When Mastercam went from v7, v8, v9 to X, X2, X3, etc. they added in the X style coolant it offers more commands that the old way. Personally, I never really liked it. I use the old style coolant commands, they work fine for me.

47, Yes, only if you always want the "/". But this could cause a problem, if there is no change in the coolant output you would still get the "/". I would only do it at the tool change and null tool change postblocks. Another way that might work: sm08 : "/M8" #Coolant Flood

What I typed is what you can use for your block. Note that what I typed is indented. Add this line in where you want the coolant to activate. Then you can get rid of the existing scoolant. The 47 is an ASCII and will cause the post to output the "/" character.

47, scoolant, e$ On its own line.

I spent 3 or 4 hours thinking about it in my hotel room down in Mason, OH when I was there. I went thru many scenarios until I got something that I liked.

Hi Bob, The FTN does not need to be unique. You can have multiple ITN's within the same FTN. The FTN is your tool # that you would have in your tool library. The ITN is the one that needs to be unique, think of it as a serial number. The pot number is self explanatory and the PTN (Program Tool Number) is the FTN that is currently active that the machine will use when that FTN is called. The other identical FTN's will have their PTN's displayed as 0. Confused? How you structure your tool numbering is up to you. But, you want to do it in a way that conveys the information you want to pass on. I wish I had 8 digits tool numbers. Anyways an idea you can use: FTN 1-999 misc. tools 1000-1999 drills 2000-3999 endmills 4000-4999 reamers etc. Lets pretend that you have endmill # 2015 in your library. FTN: 00002015 ITN: 00002015 A sister tool, FTN: 00002015 ITN: 00012015 Another sister tool, FTN: 00002015 ITN: 00022015 Same tool in a long holder 15" from gage line, FTN: 01502015 ITN: 01502015 A sister tool, FTN: 01502015 ITN: 01512015 Another sister tool, FTN: 01502015 ITN: 01522015 Pick a digit, and decide what it means to you, leave room for expansion, you will always be adding tools. If you put the time in up front, your MMC will love you for it!

I used to run Garr 41983's as my all around aluminum utility endmill. 100% axial 50% radial 14000 rpm 200ipm with no dynamic paths. And they were in endmill holders, sticking out over 2". I would change them out at about 10000 minutes of cut time. Dynamic paths are awesome on difficult materials, but for aluminum I haven't tried it yet.

Thanks Bob, that's a step in the right direction. The other way would be to use an open I/O connection, but I'm not sure how to read the status of it. BTW, nice pictures, I like what you're doing with your shop.

Looking to wire in a switch to confirm a proper work piece load that can be read in the program to decide whether or not run. Easy with a probe, but I don't control the wallet.

Can any of you point me in the right direction to use the spare M codes? I have never done this before. I want to use a spare M code (M170-M179), but I don't know how / where to look for the finish signal and how to utilize it in the program. Can any of you guys help me out?

Why did I even click on this.

When you're working on a post and you want to find a parameter, do a parameter dump. Set field you're looking for with a unique number value, ex 1.2345, that will be easy to find. In post: pparameter$ #Information from parameters #"pwrttparam", ~prmcode$, ~sparameter$, e$ Get rid of the red hashtag and re-post. Use you're editor to find the unique number you set. pwrttparamprmcode$ 10031.1.2345 Find the value (blue), the parameter will be the number before the first decimal point (red)

These guys have some impressive products: http://www.ringspann.com/en/Products/Precision-Clamping-Mandrels/Products__751/

Make some kind of a counter. count : 0 # initialize counter if count = 0, [ spaces$=0 newfeed = pbld, "F", 91, myfeed , 42, 35, "997", 93, e$ spaces$=1 count = 1 ] Reset counter after toolchange, etc. count = 0

http://www.steinertechnologies.com/automatic_back_spotfacer I bet that the .95 clearance won't be an issue. This is what these guys specialize in.

That's why they get the big bucks. They get you to work harder. The more they see you struggle, the more they think they are getting the most out you.

Colin, nice post. What do the '1', '10', '11', or '21' signify in the round_opt$ variable? Digits of precision? Are they the only values that can be used? I can remember a problem with V9 in the past when I had a pocketing toolpath, that when depth cut settings were applied the Z axis would oscillate through the pocket on the final depth cut. I always knew it was a rounding issue, I just could not wrap my head around it at the time. This makes a lot more sense.

In your plinout postblock put in: myfeed = feed pcan1, pbld, n$, psgplane, psgfeed, pexct, psgcode, psccomp, pxout, pyout, pcout, pscool, "F", 91, myfeed, 42, 35, "997", 93, strcantext, e$ Format myfeed with no address: fmt 18 myfeed # my Feedrate This should work you, welcome to the forum.

Actually I've seen this before. It was a rounding error caused by a bad control definition and it made the machine do the opposite. Instead of a full circle, I got an extremely small arc segment. Basically, the end point of the arc was just past the start point of the arc after the code was posted due to rounding error. However, in the MCX file, the start and end points were identical. This caused basically no movement at all. If I were you, I would look at all resolution settings, the machine tool parameters as well as the control definition.

Sorry, I can't see the videos. IT dept has it all locked down.

Unfortunately, there is a foot pedal that needs to be pressed in order for the robot to rotate the pallet in a Makino WSS. But that could be run by a solenoid...

Bob, you have a good point there. I can envision parking a pallet of raw material next to a WSS on a Makino MMC2 and using the robot. Remove the door on the WSS, tap into the optical pallet present recognition and use the robot to hit the pallet ready button. I think it would be relatively easy to do for one side of a tombstone. Multiple sides, however, could be a little tricky, you would have to mount an indexer of some kind on the WSS. I'm sure the applications guys at Makino could tap into the MAS-A5 to detect what the robot needs to load, etc. Just the savings of tooling up one or two pallets (instead of 5 or 6 or more) on only one job could pay for that robot and leave you with several other pallets to dedicate in the same fashion. You could take a vacation and come back and have your mills still running.

So now I have a little idea of what to expect whenever I see X9.

Ron, I do it by having a dedicated tool number for the probe in the library. That tool number triggers actions in the post: no rotation (for machine tools that don't have prohibit), no coolant, on / off etc.

Just to give you an idea: drl_prm1$ = RPM for non cutting feed drl_prm2$ = Pre-feed depth into pilot drl_prm3$ = Dwell for speed change drl_prm4$ = Retract rate or rapid, 0 is rapid drl_prm5$ = Pilot infeed rate, 0 uses active feed rate Postblock: pdrlcst14 #Custom Drill cycle 14 - piloted deep hole if usecustpar = 0, result = mprint(scustperror) pdrlcommonb drl_prm1 = drl_prm1$ drl_prm2 = drl_prm2$ drl_prm3 = drl_prm3$ drl_prm4 = drl_prm4$ drl_prm5 = drl_prm5$ if drl_prm3 = 0, drl_prm3 = 0.1 drl_prm1, spindle, e$ retraz = refht$ if initht$ <> retraz, retraz, e$ pilotz = (drl_sel_tos$ - drl_prm2$) if drl_prm5 = 0, drl_prm5 = feed "G1", *pilotz, *drl_prm5, e$ *speed, *spindle, e$ "G4" *drl_prm3, e$ zdpth = z$ "G1", *zdpth, *feed, e$ drlz2 = zdpth + .03 if (abs((drl_sel_tos$ - zdpth)*.05)) < .03, [ drlz2 = zdpth + (abs((drl_sel_tos$ - zdpth)*.05)) ] *drlz2, e$ *drl_prm1, *spindle, e$ "G4" *drl_prm3, e$ if initht$ <> refht$, retraz = initht$ if drl_prm4$ = 0, "G0", *retraz, e$ if drl_prm4$ > 0, "G1", *retraz, *drl_prm4, e$ if drl_prm4$ > 0, "G0" pcom_movea