It might be the "default" vs the "named" control def settings (which includes the control text). When you make CD edits, you basically have to make them twice. Once to the active post, and a second time to the default. If I had to guess, the "named" control text was edited, but not the "default" so when you re-named it, the "default" text now being pulled in, without the misc. I think the C-hook would take care of this as recommended above. You can also go into your control definition (or the ctrl text at the end of the ,pst file) and edit the text right in there to edit the misc value text. We always try to maintain a single "default" version of the control text in the .pst file to try and reduce this sort of thing, but it can be tough to avoid if your running into to frequently.

And yet they still call me to yell about the post being broken! Its OK we're used to being the punching bag

I really like that idea Colin, Most of our IKE posts are setup to support multiple common parameter settings. We also try and list as many as we can at the top of the .pst file to show off our recommended settings, and show off what switches apply to each settings. I am thinking this could be useful as a standalone program to read and output each parameter we care about instead of asking people to read them off the controller. Might make it a bit easier to make sure the parameters on the machine match the switches in the post and could catch those issues early.

Hi Colin, Thanks for asking these great questions. An example of a new feature that is supported in the IKE post is safety zone transition moves with 4/5 axis drilling. It was a new feature added into Mastercam that required a post edit to fully support, and these are the sort of post edits that are not being put into mpmaster any more. I don't know what other new features are being added into Mastercam for future released, but I know that we are constantly developing IKE posts to ensure all the latest features are fully supported. Another new feature that our IKE post support is the built-in HTML setup sheet. This feature is integrated into the post and provides the option to generate an operation list and/or tool list when generating the nc code. It is not released yet, but we have also been working on an IKE+ interface to help customize the setupsheets, Hopefully more on that later. The best thing about the IKE built-in setup sheet is that it is completely free for users. The intention at this point is for it to act a sort of mpmaster replacement, so we will be offering fairly generic Fanuc 3/4 axis IKE posts. With our post library, we do maintain different post versions for different controllers, so we have IKE Haas, IKE Makino, IKE Mazak, IKE TNC, etc. I would love to see all of those be released for free for eMastercam users at some point, but I think for now we are starting off with the Fanuc. The IKE posts do support machine simulation, and like the HTML setupsheet it is integrated into the post, however this is a paid add-on. This is further complicated since this feature now requires licensing from ModuleWorks. But if we are able to get past that, the machine sim setup is pretty easy. You need to setup the STLs and the XML (same as always), then there is a few machine sim specific settings in the post that are setup, similar to the XML setup. Its a bit beyond the scope of the free 3/4 axis posts, but we can definitely continue this conversation and talk more about machine sim support in IKE if you are interested. You are correct, there will be PST and PSB sections of the post (sorry) but that is more to hide away the math and background stuff. All (or at least most) of the output is in the PST file. There isn't any plans to time the Beta version of the posts, or the free ones once we launch them. They should also be able to update to newer versions of Mastercam without much issue. The older posts may not support the newer features, but the newer posts will also be available. One tool we may be able to explore is out post template feature in IKE+. It allows you to save the settings from one post to apply then over to another. This could be beneficial if you have gotten your IKE post setup how you like it, but then find you need to update to a newer IKE release to take advantage of added features. Thanks, Alex

Please read the thread above. We currently offer mpmaster and mplmaster for free. If you are interested in downloading either of them, here is a link. Free mpmaster and mplmaster post processors. - Post Processor Development Forum - eMastercam.com However, we are no longer doing development on these posts, and there is concern that they will fall behind. Years ago we stopped providing mpmaster and mplmaster posts with our paid customers and are instead providing IKE mill and lathe posts. We are now planning to offer free versions of these posts to keep supporting the eMastercam community. This Beta testing is an opportunity for eMastercam users that value mpmaster to provide their input for its replacement.

@Grievous We are currently looking for volunteers to provide feedback for the free product we will be offering.

this is controlled by the variable rot_type which should be set by the MD. If you suspect your MD is not being read in, you can go directly to where its initialized and try changing the starting value to 2 and test this out. If the MD is not being read, then this will make the post use shortest direction. If that doesn't give you shortest direciton, the the MD is still over writing. You will want to check your MD settings and make sure they were saved properly, and be sure to re-load your machine definition into the part (mcam files hold the state of the machine and control definition the last time the file was saved and do not actively read in the changes made to the MD and CD) Here is a link to our website for more on reloading machine definitions. http://www.inhousesolutions.com/2015/11/reloading-machine/ If none of that works, you could try defining rot_type as a global formula by changing the initalization from rot_type : 2 to rot_type = 2. I wouldn't necessarily advise this especially if you haven't exhausted all the above options, but it *should* work

Hi Tim, Many mpmater features were considered when building IKE so it already does most of what mpmaster does, and more. Both posts run through the mp.dll so if you have specific postblocks that were written custom for mpmaster you should be able to drop into the IKE post and run them with a little bit of tweaking (variable names might be different) Alex

The In-House Solutions Post Team is looking for volunteer Beta Testers to provide feedback on the customization of our IKE Posts. MPMASTER has been retired from active development, but we still want to keep our eMastercam community up to date with the latest technology in post-processors. We are planning to do this by offering free versions of select 3 and 4 axis IKE posts, which we will be actively developing. We are looking for eMastercam community members with experience on MPMASTER and MPLMASTER posts to act as Beta testers for our IKE Mill and IKE Lathe products to ensure that we are fitting the needs of eMastercam users. We want to make sure the post is both customizable enough and powerful enough for users who dabble in post development and customization. If you are interested in participating, please send me a message and I will get you shiny new IKE post to customize and play around with. In your message, please indicate: Who you are, Where you work, The best email address to contact you, What machine(s) you would be testing this with or benchmarking against, and What experience you have had with post customization in the past.

The In-House Solutions Post Team is looking for volunteer Beta Testers to provide feedback on the customization of our IKE Posts. MPMASTER has been retired from active development, but we still want to keep our eMastercam community up to date with the latest technology in post-processors. We are planning to do this by offering free versions of select 3 and 4 axis IKE posts, which we will be actively developing. We are looking for eMastercam community members with experience on MPMASTER and MPLMASTER posts to act as Beta testers for our IKE Mill and IKE Lathe products to ensure that we are fitting the needs of eMastercam users. We want to make sure the post is both customizable enough and powerful enough for users who dabble in post development and customization. If you are interested in participating, please send me a message and I will get you shiny new IKE post to customize and play around with. In your message, please indicate: Who you are, Where you work, The best email address to contact you, What machine(s) you would be testing this with or benchmarking against, and What experience you have had with post customization in the past.

You can also read in the number from the operations manager using parameter number 15240 in pparameter$

in mpmaster we use have some logic to suppress toolchanges with single tool. Your post is likely to have something similar. if ntools$ = one, [ #skip single tool outputs, stagetool must be on #stagetool = m_one !next_tool$ ] Take note of the line: #stagetool = m_one setting stagetool to -1 will suppress the toolcalls. If you have a line like this without the # before, then try adding a comment to that line.

The buffer is stored as a text file, so you can rename the files and change the path that the buffer reads to have multiple buffers in the same buffer number. I don't think you can change the size of the buffer with this method, so maybe best to just double up on two string buffers.

Starting with X9, the migration wizard only looks back 3 versions. so X6, X7 and X8. If you install X8 or earlier you can go all the way back to the beginning of time.

n$ may not be the best variable to use since it can be used in a lot of places and might be incrementing at each location. You might be better of to create a new variable that you increment instead. Or initialize submacro at 100, and just add 1 to that variable at each instance.

Thanks for the Info on this! I do all my post edits in Notepad++ and have yet to run into any of these issues. I will keep an eye out and see if I can break it when I have some free time.

I haven't run into any issues when I have changed it as long as I have kept the .xml structure intact. Maybe I will have to look into this though

You can edit the control text directly in the .pst file without even opening the machine or control definition. After you do this, be sure to reload the machine definition. this will reload the control text into the toolpath parameters and make it visible on the Misc real/int page. One other thing that can cause issues with the control text is the windows language. The windows language code contains a language and a region. Your control text is set as en-IN. If your windows language does not match the language in the control text then some versions of Mastercam will not recognize the control text. In MC 2020 or later, I always deliver post with en-US as the language. Mastercam 2020 fixed this language compatibility issues by allowing it to always read in en-US if the windows language is not found.

Yeah we were really fortunate to have the opportunity to do the onsite testing along with the development on this one. Makes such a big difference, and makes me more confident the next time someone comes to us for that machine. Usually its "I don't care, just send what you have NOW", followed by 6 months of radio silence, then "It has never, ever worked!" so we gotta celebrate the wins like this NTX when we can!

by recreating the plane, I mean that we remap the coordinates to the new coordinate system created by the tilted plane function. this is different and more complicated than the simplified method of pulling the values directly from the tool plane. There is lots of online resources detailing matrix rotations and other methods that could be used, but all are pretty math intensive. the vequ() function reads and writes a 3D vector or point. The way that it is being used here is to set the xabs series of variables (or the xabs point) to the x$ series of variables (the x$ point). If you wanted to remove the line xabs = vequ(x$) you could replace it with the following three lines to achieve the same outcome xabs = x$ yabs = y$ zabs = z$

We got a customer up here in Canada who got one of these earlier this year. We set them up with a new post we developed for the machine and did some onsite testing to dial it in. They have been running smoothly with this post for the last couple months.

I have written posts for similar machines, but never done an MVR personally. Usually the only entry you would have to make for the RAH would be a misc value or axis combination to indicate it is being used. The post should be capable of calculating the index angle and mapping the coordinates to the programmed plane. If you are going to attempt to do this on your own, you need to be aware of your axis orientation. X and Y motion is good, but getting the X and Y in the right direction is also important. In our posts, we recreate the plane based on the Z axis orientation to match what the machine is using, but if you are trying to keep it simple, always use toolplanes already that match the plane defined by the G180. This makes is much easier to compare the code in your backplot to the code you have generated to ensure the moves match up. Something like mpmaster that doesn't use a coordinate rotation will be able to get you pretty close just by pulling x$ values as it does. From there the main thing you need is your C-axis calculation, which can be found based on the X and Y components of the tool vector.

Hi Ron, one_rev is a post switch that is used along with Signed Continuous for the formatting of the A-axis starting position. It does not overwrite the existing setting for the rotary axis type. So my above description was not entirely accurate. To be more correct, it should read: This post switch keeps the STARTING rotary axis values between 0 and 360 when using a signed continuous rotary. Here is some additional detail on one_rev and how it is not equivalent to activating Shortest Direciton, although the two are often used in place of one another. For any 3+2 toolpath with Signed Continuous and one_rev active the code will look just like Shortest Direction is active, and the code will be the same. Where you will see the difference is when crossing the 0/360 margin with a 4-axis or 5-axis cut. Shortest direction will behave as usual and remain within the 0/360 bounds. ie. A358 A359 A0 A1 With the signed continuous, even when one_rev is active, the axis will still wind up past 360 (or into negative numbers when decreasing). ie. A358 A359 A360 A361 You are still able to break out of the 0/360 limits as required (Crossing that boundary with shortest direction coordinates on a signed continuous axis will not end well). What the one_rev switch does is control the STARTING point of the rotary axis for a given toolpath, so that the FIRST point always falls in the 0/360 limits. Hopefully that all made sense, but if not left me know and I can try to provide additional detail. -Alex

I just looked through the original post and I noticed that switch one_rev was active in the post. This post switch keeps the rotary axis values between 0 and 360. I suspect that was a big part of the issue here and I don't see any mention of it in this thread