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NCPlot™ v2.26 User Manual

1. 100 35 SQR 29 27 34 83 0832611206852 COS TAN ASIN ACOS ATAN EXP SQR FIX FUP Macro Variable Renumber Tool 97 NCPlot v2 26 Manual r E Renumber Macro Variables Lofts ss Start Variable Number This tool can renumber the macro variables used by your programs as well as display a list of the variables being used To use this tool enter the start and end variable number that you want changed as well as the target variable number then click Renumber The block of variable numbers from start to end are renumbered beginning at the target variable number Variables before LF Variables after renumbering renumbering Start Variable Number 100 S From this example you can see that the variable numbers are not re sequenced but rather they are moved in their existing sequence to a new block of variable numbers Be careful to specify a target variable number that does not overlap with variables that are currently being used 98 Macro B Programming Support The used variable list is refreshed after renumbering or when the Refresh button is clicked Note that this tool will not report or renumber variables that are indirectly referenced Canned Cycles The backplotting of canned cycles in NCPlot is not hard coded These cycles are Macro B programs stored in a folder that belongs to the selected Machine Configuration The canned cycle macros a
2. This same method can also be used to create M code macros for simulating things like tool change motion or even an external 4th axis indexer Search Text Replace Text M98P9170 M98P9106 You can even redefine the standard G Codes that are handled by NCPlot Search Text Replace Text G65P9015 G65P9016 Note that there will not be any spaces in the block at the time that the customizations are applied to it Likewise the replace text should not contain spaces The Test text field allows you to enter text so that you can see the effect that the customization list has on it The Result field is what would be passed to the backplotter Viewport Settings 29 NCPlot v2 26 Manual pa E Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp o El 28 File eB bel 4 Y Color by G Code Other IA 1 lr d ox BB 00 Rapid Color MB Backaround Color x Rotate Apply Cancel G01 Feed Color _ J selection Color Marker Col Modal Values to Display Machine Configuration EIA na Machine Type HB cos ccw arc Color MH Reference Color TFS Control Settings G M Codes Path to Reference DXF Drawing e Interpreter Customize Viewport Settings Work Offsets Color by Tool Extended Work Offsets DXF Options Run Time Estimating Rotary 4th Axis j C Global Rapid Color Tools are colored in the order they are encountered in the program not by the commanded t
3. Selected Entity Info z2 Modal State T6 F320 0 510000 X 2 1294 Y8 4034 Z0 0000 B0 0000 X 4 9563 Y7 1124 Z0 0000 B0 0000 X0 0001 Y0 0000 Z0 0000 B0 0000 8 669 3 1246 GLT EY 104 2197 124 8712 GO3 X 4 9563 Y7 1124 12 1295 J 8 4034 Show Modal State This tool reports the active modal state at the current cursor location The graphics backplot is refreshed and a window appears that contains the active modal information at the current line This information includes all active G Codes the active values of all other address values and any active canned cycle Setup Menu Toolbars This menu allows hiding or showing any of the toolbars by displaying a submenu containing a list of all the toolbars including any custom toolbars Each toolbar in the list has a checkbox next to it indicating if it is visible To hide a toolbar uncheck the box next to its name To show a toolbar check the box next to its name Preferences Opens the Preferences dialog This dialog contains default behavior settings for the editor and viewport 63 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Animate delay ms Auto refresh delay ms 100 500 y Step fwd bkwd of steps Show warning when feed move is encountered and fa x Feedrate 0 T Spindle is OFF Y Auto show entity info Enable right dick menu cai JV Plot file when loaded Don t reset V Zoom on view change on 7 Zoom after translate Reset on T Code 7 Stop at Moo E Pause an
4. NCPGetFontSetting NCPlot NCPGetF ontSetting strSetting Returns the current value of the requested Font setting Valid setting names are Name Size Bold Italic Color NCPSetFontSetting NCPlot NCPSetFontSetting strSetting newValue Sets the requested Font setting to newValue See topic NCPGetFontSetting for a list of the valid setting names 158 NCPGetTTGSetting NCPlot NCPGetTTGSetting strSetting Scripting Reference Returns the current value of the requested Text To G Code setting Valid setting names are FontName FontBold Fontitalic Text Height XLocation XCenter YLocation YCenter Angle Justify OnArc ArcCCW ArcRadius StartAngle ZRetract ZApproach ZDepth Feedrate NCPSetTTGSetting NCPlot NCPSetTTGSetting strSetting newValue Sets the requested Text To G Code setting to newValue See topic NCPGetTTGSetting for a list of the valid setting names Draw Functions NCPPlot 159 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPlot NCPPlot Refreshes the graphics viewport Equivalent to the Refresh Plot tool NCPViewSetOrientation NCPlot NCPViewSetOrientation intOrientation This function sets the desired viewport orientation intOrientation is a value that indicates the desired orientation Mill 0 Top 1 Bottom 2 Front 3 Back 4 Right 5 Left 6 Isometric Vertical 7 Isometric Horizontal Lathe 8 Front Turret 9 Back Turret 10 Vertical Left 11 Vertical Right N
5. This function returns a formatted string representing the given number of seconds Seconds is the number of seconds to convert noDHMS is an optional True False setting for the type of result False returns a string in the format 00d 00h 00m 00s True returns a string in the format 00 00 00 00 NCPMsgWindow NCPlot NCPMsgWindow Message Seconds This sub displays a message window Message is the text string to display as the message Seconds is an optional number of seconds to display the message When specified the message window will close automatically after this time has expired 153 NCPlot v2 26 Manual A new message may be displayed without first closing an active message Ifa message is being displayed when script execution ends it will be closed automatically NCPMsgClose NCPlot NCPMsgClose If a message window is currently being displayed then this command will close it Setup Functions NCPGetGeneralSetting NCPlot NCPGetGeneralSetting strSetting Returns the current value of the requested general application setting Valid setting names are AutoRefresh ShowAxisLines ShowRapid ShowTicks ShowMarker ShowPlunge LockVerticalRotate BlockSkip Colorize NCPSetGeneralSetting NCPlot NCPSetGeneralSetting strSetting newValue Sets the requested general application setting to newValue See topic NCPGetGeneralSetting for a list of the valid setting names 154 NCPGetPrefSetting NCPlot N
6. 133 NCPlot v2 26 Manual On the Customize dialog click the Keyboard button to access the Customize Keyboard dialog Remove Reset All Press new shortcut key Current Keys pan 134 Customizing NCPlot Using this dialog you can assign or change any of the keyboard shortcut keys for any of the NCPlot menu items 135 License Manager Support Using the NCPlot Network License Manager NCPlot supports the use of a network license manager The NLM allows networked computers running NCPlot to share licenses by issuing licenses to instances of NCPlot as they start and then returning the license to the NLM as they shut down Once all the available licenses have been issued no more instances may be started until a license is returned to the NLM This ensures that the number of instances of NCPlot running does not exceed the number of licenses You can select whether you want to auto detect the presence of a license server or specify the network IP address of the server This can be done through the License Manager Settings dialog The NLM is a free software application available from www ncplot com 137 Scripting Reference About Scripting NCPlot supports scripts written in the VBScript language This gives you a very powerful tool useful for automating common tasks This manual assumes you already know how to write scripts in the VBScript language and only provides a reference for the functions made ava
7. Clicking the animate button again will continue with the animation e Reverse mouse wheel zoom direction Reverses the zoom in out direction of the mouse wheel 65 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Editor e Always caps When checked this setting forces all keystrokes in the edit window to be in upper case e Auto arrange files This option enables the automatic tiling of the open documents e Open new file on startup When enabled a new blank document will be opened when NCPlot starts e Background color This button allows you to change the background color of the edit window Address Colors Opens a dialog that allows you to setup how the program is colored when the Colorize tool is applied to it To change the color settings double click the colored box next the address letter you want to change A color picker dialog opens and you can select the color for that address Color changes are automatically applied when colorizing is enabled via the menu Edit Colorize 66 Menus A B c D E F G H I J K L M N O We Q R Ss T U V W x Y Z Comment Expression Keyword Subprograms Opens the sub program assignment window This window is used to tell NCPIot where to find any sub programs that are called from your G Code program using M98 or G65 codes 67 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Fr b Sub Program Assignment Error if sub not found Error if sub not found Warn if sub not found Warn if sub no
8. NCPlot NCPGetSelected This function returns the selected portion of the edit window as a string NCPReplaceAll NCPlot NCPReplaceAll str1 str2 This function finds all occurrences of the string str1 and replaces them with the string str2 NCPFind NCPlot NCPFind strFind IngStart Options This function searches for the requested text in the active file and returns a pointer to the first matching string or 1 if no matches are found strFind is the text to search for IngStart is optional and specifies a position in the file to start searching from Options is optional and is the sum of 2 find whole word only 4 match case 8 don t highlight found text Format Functions NCPRenumber NCPlot NCPRenumber StartBlock BlockIncrement MaxDigits Rstyle AddSpace Renumbers the currently loaded file 146 StartBlock BlockIncrement MaxDigits RStyle AddSpace NCPColorize NCPlot NCPColorize Scripting Reference The starting block number Block number increment Maximum number of digits in block number Renumber style 0 Remove block numbers 1 Renumber all blocks 2 Renumber all but blank and comment blocks 3 Renumber referenced blocks only 4 Renumber existing block numbers only 0 No space after block number 1 Add space after block number Applies the address color settings to the loaded program NCPAddSpaces NCPlot NCPAddSpaces Equivalent to the Add Spaces tool NCPRemove
9. OOO Si II IIS iO 66 SUD PI AS ui 67 DXF Layer ts 69 INORG 56 ING Sinn a a i aada ah d oa od a ace 69 Export Se WINGS lt c c2a05 ceieeiGineediGieie died 69 Machine ic 55 isd a see oe saad ae eee cee soled aeaee ae arae onde eeaeee eaat ara Eae excuse 71 es Mope cadre denied aid Ned it Debit ad Ned ik Dail ad Ns ik Died ad Nd Died ad Nd a he 71 Cale Menez cae cn ected cece hee oh de eh eh te A a oS de NDA 72 Expression Calculator sasevencseceecncusevenecadet ence enwuraenaee ence uasuamensueanet essteheueaenensheaet eco em 72 SNOW Wanadoo e ted 72 Re mb r VAMADIES iii ii iii ad 72 Windows Calculator A A A de 72 Selec E E SS iat E a EEEE as aa 72 A A A E A AA TAA TAA EEE ATA 73 o oa A INR 73 Blend RAQIUS it a A tacto 73 A A A A A eos ee et el nad ee aad A ae 74 MESSI NAAA 74 VIEW Men cent ttl Sete ds a ps date dd ado ad a le tN he eos dd pd pd ad de 74 TOP MEW LAIA AAA E A ioe 74 Bottom VIEWS o A AS ZE 74 FOIE VIG AAA A E II A AN A eet edn teat ee les 74 A A EAEE AR E A A EN 74 RIO AIRE AR AA A do cota 74 EEI AA EN A PAE EAEE T ETE TT eek deme eokcen ec ext Cesk ETRIE AE TEETE 75 SOMETE VIEW tc a ae 75 FTOMT TUTOL VIS Weed ta E A An A it dee ze 75 Back TuUret VIEW otra tt tra lote ladra ia tl dro Intel ndo Ima ROY ORE RATERS ERATE 75 Vertical beft erene A SATA A ek tke 75 Vertical AN 75 SETAS RO ONO A IDA DA 76 Clear RETOCAR AR AAA AAA AA RARAS 76 A A A A A 76 OOM XESS asin SS AN SA PASADA 76 A AAA A A A ae E AR O AR O 76 V A
10. Remove Comment GN Sit A A A ad 52 Add BIOCIDAS AAA ts 52 Remove Block Skip AAA A A ens 52 Convert TOA CAS ARIAS RA AEREA AAA ARA ACA noes 52 Remove Redundant Endpoints ooooccccccccocononccccccncncnnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 53 MAA ons A Oe RAR A ote 53 Display Precision srecne E E 53 Macro TTANSIALON scree rd ado ad o a rs dd ade dd id a ananda aa aa 53 Texto SOS e NA A oO Gu I Ee ade 53 Conver selected to COTO aie a he ae ec haloes 55 UL een eer ae IA II RN A A eS a SANA 55 A A VERO BR OURET A SLVR ROT E a a a E a a 55 MEL o ee ot ek ds a dnd dos do do e o de AS 55 A TE I TT E EET S TAA 56 MultiStep Translate uscar A a a naa 56 Gonvert Coordinates To AB nina di a An da dit 57 Convert Coordinates To ING fe ic reiii mairi ii ti nd id id 57 Address Adjustments 3300000 AAA AAA A 57 Address Replace ooo 57 Address REMOVE td 57 PACUOEESS SWAP cda td ad TAREA EA AEREA cota ERA ARANA AAA AAA EA 57 Address Calc idol 58 Convert Arc Centers TO ABS 0000 A SAS AAA i 60 GoOnvert Aro Centers TO INC a ld ua dao daa die 60 CONVERTIR TOM DO TA A A A A A ME 60 Convert Are MECO e o oia 60 Break Arcs lnto Lines it tdo 60 Break Ares ALQUILA AS A 61 Break Lines Into Segments eenen 61 FRU Time Estimation orto 61 Show Entity ed 62 Show Modal State noir tl ANA i A At 63 Setup Men Ad AI AAA RAI RE Dar eter a 63 TODD AS LL A A ee teeters 63 NCPlot v2 26 Manual PYClEreCH GCS ud dt AA a AA AAA AA ARAS 63 Address
11. Remove Garbage This tool fixes non standard end of line characters Any combination of carriage return and line feed characters are converted to standard CR LF format This tool also converts TAB characters ASCII 09 to spaces and removes all other control characters It also converts any extended characters ASCII 128 thru 255 to standard characters Add Comment Chars This tool adds comment characters or to the beginning and end of each selected line in the program If nothing is selected then no changes are made The comment character is selectable on the Machine Configuration Remove Comment Chars This tool removes comment characters or from each selected line of the program The comment character is selectable on the Machine Configuration Add Block Skip Chars This tool adds the block skip character to the beginning of each selected line in the program If nothing is selected then no changes are made Remove Block Skip Chars This tool removes the block skip character from each selected line of the program Convert to All Caps This tool converts the program to all caps including comments 52 Menus Remove Redundant Endpoints Many controllers only require axis endpoints that are changed from previous blocks This tool reduces program size by removing axis endpoints that are specified but not changed from the previous block Tools Menu Display Precision Selects the number of decimal places for
12. TRUE 0 EQ 0 FALSE These two comparisons are the only two that handle 0 NE 0 TRUE 0 and 0 as being different 0 GT 0 FALSE 0 GE 0 TRUE In general the variable 0 shouldn t be used in expressions Its use should be limited to EQ and NE comparisons and variable assignments Macro Statements In addition to variables and expressions the macro language uses a few macro statements that can control the flow of the program Here is a list of the macro statements IF GOTO IF THEN GOTO WHILE DO DO END You ll notice that a few of the statements are grouped together This is because the statements work together to determine the exact function performed These macro statements are recognized but not supported by NCPlot POPEN DPRNT BPRNT PCLOS These statements are recognized by the interpreter and the formatting tools but are ignored by the backplotter Examples IF 100EQ1 GOTO100 108 Macro B Programming Support When this block is executed the expression 100EQ1 is evaluated and if it is TRUE then the statement GOTO100 causes the program to jump to N100 If it is FALSE the program execution continues to the next block The expressions used by IF statements do not have to be comparisons The expression is considered to be TRUE if the result of the expression is non zero So any valid expression may be used with the IF statement IF 100LT 101 THEN 102 5 When this block
13. This command is in the format 3000 100 MACRO MESSAGE 3006 Macro Message Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a macro message Unlike variable 3000 this command does not terminate the program Program execution continues after acknowledging the message This command is in the format 3006 100 MACRO MESSAGE 3009 User Prompt Message This variable allows your programs to prompt the user for input during execution This is a special variable in NCPlot and is not based on an actual function of a CNC control Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a user input box and allows the user to enter a value The command format is 3009 100 ENTER POCKET DIAMETER The comment text is displayed in the input box along with the current contents of the specified variable number In this example the variable number is 100 A new value entered into this box is then saved to this variable 120 4001 4020 4201 4220 Macro B Programming Support G Modals Pre Read Block G Modals Execution Block The group 0 codes are non modal and do not appear in the system variables They are included here for the sake of completeness NCPlot does not support all of the G Codes listed here but will store them in the proper group when encountered in a program Group 0 G92 4201 Group 1 4203 Group 3 4205 Group 5 4206 Group 6 4207 Group 7 4209 Group
14. operator 100 101 EQ 102 OR 103 EQ 104 Variable 100 is assigned a value of 1 if 101 equals 102 OR 103 equals 104 otherwise it gets a value of 0 AND operator 100 101 EQ 1 AND 102 EQ 2 Variable 100 is assigned a value of 1 if 101 equals 1 AND 102 equals 2 otherwise it gets a value of 0 XOR operator 100 101 EQ 1 XOR 102 EQ 2 Variable 100 is assigned a value of O if both expressions are true or both expressions are false If one is true and the other is false 100 is assigned a value of ale Program Levels and Local Variables Local variables are variable numbers 1 to 99 and are typically used as temporary use variables for subprograms Even though the variable numbers are the same each program level has it s own set of local variables The program level changes any time you call or return from a subprogram The main program is always level 0 A subprogram call from the main program is level 1 The G65 macro call command allows passing values to the subprogram through local variables This table shows the correspondence between the letter addresses and the variable numbers The x denotes letters that cannot be used to pass variables Variable Address 1 A 2 3 7 8 9 10 11 30000 TO x 105 NCPlot v2 26 Manual 4 5 6 0 J00d uN pS Se de e e e e 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 NK XMS SQGHNDOVO4Z EAN GH Local variable exam
15. subprograms in several locations The order in which the search takes place is e The currently loaded file is searched first Programs in the edit file are identified by a line that begins with the colon character or the letter O followed by a number and optionally a comment For example 01234 MILLING SUB e The subprogram association list is searched next The subprogram association list is on the subprogram setup dialog and can be opened by clicking the menu Setup Subprograms The subprogram association list allows you to assign a specific file to a specific program number To create a new association click the Add button on the subprogram setup 38 Machine Configuration window You will be prompted for the program number to assign Enter the program number and you can then browse for the file that contains the G Code program for the specified program number There is no limit to the number of associations you can assign The subprogram default folder is searched next This is also a setting on the subprogram setup window and defines a folder to be searched for subprograms Subprogram files in this folder must be named in a specific format in order for NCPlot to locate them The file names should be the program number optionally preceded by the letter O File extensions are ignored These are examples of valid file names 01234 NC 1234 NC 012345678 TXT The folder of the active edit program file is se
16. 1 33 Variable Address Variable Address 1 A 14 N x 2 B 15 Ox 3 E 16 P x 7 D 17 Q 115 NCPlot v2 26 Manual 8 E 18 R 9 F 19 S 10 G xX 20 T 11 H 21 U 4 T 22 V 5 J 23 W 6 K 24 X 12 L x 25 Y 13 M 26 Z 100 999 Common variables The number and range of common variables will depend on your control On many controls adding more common variables is an extra cost option 1000 System variables System variables are used by the CNC and should only be changed by your macro program with great care The actual range of variables depends on your particular control but the variables recognized by NCPlot are described here 3000 Macro Alarm Message Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a macro message Because this is an alarm message this command also terminates the program This command is in the format 3000 100 MACRO MESSAGE 3006 Macro Message Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a macro message Unlike variable 3000 this command does not terminate the program Program execution continues after acknowledging the message This command is in the format 3006 100 MACRO MESSAGE 3009 User Prompt Message This variable allows your programs to prompt the user for input during execution This is a special variable in NCPlot and is not based on an actual function of a CNC control Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to di
17. 14022 14042 19942 19962 19982 Y axis 70002 70022 70042 7043 7903 7923 7943 Z axis 14003 14023 14043 19943 19963 19983 Z axis 70003 70023 70043 4th 4th G54 1 P298 75944 G54 1 P299 75964 G54 1 P300 75984 Macro B Programming Support 75941 75942 75943 75961 75962 75963 75981 75982 75983 NCPIot uses system variables to pass some additional information to the canned cycles These variables are specific to NCPIot 5100 Machine Type 0 Mill 1 Lathe Radius 2 Lathe Diameter 5101 Canned Cycle Absolute Depth The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle depth 5102 Canned Cycle Absolute R plane The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle R plane 5103 Canned Cycle Absolute Initial point The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle initial point 5110 4th axis address assignment This variable will contain a value that indicates the letter address assigned to the 4th axis The possible values are 1 A 2 B 3 C 21 U 22 V and 23 W Lathe Variables Format A This map details the variables recognized by NCPlot While most controls that can be programmed in Macro B format will conform to this layout you should check your controls documentation to be sure 0 Always lt empty gt 1 99 Local variables Note that on some controls this is
18. 19 S 10 G x 20 T 11 H 21 U 4 I 22 V 5 J 23 W 6 K 24 X 12 L x 25 Y 13 M 26 Z 100 999 Common variables The number and range of common variables will depend on your control On many controls adding more common variables is an extra cost option 1000 System variables System variables are used by the CNC and should only be changed by your macro program with great care The actual range of variables depends on your particular control but the variables recognized by NCPlot are described here 3000 Macro Alarm Message Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a macro message Because this is an alarm message this command also terminates the program This command is in the format 3000 100 MACRO MESSAGE 3006 Macro Message Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a macro message Unlike variable 3000 this command does not terminate the program Program execution continues after acknowledging the message This command is in the format 3006 100 MACRO MESSAGE 3009 User Prompt Message This variable allows your programs to prompt the user for input during execution This is a special variable in NCPlot and is not based on an actual function of a CNC 111 NCPlot v2 26 Manual control Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a user input box and allows the user to enter a value The command format is 3009 100 ENTER POCKET DIAMETER The comment t
19. 5304 G59 5324 4320 X axis 5001 5021 5041 X axis 5221 5241 5261 5281 5301 5321 Y axis 5002 5022 5042 Y axis 5222 5242 5262 5282 5302 5322 Macro B Programming Support Z axis 4th 5003 5023 5043 Z axis 4th 5223 5243 5263 5283 5303 5323 The extended work offsets share values between the variable ranges listed here This means that when a value is entered into 7001 the same value is also written to 14001 and 70001 This makes the offset values available at any of the three variable ranges Extended Work Offsets 48 Offsets axis G54 1 Pl 7004 G54 1 P2 7024 X axis 7001 7021 Y axis 7002 7022 Z axis 4th 7003 7023 113 NCPlot v2 26 Manual G54 1 P3 7044 G54 1 P46 7904 G54 1 P47 7924 G54 1 P48 7944 7041 7901 7921 7941 Extended Work Offsets 300 Offsets axis G54 1 G54 G54 PL 14004 1 PZ 14024 1 P3 14044 G54 G54 G54 1 P298 19944 1 P299 19964 1 P300 19984 X axis H H 4001 4021 14041 19941 19961 19981 Extended Work Offsets 300 Offsets axis 654 1 G54 G54 1 114 Pl 70004 1 PZ 70024 P3 70044 X axis 70001 70021 70041 7042 7902 7922 7942 Y axis 14002
20. Arc Tolerance Control Settings G M Codes 0 001 Interpreter Customize _ ATAN Function Viewport Settings sol Work Offsets Use two operand format ATAN 1 2 Miscellaneous Extended Work Offsets Cc 7 Sacer Use one operand format ATAN 1 604 Dwell Address x Run Ti Esti i Rotary 4th 909 aai Comments Coordinate Resolution 0 0001 Parantheses Comment G00 G02 G03 are non Modal a C Brackets Comment Allow Addresses with no value E Initial State Goo G17 G40 G90 This page contains some of the most important settings for determining how your G Code programs are interpreted First off is the Rapid Type setting This setting should be set to match how your machine responds to a multiple axis simultaneous rapid move Select Interpolated if all your machine axes arrive at their endpoints at the same time If the axes reach the endpoints one at a time this would be Non Interpolated sometimes called Dog Leg Some controls use a third method which is generally safer than the other two This method is called Z First Last and will always move the Z axis by itself either before or after the X amp Y axes depending on which direction the Z is going If you intend to backplot programs in the Custom Macro B format you should set the ATAN Function Format setting This setting determines the format that is expected 24 Machine Configuration when an ATAN function is encountered in the program In ge
21. Calculator is a programming calculator that will evaluate expressions given in Macro B format See also Expression Calculator Show Variables The Show Variables menu enables the Variable Display window This window is a tool designed to help you debug programs written in Fanuc Macro B format For help on using this tool please see Macro Debugging Renumber Variables The Renumber Variables menu opens the Renumber Macro Variables window This window is a tool that will display the macro variables used by your program and allows you to renumber them For more information please see the topic Macro Variable Renumber Tool Windows Calculator This menu item launches the Calculator application Select Entities 72 Menus These selection tools make it easy to select logical groups of entities on the viewport This menu contains three submenus e Select Chain This tool is useful for selecting 2D profiles Just select one entity that is part of the profile then select this tool All entities that are connected to the selected one and at the same Z depth are selected automatically e Select by Z This tool will go through the entire backplot and select all entities that are at the same Z depth as the currently selected entity This makes it easy to select all profiles that are at a given depth e Select Arcs by Radius This tool will select only arc entities that are the same radius as the currently selected arc You could then
22. Clicking this panel toggles between the Skip ON and Skip OFF state This toggle is equivalent to the Block Delete switch you would find on your machine control panel When ON this toggle causes NCPlot to ignore skip program blocks that begin with the block delete character 13 NCPlot v2 26 Manual e Active Program indicates the name of the currently selected program This panel is used when there is more than one program in your edit file Clicking this panel will display a list of all programs in the file and allows you to select the program you wish to backplot e Current Configuration indicates the name of the currently loaded machine configuration settings Clicking this panel will display a list of the available configurations Click one of the items on this pop up list and the selected configuration is then loaded e Scripts panel is a shortcut to the available script files Clicking this panel will display a list of the available scripts Click one of the items on this pop up list and the selected script is executed The available scripts are stored in the folder Program files NCPlot Scripts e Messages panel displays messages related to the active operation Tool List Toolbar The tool list toolbar displays a list of the tool numbers used by the program and is updated whenever the graphics view is refreshed A check mark appears next to each tool number in list Clicking the check mark will toggle its checked state By un
23. Configuration dialog X amp Y axis mirror OFF Multiple subprogram call formats are supported Use the Machine Configuration dialog to select the format that your control recognizes For details about choosing a subprogram format please see Plotting Subprograms Local subprogram call M98 P1 L1 L K Repeat count M98 P1 K1 xxxx Repeat count M98 7 Pxxxxyyyy yyyy Program number Pa P1 H1 H Block number M98 O1 O Block number M98 P1 Q1 L1 Q Block number M99 P1 Return from sub program When M99 is commanded in a sub program the P value specifies the block number to return to When commanded in the main program the P value causes execution to jump to the specified block number Adding Custom G Codes Additional cycles may be added to simulate G Codes not explicitly supported by NCPIot Open the Machine Configuration dialog to the G M Codes page and enter additional G Codes in the G Code Macros list The active configuration folder must contain a corresponding program file to handle the simulation of the additional codes The macro program file name is the corresponding G Code value times 10 For example the file name for G81 is G810 PRG This is to accommodate decimal G Codes such as G37 1 Custom G Codes are handled like a G65 subprogram addresses in the block are copied to local variables and the appropriate file is called as a subprogram 92 Macro B Programming Support What is Macro Programming
24. G91 incremental Values Address Adjustments This tool allows you to apply math operations to specific program addresses You can add subtract multiply or divide the program values by a given adjustment amount The Value Format string determines the format of the resulting values If no adjustment is applied by specifying 1 or O as the operation the specified addresses will simply be reformatted This makes it possible to change the value format of any address in the program Address Replace This tool allows you to replace any program address with another This is useful for changing the address letter for a 4th axis or when converting from one program format to another This tool does not affect comments so it s smarter than a simple find replace operation Address Remove This tool removes the selected addresses and their values from the program This also does not affect comments Address Swap This tool allows you to swap any two program addresses This tool does not affect comments so it s smarter than a simple find replace operation 57 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Address Calculator The address calculator is a tool that allows you to create custom program translations E b Address Calculator I 5 X J Calculation expressions F100 0 X CENTER OF SPHERE F101 0 Y CENTER OF SPHERE 102 5 Z CENTER OF SPHERE 103 7 RADIUS OF SPHERE 104 0 Z2 CUTOFF PLANE m 60 80X 100 X DIST 61 Y 101 Y DIST
25. P298 1994 19942 G54 1 P299 19961 19962 G54 1 P300 19987 19982 Extended Work Offsets 300 Offsets X axis Z axis G54 1 Pl 70001 70002 122 Macro B Programming Support G54 1 P2 70021 70022 G54 1 P3 70041 70042 G54 1 P298 75941 75942 G54 1 P299 75961 75962 G54 1 P300 75981 75982 NCPlot uses system variables to pass some additional information to the canned cycles These variables are specific to NCPlot 5100 Machine Type O Mill 1 Lathe Radius 2 Lathe Diameter 5101 Canned Cycle Absolute Depth The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle depth 5102 Canned Cycle Absolute R plane The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle R plane 5103 Canned Cycle Absolute Initial point The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle initial point 5110 4th axis address assignment This variable will contain a value that indicates the letter address assigned to the 4th axis The possible values are 1 A 2 B 3 C 21 U 22 V and 23 W 123 DXF Drawing File Support Exporting as DXF Drawing Files Any viewport graphic may be saved as a DXF drawing file This includes the part program backplot as well as any additional entities that have been created using the Calc tools To save a DXF file click the menu File Export DXF File and browse for or enter a filename to save to In addition the menu File Export Selected as DXF File allows saving only the selected vi
26. Wrap text around a cylinder or sphere Limit axis values to a specific range or translate only values that fall within a specific range Remove axis values when they fall in or outside of a specific range Duplicate an address value to another address And many others In place of the local variable numbers the letter addresses may be used in calculations For example X Z Y This statement will update block X values with the result of Z Y If no X address appears in the block then no change is made There are two modifiers that can be used with an axis address letter these are the exclamation point and the AT symbol When assigning a new value to an axis address the exclamation point will add the address to a block even if it doesn t already exist Likewise if the assigned value is lt empty gt the address will be removed from the block For example This statement will add the Z address to blocks that don t already have it 12 SOR X X Y Y This statement will duplicate A address values to the U address U A This statement will remove Z addresses from blocks that have them IZ 0 The address letter shortcuts cannot be used next to a macro keyword IF Z LE 0 THEN Z 0 In this case use the local variable instead IF 26 LE 0 THEN 26 0 When the AT symbol is used in front of an axis address the current absolute axis position is used in place of the value in the block This is helpful w
27. document NCPFileSave NCPlot NCPFileSave strFileToSave strPathToSaveAs Saves the active or specified file strFileToSave optional setting specifying the document corresponding to the given pathname If omitted the active document is assumed strPathToSaveAs optional setting specifying a pathname to save the file to If omitted the file is saved as its current name NCPExportDXF 140 Scripting Reference NCPlot NCPExportDXF strPath This function saves the current backplot graphic as a DXF file whose name is specified by strPath NCPSetConfig NCPlot NCPSetConfig cfgName Set machine configuration The value of cfgName should be the name of an existing configuration Mill for example NCPBrowseForFile NCPlot NCPBrowseForFile Opens the File Browse dialog for allowing the user to select a file Returns the selected filename with path Returns a Null string if the user clicks Cancel on the browse dialog NCPBrowseForFolder NCPlot NCPBrowseForFolder Opens the Folder Browse dialog for allowing the user to select a folder Returns the selected path without the ending P delimiter A Null string is returned if the user clicks Cancel on the browse dialog NCPGetFirstMatchingFile NCPlot NCPGetFirstMatchingFile strPath 141 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Returns the first matching directory entry that matches a given path string including wildcard characters This function returns the filename of the f
28. is executed and the expression 100LT 101 is TRUE then the variable 102 is assigned a value of 5 Otherwise 102 is not changed and execution continues with the next block IF 100GT 101 THEN GO X 100 If the expression 100GT 101 is TRUE then the X axis moves to the position contained in variable 100 Any valid G code block may follow the THEN statement GOTO200 When this block is executed the program jumps to N200 Since no IF statement is used this is called an unconditional jump WHILE 100LT 101 DO1 END1 The WHILE DO statements set up a conditional loop When the WHILE DO block is first encountered the expression 100LT 101 is evaluated If this expression is FALSE the program jumps to the block that contains the END statement If this expression is TRUE the program continues until the END statement is reached When the END is reached the WHILE expression is evaluated again If this expression is still TRUE the program jumps back to the WHILE DO block and the process repeats So essentially the program blocks between the WHILE DO block and the END block are repeated until the expression evaluates to FALSE The DO and END statements have numbers after them that identify which END block belongs to which WHILE DO block This is because WHILE DO loops may nested inside each other The valid loop numbers are from 1 to 30 DO2 109 NCPlot v2 26 Manual END2 This is a WHILE DO loop wi
29. issued for every block that requires one of these commands Some controls do not require all addresses to include a value In this case a command such as G00G91G28XYZ would be interpreted as GOO G91 G28 X0 YO ZO However this reduces the error checking ability of NCPlot so an option called Allow Addresses with no value can be used to set it the way you like When NCPlot begins to backplot a program it starts from a fixed G Code state That is certain G Codes are active by default such as GOO G90 G54 etc While this is acceptable for most controls you may have a machine that defaults to some other active state like G91 The Initial State setting is used to define the default state of your control For example if your control defaults to G91 you simple add G91 to the Initial state setting T b Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp amp 2 File 1 M98 Command Format a 2 bel Ae oK mo G Code Macros M98BP1L1 L K Repeat Count Add Apply Cancel M98P1K1 xxxx Repeat Count x eo Machine Configuration M98 Pxxxxyyyy yyyy Program Number sn Machine Type M98P1H1iL1 H Block Number G34 Control Settings G35 G M Codes C M9801 O Block Number G36 Interpreter Customize C M98P1Q1L1 Q Block Number 637 1 Viewport Settings Work Offsets Extended Work Offsets Canned Cyde Repeat Address DXF Options Run Time Estim
30. the machine configuration you can specify a different folder for each configuration The Default File Types setting is a list of file extensions that you want to associate with your programs This determines which file types are listed whenever you browse for a file to open or save Wildcard characters may be used as part of the extensions The Default Script Folder setting allows you to specify a folder location where you store scripts associated with the configuration When clicking the scripts panel on the status bar or the scripts toolbar button the script list is populated with scripts only 23 NCPlot v2 26 Manual from the specified folder If no folder is specified the default script folder at Program Files NCPlot v2 201Scripts is used For lathe configurations you may choose between G Code Format A and G Code Format B These two formats differ between some of the G Codes When you select one or the other a list of the G Codes and their function are displayed Select the format that most closely matches your control Control Settings b Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp e 28 File 1 kd ka ox Rapid Type Arcs Absolute Arc Centers Apply Cancel Interpolated C Interpol Dog z dei Si eo Reverse Arc Direction Machine Configuration XY Interpolated Z First Last eee
31. the next motion block in the program and highlights the corresponding block in the program window Step to Next Tool Draws the program up to the next tool change Step to Previous Tool Un draws the program back to the previous tool change Refresh Plot Refreshes the viewport with the current contents of the program window Plot To Cursor Draws the file from the beginning to the current cursor location Start at Cursor This item clears the viewport and sets the current program step point to the line in the program that the cursor is on You can then animate step forward or step backward from this point Plot From Cursor 78 Menus Draws the file from the current cursor location to the end Plot Selected Blocks This tool draws just the selected portion of the program Auto Refresh Viewport This menu item is an on off toggle setting that enables automatic refreshing of the viewport graphics after program edits are made A check mark next to this menu item indicates that auto refreshing is enabled There is a setting on the Preferences dialog called Animate Delay that determines how long NCPlot will wait between a change being made and refreshing the graphics Axis Lines Displays two or three depending on the view intersecting lines that indicate where 0 0 0 is on the viewport The actual location of the axis lines depends on the selected submenu item A check mark indicates which item is selected Off No axis li
32. the program is drawn one step at a time with this amount of delay time between steps Note that this delay time changes when the Animate speed slider toolbar control is moved e Auto refresh delay This setting determines how long the viewport will wait before refreshing after a change is made to the program This setting is ignored if the Auto Refresh Viewport setting is not enabled e Step fwd bkwd of steps This setting determines how many entities are drawn each time the program is stepped forward or backwards e Auto show entity info When checked the entity info window is automatically opened when an entity on the viewport is clicked Likewise when all entities are unselected the window will close e Enable right click menu When checked enables the right click popup menu e Plot file when loaded When checked enables automatically backplotting a file when it is loaded into the editor e Zoom on view change When checked the viewport will re zoom to the part extents anytime a new view orientation is selected e Zoom after translate When checked the viewport will re zoom to the part extents after a translation tool has been applied to the program e Stop at M00 When checked the backplotter will pause and display a message each time it encounters an MOO in the program When paused the backplot may be cancelled or resumed e Pause animation at tool changes When checked program animation will stop at tool changes
33. the viewport If any unsaved changes have been made to the current program you are prompted to save it before clearing the program Close All Closes all open files Compare Files Opens the file comparison tool END TABLE LEGS NC NCPLOT SAMPLE PROGRAM END TABLE LEGS 0 25 ROUTER BIT SIMPLE 2 5D PROFILED SHAPE G90 G17 G40 S6000 M03 M06 T01 GOO G43 H01 22 0 G00 X 0 088 Y 0 088 G01 Z 0 247 F100 0 G02 X 0 125 Y0 0 10 088 J0 088 F150 0 G01 Y2 511 G02 X0 491 Y3 125 I0 625 J 0 011 G01 X3 508 Y3 125 G03 X3 875 Y3 492 I 0 008 J0 375 G01 Y4 0 G02 X4 0 Y4 125 I0 125 J0 0 G01 X4 63 G03 Y4 625 I 0 005 J0 25 G01 X4 0 G02 X3 875 Y4 75 I0 0 J0 125 G01 X3 875 Y4 985 G03 X3 613 Y5 908 I 1 875 J 0 033 G01 X0 35 Y11 416 G02 X 0 125 Y13 209 I3 15 J1 793 G01 X 0 124 Y13 563 42 END TABLE LEGS NC NCPLOT SAMPLE PROGRAM END TABLE LEGS 0 25 ROUTER BIT SIMPLE 2 5D PROFILED SHAPE G43 H01 Z2 0 X 0 088 Y 0 088 Z 0 247 F10 0 X 0 125 Y0 0 10 088 JO 088 F150 0 Y2 511 X0 491 Y3 125 10 625 J 0 011 X3 508 Y3 125 X3 875 Y3 492 I 0 008 J0 375 Y4 0 X4 0 Y4 125 10 125 J0 0 X4 63 Y4 625 I 0 005 JO 25 X4 0 X3 875 Y4 75 10 0 J0 125 X3 875 Y4 985 X3 613 Y5 908 I 1 875 J 0 033 X0 35 Y11 416 X 0 125 Y13 209 13 15 J1 793 X 0 124 Y13 563 Menus This tool allows comparing two files and highlighting any differences It consists of a button bar option check boxes and the two
34. to be received Timeout after receive Once data has been received the COM port will close after nothing more has been received for this set amount of time The Transmit tab contains settings for transmitting data to the machine Handshaking This setting is currently ignored the XON XOFF handshaking method is always used Remove spaces while transmitting When this setting is enabled any spaces in the program will not be transmitted to the machine Wait for XON before transmitting Enabling this setting will cause NCPlot to wait for an XON character to be received from the machine before beginning transmission This allows you to start the data transmission from NCPlot and then go to the machine to begin receiving Wait for XXX seconds before transmitting Enabling this setting causes transmitting to begin after the specified time delay TX Header Tab allows you to set text to be transmitted before the main transmission begins TX Footer Tab allows you to set text to be transmitted after the main transmission ends Window Menu Tile Vertically This tool will automatically arrange the open documents side by side and size them to fill up the document workspace Tile Horizontally This tool will automatically arrange the open documents top to bottom and size them to fill up the document workspace 82 Menus Cascade This tool will automatically arrange the open documents so that they overlap with their wi
35. to control the order in which the layers are converted to G Code This is especially important because it determines the order in which your part is machined The layers will be converted in order from top to bottom layers that are off will be skipped To change the order click to select the layer name then click either the up or down arrow buttons to move it up or down in the list Set Machining Parameters When each layer is loaded they are initially assigned the default layer settings which comes from the current machine configuration The exception to this is when a loaded layer name matches one of the saved layer names In this case the layer is assigned the saved layer settings The layer settings that appear on the lower half of the conversion dialog are for the currently selected layer To select a layer click it s name in the layer list When a 127 NCPlot v2 26 Manual layer is selected it s name is highlighted in the layer list and the layer settings will update to show the settings for the selected layer Because of the way that NCPlot creates the G Code output it is important to set the Z depth settings in a logical order Z Retract should be the highest most positive value followed by Z Approach Top of Material Z Depth should be the lowest most negative value Changing one of the layer settings only affects the currently selected layer To copy settings from one layer to another first select the layer you wan
36. 01 G40 D00 S1600 G2 G17 Displays the active G Code from group 2 G12 G54 Displays the active G Code from group 12 G8H G43 H01 Displays the group 8 G Code plus the active H value Work Offsets 31 NCPlot v2 26 Manual amp T E Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp lee x File 2 tel 4 ox Apply Cancel E Machine Configuration Machine Type G M Codes Interpreter Customize Viewport Settings Work Offsets Extended Work Offsets DXF Options Run Time Estimating Rotary 4th Axis Just like your machine can accommodate multiple work offset coordinates NCPlot can also be configured to recognize multiple work locations This gives a backplot that accurately represents a multiple fixture setup Extended Work Offsets 32 Machine Configuration IE Machine Configuration CAProgram Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp lela 2 File H k In addition to the standard work offsets G54 through G59 NCPIot also supports the use of extended work offsets This configuration page allows the setting of your extended work offsets DXF Options 33 NCPlot v2 26 Manual f S Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp l oja zed e Z Approach Top of Material Plunge Feed Rate Z Increment Feed Rate zon L
37. 010 ig dels o AAA er Pot a A 76 7461 910 aA 1g Ree eee eee et et tet SE eRe RET OP TO tS 76 ONT IN ok Latah hdc ate E A iain acne Acie teed ih O ated od ated Aetna ada dhe TT ls z ee e ER RRA A A E A L E E ETEN Ste TT Loek Vertical ROOM 2d a eh deh dr des e don dedo TT Set ISO View Rotation Centers TT DTaWIMen situ A td TT ANIMAS einiaid ii it in td zzz TT Pads a E E A E T a E ad na E E TT Rewind to Beginning necne ete ae eee ees 77 vi Table Of Contents Forward A 78 A A A Sta cad eb dei E wad scteeal LR 78 Step to Next Os 78 Step to Previous TO A 78 A A n N E IN E N ee NCE a camer 78 Plot TO UI OF o Selah ee eee eae ae 78 A A II AI 78 PIOtErOmM CUSO sect cic ni a tie 78 Plot Selected BIOCKS 22 ease tec ese A sre h ad he e do uh tg eA teh a ok de dd 79 Auto Retresh A A EREE ebte Eet Eie 79 PUSIMOS A a a ee Se 79 Show Rapid MOVES aura id AA ins 79 SNOW WICKS sce A A A id Ri 79 SONOWAIWATKET 0 hs o RS A A 79 SnowPlundge MOVES iodo ence coerexet coetenet dberedet emetesetdmerescccdetens 80 Absolute Arc CCGG tesi to ae eee eee ate Lo ald 80 DNC MenlU cons altillo deal eats 80 o A O A A A A Ee 80 Send Selected in e as ik at ats at dat at date at rtati st at at tata Jat tate t Jat se iat 80 AA E ee ETE ae DE 80 A A A AN 80 RECEIVE ISI a ia 81 COMAESSUD Sri IEEE EE A AE bum Seen E 81 Pla A A A A A PERD AE OPRRRT 82 Tie Vertically a A a al a a a al ah cl i aaa aaan 82 A act cele cl cela Cele ce carla Cele ce carla i eE EEEE AE Cont
38. 6 Manual ABS Calculates the absolute value BIN Converts decimal to hexadecimal BCD Converts hexadecimal to decimal RND ROUND Value rounding FIX Returns the integer portion of a value FUP Fractional values are rounded up to the next whole number EXP Exponent The value passed to a function may be any valid expression 102 SOR 100 101 The contents of variables 100 and 101 are added and the square root of this result is calculated Comparisons The comparators are typically used with the IF GOTO or IF THEN macro statements However they may be used in any expression When used as part of an expression they return a value of 1 for TRUE or 0 for FALSE as their result Comparators are like operators in that they require two operands List of comparators EQ Equal to NE Not equal to LT Less than LE Less than or equal to GT Greater than GE Greater than or equal to Comparison examples 100 101 EQ 102 If 101 equals 102 then 100 is assigned a value of 1 If not it is assigned a value of 0 If comparators are used as part of a larger expression the comparison should be enclosed in brackets like this 100 10 101 EQ 102 5 If 101 equals 102 then the expression evaluates to 15 otherwise it evaluates to 5 Bitwise operators 104 Macro B Programming Support Bitwise operators are a convenient way of combining comparisons The bitwise operators are OR AND and XOR OR
39. 9 4210 Group 1 4212 Group 1 4214 Group 1 4217 Group 1 4301 4320 4301 A 4302 B 4303 G 4304 I 4305 J 4306 K 4307 D 4308 E 4309 F 4310 G Axis positions Last block endpoint Machine coordinate Work coordinate Work Offsets BNO G4 GO G90 G94 G20 G40 G70 G98 G54 G66 G96 H H de e e Y e e ds ds ds ds ds ds ds ds ds AD W 0 UY uy Y WWW UY NRRRERRRRRE DOMIHDGHBWNHE X axi 5001 5021 5041 G9 Gl G10 G11 G28 G52 G53 G65 G2 G3 G91 G95 G21 G41 G79 G99 G59 G67 G97 G42 G81 G89 G80 G54 1 Other Modals HnNWDAo VO a Ee a s Z axis 5002 5022 5042 121 NCPlot v2 26 Manual X axis Z axis G54 5221 5222 G55 5241 5242 G56 5261 5262 G57 5281 5282 G58 5301 5302 G59 5321 5322 The extended work offsets share values between the variable ranges listed here This means that when a value is entered into 7001 the same value is also written to 14001 and 70001 This makes the offset values available at any of the three variable ranges Extended Work Offsets 48 Offsets X axis Z axis G54 1 Pl 7001 7002 G54 1 P2 7021 7022 G54 1 P3 7041 7042 G54 1 P46 7901 7902 G54 1 P47 7921 7922 G54 1 P48 7941 7942 Extended Work Offsets 300 Offsets X axis Z axis G54 1 Pl 14001 14002 G54 1 P2 14021 14022 G54 1 P3 14041 14042 G54 1
40. CPGetPrefSetting strSetting Scripting Reference Returns the current value of the requested Preferences setting Valid setting names are AllowMultiplelnstances WarningFeedrateZero WarningSpindleOff WarningSpindleZero WarningReset AlwaysCaps AutoArrangeFiles OpenNewFileOnStartup BackgroundColor AnimateDelay AutoRefreshDelay Steps AutoShow EntityInfo RightClickMenu PlotFileWhenLoaded ZoomOnViewChange ZoomAfterTranslate StopAtMOO AnimateTCPause ReverseMouseWheelZoom SaveVariablesOnExit AllowMacroExpressionUpdating ScriptTimeout NCPSetPrefSetting NCPlot NCPSetPrefSetting strSetting newValue Sets the requested Preferences setting to newValue See topic NCPGetPrefSetting for a list of the valid setting names NCPGetSubprogramSetting 155 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPlot NCPGetSubprogramSetting strSetting Returns the current value of the requested Subprogram setting Valid setting names are M98Handling G65Handling DefaultPath NCPSetSubprogramSetting NCPlot NCPSetSubprogramSetting strSetting newValue Sets the requested subprogram setting to newValue See topic NCPGetSubprogramSetting for a list of the valid setting names NCPSubListAdd NCPlot NCPSubListAdd IngProgramNumber strPath Adds a new subprogram association to the subprogram association list IngProgramNumber is the program number to associate with an external file strPath is the pathname of the subprogram file NCPSubListRemove
41. CPViewZoomExtents NCPlot NCPViewZoomExtents This function is equivalent to the Zoom Extents tool NCPViewZoomAll 160 Scripting Reference NCPlot NCPViewZoomAll This function is equivalent to the Zoom All tool NCPPickPoint NCPlot NCPPickPoint X Y Z strMessage This function pauses script execution while it waits for the user to click a point on the viewport X returns the X coordinate of the clicked point Y returns the Y coordinate of the clicked point Z returns the Z coordinate of the clicked point strMessage is a message to display in the status bar NCPGetExtents NCPlot NCPGetExtents Xp Xm Yp Ym Zp Zm This function returns the axis extents for the active backplot Xp returns the X axis plus extent Xm returns the X axis minus extent Yp returns the Y axis plus extent Ym returns the Y axis minus extent Zp returns the Z axis plus extent Zm returns the Z axis minus extent 161
42. Cesena 82 O eee alee eis iia aio EEEE EE ae nash EE 83 A A E dda insets sds TEE 83 COSSA aan ein e ts tr lot dro teatro Ina te tra laa lod CAPE EAE 83 A E NAS AN 83 A O ees cistpeukersteeutcsuedess een aeoaea enig iere 83 Quick Start Reference 228 it A A AS A SA 83 Macro Programming Reference ennenen ennenen 83 Scripting Reference A O O aiaa 83 Release NOLES is ai SAS AS AAA A 84 A AAA A A A A AR O A A A eS 84 NO PIOCOR the WED 02 te O ADA O A te Rcd 84 Ordering i NCPIOL oros ee 84 Enable Network License Serve cccccccccceccceceeeeceucececeeueceuececeeeeuueeueeeeeeeaneeuees 84 Check Our License a 2d al nd eid eel nd ind led ed old al nd slp hee 84 Aa AAA E E RRA 85 License Manager Seti sonoro 85 Supported G amp M COGES ii A A a oolong 87 Mill G COGES ooo noice tistics td tn A drid 87 Late Format AG Olesa o nd lad bod bee 89 Lathe Format B G COdGS wai iach cca ctv A ele eddie ected 90 vii NCPlot v2 26 Manual A A E E E II E 91 Adding CUSTOM CCOO iii A AA AAA A 92 Macro B Programming SUPpOT Ec 93 What is Macro Programming coooooococcooonononcnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns 93 Macro D buggiN ie tit 93 Macro Translator 95 Macro Calcula adi s 97 Macro Variable Renumber Tool onu ii A A A A Meso ne 97 Canned EIC A AAA eet eaters 99 Macro Programming Reference s cscccseceeeseueeeeeeedeeeeeeedeeeseeedeeeeeeedeeeseeedeteeeteners 100 Whatare Variables 0000 100 What are Expres
43. E ae ee rE AP ATA A Ce E MO IS 143 NCP IRS MING en iat tae ae SS AS Jatt athe iat st ots take ae 144 NEP GeINUMEIRGS 224 te 4 oe o to dB pe dd ado dd ANO dedo a bd 144 NO PGC IG ia A A A A A 144 NGP GetkinelndeX cta cia 144 NEPGetLMeNITA DEF ett ln El iba 144 NLE ETIDE ONA ROS EE dario 145 NCPSetC rsor POS tin dad don ad de ad do eed et dos e da dd de 145 NOP SCIECIA ME a cidcid aaa ata 145 NEP los ooo 145 NOPOOS electa tai it A A AA EEEE EEEE EAE AA A e 145 NGCPReplace All nran nein nadir pin tts mid dst mids eat ad haiti med ee mad tds Pikes 146 NC P Pine 195 pis IS O A ASS sat 146 Format UM CUO S25 coc ewe Gat iesidaiida iii icidaimidai iia 146 NGCPRenumbe ie 2122 146 NCGPCOIONZC tt AR AA AAA AA AAA ARA AAA 147 NEPACISDACOS cti EIA EA ube dues EA A A A AiO 147 NOPREIMOVE SPICE SS AS A AAA 147 NCPRemoveLeadingSpaces cccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 148 NCPRemoveTrailingSpaces coccinininicinoninnnannnananin tees eeneneeeeeneteneseneneneeeneneeeeeneres 148 NCPReEMOVeEBIANKEINGS aos o pos 148 NGPRREMOVEC OMIME iS eco A ii 148 NCPRemoveGarbage odio indi ii ii oe ned hel oat ii 148 NC PAIIG ADS nc naaa ad tuk de tan anton ey eh dd ed a do te ad eh dd eh dd e eee 149 NEPRemove Redundante 149 TOOS FUNCIONS udne A E an 149 NEPCONVEN TO dE cuidadito 149 NCPMITO Ct e do eb nd e nd ant nto 149 ALO ARLO E Nie 000 E A NT AS A A Ad 149 NCPlot v2 26 Manual O IN 150 NEPSCA dd ro A 150 NCPAddressAdjUS
44. EXIENIS sordos 160 NOPMIeEWZO0MA lisis da 160 NG PPICKP Oia ad 161 NO PGCIEX ers cs a a elas arabes o estate aa eN eed 161 Welcome Welcome to NCPlot NCPlot v2 26 Copyright 2005 2012 NCPlot Software LLC For the latest release information news or if you can t find what you need in this help file please check the online forums at www ncplot com We can also be contacted directly at Email scottmartinez ncplot com Registering NCPlot When NCPlot is first installed you are given a 15 day trial period During this time the software is fully functional allowing you to evaluate it s suitability for your needs After the trial period has expired NCPlot will no longer run without a registration key These may be purchased from the online ordering page at http www ncplot com The web site contains current pricing and ordering information To register NCPlot enter your registration name and product key into the splash window This window is displayed every time NCPlot starts but may also be accessed from the menu Help About Note that the splash window is not displayed at startup after the software has been successfully registered 3Dconnexion Devices If you have a 3Dconnexion device such as a SpaceNavigator SpaceExplorer or SpacePilot NCPlot will recognize and allow you to use this device to pan rotate and zoom the viewport NCPlot provides a configuration dialog that allows you to customize yo
45. Enter the radius and an arc will be created on the viewport that is tangent to both lines at the given radius 73 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Point at Center This tool will create points representing the center of each of the selected entities Measure This tool will report the X Y Z and overall distance between the endpoints of the two selected endpoints View Menu Top View The Top view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the right side of the screen and the Y toward the top This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Bottom View The Bottom view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the left side of the screen the Y toward the top This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Front View The Front view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the right side of the screen and the Z toward the top This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Back View The Back view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the left side of the screen and the Z toward the top This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Right View 74 Menus The Right view mode displays the axes with the Y direction toward the right side of the screen and the Z toward the top This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Left View The Left view mode displays the axes wit
46. F62 SQR F60 F60 61 61 IF 62GTF103 THEN 62 103 63 102 SQR 103 103 62 62 IF 63LT 104 THEN 63 104 Z 2 63 4 mm b Go Cancel e For each block in the program the address values are loaded into local variables and one or more calculation expressions can be performed The address values can be updated based on the calculation results or even removed from the program The expressions are given in the Macro B format and can include the IF THEN macro keywords Expression lists may be saved or loaded via the load or save buttons By default they are saved as text txt files This tool works similarly to the other translation tools such as Mirror Rotate Shift and Scale in that you can translate all or selected portions of the file However the translation to be performed is determined by the calculations you specify Any number of calculation steps can be used as well as any local or common variables Note that the local variables 1 through 26 are set to the values in the block being processed before the calculations are performed When calculations are finished the addresses in the block are updated to the current state of their corresponding local variable To simplify things the letter addresses may be used in expressions in place of their variable number There are many possible uses 58 Menus Custom translations such as 3D plane rotation twist or wrap around a cylinder
47. G56 5261 5262 G57 5281 5282 G58 5301 5302 G59 5321 5322 The extended work offsets share values between the variable ranges listed here This means that when a value is entered into 7001 the same value is also written to 14001 and 70001 This makes the offset values available at any of the three variable ranges Extended Work Offsets 48 Offsets X axis Z axis G54 1 Pl 7001 7002 G54 1 P2 7021 7022 G54 1 P3 7041 7042 G54 1 P46 7901 7902 G54 1 P47 7921 7922 G54 1 P48 7941 7942 Extended Work Offsets 300 Offsets X axis Z axis G54 1 Pl 14001 14002 G54 1 P2 14021 14022 G54 1 P3 14041 14042 G54 1 P298 1994 19942 G54 1 P299 19961 19962 G54 1 P300 19981 19982 Extended Work Offsets 300 Offsets X axis Z axis G54 1 Pl 70001 70002 G54 1 P2 70021 70022 G54 1 P3 70041 70042 118 654 1 654 1 654 1 Macro B Programming Support P298 75941 75942 P299 75961 75962 P300 75981 75982 NCPIot uses system variables to pass some additional information to the canned cycles These variables are specific to NCPIot 5100 Machine Type O Mill 1 Lathe Radius 2 Lathe Diameter 5101 Canned Cycle Absolute Depth The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle depth 5102 Canned Cycle Absolute R plane The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle R plane 5103 Canned Cycle Absolute Initial point
48. Horizontal Machine Configuration Machine Type Control Settings G M Codes Cc Interpreter Customize pe Viewport Settings Work Offsets Extended Work Offsets DXF Options rage ee Default Program Folder Rotary 4th Axis gt Default Script Folder Default File Types NC CNC TAP TXT The most basic configuration setting is the Machine Type you should first select between Mill and Lathe before configuring the remaining settings Choosing one or the other will change or enable disable other settings on the dialog If you selected Mill you now have the option to select between Vertical spindle and Horizontal spindle If you selected Lathe you now have the option to select between Radius Coordinate values and Diameter Coordinate values This setting determines how NCPlot interprets the X U axis command values The Lathe type also has a check box that allows the direction of G2 G3 arc commands to be reversed Also on this page is a setting called Default Program Folder This setting can be set to point to a folder where the G Code programs for this particular machine configuration are stored Say for example you have a configuration for a Makino vertical machining center All the programs for it are stored at C Jobs MakinoVMC Simply set the default program folder to this folder then any time you want to open a file the File Open dialog will open right to this folder Since this setting is part of
49. IX 2 15 Break Expr Display Level 18 R 0 5 This window provides several important tools for debugging macro programs Several controls are combined into a toolbar e Macro Animate Executes the program one block at a time with a timed interval in between blocks The variable display is updated after each block e Pause Stops a program being executed e Macro Step Executes one block of the program and updates the variable display e Run to Cursor Executes the program at high speed until it reaches the block that the cursor is on e Run to Break Executes the program at high speed until the break expression becomes True The break expression is tested after every program block e Clear Variables Allows clearing of all local and common variables to empty The Current Block display shows the next block to be executed as it appears in the program The Eval Block display shows the same block with any expressions 94 Macro B Programming Support replaced with their evaluated values This allows you to see the resulting block before it is executed The local variable display level may be changed using the up and down arrow buttons This allows checking local variables for each of the 6 subprogram levels Right clicking the variable display will pop up a menu with these options e Add System Variable This option allows adding any system variable to the variable display You will be pro
50. Manager Settings Find license manager automatically C Specify license manager IP address A C Specify license manager hostname Ok Cancel 85 Supported G M Codes Mill G Codes coo Rapid motion NCPlot supports displaying rapid motion as interpolated straight line dog leg or Z first last Feed motion NCPlot supports G01 corner rounding and corner chamfering Including an R value in a G01 block will create a radius that is tangent to the lines created by the current block and the next block Including a C value in a G01 block will create a chamfer between the current block and the next block oe Clockwise arc The G02 arc command supports G17 G18 and G19 modes absolute and incremental J K specified center point R specified center point and helical interpolation Counterclockwise arc The G03 arc command supports G17 G18 and G19 modes absolute and incremental J K specified center point R specified center point and helical interpolation 615 G15 651 Coordinate system scaling G50 1 G52 Localworkshit SS Work offset 1 Also supports extended work offsets P1 through P300 G00 G01 G02 G03 G28 G50 G51 G52 53 G54 G55 87 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Macro modal call Macro modal call cancel Coordinate system rotation Coordinate system rotation off Canned cycle cancel G70 G89 Canned cycles Absolute coordinate system Incremental coordinate system Coo
51. NCPlot v2 26 User Manual Copyright 2012 NCPlot Software LLC Table Of Contents RN 1 Registering NOPIOL 2 e e e 2s dea 2 dea Za cle 3 3Dconnexion DEVICES A A A AA AS 5 Getting Started SAA 7 Eo snin e Tannen Tene nner Ten Tene n Tene NT eNTen Tere ee aee 7 TOP di 8 WOO IDANS 2 A A A AEE EET 9 Open Alles ODIA somente AEE sc ESERER RSE NENAS poweenep eae sents poseemepeaseeasensaeente 9 A a a a a a 10 A A aee Aa E aA aAa e EAE a EET a eraa a aE aeae 10 View toolbar tn a ES AD SER ESA LAR AAA 10 Zoom tool DMA a 11 Plot toolbar eteni enteen aee eeen eoe ieo 11 Setup t olbar dia AD SOS 12 View fade toolbar unica Ltda An settee ants cad AREA AA EA RAAR AAA TAS 12 AIM LOO ID A AA A E A IA 12 TOO SL OO Dis SATA AA AAA TAS 13 AUS Bal ices A EEEE EEEE 13 TOO MESE Toolbar cra ony Non Sete O A O A A AA 14 Viewport Pan Rotate ANd Z00M cccccccoccnnccccoccnnnonnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnoncnnnnonannnnnnnnanennnnnnaness 16 Pan and Rotate for Isometric 3D view eeren 16 Panning for all other views unto ou eel a edd at eed lol lio lod cbc 17 ZOOMING A ee rectal See teat e a es hts ae tits ate hts cate eka 17 Viewport Keyboard ShoriGuis cuccminasaparasasaparaca aparador 17 Selecting Entities on the Viewport oooococccccocecccenecenenennnenenenenenenennnenenerennecenenenes 18 PIOU SQ RINGS 201 AAA AAA ATA AAA ATAR AAA AAA AA AAA 19 A A sxbe ce Secu Stee Saeueter Gaur eten Ga ak atevGcaneeensa nator E EEG 19 SHOW Rapid MOVES
52. NCPlot NCPSubListRemove IngProgramNumber Removes a subprogram association from the subprogram association list IngProgramNumber The program number of the association to remove 156 Scripting Reference NCPSubListRemoveAll NCPlot NCPSubListRemoveAll Removes all subprogram associations from the subprogram association list NCPGetSubListCount NCPlot NCPGetSubListCount Returns the number of items in the subprogram association list NCPGetSubListltem NCPlot NCPGetSubListltem intindex IngProgramNumber strPath Returns the program number and pathname of the requested item number in the subprogram association list intindex The specified item number from 1 to the number of items in the subprogram association list IngProgramNumber The returned program number of the requested item strPath The returned pathname of the requested item NCPGetColorSetting NCPlot NCPGetColorSetting intAddress Returns the value of the requested address color intAddress value from 1 to 30 indicating the requested address 157 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPSetColorSetting NCPlot NCPSetColorSetting intAddress newValue 255 Sets the value of the requested address color intAddress value from 1 to 30 indicating the requested address newValue the new color value Color values are calculated by the formula BLUE 65536 GREEN 256 RED Where the RED GREEN and BLUE are color intensity values between 0 and
53. Spaces NCPlot NCPRemoveSpaces Equivalent to the Remove Spaces tool 147 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPRemoveLeadingSpaces NCPlot NCPRemoveLeadingSpaces Equivalent to the Remove Leading Spaces Tool NCPRemoveTrailingSpaces NCPlot NCPRemoveTrailingSpaces Equivalent to the Remove Trailing Spaces tool NCPRemoveBlankLines NCPlot NCPRemoveBlankLines Equivalent to the Remove Blank Lines tool NCPRemoveComments NCPlot NCPRemoveComments Equivalent to the Remove Comments tool NCPRemoveGarbage NCPlot NCPRemoveGarbage Equivalent to the Remove Garbage tool 148 Scripting Reference NCPAIICaps NCPlot NCPAIICaps Equivalent to the Convert To All Caps tool NCPRemoveRedundant NCPlot NCPRemoveRedundant Equivalent to the Remove Redundant Endpoints tool Tools Functions NCPConvertText NCPlot NCPConvertText Invokes the Text To G Code tool using the current settings See the topic NCPSetTTGsSetting for setting the Text To G Code settings NCPMirror NCPlot NCPMirror Xpoint Ypoint Zpoint Mirror axis endpoints The MirrorPoint values specify the center point for mirroring on that axis If a value is omitted no mirroring is performed on that axis NCPRotate NCPlot NCPRotate xCenter yCenter zCenter Angle Plane 149 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Rotate program coordinates Specify X rotation center Y rotation center Z rotation center rotation angle and optionally the rotation plane Plane shou
54. The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle initial point 5110 4th axis address assignment This variable will contain a value that indicates the letter address assigned to the 4th axis The possible values are 1 A 2 B 3 C 21 U 22 V and 23 W Lathe Variables Format B can be This map details the variables recognized by NCPlot While most controls that programmed in Macro B format will conform to this layout you should check your controls documentation to be sure 0 Always lt empty gt 1 99 Local variables Note that on some controls this is 1 33 Variable Address Variable Address 1 A 14 N x 2 B 15 Ox 3 E 16 P x 7 D 17 Q 119 NCPlot v2 26 Manual 8 E 18 R 9 F 19 S 10 G xX 20 T 11 H 21 U 4 T 22 V 5 J 23 W 6 K 24 X 12 L x 25 Y 13 M 26 Z 100 999 Common variables The number and range of common variables will depend on your control On many controls adding more common variables is an extra cost option 1000 System variables System variables are used by the CNC and should only be changed by your macro program with great care The actual range of variables depends on your particular control but the variables recognized by NCPlot are described here 3000 Macro Alarm Message Assigning a value to this variable causes NCPlot to display a macro message Because this is an alarm message this command also terminates the program
55. The macro language often referred to as Macro B or Custom Macro B is a programming language that gives the CNC programmer the ability to write very flexible programs This is done through the use of variables mathematical expressions and program flow control statements The macro language combined with standard G code programming can create reusable programs much like canned cycles These programs can do many useful things like custom pocketing or automatic tool measurement This document describes how NCPlot processes macro programs and may differ from your specific control Macro Debugging The Variable Display window is an indispensable tool for anyone writing macro programs This window not only displays the current state of program variables it enables you to execute macro programs one block at a time Local variables may be displayed for each of the subprogram levels This window also allows you to follow program execution into subprograms not contained in the loaded program file This program stepping differs from the main window When stepping from the variable display window the program is executed as it is stepped so you can see the results of variable commands On the main window the program is fully executed before stepping begins so the state of the variables reflect the end result of the program 93 NCPlot v2 26 Manual gt I 6 ll D gt Animate A Clear Variables Current Block 27 FIX 4 2 4 15 Eval Block 227 F
56. am 37 NCPlot v2 26 Manual M98 P1 Q1 L1 This format is a variation in which the Q address represents the target block number in the subprogram being called The other two subprogram call commands use fixed formats which are M97 P1 This code is used by the HAAS controls and is a local subprogram call that uses the P address to specify the target block number This type of subprogram call cannot use other programs as subs the subprogram must be within the current program G65 P1 This code is commonly used for macro programming because any address values that appear after the G65 are copied to local variables before the subprogram is called The exception is the P address which represents the program number being called This makes it very useful for creating custom cycles that work much like the control s built in cycles Where to put your subprograms Once you ve got NCPlot set up to read the subprogram calls correctly you just need to be able to tell it where the subprograms are on your computer On the CNC control this is not an issue because the control knows where all the programs are but on your PC this may not be so simple If you only use the local subprogram call commands M97 or M98 O no setup is required because the subprogram must be within the main program The simplest way to handle subprograms is to include them in the file you are editing However this is not always practical and so NCPlot will search for
57. arched last Similar to the default folder the folder where the active edit file is located will be searched last The filename requirements are the same as for the default folder The subprogram setup window also contains settings that determine what action will be taken if the requested subprogram cannot be found The possible actions can be set separately for M98 and G65 commands and are Error if sub not found if the commanded subprogram could not be located NCPlot stops plotting and displays an error message Warn if sub not found if the commanded subprogram could not be located NCPlot pauses to display a message then continues Ignore if sub not found if the commanded subprogram is found it will be plotted otherwise NCPlot will skip it Ignore all all subprogram commands will be ignored Canned Cycles The backplotting of canned cycles in NCPlot is not hard coded These cycles are external macro programs that may be customized to match your particular machine The canned cycle macros are located at Program Files NCPlot Config config name The Config folder contains the machine configuration files along with a corresponding sub folder for each These sub folders contain the canned cycle macro 39 NCPlot v2 26 Manual programs Every machine configuration uses it s own set of canned cycle macros which means that you can have different canned cycles for each machine configuration The G Codes that are handl
58. ariables may also be used to store variable numbers This is called variable indirect and is a very useful feature It can also be confusing so here are some examples 100 105 100 10 The value 10 is assigned to variable number 105 Here s what happens 100 105 Variable 100 now contains the value 105 105 10 The expression in brackets is evaluated first 105 10 The variable is assigned using the result of the expression as the variable number It is possible to use multiple levels of indirection 1 2 2 3 1 10 Variable 3 ends up with the value 10 1 10 The same expression using brackets Functions In addition to operators there are many functions that may be used in an expression A function takes a value and calculates a resulting value based on it s particular function Unlike an operator a function only needs one number to work from The values used for functions must be enclosed in brackets For example 100 SQR 2 Variable 100 is assigned the value 1 414213 which is the square root of 2 Here is a complete list of available functions SIN Calculates the Sine of an angle in degrees COS Calculates the Cosine of an angle in degrees TAN Calculates the Tangent of an angle in degrees ATN ATAN Calculates the ArcTangent ACOS Calculates the ArcCosine ASIN Calculates the ArcSine LN Calculates the natural logarithm SOR SQRT Calculates the square root 103 NCPlot v2 2
59. ating Use 1 address Use K address Rotary 4th Axis M Code Mirror Image 26 Machine Configuration If you plan to backplot programs that use M98 for subprograms then it s very important that you set the M98 command format to match your control There are six different settings so if you re not sure which one to use you should consult your control s programming manual For details about this setting see the topic Plotting Subprograms The canned cycle repeat address allows you to set the address used for specifying the repeat count either L or K can be selected If your control supports M Code activated mirror image then use this page to set the M Codes that are used to activate this function The G Code Macros setting is a list of G Codes that NCPlot will call as subprograms when they are encountered in a program When encountered all other address values are written to local variables and a specially named subprogram is loaded The name of the subprogram that is loaded is in the format Gxxx PRG where xxx is the G Code value times 10 For example if you have G12 in the G Code macro list and NCPlot encounters the block G12 X0 YO 10 5 a subprogram named G120 PRG must be in the configuration folder The values for X Y and are saved to local variables and can be used by the subprogram to simulate the motion for a G12 command This method allo
60. ation of the active block endpoint In addition to marking the location on the viewport the marker also displays the coordinates of the active point and a selectable group of modal address values See Machine Configuration Viewport Settings Viewport Slider Control the slider can be dragged with the mouse to quickly advance or rewind the plot to any point in the program Likewise when stepping or animating the graphics the slider moves to show the current progress Toolbars The NCPlot toolbars give you quick access to the most common functions by grouping them together as buttons The toolbars may docked into the application window on the top left bottom or right side They may also be undocked and placed anywhere on your desktop or they may be closed altogether The toolbars may be rearranged to your liking by clicking and dragging the control handle on the left side of each toolbar Most of the toolbars may be customized by adding buttons or hiding buttons or even creating your own custom toolbars See Customizing the Toolbars Open Files toolbar E see Sane Leon NCPlot v2 26 Manual The Open Files toolbar displays a list of the currently open files Clicking file names in the list will switch the active edit file to the clicked file File toolbar The File toolbar contains buttons for commonly used file functions The File Open button also contains the list of recently opened files This list may be cleared with th
61. aused for a handshaking signal The middle panel displays the elapsed transmission time and the right panel displays the name of the program being sent Send Selected Similar to the SendSend tool but only the selected program text is sent to the DNC tool Send File Similar to the SendSend tool but allows you to browse for and send a file other than the current edit file Receive Opens the COM port for receiving Once opened any received data is inserted into the edit window at the current cursor location 80 Menus Receive as New Similar to the ReceiveReceive tool but closes the current edit file before opening the port for receiving Comm Setup Opens the RS232 setup dialog Configuration The currently active configuration name The remaining settings are organized into three tabs Port Settings Receive and Transmit The Port Settings tab contains the basic port setup such as the COM port number baud rate data bits etc e Port Selects the active COM port number 81 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Comm Settings Selects the desired baud rate number of data bits parity and number of stop bits The Receive tab contains timeout settings for receiving data from the machine Timeout before receive After the COM port has been opened and nothing is received within this set amount of time the COM port will close If this setting is zero then NCPlot will wait indefinitely for data
62. ayer Header Use this page to enter default DXF drawing conversion settings When a DXF file is loaded any layer that is not in your saved layer list will be given these settings For more information see the section Converting DXF Drawing Files Run Time Estimating 34 Machine Configuration fF T E Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp o 28 File L Run Time Estimating Values wl ha o Apply Cancel Machine Rapid Traverse Rate 250 X Axis Rapid Traverse Rate 250 Machine Configuration Machine Type Y Axis Rapid Traverse Rate 250 Control Settings G M Codes Z Axis Rapid Traverse Rate 100 Interpreter Customize Viewport Settings Work Offsets Maximum Spindle RPM 10000 Extended Work Offsets DXF Options Tool Change Time Seconds 5 0 Run Time Estimating Rotary 4th Axis Tool Change on M06 Tool Change on T Code The settings on this page are used for calculating the estimated machining time of your programs The Machine Rapid Traverse Rate and Tool Change Time settings are used for all machine types while the Maximum Spindle RPM setting is used only during lathe CSS calculations If you have the Non Interpolated Dog leg rapid type selected on the Control Settings page then you can set the individual axis rapid rates here Setting these values to your actual machine rapid rates will provide a mor
63. cceccccccecccccceeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseess 44 AVG UG st A E A D ENE A EE E EE A E 44 JVR 44 DIVAS EOS AA ETE 44 SHOW Programs Mee a 45 Execute SCApt File us AS 45 AA A A A teud acuetevscceeteues 45 PrnntSelected Text ii A A A AA GA 45 POE IDO a AA AAA AA AR 46 Clear Recon ERE RRE 46 Reset Toolbar Senai A AS 47 A eects E RR dures 47 EIN trat A E ERE AER A IE UA 47 Undo ii AN 47 ROTO aiii eiii 47 A O PO 47 CODY ti titi tdaiblade 47 PASA TER A EA AA AA AAA ERAS AAA AAA AA 47 A A O A A 48 AMI OU dida 48 SAA iO AO O A EE 48 at 1 2 Rare eet ee ee eo Oe Oe Ne RR Cet eet 48 Find IN i ie ee a E A ie 48 Replay at na Re inn Rell ke ou ARIAS AER et meee Gs 48 JUMP TO TOP ASADA 48 JUMP TO LIS NUDE insano 49 Jump TOBOM skerini a 49 Highlight Selected AA nennen na aaeeea a ea aaa a aa a e a 49 Highlight and Zoom to Selected ui A 49 A TR 49 Table Of Contents ls coo ccz dtetenddrdarddededdiedisddedistedisdiatisdhedusddadusdhadesadedisddekigddsderdd 49 Format MACHU ace alt taal cata el a das sacd 49 PRENUMDE BIOCKS si A tes ie hak sat a 50 Remove Block INUMDENS adiccion eis he eg as Dah ce De ee dd ok 51 PRO SD ACCS 20 AAN OA 51 Remove Spaces ina codahsoneadiccwnbadnteoabedeelungebiernnts a a 51 Remove Leading PICOS criadero eel 51 Remove Trailing Spaces suis Ido dios 51 Remove Blank LINES ctra SE E te eA eh en et de eh ee eS i a 51 A A A exacts AREA AE 52 Remove Garbage sii ee 52 Add Comment EAS untada ii ii ia 52
64. checking a tool its corresponding viewport graphics may be hidden The plotting tools will skip over any hidden tool paths and hidden tool paths will not be included when printing the viewport or exporting a backplot as DXF Right clicking on the tool list brings up a menu with these options Show All Checks all of the tools in the list Show Selected Checks the selected tools in the list Show Only This Tool Checks the tool number at the mouse pointer and unchecks all others Select This Tool Selects the region of the program that corresponds to the tool number being pointed to Highlight This Tool Selects the region of the backplot graphic that corresponds to the tool number being pointed to Hide All Unchecks all of the tools in the list Hide Selected Unchecks the selected tools in the list Multiple tools in the list may selected by clicking and dragging the mouse pointer on the tool list When the mouse button is released a menu appears which gives you the choice of either hiding or showing the selected items The tool list also acts as bookmarks clicking on a tool number will highlight the block in the program where the tool was commanded You can also plot the program up to a selected tool by holding the Ctrl key and clicking a tool number Getting Started Example tool list when Color by G Code machine configuration setting is selected Example tool list when Color by Tool machine
65. cked as the new rotation center Panning for all other views Press and hold the right mouse button while moving the mouse Zooming In all view modes rolling the mouse wheel will Zoom in or out depending on the direction the wheel is rolled If your mouse has a middle button you can double click it to zoom to extents Viewport Keyboard Shortcuts The viewport allows the use of keyboard shortcut keys to activate all of its most commonly used functions The shortcut keys require that the viewport be active The color of the viewport view name indicates whether the viewport is active gray meaning it is not active The viewport can be made active by Clicking on the viewport Clicking the menu Window 0 The menu shortcut keys Alt W 0 The viewport shortcut key Alt V While the viewport is active the following keyboard shortcuts are available e Zoom Window Z Key Allows dragging a box around an area to fit into the viewport e Zoom Extents X Key Fits the part drawing into the viewport including rapid motions e Zoom All A Key Fits the part drawing into the viewport disregarding the rapid motions e Zoom Selected F Key Fits only the selected entities into the viewport 17 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Zoom In C Key Increases the zoom magnification making the part appear larger Zoom Out V Key Decreases the zoom magnification making the part appear smaller Pan P Key Activates t
66. configuration setting is selected 15 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Viewport Pan Rotate and Zoom The viewport can easily be manipulated using just the mouse or keyboard no buttons or commands are required to activate these functions The controls vary slightly between the 2D and 3D views The 3D view refers to the Isometric view This view mode is only available for Mill machine configurations All other view modes are 2D views If you have a 3Dconnexion device such as a SpaceNavigator SpaceExplorer or SpacePilot NCPlot will recognize and allow you to use this device to pan rotate and zoom the viewport Pan and Rotate for Isometric 3D view Pan Press and hold the Shift key and the right mouse button while moving the mouse Rotate Press and hold the right mouse button while moving the mouse Getting Started The view will rotate in two directions Moving the mouse left or right rotates around the viewport vertical axis and moving the mouse up or down rotates around the viewport horizontal axis The up and down rotation can be locked by checking the menu item View Lock Vertical Rotation When this is checked you can temporarily unlock it by holding the Ctrl key and rotating the view The view will rotate about a point at the X Y center of the viewport and at the negative Z extent This rotation point can be moved with the tool View Set ISO View Rotation Center This allows a point on the backplot to be pi
67. coordinate display and G Code editing tools The display precision may be set to between 3 and 6 decimal places Macro Translator This tool will execute a variable macro and translate it into standard G Code blocks Any blocks that contain variable commands will be output with the variables replaced with their current values This will expand the macro program into an equivalent longhand G Code program This process will also expand any macro program loops and subprograms In fact the executed program does necessarily need to be a variable macro this tool can be used to expand a main program and sub programs into one continuous program file See also Macro Translator Help Text to G Code This tool generates G Code that follows the outline of the entered lettering The lettering may be in any font that you have installed on your computer 53 NCPlot v2 26 Manual 5 Text To G Code Font Preview Choose Font Convert To G Code Cancel Text Settings Height 1 0 0 X Location 0 Y Location 0 Angle o Text On Arc Text on Arc Arc counter clockwise Radius 10 0 Start Angle lo ZRetract 10 0 Z Approach 10 ZDepth 0o Feedrate 10 0 Font Preview Use the Choose Font button to select the desired font style and enter the text to convert into the font preview window When all other settings have been made use the Convert To G Code button to convert the displayed text to G Code When entering text to conv
68. create points at the center of each selected arc and use these points to create a drill program Offset This tool will create new entities at the given offset distance from the selected entities To use this tool select the desired entities by either clicking them on the viewport or by selecting lines in the program and using the Highlight Selected tool on the edit menu After the desired entities are selected go to the menu Calc Offset You will be prompted for the desired offset distance Entering a positive distance will offset to the left while entering a negative distance will offset to the right Once created the new entities will stay on the viewport until it is refreshed with the plot button or a new file is loaded Intersect This tool will find the intersection points between two entities To use this tool first select the two entities you want to find the intersection points for Then select the Intersect tool The point or points are calculated and displayed on the viewport You also get a message on the status bar that tells you the coordinates of the points This tool will solve for Line Line Line Arc and Arc Arc intersections even if the selected entities do not visibly touch each other Blend Radius This tool will create an arc of the specified radius that is tangent to two lines To use this tool first select two intersecting lines After selecting this tool you will be prompted for the desired blend radius
69. dit window The given string txtString is inserted into the program at the current insertion point The insertion point can be changed with 143 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPSetSelection by setting ILength to 0 If any text is currently selected txtString will replace it NCPinsertLine NCPlot NCPInsertLine strText Insert line into edit window Same as NCPInsertText except this function also adds a carriage return line feed to the end of the line NCPGetNumLines NCPlot NCPGetNumLines Returns the number of lines in the program NCPGetLine NCPlot NCPGetLine IngNumber Returns the contents of the requested program line number NCPGetLinelndex NCPlot NCPGetLinelndex IngNumber Returns a pointer to the beginning of the requested line number NCPGetLineNumber 144 Scripting Reference NCPlot NCPGetLineNumber Ingindex This function returns the line number of the file position pointed to by Inglndex Useful for getting the line number from NCPFind results NCPGetCursorPos NCPlot NCPGetCursorPos Returns a value indicating the current cursor position in the file NCPSetCursorPos NCPlot NCPSetCursorPos IngStart Moves the cursor to the specified location in the file NCPSelectAll NCPlot NCPSelectAll Selects the entire contents of the edit window NCPGetAll NCPlot NCPGetAll This function returns the entire contents of the edit window as a string NCPGetSelected 145 NCPlot v2 26 Manual
70. e menu item File Clear Recent Files Edit toolbar The Edit toolbar contains buttons for the clipboard operations cut copy and paste as well as undo redo find and compare View toolbar Mill Views Lathe Views Getting Started The View toolbar contains buttons for changing the selected viewport orientation The displayed toolbar is dependant on the currently configured machine type There are seven view buttons for the Mill configuration and four for Lathe Zoom toolbar The Zoom toolbar contains buttons that change the graphic display size and location There are buttons for zoom window zoom extents zoom all zoom selected zoom in zoom out and pan Plot toolbar The Plot toolbar contains buttons that allow you to control the plotting of your program The buttons from left to right are refresh plot rewind plot to beginning step backward animate step forward fast forward plot to end plot to cursor start at cursor plot from cursor plot selected blocks only plot backward to previous tool 11 NCPlot v2 26 Manual e plot forward to next tool When editing your program the refresh plot button will change from blue to green to indicate that the graphics should be refreshed You do not need to save the program before refreshing Setup toolbar The Setup toolbar provides shortcuts to most of the NCPlot configuration settings including Machine Configuration Preferences Address color se
71. e accurate plot of the rapid motion in your program Also on this page is a selection for specifying the type of command that is considered a tool change either the MO6 command or a T Code This is the same setting as on the Viewport Settings page duplicated here to allow changing it when Color By Tool is not enabled Rotary 4th Axis 35 NCPlot v2 26 Manual i b Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp e 8 28 File bel ka ox en a Apply Cancel 4th Axis Identifier B v x 0 Machine Configuration Rotates around X axis f Machine Type Rotates around Y axis G y jo Control Settings Rotates around Z axis f G M Codes z 0 Interpreter Customize Viewport Settings Coordinate Resolution 0 001 v Work Offsets gania R A E F voi i Reverse Rotary Axis direction DXF Options Rotary Axis Rapid Rate deg min 1800 Run Time Estimating Rotary 4th Axis Take shortest path to endpoint aj Sign indicates direction fi Treat axis as linear unwinds O If your machine has a rotary 4th axis use this page to define the settings for it First set the 4th Axis Identifier to specify the letter address that commands the 4th axis The most common settings are an A or B axis Next set the orientation of the rotary axis by specifying which axis it rotates around By definition an A axis rotates around the X axis a B axi
72. e expression is the part following the sign and is 101 1 So 1 is added to the contents of 101 and this value is then stored in variable 100 Expressions may use any combination of operators functions and comparisons If no brackets are used the values are calculated in the standard arithmetic order That is multiply and divides are performed first followed by addition and subtraction Examples of expressions 100 10 2 3 5 The value 11 is stored in variable 100 101 8 3 3 4 The value 12 is stored in variable 101 Operators are basic mathematical operations and include Addition Subtraction Multiplication j Division i Raised to the power of MOD Modulus the remainder of a division operation XOR Bitwise XOR OR Bitwise OR AND Bitwise AND Brackets may be used to change the order that the expression is evaluated in When brackets are used in an expression the calculations inside the brackets are performed first then the rest of the expression is calculated The calculations inside the brackets are still performed in standard arithmetic order 100 10 2 2 3 5 This expression evaluates to 37 100 8 3 3 4 This expression evaluates to 0 The variable numbers themselves may be replaced with expressions as long as the expression evaluates to a valid variable number For example 102 Macro B Programming Support 100 5 10 Variable number 105 is assigned a value of 10 V
73. e time These values may be stored in the machine configuration so that values specific to each machine may be set The feed and rapid override controls allow you to see the effects that these controls have on your machine run times After changing either of these settings click the Refresh button to recalculate the run time 61 NCPlot v2 26 Manual E Run Time Estimation X i 0 125 7 125 7 25 X Minus X Plus Length 200 100 Y Minus 0 1253 Y Plus 17 125 Width 17 2503 al Me Me Z Minus 0 74 Z Plus 2 0 Height 2 74 150 75 Estimated Run Time 100 50 Total Feed Length Average Feed Rate 5 178 7761 X 147 7357 im 12 6s ea sae AS sex Total Rapid Length Rapid Rate a 4 6045 X 100 28s 2 Tool Changes Tool Change Secs 1 1 X so A E a ze 100 100 Generate Report Total im 20 4s Refresh Close Generate Report This button will create a detailed time estimation report that gives you information about the run time for each tool in the program This report automatically opens in the default text editor so that it may be saved or printed Show Entity Info This tool shows a window that displays information about an entity on the viewport This window pops up automatically whenever an entity is picked on the viewport The auto pop up can be disabled on the Preferences dialog via the Auto show entity info setting 62 Menus
74. ed as external macros by default are G70 G79 G81 G89 Standard canned cycles G12 Clockwise circle cutting G13 Counterclockwise circle cutting The G34 through G37 1 cycles are included in the default mill configurations G34 Bolt circle cycle G35 Holes on line at angle cycle G36 Holes on arc cycle G37 1 Grid pattern cycle The G70 through G72 bolt pattern cycles are included in the HAAS mill configuration G70 Bolt circle cycle G71 Holes on arc cycle G72 Holes on line at angle cycle Additional cycles may be added to simulate G Codes not supported by NCPlot Open the Machine Configuration dialog to the G M Codes page and enter additional G Codes in the G Code Macros list The active configuration folder must contain a corresponding program file to handle the simulation of the additional codes The macro program file name is the corresponding G Code value times 10 For example the file name for G81 is G810 PRG This is to accommodate decimal G Codes such as G37 1 You can add cycles for G Codes that fall within these ranges by simply adding an appropriately named G Code program file to the desired configuration folder 40 Menus File Menu New Opens a new blank document Open File This selection allows you to browse for an existing file to be loaded into the edit window If any unsaved changes have been made to the current program you are prompted to save it before loading a new file The file browse window con
75. ed scripts in the Scripts subfolder located in the application install folder The default location for this folder is Program Files NCPlot Scripts Script files that are stored in this folder can be quickly accessed through the scripts toolbar button or the scripts status bar panel Print Program Sends the current program contents to the printer Print Selected Text Sends the currently selected text to the printer 45 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Print Viewport Opens the print preview window so that print settings can be configured before sending to the printer Print Sends the plot to the selected printer Setup Opens the printer setup dialog where you can select which printer to use the desired print orientation the number of copies and black 8 white or color printing Save to File Allows saving the print preview graphic as a Bitmap file Cancel Closes the print preview window without printing Clear Recent Files 46 Menus Clears the list of recently opened files The last 20 files that were opened are stored in the recent files list for easy re opening The recent files list is located on the toolbar next to the Open icon Clicking on the arrow opens the list and clicking on a file in the list will open the file If there are unsaved changes you are prompted to save before opening the selected file If the file no longer exists you receive an error message and the file is removed f
76. enus The current device configuration may be saved See also SpaceNavigator Keyboard Shortcuts The active menu shortcut keys See also Menu Shortcut Keys Machine Configuration Opens the machine configuration dialog This dialog is used to customize NCPlot to accurately simulate the way your control handles certain G Code functions For more information see About the Machine Configuration SpaceNavigator If you have a 3Dconnexion device such as a SpaceNavigator SpaceExplorer or SpacePilot NCPlot will recognize and allow you to use this device to pan rotate and zoom the viewport The Setup SpaceNavigator menu opens a configuration dialog that allows you to configure your device for use in NCPlot a b SpaceNavigator Configuration Function Axis Pan Left Right Pan Up Down Translate Y Le Spin Rotatey x Tilt Rotate X z 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 Zoom Translate z z 1 1 i 1 1 1 Defaults Apply Cancel 71 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Each Function may be controlled by any one of the six device axes You can also adjust the speed and direction for each of the functions Defaults This button resets all the device settings back to the NCPlot defaults shown here Ok Accepts the current settings and closes the dialog Apply Applies the current settings without closing the dialog Cancel Discards any changes and closes the dialog Calc Menu Expression Calculator The Macro
77. epeats the last Find operation If the end of the program is encountered you are asked if you want to repeat the search from the beginning Replace Replaces text in the program The selected program text is replaced by the text in the Replace With field Jump To Top Moves the cursor to the beginning of the active file 48 Menus Jump To Line Number Prompts for then moves the cursor to the entered file line number Jump To Bottom Moves the cursor to the end of the active file Highlight Selected This tool is used to locate the selected portion of your program on the viewport To use this tool select the portion of the program you want to locate and then click the Highlight Selected menu item The entities on the viewport that correspond to the selected program will then be highlighted Highlight and Zoom to Selected This tool is used to locate the selected portion of your program on the viewport To use this tool select the portion of the program you want to locate and then click the Highlight and Zoom to Selected menu item The entities on the viewport that correspond to the selected program will be highlighted and the viewport will zoom to fit these entities Font Opens the font dialog The selected font and color settings may be applied to the entire program or just the selected text If any part of the program text is selected only the selected text will be affected Otherwise the settings will be applied to the ent
78. ere to be a small difference between the arc s start radius and end radius That is the difference between the distances from the start point to the center and the distance from the end point to the center Most controls will handle this without a problem up until the difference reaches a certain amount Whether this amount is fixed in the control or is parameter settable you can enter this amount into the Arc Tolerance setting When NCPlot encounters an arc where the start and end radius is different by more than this amount an error message will be displayed The G04 Dwell Address setting allows you to define which letter address your control uses as the dwell time Common settings are X P F and T The Coordinate Resolution setting determines how many decimal places to assume when a command value is given without a decimal point For example if you have a program that has commands like Z 152500 then you would want to set the coordinate resolution to 0 0001 so that this would be properly interpreted as Z 15 2500 Here are some more examples Command value Coordinate Resolution Interpreted value X25 0 001 X0 025 X1 1 0 X1 0 Y1250 0 0001 Y0 1250 25 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Y1 250 n a Y1 25 Since a decimal point was specified in the last value the resolution setting is disregarded The setting G00 G02 G03 are non Modal causes NCPlot to revert back to G01 after each block This means that a GOO G02 or G03 command must be
79. ert you may create multiple lines by pressing CTRL ENTER to start a new line This dialog does not close after the conversion process is complete but the graphics view is refreshed so that you can immediately see the results of the conversion If the resulting code is not what you want simply undo the added code and make your changes Text Settings These settings define the resulting size location and orientation of the converted text When the Text on Arc option is checked the X and Y location settings become the X and Y arc center location and the Angle setting is disabled Justification This setting allows you to define which location on the text will correspond to the X and Y location settings This makes it much easier to center or align the output text This setting is disabled when the Text on Arc option is checked 54 Menus Text On Arc When checked this option will create the output text on an arc You just set the desired X and Y center of the arc under the Text Settings and then enter the radius and start angle of the arc G Code Settings These settings are used for the resulting G Code output Convert Selected to G Code This tool makes it possible to create G Code from any entity on the viewport Since the viewport is made up of entities created from G Code this applies mainly to entities created by the Calc tools To use this tool first select all the entities that you want to convert to G Code When this to
80. es with the X direction toward the right side of the screen and the Z direction toward the top This represents a vertical lathe where the tool approaches the work from the right side of the machine This view mode is only available when the Lathe machine type is active Set As Reference Copies the current backplot to the background Clear Reference Clears the background graphic Pan After selecting this tool use either mouse button to drag the viewport to the desired view center This tool can also be activated by pressing the P key when the viewport is active Zoom Extents Sets the view center and zoom size to fit the entire program in the viewport This tool is also activated by pressing the X key when the viewport is active Zoom All Sets the view center and zoom size to fit the entire program in the viewport This tool is different from the Zoom Extents tool in that this tool will not include rapid motions when fitting the view This tool is also activated by pressing the A key when the viewport is active Zoom Selected Sets the view center and zoom size to fit only the selected entities This tool is also activated by pressing the S key when the viewport is active Zoom In Enlarges the view size while keeping the current view center This tool is also activated by pressing the C key when the viewport is active 76 Menus Zoom Out Reduces the view size while keeping the current view center Thi
81. ewport entities to a DXF file The saved DXF files will have one layer for each tool with the layers named by tool number Using a DXF Drawing File as the Viewport Background A DXF drawing file may be loaded and displayed as a persistent part of the viewport graphics This is useful for displaying machine travels part fixtures interference areas reference grids etc Assigning a file as the viewport background is done on the Machine Configuration see the topic Viewport Settings Converting DXF Drawing Files to G Code Introduction NCPlot provides you with the capability of creating G Code programs directly from a DXF drawing file The process of going from a drawing to a program file requires several steps and it is important to understand each step in the process in order to get the best results The next several topics explain in detail each step of the conversion process Each step is outlined below Using the DXF Conversion Options Dialog Arrange the Layer List Set Machining Parameters Chaining Sorting Converting to G Code 125 NCPlot v2 26 Manual The DXF Conversion Options Dialog When a DXF file is loaded it is displayed on the viewport and the DXF Conversion Options dialog is displayed Here you will define what parts of the drawing will be converted to G Code and in what order You will also use this dialog to specify how machining is to be done for each part of the drawing SEAT 4 Copy to Copy to All C
82. ext is displayed in the input box along with the current contents of the specified variable number In this example the variable number is 100 A new value entered into this box is then saved to this variable 4001 4020 G Modals Pre Read Block 4201 4220 G Modals Execution Block The group 0 codes are non modal and do not appear in the system variables They are included here for the sake of completeness NCPlot does not support all of the G Codes listed here but will store them in the proper group when encountered in a program Group 0 G4 G9 G10 G11 G12 G13 G28 G34 G35 G36 G37 1 G52 G53 G65 G92 4201 Group 1 GO Gl G2 G3 4202 Group 2 G17 G18 G19 4203 Group 3 G90 G91 4205 Group 5 G94 G95 4206 Group 6 G20 G21 4207 Group 7 G40 G41 G42 4208 Group 8 G43 G44 G49 4209 Group 9 G70 G79 G81 G89 G80 4210 Group 10 G98 G99 4211 Group 11 G50 G51 4212 Group 12 G54 G59 G54 1 4214 Group 14 G66 G67 4216 Group 16 G68 G69 4218 Group 18 G15 G16 4219 Group 19 G50 1 G51 1 4301 4320 Other Modals 4301 A 4311 H 4302 B 4312 L 4303 C 4313 M 4304 I 4314 N 4305 J 4315 O 4306 K 4316 P 4307 D 4317 Q 4308 E 4318 R 4309 F 4319 Ss N 4310 G Axis positions axis Last block endpoint 5004 Machine coordinate 5024 Work coordinate 5044 Work Offsets axis G54 5224 G55 5244 G56 5264 G57 5284 G58
83. files to compare The button bar functions are Select Left File This button pops up a list of the open documents Clicking an item in the list will copy it to the left side document Select Right File This button pops up a list of the open documents Clicking an item in the list will copy it to the right side document Start Compare Reloads the selected files and begins comparison If any edits have been made to the files in the main NCPlot window then these changes are reflected in the comparison tool before comparison begins Compare Next Searches for the next mismatch between the two files The comparison allows ignoring formatting differences between the two files such as line numbering and spaces These options are enabled by the corresponding check boxes Ignore N Numbers The comparison disregards any differences in line numbering Ignore Spaces The comparison disregards any spaces Ignore Comments The comparison disregards any comments in the two files Compare Values When checked the comparison disregards any leading or trailing zeroes in numeric values Import DXF File This feature allows reading files that are in the Drawing eXchange Format You are first prompted to select a file for importing The selected file is then loaded and displayed and you are presented with the DXF conversion options dialog For help with converting DXF files to G Code please see the topic Converting DXF Drawi
84. g toolbar DUO e5e8 OOOO 131 Create custom toolbars soc ene ee hee Ree hee Ree Ree Ree Rees 131 Adding menu shortcuts to a toolbar 132 Mente Shoricut Keys cordero tel rl tal el al ee dd 133 License Manager Support cccsceeeceeceeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeaasseeeeeeeeeeseees 137 Using the NCPlot Network License ManaQeT oooococcccccccccccocococonononnn nono nn nnnnnnnononnnnnnns 137 Scripting RETOS 0 II 139 Ao t SONDUNO secs sztso tte etic iii iia 139 FIIS FUNCIONA Sol dl e al ed pue Deal et pa ea a ER REST Me 139 NCPRIIRNGW siii 139 viii Table Of Contents a A 139 NE PGCTACIVE Flex st id dia 140 NEP SetAclVEr liar A A iets oats ae dos 140 NGREIGS AVC co cee 25 92 e e e De eee Le 140 NOPEXPDORND A Fos caret otha el eth A AT 140 NGO PS IC Oia 141 NO PBIOWS CORE Neto ct ida 141 NCP BIOWSEFOrlOlNCl into dha ed end eink al eed le Ahan edd ceeded ds 141 NCPGetFirstMatchingFile ooocccccccccccccccccncnnccnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnonononinnnnns 141 NCPGetNextMatchinarFile icceccccoccescecnccesceenceescteneeesceenceescheberesceenceesebeneeesceenceedstetets 142 NCP Gel Pile COn e ecg ete ca a ad Moe 142 NCP Gel Pile Pats art tdi it ios 142 NGPCGIOSe cl gt eae A a A A ITERO Sh OPER OER OPENS ida 142 NCPCIOSeAIIFIIES os cia a ia eit uate eta A 143 Edit GUC ON Sierro 143 NOC PSElIECIINGS aici ete oat o AR eet eee Slo rt 143 NOPSeISClOCHON AE a a ai dll 5A fe keto 143 ek al Lip Sood RP me ore ae S
85. gns each G Code a group number Only one G Code within a group may be active at a time Group 12 G54 G59 G54 1 Group 14 G66 G67 Group 17 G96 G97 G70 G89 G90 G92 G94 Lathe Format B G Codes coo Rapid motion OOOO OS eo Feedmotion OOS o O Work offset 1 Also supports extended work offsets P1 through P300 652 653 G55 Workoffset2 G56 Work offset3 G57 Work offset4 658 Workoffset5 659 Workoffset6 665 Macro subprogram call 666 Macromodalcall _667 Macro modal call cancel 680 Canned cycle cancel G90 Absolute coordinate system G91 Incremental coordinate system 90 G00 G01 G52 G53 G54 G55 G56 G57 G58 G59 G65 G66 G67 G80 G90 G91 Supported G amp M Codes G97 SpindleRPMmode Spindle RPM mode Canned cycle initial point return Canned cycle R point return NCPlot assigns each G Code a group number Only one G Code within a group may be active at a time M Codes This list is all the M Codes recognized by NCPlot The spindle control M Codes are used to provide warning messages when a program commands feed motion without the spindle running These messages may be enabled on the Preferences dialog M02 M30 End of program Spindle forward Spindle reverse Spindle stop Spindle forward 8 coolant on Spindle forward 8 coolant on 91 NCPlot v2 26 Manual The mirror image M Codes may be changed to match your control This may be set on the Machine
86. gram Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp ls E 2 File 1 Machine Type et Mill gt bel Wa mill e Vertical Apply Cancel C Lathe Cc C Horizontal Machine Configuration Machine Type Control Settings G M Codes Interpreter Customize Viewport Settings Work Offsets Extended Work Offsets DXF Options rage ee Default Program Folder Rotary 4th Axis gt Default Script Folder Default File Types INC CNC TAP TXT In addition to the configuration settings there are a number of buttons that are for managing your configurations Open allows you to browse for and open an existing configuration Save will apply the current changes and save them to the active configuration Save As will allow you to specify a new configuration file and save your settings Note that when a new configuration is created its canned cycles are copied from the currently active configuration OK accepts the current configuration changes and closes the configuration dialog Apply will apply the current configuration changes without closing the configuration dialog Cancel will close the configuration dialog discarding any changes Machine Type 22 Machine Configuration os E Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp o El xs File 1 Machine Type i Mill wl ha o Mill ol Vertical Apply Cancel Lathe E C
87. gs each time you use it 95 NCPlot v2 26 Manual As an example the Bolt Circle cycle asks for the X Y center location radius start angle and number of holes After this information is entered click the Execute button and the resulting G Code is inserted into your program There are a number of cycles included with NCPlot but you may also add your own The header format for using macro programs with this tool is very simple Bolt hole circle Name of macro or cycle 24 Center X Required variables and descriptions 25 Center Y 4 Bolt circle radius These descriptions appear on the 5 Angle of first hole translator dialog 6 Number of holes The translator also allows you to create programs that contain blocks or characters that would not normally be output To do this a special comment block format is used 96 Macro B Programming Support 01234 TEST PROGRAM When the translator encounters these blocks the characters inside the double quotes are output exactly as is Macro Calculator This calculator solves mathematical expressions There are 15 functions and 9 operators and allows unlimited bracket groupings The expression and the result are added to the result window for easy referencing back to any earlier expression This calculator allows the use of local common and system variables in expressions and can also be used to assign values to variables
88. h the Y direction toward the left side of the screen and the Z toward the top This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Isometric View The Isometric view mode displays the X Y and Z axes in a 3D view This view mode is different from all others because it can be rotated to show the part from any angle This view mode is only available when the Mill machine type is active Front Turret View The Front Turret view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the bottom of the screen and the Z direction toward the right This represents a machine where the tool approaches the work from the front of the machine This view mode is only available when the Lathe machine type is active Back Turret View The Back Turret view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the top of the screen and the Z direction toward the right This represents a machine where the tool approaches the work from the back of the machine This view mode is only available when the Lathe machine type is active Vertical Left The Vertical Left view mode displays the axes with the X direction toward the left side of the screen and the Z direction toward the top This represents a vertical lathe where the tool approaches the work from the left side of the machine This view mode is only available when the Lathe machine type is active Vertical Right 15 NCPlot v2 26 Manual The Vertical Right view mode displays the ax
89. he Convert All tool will convert the entire drawing to G Code in the order that the layers are listed The Convert Layer tool will convert only the selected layer to G Code The third tool Convert Selected will convert only the chains belonging to any selected entities on the viewport This gives the most control over the conversion process but only works with chained geometry 129 Customizing NCPlot Customizing the Toolbars The toolbars in NCPlot are highly customizable You can hide individual buttons hide entire toolbars or even create your own toolbars containing your most commonly used buttons or even menu shortcuts The toolbar layout including custom toolbars is saved when you exit NCPlot If you want to reset your toolbars to the default layout click the menu File Reset Toolbars Hiding toolbar buttons To customize a toolbar it must first be docked Each toolbar has a band on its right side that may be clicked to display the option to Add or Remove Buttons Hovering the mouse pointer over Add or Remove Buttons will then display a list of the buttons on the toolbar along with check boxes for each button Unchecked boxes will hide the corresponding button New File Open File Save File Save File As Reset Toolbar Customize Create custom toolbars 131 NCPlot v2 26 Manual You may also create your own custom toolbars that can contain any combination of buttons from the other toolbars The toolbar cus
90. he points where the tool will enter the material as well as arrows to indicate the cutting direction An additional benefit to the chaining tool is that it allows reversing the direction of chained geometry To reverse the chain direction click the Chain Reverse toolbar button The chains belonging to any selected entities will be affected Chains that form a continuous path are considered closed and may have their start point at either endpoint of any of the entities that make up the path The start point 128 DXF Drawing File Support is the point where the tool enters the material before cutting the path profile A new start point may be selected by clicking the tool Chain Start and then clicking the endpoint that you would like to be the start point of the path Note that chaining is required for layers that have the Increment Z Depth setting enabled Sorting The sorting tool provides an additional means of optimizing the G Code output by attempting to arrange the drawing in a way that will result in less rapid motion between parts of the drawing It does this by starting at one corner and finding the closest part of the drawing The next closest part of the drawing is found next and so on This tool works with chained geometry so the chaining tool must be applied before this tool can be used Converting to G Code There are three conversion tools giving different levels of control over the order that the drawing is converted in T
91. he viewport pan tool Step Forward S Key Draws the next motion block in the program Step To Next Tool T Key Draws up to the next tool change in the program Step Backward B Key Un draws the previous motion block Step To Previous Tool R Key Un draws back to the previous tool change in the program Measure M Key Activates the measure tool Set ISO View Rotation Center Q Key Allows selecting a point to be the isometric view rotation center Selecting Entities on the Viewport The ability to select the entities that make up the backplot of your part is an extremely useful feature of NCPlot When an entity is selected its color changes to the selection color and a small square is drawn around its endpoint The marked endpoint then gives a visual indication of the direction that the entity will machine in There are three selection methods Clicking Left clicking any of the entities on the viewport will do three things 1 It will select the entity 2 The block in the program that created it will be highlighted 3 The entity info window will show the properties of the selected entity Multiple entities may be selected by holding the Shift key while left clicking additional entities Entities may also be deselected by holding the Ctrl key while left clicking selected entities Window selecting Groups of entities can be selected by simply dragging a box around t
92. hem Click and hold the left mouse button at one corner of a box and drag the mouse and release the button at the opposite corner A box will be drawn as the mouse is moved to indicate the area containing the entities to be selected The box will have either a solid line border or a dashed line border depending on which direction you drag the box A solid line border appears when you drag to the right and will select everything that is completely inside the box when the mouse button is released A dashed line border appears when you drag to the left and will select everything that is inside of or touching the borders of the box when the mouse button is released Holding the Shift key while window selecting will add the selected entities to the current selection set Calc tools The Calc menu contains additional tools that make it easier to select groups of entities For example the Select Chain tool is useful for Getting Started selecting an entire 2D profile Just select one entity that is part of the profile then select this tool All entities that are connected to the selected one and at the same Z depth are selected automatically The Select by Z tool will go through the entire backplot and select all entities that are at the same Z depth as the currently selected entity This makes it easy to select all profiles that are at a given depth The Select Arc by Radius tool will select only arc entities that are the same radius as the curren
93. hen calculating values based on axis position The following local variables may be used in place of the shortcuts 96 X axis 97 Y axis Z axis for lathe 98 Z axis invalid for lathe 59 NCPlot v2 26 Manual 99 4th axis invalid for lathe Note that this tool does not process the program the same way that the backplotter does System variables are not updated and it does not process subprograms instead the file is processed from top to bottom in a line by line fashion Convert Arc Centers to ABS This tool converts arc centers specified with incremental J K to absolute This tool also turns on the Absolute Arc Centers option of the Draw menu Convert Arc Centers to INC This tool converts arc centers specified with absolute J K to incremental distance from the arc start point This tool turns off the Absolute Arc Centers option of the Draw menu Convert Arc R to I J K This tool calculates the center point for R specified arcs and replaces R with J K values in either incremental or absolute Incremental or absolute is selected via the Draw menu and is indicated by the check next to the Absolute Arc Centers menu item Convert Arc I J K to R This tool calculates the radius of the arc and replaces J K values with an R value For arcs less than or equal to 180 degrees the R value is positive and for arcs greater than 180 degrees the R value is negative This tool will not convert arcs that
94. her uses Use the MultiStep tool to enable up to four operations for each repetition Each operation can be any of the four translations mirror rotate shift or scale The four tabs on the Translate Settings dialog corresponding to the four translations are used to define the settings for each operation r b Translate Settings V Operation 1 Rotate Shift bt Mirror v Scale X Number of Repetitions 3 Translate The Number of Repetitions setting determines how many copies to make The translations are applied in the order of operation so the translation specified by Operation 1 is performed first then Operation 2 etc The results of the enabled operations are copied to your program and then become the input for the next repetition This means that the translations are incremental as each repetition uses the results from the previous one After all settings have been configured press the Translate button to apply the translations If only a portion of the program has been selected for translation then the results are inserted immediately after the end of the selection If nothing is selected 56 Menus then the translations are applied to the entire program and the results are appended to the end of the program Convert Coordinates To ABS This tool converts endpoint coordinates from G91 incremental to G90 absolute values Convert Coordinates To INC This tool converts endpoint coordinates from G90 absolute to
95. iewport to properly display your G Code program it must first know a few things about the machine you intend to run it on Since there are many different types of machines and CNC controls NCPlot has options that allow it to mimic the way your particular CNC control reads G Code NCPlot doesn t recognize every G or M Code that your control does but it should still be able to give you a good representation of your programs toolpath Besides backplotting the machine configuration is important for another reason Some of the conversion tools require that the backplotter be properly configured in order to give the desired results For example if the arcs in your program do not look correct when plotted the arc conversion tools will not work correctly In general if the plot looks correct the conversion tools will work the way they re supposed to NCPlot comes with a handful of predefined machine configurations These configurations represent the most common settings for a CNC control and should be good enough to get you started Even so you should check that these settings match the way your control works To open the machine configuration dialog click the menu Setup then click Machine Configuration This dialog is made up of several pages the first page you see is labeled Machine Type This page has settings that define the basic setup of your machine 21 NCPlot v2 26 Manual r T T IB Machine Configuration CAPro
96. igured to match the way your particular control works Select a subprogram call format Of the three subprogram commands M98 is the only one that varies between different controls So the Machine Configuration dialog contains an option that let s you tell NCPlot which command format your control uses This is on the G M Codes page and there are six possible settings M98 P1 L1 This is the most common setting and works for most Fanuc controls The P address is the program number to call as a subprogram and the L address is the number of times to repeat the sub M98 P1 K1 Some older Fanuc controls use the K address as the repeat count instead of the L address M98 P010002 Some Fanuc controls combine the subprogram number and the repeat count into a single 6 digit number The first two digits are the repeat count and the last four digits are the subprogram number So in this example the repeat count is 01 and the program number is 0002 M98 P1 H1 L1 Mitsubishi controls add the use of the H address which represents the target block number in the subprogram being called So besides the program number and the repeat count you can also specify a starting block number for the subprogram M98 O1 For some other types of controls M98 is a local subprogram call that uses the O address to specify a target block number This type of subprogram call cannot use other programs as subs the subprogram must be within the current progr
97. ilable by NCPlot VBScripting extends the capabilities of NCPlot by giving you the script writer access to many of NCPlot s internal functions This tool makes it possible to e Automate common conversion tasks such as converting code that is written to run on one machine into code for another machine e Create custom code generation tools that can accept user input e Batch process whole file folders using the provided functions for wildcard file searching When used in your script the function names listed in this manual must be preceded by the keyword ncplot for example NCPlot NCPFileLoad c test txt To execute a script file in NCPlot go to File Execute Script File Browse to the file you want to execute and click OK Script files may be edited with any text editor File Functions NCPFileNew NCPlot NCPFileNew Creates a new blank document NCPFileLoad 139 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPlot NCPFileLoad strPath Loads a file into the active document Use With Caution This function does not prompt you to save current edits before loading the file Be sure the active document file is saved before using this function NCPGetActiveFile NCPlot NCPGetActiveFile Returns the full pathname of the active edit file This function returns a NULL string if the active file is Untitled NCPSetActiveFile NCPlot NCPSetActiveFile strPath Sets the document corresponding to the file strPath as the active
98. imation at tool changes _ 7 Reverse mouse wheel zoom direction IV Save variables on exit Allow translate tools to update macro expressions Editor IV Always caps _ M Auto arrange files Script execution timeout sec Open new blank file on startup 30 Background color Apply NCPIot e Allow multiple instances When checked you may have more than one copy of NCPIot open at a time Program Warnings When checked these settings will enable warning messages that indicate when a feedrate move is encountered in the program and no feedrate or spindle command has been programmed Allowing the warnings to reset at each tool change ensures that a feedrate and spindle command has been given for each tool in the program You can select whether you want the warnings to reset on an MO6 or a T Code command 64 Menus Macro e Save variables on exit Check this setting if you want common variables to be saved on exit Allow translate tools to update macro expressions When enabled the translation tools will treat constant values in macro expressions as endpoint values and will update them as such Scripts e Script execution timeout After launching a script this is a delay time before you will be prompted to either kill the script execution or allow it to continue Viewport e Animate delay This number is a delay time in milliseconds When the animate button is pressed
99. ire program Colorize Applies the address color settings to the current file The color settings can be changed on the address color settings dialog found under the menu Setup Address Colors Format Menu 49 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Renumber Blocks Opens the Renumber Program dialog b Renumber Program i Remove block numbers C Renumber all blocks C Renumber all but blank and comment blocks C Renumber referenced blocks only Renumber existing block numbers only V Add a space after block number Start Block 5 Renumber Block Increment 5 Cancel Max Digits LE This dialog allows you to set up how you would like your program blocks to be numbered The Start Block Block Increment and Max Digits settings define how the program will be numbered If the block number exceeds the maximum digits setting then it will rollover to the starting block number e Remove block numbers This option will remove block numbers from the program with the exception of block numbers that are being referenced by other blocks This includes the macro keyword GOTO local subprogram calls and canned cycles that reference block numbers e Renumber all blocks This option will renumber all blocks including blank and comment lines Renumber all but blank and comment blocks This option will renumber all blocks except blank and comment lines e Renumber referenced blocks only This option will renumber
100. irst matching entry or a Null string if no matches were found NCPGetNextMatchingFile NCPlot NCPGetNextMatchingFile Returns the next matching directory entry When the function NCPGetFirstMatchingFile is used to start a wildcard file search this function will return subsequent matches or a Null string when no more matches are found NCPGetFileCount NCPlot NCPGetFileCount This function returns a value indicating how many documents are open NCPGetFilePath NCPlot NCPGetFilePath intindex Returns the pathname of the requested document number intindex the requested document number from 1 to the number of open documents NCPCloseFile NCPlot NCPCloseFile strPath Closes the document corresponding to the given pathname 142 Scripting Reference strPath optional setting corresponding to the requested pathname to close If omitted the active document is closed NCPCloseAllFiles NCPlot NCPCloseAllFiles Closes all open files Edit Functions NCPSelectLines NCPlot NCPSelectLines IngStart IngEnd Select range of program lines Selects from line IngStart to IngEnd in the edit window This is useful if you want to apply formatting or conversion operations to only part of a program NCPSetSelection NCPlot NCPSetSelection IngStart IngLength Set selection start and length Selects text beginning at character index IStart for ILength characters NCPInsertText NCPlot NCPInsertText strText Insert text into e
101. ld be either 17 XY 18 ZX or 19 YZ If plane is not given or is any value other than 17 18 or 19 then this function defaults to the XY plane NCPShift NCPlot NCPShift xShift yShift zShift Shift axis coordinate values The specified values are added to the programmed coordinates NCPScale NCPlot NCPScale xScalePoint yScalePoint ScaleFactor Scale axis coordinate values The ScalePoint values are the X Y center point for scaling NCPAddressAdjust NCPlot NCPAddressAdjust adjAddrList adjOp adjValue adjFormat Apply address value adjustments and formatting adjAddrList String that contains the list of addresses to adjust For example the string XYZ will apply the specified adjustment to all X Y and Z coordinates AdjOp Value that specifies the type of adjustment 0 add 1 subtract 2 multiply 3 divide adjValue The adjustment value adjFormat Formatting string to be applied to the result of the adjustment 150 Scripting Reference NCPAddressReplace NCPlot NCPAddressReplace strFind strReplace Replaces address identifiers strFind String that contains the address character to find strReplace String that contains the address character to replace it with NCPAddressRemove NCPlot NCPAddressRemove strFind Removes address identifiers and their values strFind String that contains the addresses to remove NCPAddressSwap NCPlot NCPAddressSwap str1 str2 This function calls the address
102. mpted for the variable to add simply enter the variable number you want to add Once added it will remain until you remove it e Remove System Variable This option will remove the selected system variable from the variable display If the selected variable is not a system variable nothing is removed e Copy Variables to Clipboard Copies the current variable list to the clipboard as text You can then paste it into any text editor e Print Variables Sends the current variable list to the default printer Macro Translator This tool will execute a variable macro and translate it into standard G Code blocks Any blocks that contain variable commands will be output with the variables replaced with their current values This will expand the macro program into an equivalent longhand G Code program This process will also expand any macro program loops and subprograms In fact the executed program does necessarily need to be a variable macro this tool can be used to expand a main program and sub programs into one continuous program file Before the macro is executed you can set any required variable values on the translator dialog window Comment blocks at the head of the macro are used to define the required variables and are displayed on the translator dialog when the macro program is selected The values that are entered are saved to a file and reloaded each time that the macro is selected so that you don t need to re type the settin
103. ndow titles displayed Tile This tool will automatically arrange the open documents side by side and top to bottom so that they are roughly the same size Close All Closes all open files Viewport This menu item provides a shortcut for showing or activating the viewport When the viewport toolbar has been turned off this tool first turns it back on then makes it active If the viewport is already visible then this tool simply makes it active See also Viewport Keyboard Shortcuts Help Menu Quick Start Reference This menu item will open the help file to the Getting Started topic Macro Programming Reference This menu item will open the help file to the Macro Programming Reference topic Scripting Reference This menu item will open the help file to the Scripting Reference topic 83 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Release Notes Opens the release notes This is a notepad document that details the most recent changes to NCPlot About NCPlot Displays a window showing the NCPlot version number and your license status This window also allows you to de register NCPlot on your computer To do this you must enter the original product key that was used to register the software and then click the De Register button If your NCPlot trial period has expired and you have a network license manager installed you can click Check for License Server to enable connecting to the license server NCPlot on the Web This men
104. neral Fanuc controls expect the two operand format while Mitsubishi controls expect the single operand format For others check your control documentation to determine the correct setting The Comments setting allows you to change the characters that NCPlot recognizes as comments Fanuc and compatible controls will normally use the parantheses for comments but the square brackets may also be used The arc settings determine how G02 and G03 arc commands are interpreted If your control uses absolute arc centers then check the setting Absolute Arc Centers When checked the J and K values in a G02 or G03 command represent the location of the center of the arc in the current work coordinates When unchecked the I J and K values represent the distance from the start point of the arc to the center point of the arc If your control uses absolute arc centers it may also treat the center locations as modal If this is the case the control remembers the last center point you programmed and you don t have to include an I J or K value in every arc command If you have a control that behaves this way check the setting I J K values are modal The Reverse Arc Direction setting may be used if your machine is not configured in the standard Cartesian axis configuration This setting will reverse the drawing direction of all GO2 and G03 arc commands When commanding an arc using IJK arc center designation it s not uncommon for th
105. nes are displayed Machine Zero The axis lines represent the Machine Zero location G54 G59 Work Zero The axis lines represent the selected Work Zero location Show Rapid Moves When checked this option enables drawing of GOO rapid moves Show Ticks When checked this option enables drawing of tick marks at the endpoints of rapid moves Show Marker When this menu item is checked an arrow is drawn on the viewport which indicates the current plot endpoint This marker also displays the coordinate values of the indicated endpoint 79 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Show Plunge Moves When checked this option enables drawing of G1 moves in the Z direction Absolute Arc Centers When checked this option specifies how J K specified arc centers are drawn This option also affects the results of the arc conversion tools This setting may also be changed on the Machine Configuration dialog under the Control Options tab DNC Menu Send Sends the entire contents of the edit window to the DNC tool This tool buffers the data to be sent so that you can continue to work in NCPlot while the transfer is taking place When the DNC tool is open click Start to begin the transmission Pause to pause the transmission or Cancel to abort There are three status panels at the bottom of the window The left panel displays the word Waiting whenever an XOFF character is received to indicate that the transmission has p
106. ng Files to G Code Export DXF File This option will save the current backplot display as a DXF drawing file The drawing file will include all axis motion except GOO rapid moves When the machine type is configured for lathe the exported motion is translated from the ZX plane to the XY plane The saved DXF file will have a layer for each tool used in the program Each layer will be named for the tool number that created it 43 NCPlot v2 26 Manual If any tool paths have been hidden by unchecking them on the tool list toolbar you will receive a message when attempting to export Hidden tool paths will not be exported you can either choose to export anyway or cancel the export operation Export Selected as DXF File This tool is similar to the Export DXF File tool except that only currently selected viewport entities will be saved Save File Saves your current edits to the loaded file If the current file is untitled you will be prompted for a filename to save it as If you want to save document formatting with your file colors fonts etc you can specify rich text format RTF as the file type Note that formatted documents cannot be run by most machine controls so this feature is primarily for documentation purposes Save File As Saves your program under a new name If you want to save document formatting with your file colors fonts etc you can specify rich text format RTF as the file type Note that formatted d
107. ocuments cannot be run by most machine controls so this feature is primarily for documentation purposes Save As Separate Saves all programs in the loaded file as individual files You will be prompted for a folder to save to and the files are saved with the program names used as the file names For example if you had the following file the saved files would be O100 txt 01000 txt and 01001 txt 2 o 0100 PROGRAM 100 GOXOYOZ1 M98 P1000 M98 P1001 M2 01000 SUB 1 G91G1X5 F100 44 Menus M99 01001 SUB_2 G91G1X 5 F100 M99 o O NCPlot recognizes the start of a new program when it encounters an 0 word or a colon character at the beginning of a line followed by a program number Fora report of all the programs in the file see the Show Programs in File tool Show Programs in File This tool reports a list of all programs it finds in the loaded file Each program number is reported along with its approximate size and program comment NCPlot recognizes the start of a program when it encounters an 0 word or the colon character at the beginning of a line Here s an example report Program Size Description 6000 4141 LINK MAIN PALLET A 6001 1669 LINK MAIN PALLET B 8000 198 PROG FOR PART RESTART GENERIC 8001 172 TEST TO QUALIFY TOOL Execute Script File Allows you to browse for and execute a script file NCPlot provides a folder for commonly us
108. ol is picked a dialog appears that allows you to define the G Code settings that will be used for the conversion The selected entities are then chained together before being converted to G Code Mirror This tool changes the program endpoints to create a Mirror image of the original program The program can be mirrored in either the X axis Y axis or both You can also set the program coordinate that will act as the center of the mirror axis Rotate This tool rotates program endpoints in any of the three planes Simply select the desired plane enter the rotation center coordinates and rotation angle Please note that if your program contains arc commands that are not in the rotation plane the resulting program will probably not function correctly By definition arc commands must lie in one of the three planes and rotating them will create illegal arcs One possible solution to this is to apply the tool Break Arcs into Lines which replaces the arc commands with a series of line segments which can be rotated Shift 99 NCPlot v2 26 Manual This tool adds a specified shift amount to each of the axes Scale This tool applies the specified scale factor to the program MultiStep Translate The MultiStep translate tool allows you to make translated copies of all or part of your program This would be useful for making left right hand parts making equally spaced copies of a feature making rotated copies of a feature or lots of ot
109. only those blocks that are being referenced by commands in other blocks This includes the macro keyword GOTO local subprogram calls and canned cycles that reference block numbers This option removes all other block numbers e Renumber existing block numbers only This option will renumber only those blocks that already have a block number in them 50 Menus Remove Block Numbers This tool will remove all block numbers from the program except for block numbers that are referenced by a GOTO macro statement a subprogram call or other program blocks Add Spaces This tool inserts spaces between letter addresses and macro keywords to improve readability of the program This tool does not affect text inside of comments Testing GOX0OYOZ1 IF 1GT SOR 2 3 GOTO50 This becomes Testing GO X0 YO Z1 IF 1GTSQR 2 3 GOTO 50 Remove Spaces This tool removes all spaces from the program except for text inside of comments Remove Leading Spaces This tool removes any spaces from the beginning of the block Remove Trailing Spaces This tool removes any spaces from the end of the block Remove Blank Lines This tool removes blank lines from the program 51 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Remove Comments This tool removes comments from the program Comments are anything that is enclosed in parentheses Comments may also be enclosed in square brackets this is selectable on the Machine Configuration
110. ool number This page contains settings that define the colors used to draw the backplot You first must decide if you want to color by G Code or color by tool To select one check the box next to the header describing the method you want to use When Color by G Code is selected the entities on the graphics viewport be will colored according to the type of motion it represents There are 4 basic types of motion G00 Rapid move G01 Feed move G02 Clockwise arc and G03 Counterclockwise arc Each of these types of motion may be assigned a different color The Color by Tool option draws the backplot with different colors representing the range of motion for each tool used in the program The Unspecified Tools color is used when the program commands motion before the first tool change or when there are more tools used in the program than have been defined The color list contains the colors to use for each tool The first color in the list is used after the first tool change the second color after the second tool change etc If there are not enough colors in the list for all of the tool changes in the program the Unspecified Tools color will be used for any remaining tool changes You may also specify the type of command that is considered a tool change either the MO6 command or a T Code The Use Global Rapid Color option allows the GOO rapid moves to be displayed as the specified color regardless of tool number The vie
111. opy to Saved Layer Layers Layers lo Top of Material lo Z Increment The dialog is divided into four parts e Menu bar Provides access to all the conversion features e Tool bar Provides quick access to the chaining sorting and conversion tools e Layer List Displays the loaded drawing layers as well as the list of saved layers e Layer Machining Settings The machining G Code settings for each layer Before beginning the conversion process the menu provides translation tools that can be used to shift rotate mirror or scale your drawing 126 DXF Drawing File Support Shift Allows you to move the zero point of the drawing Rotate Rotate the drawing by specifying a rotation center point and angle of rotation Mirror Flip the drawing in either X or Y Scale Enter Arrange the Layer List When a DXF drawing is loaded it appears on the viewport and the drawing layers appear on the DXF Conversion Options dialog Loaded DXF Layers Saved Layers SIDES BACK FRONT SEAT 4 Copy to Copy to All Copy to Saved Max Join Distance Layer Layers Layers 0 003 Since a drawing may contain information that you don t necessarily want converted to G Code such as a title block or dimensions you can turn these layers off by unchecking the box next the layer name When layers are turned off or on the viewport will update to display just the layers that are on This list also allows you
112. ple G65 P9000 X10 Y5 Z1 A2 5 B3 6 When this block is executed these values are assigned to local variables before program 9000 begins Program 9000 can then read these values in these variables 24 10 X 25 5 Y 26 1 Z 1 2 5 A 2 3 6 B These are called local variables because these values are only valid for the program they are passed to If program 9000 also used a G65 macro call the local variables are saved and the new subprogram gets it s own set of local variables They do not overwrite the values being used by program 9000 So when the new subprogram is done the variables being used by program 9000 have not changed even though both subprograms use the same variable numbers When a subprogram is finished it s local variables are cleared Common and System Variables Common variables are variable numbers 100 to 999 and unlike local variables can be used and set by any program These variables are also retained on exit 106 Macro B Programming Support System variables are variable numbers 1000 on up The actual range will depend on your specific control System variables are used by the CNC to store internal values needed for operation These values are things like tool length offsets diameter offsets and machine positions These variables may be set by your program but care should be taken when doing so Using Variable 0 Variable 0 is a special variable that cannot be set Instead its value is al
113. r 5101 Canned Cycle Absolute Depth The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle depth 5102 Canned Cycle Absolute R plane The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle R plane 5103 Canned Cycle Absolute Initial point The absolute position of the commanded canned cycle initial point 5110 4th axis address assignment This variable will contain a value that indicates the letter address assigned to the 4th axis The possible values are 1 A 2 B 3 C 21 U 22 V and 23 W Macro Programming Reference What are Variables Variables are the heart of macro programming Variables are like numbered storage units each of which can either be empty or contain a number When they contain a number the variables can be used in place of almost any numeric value in your G code program Variables are designated with the symbol and are followed by a number or expression that designates the variable number Variables can be used as the value following any letter address except N Examples of how variables can be used G1 X 100 Y 101 F10 In this example of a feed move the X and Y endpoints are determined by the values contained in the variables 100 and 101 100 Macro B Programming Support G 100 X 101 Y 102 In this example the G code to be executed is determined by the value contained in variable 100 What makes them such a powerful tool is the fact that new values can be assigned to variables by
114. r Setup Opens the DXF Layer Setup dialog so that stored layer data may be modified without actually opening a drawing file Import Settings This tool allows you to import NCPlot configuration settings from a previously exported settings file These files are in the INI format Export Settings This tool allows you to export your NCPlot application settings to an INI file for easy backup or transfer to another computer These settings are Bb Export Settings Select Settings to Export General Settings Font Settings Preferences Address Colors Text To GCode Settings Subprogram Settings Saved DXF Layer Settings SpaceNavigator Settings Keyboard Shortcuts General Settings These are the settings that are enabled or disabled via the menus 69 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Auto Refresh Show Axis Lines Show Rapid Show Ticks Show Marker Show Plunge Lock Vertical Rotate Block Skip Editor Colorize Font Settings The editor font settings Preferences The settings on the Preferences dialog See also Preferences Address Colors The Address color settings from the Address Colors dialog See also Address Colors Text To G Code Settings The settings on the Text To G Code dialog See also Text To G Code Subprogram Settings The settings on the Subprograms dialog See also Subprograms Saved DXF Layer Settings The saved DXF layer settings See also DXF Layer Setup SpaceNavigator Settings 70 M
115. rdinate system setting Canned cycle initial point return Canned cycle R point return NCPlot does not handle the following G Codes internally Instead they are simulated by external macro programs This allows them to be customized for a particular control Clockwise circle mill Counterclockwise circle mill Bolt circle canned cycle Holes on line at angle canned cycle Holes on arc canned cycle Grid pattern canned cycle Bolt circle cycle Bolt hole arc cycle Holes on line at angle cycle NCPlot assigns each G Code a group number Only one G Code within a group may be active at a time Group 0 G4 G9 G10 G11 G12 G13 G28 G34 G35 G36 G37 1 G52 G53 G65 G92 GO G1 G2 G3 G17 G18 G19 G90 G91 G94 G95 G20 G21 G40 G41 G42 G43 G44 G49 G70 G89 G98 G99 G50 G51 88 Supported G 8 M Codes Group 12 G54 G59 G54 1 Group 14 G66 G67 Group 18 G15 G16 Group 19 G50 1 G51 1 Group 16 G68 G69 Lathe Format A G Codes co Y Rapid motion S O GOL Feedmoion O O G G G Work offset 1 Also supports extended work offsets P1 through P300 G G G co CA AC CI Tn CI SSS CIN OOOO CI SSCS CI IN G G G67 Macro modal call cancel G70 G89 690 Turningcycle 694 Facing cycle G97 SpindleRPMmode G99 Feedperrevolutionmode gt G00 01 50 G52 53 G54 55 G56 57 G58 59 65 G66 67 G80 G90 92 G94 96 G97 98 G99 89 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPlot assi
116. re located at Program Files NCPlot v2 xx Config config name l The Config folder contains the machine configuration files along with a corresponding sub folder for each configuration These sub folders contain the canned cycle macro programs Every machine configuration uses it s own set of canned cycle macros which means that you can have different canned cycles for each machine configuration For information about adding support for additional G Codes please see Adding Custom G Codes The G Codes that are handled as external macros by default are G70 G79 G81 G89 Standard canned cycles You can add cycles for G Codes that fall within these ranges by simply adding an appropriately named G Code program file to the desired configuration folder No additional configuration settings are required G12 Clockwise circle cutting G13 Counterclockwise circle cutting The G34 through G37 1 cycles are included in the default mill configurations G34 Bolt circle cycle G35 Holes on line at angle cycle G36 Holes on arc cycle G37 1 Grid pattern cycle The G70 through G72 bolt pattern cycles are included in the HAAS mill configuration 99 NCPlot v2 26 Manual G70 Bolt circle cycle G71 Holes on arc cycle G72 Holes on line at angle cycle NCPlot uses system variables to pass some additional information to the canned cycles These variables are specific to NCPlot 5100 Machine Type O Mill 1 Lathe Radius 2 Lathe Diamete
117. result in a full circle If any arcs could not converted for this reason a message will indicate how many arcs could not be converted Break Arcs Into Lines This tool will break arcs into line segments Any G02 G03 blocks are replaced with a sequence of G01 moves that approximate the arc You will be prompted for a maximum deviation distance that determines how closely the line segments will follow the arc This also determines how many line segments are required to approximate the arc This tool will also break helical arcs up to 360 degrees 60 Menus Break Arcs At Quadrants This tool will break arc commands that cross any of the 4 quadrant points The 4 points are at 0 90 180 and 270 degrees Up to 3 additional arc commands are created for each G02 G03 command so that each command creates an arc that is no more than 90 degrees This tool will not break helical arcs Break Lines Into Segments This tool will break linear move commands into multiple smaller move commands This tool prompts you for a maximum move length which specifies how long to make each of the smaller moves Movement commands that are equal to or smaller than the entered length will not be changed Run Time Estimation This tool shows a window that displays the programmed extents for each axis and the estimated run time of the loaded file You can enter your machine s rapid rate and approximate tool change time to more accurately estimate the required cycl
118. rom the list When a file is opened from the recent files list that file is moved to the top of list Reset Toolbars This will load the default toolbar layout clearing any changes that have been made to the layout including custom toolbars Exit Exits the application If any unsaved changes have been made to any of the loaded files you will be prompted to save them before the application closes Edit Menu Undo Undoes the last edit to the program Redo Redo the last undone change Cut Cuts the selected text from the program and places it on the clipboard Copy Copies the selected text from the program to the clipboard Paste 47 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Pastes the current clipboard contents into the program at the current cursor location Select From Use this tool to mark the current cursor location in the file Then move the cursor to the end of the area you want to select and use the Select To tool to select the desired region Select To Selects from the marked cursor location to the current cursor location See Select From Select All Selects the entire contents of the edit window Find Find text in the program If a single word or line of text is selected it will be entered into the Find What field of the find dialog If multiple lines are selected then the Find What field will be blank and the find or replace operations will take place within the selected region of the file Find Next R
119. s rotates around the Y axis and a C axis rotates around the Z axis You must also set the Coordinate Resolution setting for the 4th axis command values This works the same way as the setting on the Control Settings page The Reverse Rotary Axis direction setting allows you change the positive rotation direction of the rotary axis One of three interpolation methods may be selected select the setting that matches the way your rotary axis behaves 1 Take shortest path to endpoint the rotary axis will move in the direction that results in less than 180 degrees of motion 2 Sign indicates direction the rotary axis will move to the designated endpoint in the direction indicated by the sign of the endpoint value 3 Treat axis as linear unwinds the rotary axis endpoints are handled as though the axis was linear If the axis rotates past 360 degrees it must move back the same amount to get back to zero This is usually referred to as unwinding the axis 36 Machine Configuration The Rotary Centerline settings can be used to specify where on your machine the rotary axis is located This tells NCPlot where the center of rotation is located on the machine Plotting Subprograms NCPlot provides you with the ability to backplot G Code programs that make use of sub programming This includes support for M98 G65 and M97 subprogram call codes But like the machine configuration there are some settings that need to be conf
120. s such as animate step forward and step backward can then help you locate the trouble spots in the program The viewport is a dockable toolbar that may be docked on either the left or right side of the application window It can also be undocked from the application window and moved anywhere on your desktop As a toolbar it may also be closed altogether SP x1 0 0 21 0 Getting Started In addition to the tool path graphics there are several other useful items on the viewport File Name the top of the viewport displays the name of the file the backplot corresponds to View Name appears in the top left corner of the viewport and describes the active view orientation This gives a reminder of which way the view is looking at the part The color of the view name indicates whether the viewport is currently active gray meaning it is not active While active the view name will be either white or black depending on the background color of the viewport Orientation Icon like the View Name this icon serves to show you which way the part is oriented on the viewport The icon appears in the lower left corner of the viewport and indicates the positive direction for each displayed axis Axis Lines are drawn to indicate where the active zero point is The zero point can represent the machine zero or any of six programmable work zero locations Marker Icon this icon is an arrow shaped pointer that appears on the viewport and shows the loc
121. s tool is also activated by pressing the V key when the viewport is active Zoom Window Using the left mouse button drag a box around the desired view area This tool is also activated by pressing the Z key when the viewport is active Lock Vertical Rotation When this item is checked the isometric viewport will only rotate around the viewport vertical axis This can be overridden by holding the Ctrl key while rotating the viewport After rotating the view and releasing the Ctrl key the viewport will maintain the new horizontal rotation Set ISO View Rotation Center This tool allows you to select an endpoint to be the center of rotation for the isometric view When a point is picked the view will pan so that the picked point is at the center of the viewport Draw Menu Animate Draws the loaded file while highlighting the corresponding blocks in the program window There is a delay between steps so you can see the motion that is taking place This delay can be set on the preferences dialog Pause Pauses an animation in progress Once paused pressing Animate again will resume the program Rewind to Beginning 17 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Clears the backplot graphics and sets the cursor back to the first motion block in the program Forward to End Draws the backplot graphics from the current start position up to the end of the program and sets the cursor to the last motion block in the program Step Forward Draws
122. sions rita lada AAA AE AAA AAA 101 FUN CIO error pil Sl sd pis pod a ah ea 103 COMPARISON Sutra 104 Program Levels and Local Variables ooooccccccccccccccccccnnccnnnnnononnnonnnononononininons 105 Common and System Variables 106 US Varlable O 0 lata lA A ATA 107 HEAT A A Seer O ear eae eT 108 Macro Examples atado 110 Vatlable MIS A A A AA A ADA 110 Mill Wea ble S 0 cc A OSA 110 Lathe Variables Format A uu 115 Lathe Vanables Format B ateoa eeaeee aar eeraa eeror Seere ei 119 DXF Drawing File Supp Oma civics lane cc d d ccmcaanidesnsanadduacetndsieceaadaacedaandedy 125 Exporting as DXF Drawing Files cece cece cece tere reer reer reer eee e rete eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 125 Using a DXF Drawing File as the Viewport Background eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 125 Converting DXF Drawing Files to G COde oooccccccccccccccccccccncnnncnnonononononononnnnnoninnnnns 125 INTOUCION lt ita 125 The DXF Conversion Options Dialog lt 00ooooccococococococococococococococococococococaconicose 126 Arrange the Layer Dist A AAA AA tci las 127 Set Machining Parametera ceux cenicesicenteentcentesseceeteentdenteueeceeteentdenteusecenteentcestersecest es 127 Chaining aeea TO se a ele eee eee eet a ie Ses 128 OMG A 129 COMMENTING LO GG ONS ica etc cece e A A 129 CUSTOMIZING NCP Otsese A AAA AAA 131 Customizing the Toolbars cccceceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetees 131 Hidin
123. splay a user input box and allows the user to enter a value The command format is 3009 100 ENTER POCKET DIAMETER The comment text is displayed in the input box along with the current contents of the specified variable number In this example the variable number is 100 A new value entered into this box is then saved to this variable 116 Macro B Programming Support 4001 4020 G Modals Pre Read Block 4201 4220 G Modals Execution Block The group 0 codes are non modal and do not appear in the system variables They are included here for the sake of completeness NCPlot does not support all of the G Codes listed here but will store them in the proper group when encountered in a program Group 0 G4 G9 G10 G11 G28 G50 G52 G53 G65 4201 Group 1 GO Gl G2 G3 4205 Group 5 G98 G99 4206 Group 6 G20 G21 4207 Group 7 G40 G41 G42 4209 Group 9 G70 G79 G81 G89 G80 G90 G92 G94 4212 Group 12 G54 G59 G54 1 4214 Group 14 G66 G67 4217 Group 17 G96 G97 4301 4320 Other Modals 4301 A 4311 H 4302 B 4312 L 4303 C 4313 M 4304 I 4314 N 4305 J 4315 O 4306 K 4316 P 4307 D 4317 Q 4308 E 4318 R 4309 F 4319 S 4310 G 4320 T Axis positions X axis Z axis Last block endpoint 5001 5002 Machine coordinate 5021 5022 Work coordinate 5041 5042 Work Offsets X axis Z axis 117 NCPlot v2 26 Manual G54 5221 5222 G55 5241 5242
124. swap tool The string values str1 and str2 should each contain a single address character A to Z excluding the address G This tool will scan the program swapping these two address values NCPConvertArcsToAbsolute NCPlot NCPConvertArcsToAbsolute Equivalent to the Convert arc centers to absolute tool NCPConvertArcsTolncremental 151 NCPlot v2 26 Manual NCPlot NCPConvertArcsTolncremental Equivalent to the Convert arc centers to incremental tool NCPConvertArcsTolJK NCPlot NCPConvertArcsTolJK Equivalent to the Convert arc R to IJK tool NCPConvertArcsToR NCPlot NCPConvertArcsToR Equivalent to the Convert arc IJK to R tool NCPConvertCoordToABS NCPlot NCPConvertCoordToABS Equivalent to the Convert coordinates to ABS tool NCPConvertCoordToINC NCPlot NCPConvertCoordToINC Equivalent to the Convert coordinates to INC tool NCPGetRunTime 152 Scripting Reference NCPlot NCPGetRunTime FeedLength FeedTime RapidLength RapidTime ToolChanges ToolChangeTime This function returns the run time estimation values for the active backplot FeedLength returns the total feed length FeedTime returns the total feed time in seconds RapidLength returns the total rapid length RapidTime returns the total rapid time in seconds ToolChanges returns the total number of tool changes ToolChangeTime returns the total tool change time NCPFormatTime NCPlot NCPFormatTime Seconds noDHMS
125. t found Ignore if sub not found Ignore if sub not found Ignore all Ignore all Clear Browse Remove Remove All M98 and G65 Handling These settings determine what action NCPIot will take when it encounters a subprogram command in the program Error if sub not found If the commanded subprogram cannot be found NCPlot will display an error and program processing ends Warn if sub not found If the commanded subprogram cannot be found NCPlot will display a message then continue Ignore if sub not found If the commanded subprogram is found it will be plotted otherwise it will be ignored Ignore all All subprogram calls will be ignored Default Search Path If you have many sub programs or sub programs that you use often you can keep them together in the same folder and set the default search path to point to this folder In order for NCPlot to find it the file name must begin with the letter O followed by the program number Any extension may be used for example O1 txt is a valid file name Associations You may also assign files at random to individual program numbers To do this click the Add button You will be prompted for the program number enter the number 68 Menus that follows the P address in the M98 or G65 block You will then be presented with the file browse dialog use this to select the file that contains the G Code for the entered program number DXF Laye
126. t sino eee eei eeg 150 NCPAddressReplace cin a aaa aa 151 NEPAUdr ss REMOVE inei a e aa ih aac al a a eT 151 NEPAddresS SWAN crea oc 151 NGPCONVEIATCS FOR DSONILS a a 151 NCPConvertArcsTolncremental iia ii dated 151 NGPConvertAresTolJ Kerara den eh tt ds do e eo tes do el da eh dd on dl 152 NOPCOMVENAICS TOR trote TAERAA 152 NEPConvernCcoord TABS say a 152 NGPConvertGoord TONE ianiai adicta AAA 152 NCPGeURURTING at A A a 152 Alina eLA AA E eA AEE eviaictcaus EEA PEE AE EEEE OEE EEEE EAE edt 153 NGPMSOWINAOW second 153 NG PMSOC IOS nca a Site a eae 154 SetU p PUC OS e ea a RAS EA AAA ASA A E aaa a ae E A a EA ARE ARA AAA 154 NCPGetGeneralSettihNgie is eee eee eee e eee eee ected 154 NCPSetGeneralSetting cion teie iente ienie iisen inisecieioiee cidon 154 NGPGetPrefSetting dd do dd do dd do ad 155 NCPSetPrefSetting 22 osc td A 159 NCPGetSubprogramSetting emociono 155 NGPSCISUDpro gra Moca 156 NOPSUDLISIA 0 a AA Ad Edda 156 NEPSubDLISTROMOVO 30 aa do den at doo o dad dd 156 NEPSUbDEIStReMove Alle unen tana dad 157 NEPGetSub ISO Ea ooo oloi 157 NCP GetSubLISttent 00 titi dnd A A A dt 157 NGPGetColOro eliges al il il niger bn pire 157 NCPSetColorSet OO ssp ias 158 AE AS O O O 158 NEP SetFoniSetInd cti da 158 NCPGetTTGSetting nto tds ais EA A AR AA ARRASATE AEREA AAA 159 PCP SS tT GS SU yas Ica It ii 159 Draw FUNCUIONS ciara nce tiered laureate AAA 159 ING PP 0 E ad ss ee desd ated ae 159 NGPYVIewWSetO Menta ON A Me td 160 NCPVIEWZOOM
127. t to copy then click the button Copy to Layer This button turns green indicating that you should now click the name of layer you want to copy the settings to To copy the same settings to all loaded layers first select the layer you want to copy then click the button Copy to All Layers If your drawing has layers that you use often you can copy them to the Saved Layer list for later use To copy a layer to the saved layer list first select it from the layer list the click the button Copy to Saved Layers The layer name and all of it s settings are then copied to the saved layer list Chaining Since a DXF drawing file doesn t provide the geometry data in any particular order we need a means of identifying which parts of the drawing are connected together to form a continuous path This is done with the chaining tool The chaining tool will scan each layer and find all the geometry that appears to be connected together The Max Join Distance setting determines how close the endpoints of two entities must be in order to be considered joined This lets NCPlot create more efficient G Code without a lot of seemingly random cutting Since the converter is layer based the chaining tool will only join geometry that is on the same layer There are two chaining tools Chain All which will chain all the layers in the drawing and Chain Layer which will chain only the currently selected layer Once chained the drawing will display markers to indicate t
128. tains a drop down list that allows you to select the types of files to be displayed either plain text files of various extensions DXF drawing files or all files If a DXF drawing file is selected the DXF conversion options window will open instead of the file being loaded into the edit window After a file is loaded it will automatically be plotted and zoomed to the size of the viewport Either plain text or rich text RTF files may be loaded the format will be determined automatically Open Recent File Displays a list of up to 20 of the most recently opened files Insert File This selection allows you to browse for an existing file to be inserted into the edit window The selected file will be inserted at the current cursor position If any unsaved changes have been made to the current program you are prompted to save it before loading a new file The file browse window contains a drop down list that allows you to select the types of files to be displayed either plain text files of various extensions DXF drawing files or all files If a DXF drawing file is selected the DXF conversion options window will open instead of the file being loaded into the edit window Either plain text or rich text RTF files may be inserted the format will be determined automatically Merge Files 41 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Allows you to select multiple files to merge into one document Close This selection clears the current program and
129. thout the WHILE It s conditional expression is always TRUE which sets up a never ending loop This type of loop must have some other means of breaking out of the loop such as an IF GOTO statement or even an MO2 or M30 to end the program Macro Examples Macro programming is very flexible The examples given here are not necessarily the right way or the only way to do something This section is simply to help you understand how the macro language works Example 1 This example clears variables 100 through 199 to lt empty gt 1 100 Assign the value 100 to variable 1 N1 1 0 The variable pointed to by variable 1 is cleared to lt empty gt 1 1 1 Variable 1 is incremented by 1 IF 1 LT 200 GOTO 1 This jump is taken as long as variable 1 is less than 200 Example 2 Here is another way to do the same thing using a WHILE DO loop 1 100 WHILE 1 LT 200 DO 1 1 0 it E 1 1 1 ND1 Variable Maps Mill Variables This map details the variables recognized by NCPlot While most controls that can be programmed in Macro B format will conform to this layout you should check your controls documentation to be sure 0 Always lt empty gt 1 99 Local variables Note that on some controls this is 1 33 110 Macro B Programming Support Variable Address Variable Address 1 A 14 N x 2 B 15 O xX 3 16 P x 7 D 17 Q 8 E 18 R 9 F
130. tiie senene neee shelatansictate telate chelate telatelsintatcs 20 Show TICKS A AS 20 Show Plunge MOVES oca adi s 20 Absolute Arc COMETS siria tana ta az eat AAA ERA AAA TAE AAA AAA IRA 20 il AAA A cucuasevsunneterccavedeccachaterscavescueusrateviuastuces 20 Machine Configuration ssp cas 21 About the Machine Configuration ooooooooconcccoconononooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nono nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns 21 Machine PO sii E A EAEE A Partree E ARE 22 Control SST IS 24 EE A A A A EA 26 Interpreter Customize 22d id nd Add AAA A amid daha ia ad arid a ds 27 Viewport SENOS dd ib 29 Work Offsets rro dr RRE ra 31 Extended Work Offsets sna baniaeel aaeened ere esate eee 32 DAF ODIONS serian calzada rat 1d AAA ZAR datas TARA TAN EA AEREA TRATA RIA Ri 33 R n Time Estimating eip e e A A A E R 34 Rotary AU AXi S AA a AA e 35 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Plotting Subprograms 0011 A AAA RA AAA ARA AA ATAR 37 Select a subprogram call TOMA 33 SAA AA elon 37 Where to put your subprogramS o 38 Canned Eee eee DOS de 39 MORAS a A AA AAA Ts 41 Pile Mentor oi 41 A A A 41 Open PM IA A ARRE iad all aadnld badd ad ie 41 Open Recent Ali AAA AAA AAA ARA 41 a A O eeu eaten asst hes enwea een aee ence eaeeameu E 41 Merge Files oi a 41 COS rr di iii diaz 42 A AA e a buat iss ed had a nd uated ned tl helped Ek amen 42 COMPare Fes i e E E E E A ha E E E E 42 aal ona DAS a a eich E II E E E E N 43 EXPOS Pile cia ao 43 Export Selected as DXF Fille
131. tings that can affect the way your program will be plotted Most settings can be found on the Machine Configuration dialog This is found on the menu Setup Machine Configuration These options are found on the Draw menu Each of these options will display a check mark next to them on the menu to indicate that they are enabled Axis Lines 19 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Displays two or three depending on the view intersecting lines that indicate where 0 0 0 is on the viewport The axis lines display may indicate the machine zero or any of the six work offsets Show Rapid Moves Displays or hides rapid motion lines on the viewport Show Ticks When enabled a small square is drawn at the endpoint of rapid moves This setting has no effect when Show Rapid Moves is not enabled Show Plunge Moves When disabled this option will hide Z axis movements in the negative direction This only affects movements that are Z axis only Absolute Arc Centers When checked this option specifies how J K specified arc centers are drawn This option also affects the results of the arc conversion tools This setting may also be changed on the Machine Configuration dialog under the Control Options tab Preferences The preferences dialog contains some general settings that allow customizing the way NCPlot behaves Please see the menu Setup Preferences 20 Machine Configuration About the Machine Configuration In order for the graphics v
132. tly selected arc You could then create points at the center of each selected arc and use these points to create a drill program After a group of entities has been selected there are a few things that you can do with them e Export as DXF file The File menu has an option called Export Selected as DXF File that will enable you save a DXF file that contains only the entities that you have selected This can save a lot of work deleting unnecessary geometry from a drawing that contains the entire backplot e Calc Tools The Calc tools such as offset and blend radius require that one or more entities be selected These tools are applied only to the selected entities e Convert to G Code This tool will use the selected entities to create new G Code snippets This might not seem very useful at first after all the selected entities were created from G Code in the first place right Not necessarily the Calc tools can be used to create new geometry which you can then turn into new G Code with this tool You could also take a backplot from a simple 2D profile and use it to create multiple Z passes e Delete Pressing the DEL or Delete key on your keyboard will remove the selected entities from the viewport This is useful for removing clutter when trying to isolate a particular area of the backplot This does not remove them from your program and refreshing the viewport will restore the deleted entities Plot Settings There are many set
133. tomize dialog can be accessed by right clicking any of the toolbars and selecting Customize from the menu that appears Toolbars Commands Options IV Variable Display On this dialog click the New button and then enter a name for the new toolbar The toolbar is then created and will appear on the screen as an undocked toolbar To add buttons to the new toolbar the Customize dialog must be left open Click and drag buttons to move them from the other toolbars to your new toolbar or hold the Ctrl key while dragging to copy them Adding menu shortcuts to a toolbar Menu commands may also be added to existing or custom toolbars 132 Customizing NCPlot Commands Can t Redo Cut 29 Copy B Paste Select From Description On the toolbar customize dialog select the Commands tab The Catagories list represents each of the menus in NCPlot and the Commands list represents the items in each menu To add a command to a toolbar drag it from the Commands list to an open toolbar Menu Shortcut Keys The menu shortcut keys can customized via the toolbar customize dialog The toolbar customize dialog can be accessed by right clicking any of the toolbars and selecting Customize from the menu that appears The keyboard shortcut keys are part of the toolbar layout and will be saved when exiting NCPIot Resetting the toolbar layout from the menu File Reset Toolbars will also reset the keyboard shortcut keys
134. ttings Subprogram settings and DXF conversion settings lt also provides quick access to your VBS scripts View fade toolbar The NCPlot viewport provides View Fading which allows you to dim the parts of the backplot that are not part of the current tool The View Fade toolbar provides a slider that controls the brightness of the faded entities Animate toolbar Getting Started The Animate toolbar provides a slider that controls the speed of the backplot animation Tool list toolbar Z The Tool List toolbar provides a list of the tools used by the active program For more info please see the Tool List Toolbar topic Status Bar EDIT 74 X 2 7164 Y7 3282 Skip ON Program 6001 POCKET 1 Mill Scripts Click and drag the viewport to pan The status bar is made up of panels Some panels contain information about the current state of NCPIot while some allow quick access to NCPIot features The panels from left to right are Edit Status indicates that changes have been made to the loaded file Caps Lock Status indicates when the keyboard caps lock is active Insert Status indicates when the keyboard insert is active Current Line Number indicates the line number that the cursor is on Position panel indicates the location of the mouse pointer in machine coordinates This location will only update while the mouse pointer is within the viewport e Block Skip Status indicates the current status of the block delete toggle
135. u item will open your default web browser to the NCPlot home page www ncplot com Ordering NCPlot This menu item will open your default web browser to the NCPlot online ordering page Enable Network License Server Checking this menu item will enable communications to the license manager This requires that the Network License Manager be running on a computer that is connected to the network Check Out License This will request a license transfer from the license manager If successful the license is stored on the client computer so that NCPlot may be run while disconnected from the network While it is checked out the license will not be available for other users 84 Menus Check In License This will return a stored license back to the license manager This tool may also be used to add a license to the license manager If you have registered NCPlot on a computer its license may be moved to the license manager by first enabling the license server and then checking the license into the license manager If the license does not already exist in the license manager it will be added This is very handy if you are adding a license manager to a group of computers that already have NCPlot installed and registered License Manager Settings Opens the license manager settings dialog This dialog allows you to specify a network IP address or hostname for the license server or let NCPlot automatically detect the server b Network License
136. ur 3D device see the menu Setup SpaceNavigator Getting Started Getting Started On startup you are greeted with the following screen If you have not registered the software a window displays your remaining trial period time You may click Ok to continue unregistered or you may enter your name and key information E NCPiot v2 26 Untitled 1 a a Xx Edit Format Tools Setup Cale View Draw DNC Window Help E About NCPlot NCPlot G Code Editor v2 26 Copyright 2005 2012 NCPlot Software LLC Trial License 15 Days Remaining To register NCPlot enter your name here And your product key here Check for License Server Register The NCPlot window consists of e The document workspace where loaded G Code programs are shown e The graphics viewport where the graphic backplot appears e The menu bar which is used to access most of the program features NCPlot v2 26 Manual e The toolbars contain shortcut buttons to the most commonly used functions e A status bar which displays information about the current state of NCPlot The Viewport The graphics viewport in NCPlot displays the graphical representation of the programmed G Code tool path The viewport not only shows you if your program will work as expected but it also provides help when the results are not what you expected Using the dynamic pan zoom and rotate you can quickly spot parts of the tool path that are not correct The plot control
137. ways lt empty gt A variable that is lt empty gt is not the same as a variable that has been set to 0 An lt empty gt variable is a variable that contains no value not even 0 This variable cannot be set but may be assigned to other variables and used in comparisons This is especially useful for subprograms in determining if a value has been given for all required addresses G65 P9000 AO B2 Variables 1 and 2 contain values because values were given in the G65 block All other local variables are cleared to lt empty gt If for example the address C is also required by the subprogram it can check to see if a value was given by comparing it to variable 0 If 3 is equal to 0 then address C was not included in the G65 block that called the subprogram Even though 1 was set to 0 this is a valid value and so it is not equal to 0 Variables may be cleared to lt empty gt by assigning them the variable 0 For example 100 0 The variable 100 is cleared to lt empty gt This also works using the variable indirect method 100 0 110 100 Variable 110 is cleared to lt empty gt because 100 points to variable 0 When variable 0 is used in an expression it is handled as the value 0 except for the comparisons EQ and NE Examples of using 0 in expressions FO 1 1 107 NCPlot v2 26 Manual 0 10 0 0 0 101 101 50 0 0 LT 0 FALSE 0 LE 0
138. wport can display a reference drawing in DXF format When loaded this drawing is a persistent part of the viewport and is useful for displaying things like machine travels part fixtures interference areas reference grids etc To display a drawing on the viewport set the Path to Reference DXF Drawing setting to the path of the drawing you want to display 30 Machine Configuration In addition to the entity colors you can also specify the background color of the graphics viewport the color of entities that are selected the color of the marker arrow and the color of the reference drawing The Top Viewport rotation setting allows you to re orient the graphics display to match the way the part appears from the operator side of the machine This is simply a convenience setting that only affects the graphics view The Modal Values to Display setting determines which address values are displayed along with the location as part of the viewport marker These values are displayed just below the endpoint location Active G Codes may be displayed here and are entered as G followed by a numeric value which indicates the group number to display More than one G code may be entered The group numbers are different between the machine types these links will take you to a listing of the G Codes and their group numbers Mill Lathe Format A or Lathe Format B Here are some examples TFS T01 F12 4 S1600 TG12G2G8 T01 G54 G17 G43 G8HG7DG12S G43 H
139. ws you to simulate G Codes that are not handled internally by NCPlot Interpreter Customize 27 NCPlot v2 26 Manual r Machine Configuration C Program Files x86 NCPlot v2 26 Config Default ncp lela 2 File H k The interpreter customize page allows greater flexibility in setting up NCPIot to backplot programs that use non standard program or G Code formats It does this by finding and replacing text in the program blocks before they reach the interpreter This process does not change the program being edited it only changes how the program is read by the backplotter When the Enable Customizations box is checked the interpreter will find and replace each item in the list for each block in the program as it is read As an example suppose you want the interpreter to read G70 amp G71 as the inch metric commands G20 amp G21 that are recognized by NCPIot Search Text Replace Text In this example any instance of G70 in the program will be read as G20 and any instance of G71 will be read as G21 If your control uses keywords that are not recognized by NCPIot you can use this feature to ignore them by leaving the replace field blank Search Text Replace Text WORKSHIFTS 28 Machine Configuration G200 By replacing keywords with subprogram call commands you can handle them with an external macro Search Text Replace Text WORKSHIFTS M98P9000 SETMS M98P9001
140. your program Here is an example of assigning a value to a variable 100 10 0 The value 10 0 is stored into variable 100 Once this has been set the value 10 0 will be used in place of 100 G1 X 100 This command is then equivalent to G1 X10 0 By simply changing the value stored in this variable you can make the same program do different things Multiple variables may be assigned in the same block However variable assignments must be on a block by themselves and may not be combined with G code blocks or other macro statements Examples 101 1 102 2 103 3 This is valid IF 1EQ0 THEN 105 5 This is the only macro statement where variables can be assigned G01 X 101 102 4 This is not valid WHILE 1NEO DO1 104 4 This is not valid It is good programming practice to decide the meaning of your variables before you begin writing For example you may want variable 100 to be used to specify a pocket width or you may want variable 250 to specify a corner radius It is completely up to you what the variables mean but it can save a lot time and confusion to decide before you begin writing What are Expressions 101 NCPlot v2 26 Manual Expressions are formulas that mathematically combine values to get a resulting number The result of an expression is then assigned to a variable or used in a conditional statement Example of using an expression to assign a value to a variable 100 101 1 Th

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NCPlot™ v2.26 User Manual