They do not like things out of order, because they do not fully understand all of the aspects of G-code. I like to keep every thing eazy and straight forward for them. I guess I am a little to finicky, but I teach this stuff too, and I find that I can explain to my students easier when the format has fewer duplicate G-codes, and follows a simple step by step process of starting and ending a tool. As Machinist, why shouldn't we strive for a simpler more universal approach to CNC machining. If a shop follows a fairly consistent format from machine to machine it is much easier for employees to migrate to different machine centers with out the panic of "hey this program does not look like the other machines" Again I guess it is a personal thing, but it does look cleaner.

Why is the Mpmaster format the way it is? This is what is posted, I deleted the un-nessesary stuff This is as posted: O2020 (SHIFTER OP 10) G00 G17 G20 G40 G80 G90 G91 G28 Z0. (C-DRILL ALL HOLES) T1 M06 (1/4 DIA C-DRILL) (MAX - Z3.) (MIN - Z-.1625) G00 G17 G90 G54 X2.8582 Y-.775 S2500 M03 G43 H1 Z3. T2 G94 G98 G81 Z-.1625 R.1 F12. ................... X2.8582 G80 M05 G91 G28 Z0. M01 Why not a simple straight forward format that is easy and clean to look at like this: N1 G28 G91 Z0 M5 G00 G17 G20 G40 G80 G90 G98 (C-DRILL ALL HOLES) T1 M06 (1/4 DIA C-DRILL) (MAX - Z3.) (MIN - Z-.1625) G54 X2.8582 Y-.775 S2500 M03 T2 G43 H1 Z3. M8 G81 G98 R.1 Z-.1625 F12. ................... X2.8582 G80 M09 G28 G91 Z0 M5 M01 (*) AND ON TO THE NEXT TOOL........ The Mpmaster has redundant G codes and looks sloppy. The modified format listed above I have used for years on Haas, Fanuc, Yasnac, Mazak EIA mode controls with very little mods between machines. The Gcodes are in order and each tool is a self contained tool, safe to run from any position or fixture set up. Just my thoughts.

will try

I tried to run the update folder for X4 The contol files update ok but the machine definition file update crashes X4? When I open a machine definition it tells me I have an invalid Axis ??????

Do you know which paramater?

Or use G10 lines in the program

I am working on a Nakamura with a Fanuc 10T control. The X axis is backwards. If I want to make a larger diamert cut I have to go X-. This seems backwards to me, is not X- usualy a smaller diameter? Are not most lathes Positive X So X1.0 will be a 1.0 diameter and a X2. be a 2.0 diameter? Since it is a Fanuc control there is a parameter to control this but what one? Any suggestions?

No I do not want to change the parameters. If any thing goes wrong out comes the knives for my neck! you understand I am sure......... We have all been there done that!!!!

Latest update! We have a brand new Robo Drill on the floor, less than a month old. The macro works perfect in this control. I am going to back up the prams and compare them to the other "newer" 31i machines that are not working to see what is different.

Nice C.S. Lewis Quote.

I hope I have this right but Operating time is how many hours the machine is prouducing parts, running ect. It counts total time the machine is actualy running. Cutting time is time in "G1" mode. All of the timers are based on control on time. Usualy the Operating time is larger than cutting time, some one might have reset the timers.

I added the same line to my tool change macro, I used #500 instead of a 100 number. The value is retained at power off and reset, not always the case with the 100 number range. The macro I wrote will retract, and also has other tidbits to measure and set tool lenghts, go to a specific area to measure on specific pallets, or just do a retrack routine. It works great for opperators who do not understand G code.