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Post Processing

1. If it is necessary to output the vector direction of the next move for Cincinnati Milacron controls only use the lt X VECTOR gt and lt Y VECTOR gt Reserved Words Other configurations may require the X and Y coordinates to be repeated as compensation is turned On In that case establish a conditional statement so that these repeated coordinates do not appear in every linear move of the cutter path A conditional statement for a LINEAR MOVE program format is as follows LINEAR MOVE BLOCK lt IF gt lt COMP ON gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt COMP STAT gt X lt S X COORD gt Y lt S Y COORD gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt N lt SEQ gt lt COMP STAT gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt E EE D gt lt EOB gt The symbol is a Reserved Word modifier to generate the previous values of X and Y to represent the current position of the tool The lt X COORD gt and lt Y COORD gt Reserved Words always represent the next point in the cutter path Handling Pecking Pecking applies to Deep Hole Chip Break and Tap operations The first step to handling pecking in a CNC file is to set the type of pecking that will be used for drilling and tapping on the NC Codes page FeatureCAM checks the pecking type in the currently loaded post processor to duplicate canned cycles when simulating toolpaths The second step is to create the appropr
2. 2 A TOOL CHANGE block is output between segments that require a tool change This block is only output if the Tool specification FeatureCAM differs from the previous one Functions such as lt SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt and lt COOLANT gt status can be passed to the Post output with the first positioning move via lt X COORD gt and lt Y COORD gt Reserved Words If the target machine tool uses fixture offsets G54 G55 E1 E2 the Reserved Word lt FIXTURE gt should be positioned before the lt MOTION gt lt X COORD gt and lt YCOORD gt words Segment start rules 1 2 SEGMENT START is only output between non tool changing segments SEGMENT START should contain any commands that may change between segments e g lt SPEED gt lt COOLANT gt etc The Reserved Words lt X COORD gt lt Y COORD gt and lt Z COORD gt must be included in SEGMENT START If the target machine tool uses fixture offsets G54 G55 E1 E2 the Reserved 25 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Word lt FIXTURE gt should be positioned before the lt MOTION gt lt X COORD gt and lt YCOORD gt words Program end This block can be used to turn the Coolant Off position the tool to an endpoint and rewind the part program 1 Using the Reserved Words lt X CHANGE gt and lt Y CHANGE gt positions the tool at the last tool change point 2 For incremental programming type the symbol in front of these Reserved Wo
3. Selects the programmed turret Corresponds to the Turret parameter on the Tool Usage Page Reproduces the date that the part program was postprocessed Reproduces the name of the FeatureCAM file Reproduces the output file name Corresponds to the Part name that is set in the Setup dialog ESTABLISHING CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS System and logical type Reserved Words are used together to set up conditional 43 FeatureCAM General Post Processor statements that are evaluated by Post Depending on whether a conditional statement is true or false Post either includes or omits certain data from the program format The format for a conditional statements is as follows lt IF gt lt Logical Reserved Word gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt ENDIF gt or lt IFNOT gt lt Logical Reserved Word gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt ENDIF gt For example in the conditional statement shown below the data between the words lt THEN gt and lt ENDIF gt are only output if CSS is ON lt IF gt lt CSS ON gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt G96S lt CSS SPEED gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt System Reserved Words lt IF gt First element in a conditional statement always followed by a logical type Reserved Word to verify that a condition is true lt IFNOT gt First element in a conditional statement always followed by a logical type Reserved Word to verify that a condition is false lt THEN gt Second element in a conditional st
4. Featurecanm Build CNC Data File Machine specitic Code Template concept The CNC data file created by XBUILD is used by Post as a template to format the part program data file created in FeatureTURN The template consists of program formats e g LINEAR MOVE RAPID MOVE etc that determine the structure of a part program for a specific CNC Each format uses address characters X Z etc and Reserved Words such as lt X COORD gt lt Z COORD gt etc to indicate the seguence of data in program blocks Program formats are sequentially filled i e Reserved Words are substituted by their corresponding values G and M codes machine tool codes when the part program data file is postprocessed A typical CNC program LINEAR MOVE format block that is output by Post might look like this N305G1Z3 4X2 753F5 lt CR gt As shown below Post extracts the coordinate data from the FeatureCAM part program data file as well as the line format from the CNC information file Then the appropriate values are substituted to generate the line of code FeatureCAM General Post Processor Letter addresses N Z X and F are typed as literals and appear in the output CNC file as they appear in the format block The Reserved Words lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt etc identify placement of corresponding values or strings in the block Codes can be imbedded in a program format To enter these control characters type the decimal value
5. Operator Function Example Explanation eq Equal eq lt TOOL gt 0 True if lt TOOL gt 0 Also works for strings neq Not Equal neq lt TOOL gt 0 True if lt TOOL gt 0 Also works for strings It Less Than It lt TOOL gt 0 True if lt TOOL gt lt 0 Also works for strings gt Greater Than gt lt TOOL gt 0 True if lt TOOL gt gt 0 Also works for strings le Less Than or Equal le lt TOOL gt 0 True if lt TOOL gt lt 0 Also works for strings ge Greater Than or ge lt TOOL gt 0 True if lt TOOL gt gt 0 Equal Also works for strings and And and lt Z UP gt True if both lt Z UP gt and lt INDEX gt lt INDEX gt are true or Or or lt Z UP gt lt INDEX gt True if either lt Z UP gt or lt INDEX gt is true not Not not lt Z CHANGED gt True if lt Z CHANGE gt is false apxeg Approximately Equal apxeg lt Z COORD gt 0 True if lt Z COORD gt 0 within 1e 6 String operators Operator Function Example Explanation uppercase Convert string to all uppercase characters uppercase abc Prints ABC a number the number is converted to a string and then they are added If used with two strings abc def Prints abcdef the strings are concatenated If used with a string and 0 5 0 0 Prints 0 5 This is a shortcut for converting a string into a number 10 FeatureCAM General
6. Post outputs lines that are defined in PROGRAM START at the beginning of a program In PROGRAM START general preparatory codes e g absolute incremental etc are placed to define the dimension system The first tool change must also be defined Functions such as lt SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt and lt COOLANT gt status as well as the first positioning move can be passed to the Post output via lt Z COORD gt and lt X COORD gt Reserved Words TURRET CHANGE This block is similar to the TOOL CHANGE block and is output between segments that require a change in turret TOOL CHANGE A TOOL CHANGE block is output between segments that require a tool change This block is only output if the Tool specification or Turret selection FeatureTURN differs from the previous one The tool should be positioned to a safe location index position before indexing tools Functions such as lt SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt and lt COOLANT gt status can be passed to the Post output with the first positioning move via lt Z COORD gt and lt X COORD gt Reserved Words SEGMENT START This block is only output between non tool changing segments SEGMENT START should contain any commands that may change between segments e g lt OFFSET gt lt SPEED gt lt CSS SPEED gt etc The Reserved Words lt Z COORD gt and lt X COORD gt must be included in SEGMENT START PROGRAM END This block can be used to turn the Coolant Off position t
7. then the gcode file will be called bracket cnc Motion amp Compensation With the Motion Compensation dialog the exact character strings that are required Commands by the NC machine for different motion types can be specified For example LINEAR is generally defined as G1 but may be changed to G01 or any other string up to eight characters All motion commands are passed to Post via the string type Reserved Word lt MOTION gt Tool tip radius compensation may be generated in the output when turned On in FeatureTURN and if it is built into the CNC BUILD file COMPENSATION selections use the string type Reserved Word lt COMP STAT gt for one of the strings shown above or an empty string is assigned if the Compensation option was not turned On in FeatureTURN Pecking types are the types of pecking performed for drilling and tapping 36 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Turret Info This command is used to specify various data required by the control for the particular turret being used When this command is selected a dialog box is displayed in which several codes need to be specified Parameters 1 5 are used to specify the turret select coolant and turret direction codes that are required by the machine The string type Reserved Words that correspond to these selections are displayed on the right above lt COOLANT OFF gt should usually be used at the beginning of a TOOL CHANGE SEGMENT START and PROGRAM END con
8. 100000 DEC_PT DEC PT turns on the decimal point character ON OFF e g when DEC_PT is toggled ON 100 inches is output as 100 0 The character either a representing the European decimal or a representing the U S decimal is specified in General in the CNC Info menu UNS_V UNS V Unsigned Value is toggled ON positive values are always generated For example some controls may require lt ARC X gt and lt ARC Y gt I and J modifiers for circular interpolation to be unsigned SIGN SIGN outputs the plus sign for positive integers when toggled ON FORMT FORMT specifies the number of digits in the numeric value represented by each numeric type Reserved Word Numbers are specified in the format N n where N represents the maximum number of digits to the left of the decimal point and n is the maximum number of digits to the right of the decimal point For example entering 3 4 specifies a maximum or departure of 999 9999 or a minimum departure of 0 0001 can be used In the Words table a numeric format can be specified for each Reserved Word that requires it FACTR FACTR modifies numeric values during postprocessing Each value that is output by Post is multiplied by the specified number in FACTR For example some controls require arcs to be calculated from center to start point This requires the use of a 1 factor for lt ARC X gt and lt ARC Y gt To generate the unsigned distance from the arc s st
9. If a part program is written in inch units and is processed with a metric CNC data file the resulting part program is converted using standard conversion constants into metric units EOB EOB defines the end of block character s lt EOB gt It is recommended that the default characters be used i e lt 13 gt lt 10 gt carriage return and line feed Decimal Point Decimal Point defines the decimal point character This character is usually a period for United States controls and a comma for European controls 2 Axis Machine 2 axis machine removes ramping moves and ensures that the plunge move is 15 FeatureCAM General Post Processor performed in a single move Overall this setting eliminates unnecessary Z moves that cannot be handled by a 2 axis machine NC File Ext This is the default file extension for you CNC programs For example if it is set to txt and your part is called bracket then the gcode file will be called bracket cnc Circ Interpol Circ Interpol toggles between Multi Quadrant and Single Quadrant and specifies the programming format on the CNC for which the postprocessor is being built For example if the Numerical Control cannot drive an arc across a quadrant line plus or minus X and Y axes then select Single Quadrant circular interpolation Feed Max Feed Max is the maximum feed rate limit for the CNC machine Feed Min Feed Min is the minimum feed rate
10. lt PLANE gt lt XY PLANE gt lt ZX PLANE gt and lt YZ PLANE are also available for turning features in turnmill mode The turning keywords lt SP RANGE gt lt F UNITS gt and lt RANGE CH gt are also available for milling features in turnmill mode The milling keywords lt X VECTOR gt lt Y VECTOR gt lt ROT2 ANSI gt lt ROT2 MATH gt lt ROT2 WIND gt and lt USE FIXTURE gt are not available in turn mill mode The turning keywords lt X VECTOR gt and lt Z VECTOR gt are not available in turnmill mode Also the turning keywords lt Z INDEX gt and lt X INDEX gt have been replaced by lt Z CHANGE gt and lt X CHANGE gt respectively When XBUILD is in the turnmill mode the Reserved Words dialog is color coded to indicate the availability of the keywords TURNMILL logical variables The following logical variables on only available in turnmill posts 52 FeatureCAM General Post Processor lt MILLING gt True if current feature is a milling feature lt ROTARYX gt True if active tool is a rotary x tool Applies to milling and drilling lt TURNING gt True if current feature is a turning feature Handling Turn mill program formats Program Start Format and Tool Change Format For milling moves you must enable the C axis and orient the C axis in both of these formats Here is an example for the Acramatic 850 TC lt IF gt lt MILLING gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt M21 lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt S lt
11. ENDIF gt Print special charcters lt 91 gt lt 93 gt lt EOB gt F Format x using tool s format lt TOOL gt lt X COORD gt lt EOB gt Format x as LTDUP 2 2 2 13 FeatureCAM General Post Processor LTDUP 2 2 2 lt x COORD gt lt EOB gt Set x 1 without printing anything lt X COORD gt 1 lt EOB gt Is x 0 and y 0 lt IF gt and not apxeq lt X COORD gt 0 not apxeq lt Y COORD gt 0 lt THEN gt Yes lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt F Set variable a x a lt X COORD gt lt EOB gt Calc a 5 a 5 lt EOB gt Entering mixed printable ASCII and non printable codes Different systems may allow for ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange control character s non printable characters Control characters such as e lt 13 gt for a carriage return e lt 10 gt for a line feed e lt 32 gt for a space e lt 9 gt for a horizontal tab e lt 91 gt for a left square bracket e lt 93 gt for a right square bracket can be imbedded in a program format To enter control characters type the decimal value equivalent of the ASCII code delimited by angular brackets lt gt Milling general post processor The Xbuild program is a separate program from FeatureCAM To run Xbuild click on Xbuild in the FeatureCAM group under the Start menu 14 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Various machine tool manufacturers have implemented CNC program standar
12. RPM turning attribute or the Max speed for the current range specified on 38 lt OFFSET gt lt R CSS gt lt CALC SPEED gt lt Z INDEX gt lt X INDEX gt lt Z PRESET gt lt X PRESET gt lt Z RETURN gt lt X RETURN gt lt FEED UPR gt lt FEED UPM gt lt FEED gt FeatureCAM General Post Processor the Feed and Speed dialog box of XBUILD Tool length offset number Corresponds to the Offset parameter in the Tool Mapping Dialog Box Radius value in constant surface speed in Post this value is set to the first X coordinate value Calculated direct RPM speed at the path s start point the spindle can be turned ON or readjusted in direct RPM prior to rapid traversing to the path s start point where CSS is turned ON The lt CALC SPEED gt Reserved Word can be used to automatically calculate the direct RPM turn on speed to turn on CSS after position moves which avoids rapid traversing to and from a remote indexing point in the CSS mode Z Index turret position passed from FeatureTURN Corresponds to the Z coordinate of the Tool Change Location either the Turning attribute or the setting in the Post Options dialog box X Index turret position passed from FeatureTURN Corresponds to the X coordinate of the Tool Change Location either the Turning attribute or the setting in the Post Options dialog box Distance between the tool program point and the part origin when at the index position a
13. SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt C lt ROT1 WIND gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt Rapid Move Rapid moves should include the C axis move as shown below N lt SEQ gt K lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt IF gt lt MILLING gt lt THEN gt C lt ROT1 WIND gt lt ENDIF gt Linear Move For machines in which FeatureCAM is doing the interpolation the formats must be conditional on whether it is a turning or milling move In the milling case the C axis rotation and the angular feedrate must be output The following is an example from the Acramatic 850TC lt IF gt lt TURNING gt lt THEN gt X lt X COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt MILLING gt lt THEN gt X lt X COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt KC lt ROT1 WIND gt KF lt ANG FPM gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt For machines in which the controller performs the interpolation make sure to set Polar interpolation done by machine tool in the General Information dialog box This changes the toolpaths as they are output from FeatureCAM into the post Here is an example for a Fanuc 16 18 or 21 lt IF gt lt TURNING gt lt THEN gt X lt X COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt MILLING gt lt THEN gt X lt X COORD gt C lt Y Coord gt Z lt Z COORD gt HF lt FEED gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt 53
14. a boring feed in stop spindle rapid cycle e BORE No drag Cycle specifies a boring feed in stop spindle move to side retract cycle 18 FeatureCAM General Post Processor e CYCLE CANCEL specifies the cycle cancel block for any of the canned cycles e CANNED MOVE specifies the format of canned cycles following their initial definition Pecking types Pecking types are the types of pecking performed for drilling and tapping Reserved word table Reserved Word lt ABS DEPTH gt lt ABS STEP1 gt lt ABS ZCLEAR gt lt ABS ZRAPID gt lt ANG DPM gt lt ANG FPM gt lt ANG INVTIME gt lt ARC X gt lt ARC Y gt lt CHIP TAP gt lt COMP END gt lt COMP ON gt lt COMP MID gt lt COMP NUM gt lt COMP START gt lt COMP STAT gt lt COOLANT gt lt CW SPINDLE gt lt CYCLE gt lt CYCLE DONE gt lt CYCLE MACRO gt lt CYCLE RTRCT gt Definition Absolute Z axis depth from Z axis origin lt ZSURF gt lt DEPTH gt Absolute first step lt ZSURF gt lt STEP1 gt Absolute position of Z Clear Z Clear Z Surf not used in incremental programming Absolute position of Z Rapid Z Rapid Z Surf not used in incremental programming Wrapped feed rate degrees per minute Wrapped feedrate inch or mm per minute Wrapped feedrate inverse time Used in the circular interpolation block to specify the signed X distance from the start point of the arc to the center of t
15. at a time is used by Post depending upon FeatureTURN s segment data SPINDLE CW clockwise and SPINDLE CCW counter clockwise describe the spindle On and direction code Both of these selections use the string type Reserved Word lt SPINDLE gt to specify spindle On and direction NOTE Spindle Dir is specified in FeatureTURN with a negative or positive spindle RPM value A negative value specifies a CCW direction while a positive value specifies a CW direction When CSS is turned on in FeatureTURN the spindle speed is limited to the 37 FeatureCAM General Post Processor maximum set for the appropriate speed range set here Cycles Info The following options contained in CYCLES INFO allow for specifying the manner in which drilling and threading cycles are handled These selections toggle between CANNED and COMPUTED When CANNED is selected a format for a canned threading drilling or grooving cycle is defined which is output by Post only one time If COMPUTED is chosen the drilling threading or grooving move definitions are output as the respective cycle s pass for each step Grooving has only limited canned cycle support Only roughing of straight walled grooves are output as a canned cycle This applies to grooves with Chamfer 0 Angle 0 and Radius 0 NUMERIC TYPE RESERVED WORDS Numeric type Reserved Words are replaced by their numeric values when Post is executed For example the numeric type Reserved Wor
16. be removed from the program format by using the backspace key on the keyboard The text editing functions in the Formats Editor are similar to 46 FeatureCAM General Post Processor those of any Windows word processor The Words List can be removed from the screen by double clicking the mouse in the gray box at the upper left corner of the Word List window or by selecting the Word List command a second time in the File menu Modal Delimiters Modal Delimiters can be inserted by clicking the mouse in the check box at the bottom of the Words List when this list is chosen from the File menu in on of the Program Formats In some cases the CNC machine can use the concept of modality to avoid redundant data and reduce the length of the program When using modality repeated coordinates or commands are stripped from the part program String and Numeric type Reserved Words may be surrounded by modal delimiters to signify to Post to remove redundant data The modality delimiter prevents a repetitive occurrence of a Reserved Word as long as its value remains the same as the previous occurrence of it Modal delimiters used in lt SEQ gt are placed to give the programmer the option of stripping all sequence numbers from the program during post processing This is done by specifying 0 for the sequence step number in Post which forces it to remain the same and allow modality to act upon it Quit This command is used to exit the Forma
17. by ten lt Z COORD gt lt Z COORD gt 10 Set the variable XVAR to the current value of lt X COORD gt then double XVAR Note that these statements do not change the value of lt X COORD gt x var lt X COORD gt x var x var 2 Set the variable FEATURE to the string hole then add the string top to the variable FEATURE and set the new string to the variable NAME feature hole name top feature 11 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Comments You can place a comment in a CNC file by inserting a as the first character in the expression An example comment might be This is a comment A comment is text that XBUILD ignores but that is useful to you for annotation purposes Although comments are neither printed nor evaluated they are helpful if another person is trying to understand your CNC file Formatting expressions The format for an expression can be customized by preceding the expression with an optional format specification The format specification is separated from the expression by a LTDUP Format Factor Where L stands for leading zeros T stands for trailing zeros D stands for decimal point U stands for unsigned value P stands for plus sign Format specifies the number of digits e g 3 4 Factor specifies the multiplier e g 1 0 The above form is in correspondence with the Words Info dialog in XBUILD The following examples illu
18. following build line is the last line of the program start format of the 850sxm cnc post N lt SEQ gt GO0X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt ABS ZRAPID gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt Adding an H command using the lt FIXTURE gt reserved word prior to the motion command would look like this N lt SEQ gt H lt FIXTURE gt GOX lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt ABS ZRAPID gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt A similar modification to the tool change and segment start program formats would 30 FeatureCAM General Post Processor complete the necessary changes to the post When using the reserved word lt MCSID gt recall that this word is the name of the setup in FeatureCAM This reserved word has more flexibility than the lt FIXTURE gt reserved word since it is a string The only requirement is that the setup name in FeatureCAM uses the appropriate G code command for your post The placement of the lt MCSID gt reserved word in the block is identical to that of the lt FIXTURE gt reserved word only it does not need a preceding command letter Using the above example the modification would be N lt SEQ gt lt MCSID gt G0X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt ABS ZRAPID gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt The setup name in this particular example must be of the form Hx where x is a number In controllers that accept specific commands to indicate particular fixture offsets such as G54 or G55 using the lt MCSID gt reserved word
19. gt 5 This example offsets a rapid move by 5 5 N lt SEQ gt G00 X lt X COORD gt 5 Y lt Y COORD gt 5 Z lt Z COORD gt Printing sguare brackets Since and are now special characters for them to be output in the NC code you would have to enter them as lt 91 gt and lt 93 gt respectively When opening an existing CNC file that contains the characters they will be automatically converted to lt 91 gt and lt 93 gt Numeric operators XBUILD accepts the following numeric operators e addition adds two acosd Computes the arccosine numbers num in degrees of a string number concatenation joins two strings if given a string and a number the string is converted into a number and then the two numbers are added subtraction subtracts two atand Computes the numbers num arctangent in degrees of a number Result sin num cos num tan num sind num cosd num tand num asin num acos num atan num atan2 y x asind num multiplication multiplies two numbers division divides two numbers Computes the sine of an angle given in radians Computes the cosine of an angle given in radians Computes the tangent of an angle given in radians Computes the sine of an angle given in degrees Computes the cosine of an angle given in degrees Computes the tangent of an angle given in degrees Computes th
20. limit for the CNC machine Max Macros Max Macros specifies the maximum number of macros sub programs available on the control If macros are not available set this value to zero and select Not Available in the Macro Type parameter described next Macro Type Macro Type specifies how macros are formatted when the part program requires them e Local places macro definitions within the main NC part program e End of Prog places macro definitions at the end of the main part program e g Heidenhain controls The PROGRAM END program format should be specified for output at the end of the main program and the FILE END program format should be specified for output at the end of these macro definitions e Not Available signals Post that macros are not available e Indiv Files places macro definitions in a separate file e g FANUC and GE MC 2000 controls The name of each macro file consists of the assigned name that was specified in Post and the system assigned macro number The internal sub program name is automatically added to the main program name as the external file name e One File places all macro definitions in one file Post generates two files the main part program and a file containing all macros This option can output to Bridgeport controls via the EZ Utils module CNC COMMUNICATION option Heidenhain DNC utility The name of the macro file consists of the assigned name specified in Post MA representing th
21. the first depth a reducing factor and a minimum depth The first step pecks at the first depth Each subsequent step is reduced by the reducing factor until the minimum depth is reached To use the FeatureCAM attributes consistently with the other pecking methods it is recommended that the reducing value be calculated with the expression lt STEP2 gt lt STEP1 gt as shown in the deep hole drilling cycle for the GE2000 control below N lt SEQ gt lt CYCLE gt Z lt ABS DEPTH gt R lt ABS ZCLEAR gt D lt TOOL gt F lt FEED gt P1 lt INC STEP1 gt P2 lt STEP2 gt lt STEP1 gt P5 lt MIN STEP gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt lt EOB gt Handling multiple fixture documents To use the multiple fixture document capability of FeatureCAM the reserved word lt FIXTURE gt or lt MCSID gt must be placed in the program start tool change and segment start program formats prior to any lt MOTION gt statements Your choice of lt FIXTURE gt or lt MCSID gt depends on your programming preference and the type of controller being used Generally one or the other reserved word is used not both When the reserved word lt FIXTURE gt is used it is preceded by the controller s fixture offset letter e g D E F G or H in the appropriate program formats Remember that the reserved word lt FIXTURE gt is obtained from the Fixture ID of the setup in FeatureCAM For example the
22. 1 WIND gt lt ROT2 ANSI gt lt ROT2 MATH gt lt ROT2 WIND gt lt S RAD gt lt SEGM ID gt lt SEG CMT gt lt SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt lt STATR ANG gt lt STEP1 gt lt STEP2 gt lt THEN gt lt TLO gt lt TOOL gt lt TOOL CMT gt lt TOOL DIAM gt lt TOOL ID gt lt TOOL LENGTH gt lt TOOL NAME gt FeatureCAM General Post Processor Tool nose radius of an endmill or the tip radius of a threading tool or turning tool Milling comment that denotes Rough or Finish based on the type of pass Milling comment that denotes the type of operation This value is assigned by FeatureCAM based on the type of operation The overall length of the tool Corresponds to the Overall Length parameter of a tool The pitch value for the Tap cycle This value is in Z distance per spindle revolution Produces the correct circular for the various program formats lt PLANE gt is specified via the CIRCLUAR PLANES option CNC INFO menu Reproduces the output file name that is set in the Setup dialog box Reproduces arc radius in a circular block True of tap cycle is RIGID Rotation about primary axis in ANSI style Rotation about primary axis in Mathematical style Rotation about primary axis in Winding style Rotation about secondary axis in ANSI style Rotation about secondary axis in Mathematical style Rotation about secondary axis in Winding style Generates the signed arc r
23. GMENT START program format It is calculated as the largest Z Rapid value of the 24 FeatureCAM General Post Processor current and previous segments thereby allowing for the tool to be retracted from the part to a safe plane Use of the lt Z COORD gt Reserved Word is optional for PROGRAM START and TOOL CHANGE program formats It is calculated in the following manner lt Z COORD gt TL CHG Z TL CHG Z is programmed in FeatureCAM Whether lt Z COORD gt is used or not Post assumes that the tool is at this Z level after the code for any of the aforementioned formats is generated NOTE The TOOL CHANGE format is output only if there is a change in tool number between segments If there is not a change in tool number the SEGMENT START format is output Program start rules 1 Post outputs lines that are defined in PROGRAM START at the beginning of a program In PROGRAM START general preparatory codes e g absolute incremental etc are placed to define the dimension system The first tool change must also be defined Functions such as lt SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt and lt COOLANT gt status can be passed to the Post output with the first positioning move via lt X COORD gt and lt Y COORD gt If the target machine tool uses fixture offsets G54 G55 E1 E2 the Reserved Word lt FIXTURE gt should be positioned before the lt MOTION gt lt X COORD gt and lt YCOORD gt words Tool change rules 1
24. INDLE ON gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt Normally used in a SEGMENT START block true if the OFFSET is changed between segments lt IF gt lt OFFSET CH gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt T lt COMP NUM gt lt TOOL gt lt OFFSET gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt Used to differentiate among G codes that are specialized for grooves on ID inner diameter OD outer diameter or those on the FACE as shown in the examples below lt IFNOT gt lt IDOD GROV gt Implies that s FACE GROOVE CYCLE program format block is output lt IF gt lt IDOD GROV gt Implies that an ID or OD GROOVE CYCLE format block is output True if performing a facing or backfacing operation This would be true for a Turning feature using a Face or Back face roughing strategy or a Facing feature True for first move in the profile True for last move in the profile True if inside a turning canned cycle True for OD operations True for ID operations True if the Auto Round check box is checked True if the operation is cutting in a positive direction True if the tool is on the left of the cutting path True if the Reuse path in canned cycle check box is checked True for finish operations True if the Undercut Check check box is checked True for the last move before groove canned cycle True for the moves after rough canned cycle True for the moves before finish canned cycle True if the current operation is a bar feeder operation True if the curren
25. LL gt lt ENDIF gt lt EOB gt lt EXP LENGTH gt lt FEED gt lt FINI ALLOW gt lt FLOAT TAP gt lt FM NAME gt lt FIXTURE gt lt HELIX PITCH gt lt IF gt lt IFNOT gt lt INC DEPTH gt lt INC STEP1 gt lt INDEX gt lt INDEXING gt lt IS WORLD gt lt MACRO gt lt MCSID gt lt MIN STEP gt lt MOTION gt lt NO DRAG X gt lt NO DRAG Y gt lt NEXT TL gt FeatureCAM General Post Processor Reproduces the date that the part program was post processed True of tap cycle is DEEP Z Depth value passed from FeatureCAM for drilling type cycles True if drill moves are computed using linear moves False if canned cycles True if a drilling type cycle is used in a segment otherwise lt DRILLING gt is false and a milling segment is in process Reproduces the dwell value passed from FeatureCAM Last element in a conditional statement must be on a line by itself Specifies the end of block code for each line of a program format Corresponds to the Exposed length tool parameter Feed rate value identifier passed from FeatureCAM Finish allowance of a milling operation True if tap cycle is FLOATING Reproduces the name of the FeatureCAM file Fixture ID number passed from FeatureCAM Pitch of helical move Controlled by Max Ramp Angle attribute First element in a conditional statement always followed by a logical type Reserved Word to verify that a condition is true First eleme
26. N gt C lt ROT1 MATH gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt X lt X COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt WRAP Z UP gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt C lt ROT1 MATH gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt X lt X COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IFNOT gt lt WRAP gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt 5 axis indexing Fifth axis indexing allows 2 D or 3D toolpaths to be performed from many orientations For 5 axis positioning use a post in the 5thxs directory Indexing commands must be added to the Program Start Segment Start and Tool Change formats It is not necessary to add indexing commands to feed move blocks Linear Circular or Macro blocks since indexing takes place only between operations The logical keyword lt INDEX gt specifies indexing either 4 or 5 axis has been activated for the current setup To help create smaller NC programs the lt INDEX gt variable is interpreted differently in different program formats For Program Start and Tool Change formats lt INDEX gt is true if indexing is enabled in FeatureCAM For Segment Start formats lt INDEX gt is true only if indexing is enabled in FeatureCAM and the machine tool is performing the actual indexing move The following is th
27. P ON gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt File menu Load CNC Load CNC displays a dialog box in which the disk drive directory path and file name are selected using the mouse Below the list of file names is a check box labeled Use Extension Filter If this box is checked only files with the extension CNC are shown in the file list If this box is not checked all files regardless of extension are shown in the file list Click Cancel to exit the dialog box without loading a file Pressing the Esc key acts the same as clicking Cancel with the mouse Save CNC Save CNC saves new or updated CNC information in a CNC Data file or postprocessor When Save CNC is selected a data file is generated which can later be loaded into FeatureTURN through Post Options FeatureCAM General Post Processor Document CNC Document CNC creates a text file from the current CNC data file This text file can be edited and printed with any text editor When this command is selected the same dialog box as the Save CNC command is displayed The file saved with this command is given the file extension CNX Quit Quit exits XBuild If you quit and changes have been made to the currently loaded data file a dialog box appears prompting you to confirm the quit You are not prompted to save the file Formats menu The Formats menu i
28. Post Processing TM p r f 7 7 a A I f W l a a 6 t et A gt BP Bi EUS G y r im tf i wy i im f M MILL3D FeatureTURN ra Wi Or i D Av rust ENGINEERING GEOMETRY SYSTEMS FeatureCAM General Post Processor Information in this document is subject to change without notice No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical for any purpose without the express written permission of Engineering Geometry Systems The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the agreement 1995 2001 Engineering Geometry Systems All rights reserved FeatureCAM EZFeatureMILL FeatureTURN EZFeatureTURN FeatureMILL3D and FeatureCAM and are trademarks of Engineering Geometry Systems in the United States of America and other countries Restricted Rights Legend The Program and Program Materials are provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS Use duplication or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph c 1 ii of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software Clause at DFARS 252 227 7013 Manufacturer is the Licensor Engineering Geometry Systems Permission to Copy for Licensed Users EGS grants permission for licensed users to print cop
29. Post Processor Some example expressions using operators are 1 Output Z as 0 if Z is within 0 0001 of zero lt IF gt apxeg lt Z COORD gt 0 0 0001 lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt G00 X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z0 lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt Rapid move using polar coordinates N lt SEO gt 10 JO lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt G10 R sart pow lt X COORD gt 2 pow lt Y COORD gt 2 H D 3 2 1 0 atan2d lt Y COORD gt lt xX COORD gt lt EOB gt Output Z as 15 if Z is between 10 and 20 inclusively lt IF gt and ge lt Z COORD gt 10 le lt Z COORD gt 20 lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt G00 X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z15 lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt If the P variable P1 is not set then set it to the string GO lt IF gt eg lt P1 gt lt THEN gt lt P1 gt G0 lt ENDIF gt Assignment and variables The result of any operation can be assigned to another keyword or to a variable Variable names can consist of one more characters and are not case sensitive The first character must be alphabetic and the rest can be any combination of alphanumeric characters and the underscore character Examples of variables are ABC X23 and CENTER PT Note that the result of an assignment operation is the value of the keyword or variable being assigned For example the result is 5 for x 5 Examples of assignment and variable usage are 1 3 Increase the current value of the keyword lt Z COORD gt
30. TOOL CHANGE SEGMENT START and PROGRAM END format rapid motion is executed ina RAPID MOVE format rapid motion occurs in a LINEAR MOVE format linear motion is produced in a CIRCULAR MOVE format CW or CCW motion is executed lt P1 gt lt P9 gt lt COMP STAT gt lt SPINDLE ON gt lt COOLANT gt lt TRT TURN gt lt SP RANGE gt lt F UNITS gt lt TURRET gt lt DATE gt lt FM NAME gt lt PROG NAME gt User definable parameters passed from FeatureTURN Other Parameters option assigned to perform specific actions that are not normally handled as standard functions When tool tip compensation status is selected lt COMP STAT gt establishes a right left tool relationship with the part and turns ON at the first feed move of the profile path Used to turn the spindle ON to specify spindle rotation direction Generates the coolant turn on code for the selected turret Corresponds to the Coolant Misc attribute Generates the required codes to control turret indexing direction CW CCW Corresponds to the Turret Direction parameter on the Tool Usage Page Selects the programmed gear range Corresponds to the RPM Range on the Feed Speed tab of a feature and the Select M codes specified on the Feed and Speed dialog box of XBUILD Corresponds to the RPM Range on the Feed Speed tab of a feature Specifies the feed units that are selected for UPM or UPR Corresponds to the Use IPR checkbox on the Feed Speed tab
31. adius value in a circular block R lt 180 degrees and R gt 180 degrees Provides the option to output the Seg ID Segment Identifier passed from FeatureCAM Comment on an operation This is set under post variables For controls that require comments to be a single line SET CMT must be only one line Spindle speed value passed from FeatureCAM Used to turn the spindle ON to specify spindle rotation direction Initial angle of helical move Added for Heidenhain First Peck value passed from FeatureCAM Second Peck value passed from FeatureCAM Second element in a conditional statement placed after a logical type Reserved Word Tool length offset Corresponds to Offset on tool properties Tool number passed from FeatureCAM Tool comments Tool diameter passed from FeatureCAM Tool ID from tool mapping dialog box Cutter length of endmills or length of drills A comment that indicates the name of the current tool 21 lt TOTAL ANG gt lt TPI PITCH gt lt USE FIXTURE gt lt WAS WORLD gt lt WRAP gt lt WRAP Z DOWN gt lt WRAP Z UP gt lt X CEN gt lt X CHANGE gt lt X COORD gt lt X VECTOR gt lt XY PLANE gt lt Y CEN gt lt Y CHANGE gt lt Y COORD gt lt Y VECTOR gt lt YZ PLANE gt lt Z CHANGED gt lt ZCLEAR gt lt Z COORD gt lt Z DOWN gt lt Z INDEX CLR gt lt ZRAPID gt lt ZSURF gt lt ZX PLANE gt lt Z UP gt Fixture ID FeatureCAM Ge
32. anned cycle This variable would have the value of 13 in the above example Ending NC program line number of profile for roughing and finishing canned cycle This variable would have the value of 18 in the above example Corresponds to Withdraw Length in FeatureTURN Corresponds to X Finish Allowance in Feature TURN Corresponds to Z Finish Allowance in FeatureTURN Finishing feed rate This value is usually specified along with the profile It is often ignored during roughing This variable would have the value of 15 in the above example Finishing cutter comp setting This value is usually specified along with the profile New canned cycle path ID Engage feed rate Withdraw feed rate The current canned cycle path ID Feed rate units of finishing STRING TYPE RESERVED WORDS String type Reserved Words provide a set of characters that were previously defined 42 in FeatureCAM General Post Processor XBuild or in the Other Parameters specification in FeatureTURN For example G01 G02 or M03 could be strings that were previously defined as lt MOTION gt and lt SPINDLE gt The following information explains all string type Reserved Words lt EOB gt lt SEGM ID gt lt MOTION gt Specifies the end of block code on each line of a format Provides the option to output the Seg ID Segment Identifier passed from FeatureTURN Produces the correct motion type for the various program format Ina PROGRAM START
33. art position to the center of an arc change the status of UNS_V to ON in WORDS INFO for these Reserved Words String reserved words String type Reserved Words provide a set of characters previously defined in FeatureCAM General Post Processor XBUILD For example G01 G02 or M03 could be strings that were previously defined as lt MOTION gt and lt SPINDLE gt Establishing conditional statements System and logical type Reserved Words are used together in program formats to set up conditional statements that are evaluated by Post If a conditional statement is true or false Post either includes or omits certain data from the program format The format for conditional statements is lt IF gt lt Logical Reserved Word gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt ENDIF gt or lt IFNOT gt lt Logical Reserved Word gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt ENDIF gt In the first conditional statement below the data between the words lt THEN gt and lt ENDIF gt are only output if cutter diameter compensation is ON In the second conditional statement the data between the words lt THEN gt and lt ENDIF gt are only output if cutter diameter compensation is not turned ON lt IF gt lt COMP ON gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt COMP STAT gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt E EE D gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IFNOT gt lt COM
34. atement placed after a logical type Reserved Word lt ENDIF gt Last in a conditional statement must be on a line by itself Logical Reserved Words lt PRIM TURRET gt Selects the primary turret lt CSS ON gt Specifies Constant Surface Speed ON if compensation was utilized in FeatureTURN lt COMP ON gt Specifies tool tip compensation ON lt COMP START gt True if the move represents the start section for compensation first element or move of path otherwise lt COMP START gt is false lt COMP END gt True if the move represents the end section for compensation last element or move of path otherwise lt COMP END gt is false lt COMP MID gt True if the move represents the middle section for compensation between the first and last moves of path otherwise lt COMP MID gt is false 44 lt RANGE CH gt lt OFFSET CH gt lt IDOD GROV gt lt FACE BFACE gt lt TCAN START gt lt TCAN END gt lt TCAN CYCLE gt lt OD gt lt ID gt lt AUTO ROUND gt lt POS DIR gt lt TOOL LEFT gt lt REUSE PATH gt lt FINISH gt lt UNDER CHECK gt lt PRE GCAN gt lt POST RCAN gt lt PRE PCAN gt lt BAR FEED gt lt BAR PULL gt FeatureCAM General Post Processor Normally used in a SEGMENT START block and is true if there is a change in gear range lt IF gt lt RANGE CH gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt MO5 lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt lt SP RANGE gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt S lt CALC SPEED gt lt SP
35. ch as or lt name gt or lt name gt The prefix signals Post to output the previous value of a Reserved Word The prefix signals Post to output an incremental value which is the difference between the current value of the Reserved Word and the previous value Words 1 Words 2 Words 3 Words 4 All numeric reserved words are listed in a table that can be accessed by selecting the Words 1 Words 2 Words 3 or Words 4 items of the CNC Info menu When any of the Words commands are selected a dialog box is displayed showing a table of numeric reserved words The three buttons at the bottom of the dialog box labeled OK Cancel and Next can be used to preserve the changes made exit the table FeatureCAM General Post Processor without saving any changes and advance to the next Words dialog box respectively Each row of the table contains information about the format of each reserved word The columns of the table are described below LD_ZR LD_ZR outputs leading Zeros if this option is toggled ON Zeros are output in all leading positions of the value excluding significant digit locations e g 1 with a 3 4 format would output two leading zeros 001 TRL_ZR TRL_ZR outputs Trailing Zeros when this option is set to ON Zeros are output in all trailing positions of each value output for the designated Reserved Word excluding significant digit locations e g 10 with a 3 4 format would be output with four trailing zeros
36. d lt X COORD gt is replaced by the current X axis coordinate position Each numeric Reserved Word contains a corresponding Words Tables record to specify its output format see Words Tables in this chapter for more information IMPORTANT Numeric Reserved Words can be preceded by the symbols or lt name gt or lt name gt The prefix signals Post to output the previous value of a Reserved Word The prefix signals Post to output an incremental value the difference between the current value and the previous value Numeric General Words lt SEQ gt This is a line sequence number identifier when the word appears in a line it is substituted with the current sequence number and is subsequently incremented by the sequence step value lt Z COORD gt Z axis coordinate identifier lt X COORD gt X axis coordinate identifier lt COMP NUM gt Compensation number passed from FeatureTURN lt SPEED gt Spindle RPM value passed from Feature TURN parameters lt TOOL gt Tool number passed from FeatureTURN Corresponds to the Tool column of the Tool Mapping Dialog box lt NEXT TL gt Next tool to be used may be required by some controls Corresponds to the Tool column of the Tool Mapping Dialog box lt CSS SPEED gt Corresponds to Surface Speed parameter on the Feed Speed tab of a feature lt SP MAX gt Maximum spindle RPM when CSS is ON used to set the maximum RPM at which the spindle should run Corresponds to CSS Max
37. ds that differ from each other and from the EIA RS 274C standard Because of this wide range of standards XBuild creates CNC data files that FeatureCAM can run on virtually any CNC CNC info menu Use the CNC info menu in XBuild to enter general information and formats for the reserved words used in the FeatureCAM program Each command in the CNC info menu displays a different dialog box for entering formatting information General options General opens a list of options pertaining to the output program format The comment block describes the post processor Any parameter may be changed by selecting it typing the value or toggling to the desired selection These values are default values when no CNC Data file has been loaded into the XBUILD program When a file is loaded several or all of these values may change Machine Type The Machine type classifies the type of post The choices are e Milling use this type of post for 2 5D or 3D milling e Turning use this classification for 2 axis turned parts e Turn MILL use this type of post for lathe with powered rotary tools This distinction controls type of reserved words and program formats that are available in the post Dimension Dimension toggles between Inch and Metric output Post uses the selection to convert the dimensions that affect X and Y coordinates as well as feed rate The setting in the CNC Data file takes precedence over the assumed inch unit in FeatureCAM
38. e Segment Start program format is for the Fanuc 16 control lt IF gt lt INDEX gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt G53G90G00G80G49Z0M11M71 lt EOB gt lt 10 gt lt 13 gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt A lt ROT1 WIND gt B lt ROT2 WIND gt M10M70 lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt WRAP gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt YO A lt ROT1 WIND gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IFNOT gt lt WRAP gt lt THEN gt 34 FeatureCAM General Post Processor N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt N lt SEQ gt S lt SPEED gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt 3D arcs 3 axis techniques that produce toolpaths in the principle planes can approximate the them with 3D lines and arcs To activate this option check the Arc line approx milling attribute To output the proper g codes the post must support 3D arcs The proper g codes for each circular plane must be entered in the NC Codes dialog box These g codes are stored in the lt PLANE gt reserved word The Circular Move format must also be augmented to support arcs in each plane The logical variables lt XY PLANE gt lt ZX PLANE gt and lt YZ_PLANE gt distinguish the plane of the current arc The following is a Circular Move format for 3D arcs The major purpose of the various cases is to
39. e arcsine in radians of a number Computes the arccosine in radians of a number Computes the arctangent in radians of a number Result range is pi 2 to pi 2 Computes the arctangent in radians of y x Result range is pi to pi Computes the arcsine in degrees of a number FeatureCAM General Post Processor atan2d y x ceil num floor num fabs num sqrt num mm2in millimeters exp num log num log10 num pow base power degtorad num radtodeg num pi range is 90 to 90 of a number Computes the arctangent in degrees of y x Result range is 180 to 180 returns the nearest integer greater than or egual to a number Returns the nearest integer less than or egual to a number Returns the absolute value of a number Returns the square root of a number Converts from milliliters to inches Returns e x where e 2 71828 Returns In x where In is the natural logarithm Returns the base 10 logarithm of a number Returns a base number raised to a power Returns an angle in radians as converted from degrees Returns an angle in degrees as converted from radians The mathematical value of pi to ten decimal places FeatureCAM General Post Processor The following logical operators are also supported if tolerance is not given the default is 1e 6 apxeg lt Z COORD gt 0 1e 6
40. e cutting operations Both of these strategies depend on hardware which supports this kind of operation and the user of post processor designed to address that hardware Fifth axis indexing known also as fifth axis positioning is supported in the 5 axis positioning option If using 4 or 5 axis capabilities you must use different post processors files For 4 axis indexing or wrapping use a post in the 4thxs directory 31 FeatureCAM General Post Processor For 5 axis positioning use a post in the 5thxs directory Rotation styles FeatureCAM supports four different styles of specifying rotation angles These styles along with their reserved words are shown below Style Primary Axis Secondary Axis ANSI EIA RS 274 D lt ROT1 ANSI gt lt ROT2 ANSI gt Mathematical lt ROT1 MATH gt lt ROT2 MATH gt Relative lt ROT1 WIND gt lt ROT2 WIND gt Winding and lt ROT1 WIND gt lt ROT2 WIND gt Unwinding ANSI EIA RS 274 D Ae Goo 2704 j 2704 N je In this style the value of the angle specifies the angular position es measured from zero in the positive direction The sign of the angle MM indicates the direction of rotation RRA TENT ant 180 d 180 98 Mathematical p90 88a In this style the value of the angle specifies the angular position Cy OY measured from zero and the sign indicates the direction of mat measurement The sign of the angle also indicates the direction of MVA rotation kk 270 n Relative In this
41. e macro specification and the TXT file extension For example SAMPLEMA TXT macro file and SAMPLE TXT 16 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Call local macro after it is defined Some controls such as the Heidenhain 370 automatically execute macros when they are defined For these controls uncheck Call local macro after it is defined so that the macro is not called twice For other types of controls leave this option checked Seq max This is the maximum value for sequence numbers After reaching this number the sequence numbers start over If the Seq max radio button is not clicked then no limit is set Include first canned cycle move in macro Checking this option will output the current position as the first location of a macro Without this checked the first move will not be in the macro instead it is assumed that it is output on the canned cycle line To properly include the first move in a macro you will need to use a combination of this checkbox and the logical variable lt CYCLE_MACRO gt to suppress actually performing the canned cycle on the canned cycle line For a Fanuc OM if a canned cycle line ends with KO then the machine goes into canned cycle mode but the actual canned cycle is not performed Here is the drilling format for the Fanuc 0M N lt SEQ gt lt CYCLE gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt R lt ABS ZCLEAR gt Z lt ABS DEPTH gt F lt FEED gt lt IF gt lt CYCLE MACRO gt lt THEN gt KO
42. eatureCAM If a part program is written in inch units and is processed with a metric CNC data file the resulting part program is converted using standard conversion constants into metric units EOB EOB defines the end of block character s lt EOB gt It is recommended that the default characters be used i e lt 13 gt lt 10 gt carriage return and line feed Decimal Point Decimal Point defines the decimal point character This character is usually a period for United States controls and a comma for European controls Circ Interpol Circ Interpol toggles between Multi Quadrant and Single Quadrant and specifies the programming format on the CNC for which the postprocessor is being built For example if the Numerical Control cannot drive an arc across a quadrant line plus or minus X and Y axes then select Single Quadrant circular interpolation Tool Ln Comp This option allows for the compensation of tool length by subtracting the tool s X and Z length from the coordinate data at postprocessing time Using Tool Ln Comp allows the user to shift or compensate for different tool lengths without presetting the origin for each tool For Japanese machines such as FANUC this selection should be turned Off If the output is to be incremental Tool Ln Comp must be turned On NC File Ext This is the default file extension for you CNC programs For example if it is set to txt and your part is called bracket
43. ed coordinates or commands are stripped from the part program String and numeric type Reserved Words may be surrounded by modality delimiters to signal Post to remove redundant data The modality delimiter prevents a repetitive occurrence of a Reserved Word as long as its value remains the same as the previous occurrence For example when modality delimiters are used in lt SEQ gt you have the option of stripping all sequence numbers from the program during post processing This is accomplished by specifying 0 for the start and sequence step numbers in Post This forces the sequence numbering to remain the same Defining program formats 1 As Post reads each segment from the part data file it determines if it is the first segment of the program a tool change or a non tool changing segment 2 Based upon this information Post outputs the appropriate segment block i e PROGRAM START TOOL CHANGE or SEGMENT START prior to executing segment data 3 Only one of these three program formats is used at the beginning of any one segment NOTE Each definition can include multiple lines and each line must end with lt EOB gt Rules 1 The Reserved Words lt X COORD gt and lt Y COORD gt are the assigned values of the first path point and must appear in all program formats to provide the first positioning move to the start of the path 2 Itis mandatory that the Reserved Word lt Z COORD gt be used for the SE
44. equivalent of the ASCII code delimited by angular brackets LINEAR MOVE FORMAT o Specified in reserved words and letter address characters a HE MONO F ODA X GLOQOOAD AD lt gt FF F4 FF tF FF F M A Gi Z M X 253 F 5 Substitution pertormed by POST Line of code output by POST H305 G1 73 482 753 FoeCR Reserved words Reserved Words are pre defined words saved for system use and can represent a numeric value a string sequence of alphanumeric characters e g M03 or a logical variable Another type of Reserved Word is the system type used to establish conditional statements Milling and turning have different reserved words that are described in later sections This section describes the general concept of reserved words Reserved Words are referenced in program formats by enclosing each word with angular brackets lt word gt Additional ASCII characters e g X Y Z and F are used to specify the letter for each word address There are four types of Reserved Words Numeric String Logical and System Reserved Words Numeric reserved words Numeric type Reserved Words are replaced by their numeric values when Post is executed For example the numeric type Reserved Word lt X COORD gt is replaced by the current X axis coordinate position Each numeric Reserved Word contains a corresponding WORDS INFO record to specify its output format NOTE IMPORTANT Numeric Reserved Words can be prefixed by a symbol su
45. figuration to turn off coolant used in the previous segment lt COOLANT ON gt should be specified after lt COOLANT OFF gt to turn coolant On for the next segment If no coolant was used then the value of lt COOLANT OFF gt or lt COOLANT ON gt is an empty string Some two turret lathes may require negative X coordinate data to be output to drive the secondary turret below the center line Turning X SIGN REV On for a particular turret signals Post to reverse the sign of X coordinates while this turret is being used All programming in FeatureTURN remains above the spindle center line Z BTW TRT Turret Info X BTW TRT Z and X distances between turrets are signed values measured from the primary turret reference point to the secondary turret reference point The turret reference points are always the locations from which the tool lengths are measured Feeds and Speeds These parameters are used to specify the spindle direction feed units and the speed range codes that are required by the machine FEED MAX and MIN are the feed rate limits when specified in Feed Per Minute DEGREES MINUTE Max and MIN are the feed rate limits when specified in Degrees Per Minute RANGE 1 RANGE 4 are for lathes that have ranges For each range enter the M codes for selecting the range and the Max speed for the range UPM Units per Minute and UPR Units per Revolution describe the feed rate in terms of UPM or UPR or the spindle Only one option
46. hanged to 1 To generate the unsigned distance from the arc s start position to the center of an arc change the status of UNS_V to ON in Words Tables for these Reserved Words Numeric Drilling and Threading Type Cycle Words lt DEPTH gt This word has different values for different operations Tap operation Calculated depth of tap Twist drill operation Calculated depth of drilling operation including tip Turning Boring and Face Depth of Cut 40 lt END X gt lt END Z gt lt ENG ANGLE gt lt LEADX gt lt LEADZ gt lt MIN INFEED gt lt MIN STEP gt lt NUM SPRING gt lt RTR ANGLE gt lt RTR ANGLE90 gt lt RTR ANGLE P gt lt START X gt lt START Z gt lt STEP1 gt lt STEP2 gt lt TAPER DEPTH gt lt THRD DEPTH gt lt TIP ANGLE gt FeatureCAM General Post Processor e Groove Depth of Cut The X location where the thread cutting pass ends This is usually the same as lt START X gt except for tapered threads The Z location where the thread cutting pass ends Corresponds to 90 Infeed Angle threading attribute Calculated tip to tip X axis lead Corresponds to Pitch thread dimension Corresponds to Min Infeed attribute Corresponds to Minimum Peck attribute Number of thread spring passes Corresponds to Spring Passes threading attribute Corresponds to Withdraw Angle Withdraw Angle 90 This parameter was added to support threading ona Fanuc On that contro
47. he arc along the X axis Used in the circular interpolation block to specify the signed Y distance from the start point of the arc to the center of the arc along the Y axis True if tap cycle is CHIP True if the move represents the end section for compensation last element or move of path otherwise lt COMP END gt is false True if cutter diameter compensation is ON otherwise lt COMP ON gt is false True if the move represents the middle section for compensation between the first and last moves of path otherwise lt COMP MID gt is false Compensation number passed from FeatureCAM True if the move represents the start section for compensation first element or move of path otherwise lt COMP START gt is false When cutter diameter compensation status is selected lt COMP STAT gt establishes a right left tool relationship with the part and outputs the cutter compensation code at the first feed move of the profile path Generates the proper coolant code True if the spindle rotates in the clockwise direction otherwise lt CW SPINDLE gt is false Cycle type identifier for drilling type cycles True for the last hole location in a canned cycle False otherwise True if the current segment is in a canned cycle The G code for either Z Rapid Retract or R Plane Retract depending on which plane is the current retract plane 19 lt DATE gt lt DEEP TAP gt lt DEPTH gt lt DRILL_CPTED gt lt DRILLING gt lt DWE
48. he tool to an endpoint and rewind the part program Using the Reserved Words lt X RETURN gt and lt Z RETURN gt calculates to return to the first index position Move Program Formats Rapid Move The RAPID MOVE defines the output format for rapid positioning moves Generally modality delimiters are placed around the lt X COORD gt and lt Z COORD gt Reserved Words This allows the postprocessor to strip X or Z from the line when a coordinate is redundant In motion blocks rapid linear and circular the Reserved Word lt MOTION gt receives the path definition parameter from FeatureTURN Rapid Linear Arc CW Arc C CW or the Thread command 49 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Linear Move LINEAR MOVE defines the output format for linear moves The following Reserved Words must be defined in this block lt MOTION gt lt X COORD gt lt Z COORD gt and lt FEED gt Tool tip compensation must be turned ON in this format line via the lt COMP STAT gt Reserved Word Some CNC machines may require the use of the vector Reserved Words lt Z VECTOR gt and lt X VECTOR gt Circular Move The following Reserved Words are provided as arc modifiers for I K or R values lt ARC X gt lt ARC Z gt lt RADIUS gt lt S RAD gt lt X CEN gt or lt Z CEN gt The method of specifying arc definition is defined in a CIRCULAR MOVE block Catcher In This block would contain the M code for pulling in the parts catche
49. iate program formats for the canned cycles based on the pecking type Fixed steps The NC code specifies one depth and all the steps peck at that depth An example would be the deep hole cycle of the Fanuc 0m N lt SEQ gt lt CYCLE gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt R lt ABS ZCLEAR gt Z lt ABS DEPTH gt Q lt STEP1 gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt Two steps 29 FeatureCAM General Post Processor The NC code specifies two depths The first step pecks at the first depth and all the subsequent steps peck at the second depth The Bridgeport Machines Boss9l control deep hole cycle is an example AN lt SEQ gt lt CYCLE gt Z lt INC DEPTH gt Z lt INC STEP1 gt Z lt STEP2 gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt X lt X COORD gt lt EOB gt Value reduction The NC code specifies the first depth a reducing value and a minimum depth The first step pecks at the first depth Each subsequent step is reduced by the reducing value until the minimum depth is reached To use the FeatureCAM attributes consistently with the other pecking methods it is recommended that the reducing value be calculated with the expression lt STEP1 gt lt STEP2 gt as shown in the deep hole drilling cycle for the Fadal control below N lt SEQ gt lt CYCLE gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt R lt ABS ZCLEAR gt Z lt ABS DEPTH gt I lt INC STEP gt J lt lt STEP1 gt lt STEP2 gt K lt MIN STEP gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt Factor reduction The NC code specifies
50. ies of this manual or portions of this manual for personal use only Schools that are licensed to use FeatureCAM may make copies of this manual or portions of this manual for students currently registered for classes where FeatureCAM is used June 2003 Tenth Edition Engineering Geometry Systems 275 East South Temple Suite 305 Salt Lake City UT 84111 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Overview of post processing in FeatureCAM XBUILD is the general post processing program for milling turning and turn milling It is separate from FeatureCAM To run the general post processors click on XBUILD in the FeatureCAM group under the Start menu or click the Edit button in the Post Options dialog box Please note that throughout this section the Post module is referred to as though it were separate from the FeatureCAM program It is in fact part of the FeatureCAM program but for the sake of simplicity it is referred to as a separate entity from FeatureCAM This concept is important to understanding many of the references to the Post module Various machine tool manufacturers have implemented CNC Computerized Numerical Control program standards that differ in detail from each other and from the EIA RS 274C standard Because of this wide range of standards XBUILD was designed to allow for the creation of CNC information files for virtually any CNC The process of creating a CNC information file is also referred to as building a postprocessor
51. itor Program Program formats found in this group are used in almost every part program and include commonly used formats such as Program Start Tool Change Segment Start Program End and File End Move Move formats include the rapid and feed moves which make up the largest portion of any part program These program formats must be carefully defined These formats include X Y Rapid Z Rapid Linear and Circular 23 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Macro Macro formats include the Open Macro Close Macro Macro Call In Macro Linear and In Macro Circular formats These formats do not need to be defined if the target control does not use macros Cycle Cycle formats include most of the canned cycles which are found in many controls These cycles also use specific reserved words which are discussed in detail below The Cycle formats include Drill Deep Hole Tap Bore F F Chip Break Cycle Cancel and Canned Move XBUILD program formats For each segment of a part program parameters and calculated values are passed via Reserved Words from the program formats definitions These program formats act as a template they are sequentially filled i e Reserved Words are substituted by their corresponding values G and M codes as the part data file is post processed Making reserved words modal In some cases the CNC machine uses modality to avoid redundant data to reduce the length of the program Under modality repeat
52. ller a vertical retract is considered to be 0 not 90 The Withdraw Angle used for EZ Path The X location where the thread cutting pass starts The Z location where the thread cutting pass starts This word has different values for different operations e Thread operation Step 1 of threading pass Drill operation First Peck Groove operation Stepover This word has different values for different operations e Thread operation Step 2 value of threading pass Drill operation Second Peck The Z distance between the lowest and highest point on the thread Corresponds to the Thread Height in Feature TURN The tip angle of the tool Tool Tip Compensation Words 41 lt Z VECTOR gt lt X VECTOR gt FeatureCAM General Post Processor Calculated Z vector for the next move Calculated X vector for the next move Numeric Turning Canned Cycle Block Words The following example code fragment from a Fanuc control will be used to illustrate the parameters below N012G72P0130018U4 0W2 0D7000F30S55 N013G00Z58 0F15S58 N014G01X120 0Z70 0 NO15 Z80 0 NO16 X80 0Z909 0 NO17 Z110 0 NO18 X36 0Z132 0 N019 G70P013Q018 lt SEQ START gt lt SEQ END gt lt RTR LENGTH gt lt X ALLOW gt lt Z ALLOW gt lt PRO FEED gt lt PRO COMP gt lt NEW ID gt lt ENG FEED gt lt RTR FEED gt lt PATH ID gt lt PRO FUNITS gt Starting NC program line number of profile for roughing and finishing c
53. long the Z axis this value is calculated by Post as lt Z PRESET gt lt Z INDEX gt lt Z TOOL LENGTH lt distance btw turrets gt lt distance btw turrets gt is equal to zero for primary turret Distance between the tool program point and the part origin when at the index position along the X axis this value is calculated by Post as lt X PRESET gt lt X INDEX gt lt X TOOL LENGTH gt lt distance btw turrets gt lt distance btw turrets gt is egual to zero for primary turret Z coordinate of the previous Z PRESET value plus any differences between tool change locations this value is calculated by Post as lt Z RETURN gt lt Z PRESET gt lt Z INDEX gt lt Z INDEX gt X coordinate of the previous X PRESET value plus any differences between tool change locations this value is calculated by Post as lt X RETURN gt lt X PRESET gt lt X INDEX gt lt X INDEX gt Format of this word is used to pass feed rate value and or the Reserved Word lt FEED gt Use IPR is checked on the Feed Speed tab for a feature Format of this word is used to pass feed rate value and or the Reserved Word lt FEED gt when Use IPR is not checked on the Feed Speed tab for a feature Passes the feed rate value to the word format of lt FEED UPM gt or lt FEED UPR gt depending upon the Feed Units specified in FeatureTURN 39 FeatureCAM General Post Processor lt DWELL gt Corresponds to Dwell para
54. lt ENDIF gt lt EOB gt Note that nclude first canned cycle move in macro checkbox must be checked so that the initial location is output in the macro NC codes Motions Motions describes motion types required by the NC machine All of these codes must be specified For example Linear is generally defined as G1 but may be changed to G01 or any other string up to 11 characters All motion commands are passed to Post via the string type Reserved Word lt MOTION gt The Motions group has these options Rapid rapid move Linear feed move Circ CW circular interpolation clockwise Circ CCW circular interpolation counter clockwise Rotary Tools This section of NC codes is only displayed for turn mill posts It deals with coolant specifications Coolant selections use the string type Reserved Word lt COOLANT gt 17 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Cool OFF coolant off Cool Mist coolant on mist Cool Flood coolant on flood Miscellaneous Miscellaneous contains selections for Sond CW Spindle Start Clockwise and Spnd CCW Spindle Start Counter Clockwise Both of these specify that the spindle is ON and the direction code Both spindle selections use the string type Reserved Word lt SPINDLE gt Other Miscellaneous codes include coolant specifications Coolant selections use the string type Reserved Word lt COOLANT gt The Miscellaneous group has these options Spnd CW spindle on clockwise Sp
55. may lessen confusion during the design process By placing the reserved word lt FIXTURE gt or lt MCSID gt in the program start tool change and segment start program formats the fixture offset is called immediately prior to any motion commands When a fixture offset is changed it is recommended that the lt FIXTURE gt or lt MCSID gt reserved word not be surrounded by modal brackets such that the fixture offset is repeated at each tool change or segment start line This allows the tool change and segment start lines under appropriate conditions to used as a possible restart line Handling retract planes in canned cycles If the control allows the changing of retract planes during a canned cycle you must adjust the post with the following steps 1 Enter the G codes for each rapid plane under Z rapid retract and R plane retract 2 Inthe Canned Move and all the Drilling canned cycles the keyword lt CYCLE RTRCT gt must be included For example for Fanuc the G98 and G99 g codes are entered in the NC Codes dialog and a sample drilling cycle would be N lt SEQ gt lt CYCLE gt lt CYCLE RTRCT gt Z lt ABS DEPTH gt R lt ABS ZCLEAR gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt lt EOB gt Fourth and fifth axis support FeatureCAM supports the use of a rotary table as a fourth axis for indexing between operations and for wrapping allowing continuous movement of the rotary axis during th
56. meter for Cutoff Groove and Tapping lt TL WIDTH gt Width of selected tool lt STEPOVER gt For groove only Corresponds to Stepover Tool Width lt ENG ANGLE90 gt Engage Angle for turning or 90 Engage Angle for boring lt CLEARANCE gt Corresponds to the clearance attribute lt CLR DEPTH gt lt CLEARANCE gt lt DEPTH gt lt LIFT OFF gt For groove only Corresponds to Liftoff Dist Attribute lt SPINDLE POS gt _ Sub spindle position Numeric Circular Block Words lt ARC Z gt lt ARC X gt lt RADIUS gt lt S RAD gt lt Z CEN gt lt X CEN gt NOTE Used in the circular interpolation block to specify the signed Z distance from the start point of the arc to the center of the arc along the Z axis Used in the circular interpolation block to specify the signed X distance from the start point of the arc to the center of the arc along the X axis Reproduces arc radius in a circular block Generates the signed arc radius value in a circular block R lt 180 degrees and R gt 180 degrees Reproduces the absolute Z coordinate position from the Z axis origin to the arc s center in a circular block Reproduces the absolute X coordinate position from the X axis origin to the arc s center in a circular block To generate the signed distance from the arc s center to the arc s start position for lt ARC Z gt and lt ARC X gt Reserved Words the FACTR value in Words Tables must be c
57. n XBUILD enters specific program formats for the various of a part program Each format is made up of combinations of Reserved Words literals comments and user defined variables Formats editor When a program format is selected from the Formats menu the XBuild program shifts into the Formats editor and displays the selected format on the screen The formats editor has two menus which are used in editing the selected format however these menus do not change from one format to another All program formats are edited in the same manner File menu The Formats Editor File menu has only two commands Word List and Quit e Words list displays a list of the reserved words in the lower right corner of the screen This list can be scrolled up and down with the scroll bar on the right The reserved words are grouped into four categories as described earlier Numeric String Logical and System 1 To place a reserved word into the format displayed in the main part of the screen scroll the Words List to the desired word and select it The word is placed in the program format at the test insertion bar The test insertion bar is a blinking vertical bar 2 Ifitis not visible move the mouse to the format window and click the mouse 3 Remove reserved words from the program format with the backspace key The text editing functions in the Formats Editor are similar to those of any Windows word processor 4 Insert modal delimiters by clicking
58. n positioned at the start point the first segment s tool change position by the operator before starting the NC part program The PROGRAM END format must contain the Reserved Words lt X CHANGE gt and lt AY CHANGE gt to reposition the tool back to the start point Using FeatureMILL or FeatureMILL3D and XBUILD This section explains how the parameters that are defined in milling correspond to XBUILD Reserved Words and how these are handled when NC is pressed Input dimension If the units of your post and the post processor are different a conversion factor is automatically applied to them at the time the program is posted Cycle types The operations in FeatureCAM are mapped to the following canned cycle formats 27 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Operation Canned Cycle Format Chamfer SPOT FACE Countersink SPOT FACE Counterbore SPOT FACE Drill DRILL Ream BORE F F Tap TAP Peck Drilling DEEP HOLE and CHIP BREAK The following FeatureCAM parameters contain corresponding Reserved Words in XBUILD FeatureCAM BUILD TYPE Tool No from lt TOOL gt Numeric Operations Sheet Fixture ID lt FIXTURE gt Numeric Tool Change Location X lt X CHANGE gt Numeric from Post Options dialog box Tool Change Location Y lt Y CHANGE gt Numeric from Post Options dialog box Tool Change Location Z lt Z COORD gt Numeric from Post Options dialog box Coolant Manufacturing lt COOLANT gt String Attribute Default At
59. nd CCW spindle on counterclockwise Cool OFF coolant off Cool Mist coolant on mist Cool Flood coolant on flood Compensation Compensation generates cutter diameter compensation in the output when turned On in FeatureCAM and if it is built into the CNC data file Compensation selections use the string type Reserved Word lt COMP STAT gt for one of the below options or an empty string is assigned if Compensation was not turned On in FeatureCAM the Compensation group has these options Cancel compensation off Left compensation on cutter applied to left in direction of travel Right compensation on cutter applied to the right in the direction of travel Cycles The following program formats are canned cycle formats They are used for header canned motion and cycle cancel blocks The header block for all canned cycles must contain formats to position down to the clearance plane to drill the first hole e DRILL CYCLE specifies the header block for a drilling cycle e SPOT FACE CYCLE specifies header block for a spot face cycle e DEEP HOLE CYCLE specifies a deep hole cycle header block e TAP CYCLE specifies the header block for a tapping cycle e BORE F F CYCLE specifies a header block for a boring feed in feed out cycle e CHIP BREAK CYCLE specifies the header block for a chip break cycle e BORE F D F CYCLE specifies a boring feed in dwell feed out cycle header block e BORE F S R CYCLE specifies
60. neral Post Processor Total angle of a helical move Added for Heidenhain The TPI value for the Tap cycle in an inch CNC file or the pitch value for the Tap cycle in a millimeter CNC file True if using 5 axis positioning with Fixture Ids True if the previous setup is named WORLD True if 4 axis wrapping is set True if wrapping and the tool is moving down in the Z direction True if wrapping and the tool is moving up in the Z direction The absolute X coordinate position from the X axis origin to the arc s center in a circular block X coordinate of tool change point passed from FeatureCAM X axis coordinate identifier Calculated X vector for the next move cutter compensation vector for Cincinnati Milacron True if the current arc is in the XY plane Reproduces the absolute Y coordinate position from the Y axis origin to the arc s center in a circular block Y coordinate of tool change point passed from FeatureCAM Y axis coordinate identifier Calculated Y vector for the next move cutter compensation vector for Cincinnati Milacron True if the current arc is in the YZ plane True if current move changes Z from the previous location Z Clear value passed from FeatureCAM Z axis coordinate identifier True if the tool moves down in the Z direction otherwise lt Z DOWN gt is false The maximum Z coordinate of the part or parts if using Tombstone machining plus the Z Index Clearance default attribute Z Rapid Plane value pas
61. nt in a conditional statement always followed by a logical type Reserved Word to verify that a condition is false Incremental depth from Z Clear lt DEPTH gt lt ZCLEAR gt Incremental first step lt STEP1 gt lt ZCLEAR gt True if 4 or 5 axis indexing is set in FeatureCAM For the Segment start formats lt INDEX gt is only true when the indexing move is actually being performed True if the user has turned on indexing for X Y or Z axis True if the current setup is named WORLD Macro number identifier system generated Macros are not user definable however some Macros are generated automatically especially with multiple fixture parts This number starts at 00 and increments automatically up to the Max Macros number that is contained on the General Information dialog box The name of the current setup Corresponds to Minimum Peck drilling attribute Produces the correct motion type i e RAPID LINEAR CIRCULAR CW CCW for the various program formats lt MOTION gt is specified via the MOTION COMMANDS option CNC INFO top menu in BUILD Amount to move over in X for no drag boring Amount to move over in y for no drag boring Represents the next tool to be used may be reguired by some controls 20 lt NOSE RAD gt lt OP PASS gt lt OP TYPE gt lt OV LENGTH gt lt PITCH gt lt PLANE gt lt PROG NAME gt lt RADIUS gt lt RIGID TAP gt lt ROT1 ANSI gt lt ROT1 MATH gt lt ROT
62. output the correct arc centers N lt SEQ gt lt PLANE gt lt MOTION gt lt IF gt lt XY PLANE gt lt THEN gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt I lt X CEN gt J lt Y CEN gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt ZX PLANE gt lt THEN gt Z lt Z COORD gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt K lt Z CEN gt I lt X CEN gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt YZ PLANE gt lt THEN gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt X lt X COORD gt J lt Y CEN gt K lt Z CEN gt lt ENDIF gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt Turning general post processor CNC info menu General When General is selected a list of options pertaining to the output program format displays Any parameter may be changed by selecting it typing the value or toggling to the desired selection if a new value is entered press Enter Machine Type The Machine type classifies the type of post The choices are e Milling use this type of post for 2 5D or 3D milling e Turning use this classification for 2 axis turned parts e Turn MILL use this type of post for lathe with powered rotary tools 35 FeatureCAM General Post Processor This distinction controls type of reserved words and program formats that are available in the post Dimension Dimension toggles between nch and Metric output Post uses the selection to convert the dimensions that affect X and Y coordinates as well as feed rate The setting in the CNC Data file takes precedence over the assumed inch unit in F
63. r Catcher Out This block would contain the M code for pushing out the parts catcher Rough Cycle Start This block contains the code for starting the roughing canned cycle See Numeric Turning Canned Cycle Block Words for applicable reserved words Rough Cycle End This block contains the code if any is required for ending the roughing canned cycle See Numeric Turning Canned Cycle Block Words for applicable reserved words Finish Cycle Start This block contains the code for starting the finishing canned cycle See Numeric Turning Canned Cycle Block Words for applicable reserved words Finish Cycle End This block contains the code for starting the finishing canned cycle See Numeric Turning Canned Cycle Block Words for applicable reserved words Turning Drill Cycle This block contains the canned cycle for twist drill operations including the support of peck drilling For drilling the following reserved words have the following values lt DEPTH gt is the calculated depth of the drilling operation including compensation for tool tip 50 FeatureCAM General Post Processor This is an example drilling cycle format N lt SEQ gt G83X0Z lt DEPTH gt Q lt STEP1 gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt See Numeric Drilling and Threading Type Cycle Words for applicable reserved words Turning Groove Cycle Format The GROOVE CYCLE is required when the CANNED mode is chosen or when the COMPUTED mode is selected and the DWELL specification i
64. rds e g lt AX CHANGE gt to move to the first tool change position in the part program Defining move formats There are four move formats e X Y Rapid Move e Z Rapid Move e Linear Move e Circular Move Depending on the control one of two cases is true for these program formats 1 If the CNC requires X Y and Z axes motion to be programmed in the same rapid line then all three Reserved Words X Y and Z must be included in the X Y RAPID MOVE program format The Z RAPID MOVE format must remain empty 2 Ifthe CNC does not allow for X Y and Z axes motion to be programmed in the same rapid line then use both the X Y RAPID MOVE and Z RAPID MOVE formats NOTE The order in which moves are generated depends upon whether the current Z position is greater or less than the previous Z position X Y Rapid Move X Y Rapid Move defines the output format for rapid positioning moves Generally modality delimiters ff are placed around the lt X COORD gt and lt Y COORD gt Reserved Words This allows the postprocessor to strip X or Y from the line when a coordinate is redundant If the first case is true see cases following the Z RAPID MOVE format then the lt Z COORD gt Reserved Word must be included Z Rapid Move Z Rapid Move If the first case is true then the Z RAPID MOVE program format must remain empty If the second case is true then the lt Z COORD gt Reserved Word must be included Linear Move Linear Mo
65. s a repetitive occurrence of a Reserved Word that is if its value remains the same as the previous occurrence of the Reserved Word For example when modality delimiters are used in lt SEQ gt the programmer is provided with the option of stripping all sequence numbers from the program during postprocessing This is accomplished by specifying 0 for the start and sequence step numbers in Post This forces the sequence numbering to remain the same Formats Defining Program Formats The following information provides definitions for all of the program formats as well as the rules or cases if applicable that apply to specific program formats As Post reads each segment from the part data file it determines if it is the first segment of the program a tool change or a non tool changing segment Based upon this information Post outputs the appropriate block i e PROGRAM START TOOL CHANGE or SEGMENT START prior to executing segment data Only one of these three program formats are used at the beginning of any one segment IMPORTANT Each definition can include multiple lines and each line must end with lt EOB gt 48 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Rules for Program Formats The Reserved Words lt Z COORD gt and lt X COORD gt are the assigned values of the first path point and must appear in all program formats to provide the first positioning move to the start of the path Program Formats PROGRAM START
66. s required If GROOVE COMPUT then the GROOVE CYCLE format block must be at the very least identical to the LINEAR MOVE format block Other parameters can be used see the examples below Computed groove cycle format with dwell N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt H X lt xX COORD gt Z lt Z C OORD gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt GO4 F lt DWELL gt lt EOB gt If GROOVE CANNED in the CNC file the system computes the diagonal bottom point of the groove slot as the target point shown below FeatureCAM only supports canned cycles that utilize this computed target point If a canned cycle program format block is required then the values of the lt X COORD gt and lt Z COORD gt Reserved Words as shown in the format block example below are the X and Z coordinates of the target points Example Groove Canned Cycle Format N lt SEQ gt G75 X lt X COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt I lt DEPTH gt K lt STEPOVER gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt Turning Thread Cycle When one of these options is chosen the desired format may be entered for the threading program block See Numeric Drilling and Threading Type Cycle Words for applicable reserved Words Turning Tapped Canned Cycle Format Enter the program block for tapping For this operation lt DEPTH gt is the depth of the tapping operation See Numeric Drilling and Threading Type Cycle Words for applicable reserved words 51 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Using Fea
67. s which are discussed in detail below Formats editor When a program format is selected from the Formats menu the XBuild program shifts into the Formats editor and displays the selected format on the screen The formats editor has two menus which are used in editing the selected format however these menus do not change from one format to another All program formats are edited in the same manner The Edit menu contains standard windows text editing functions The File menu contains two items Word List The Word List command displays a list of the reserved words in the lower right corner of the screen This list can be scrolled up and down by means of the scroll bar at the right side of the list Moving the bar to the arrow at the top of the scroll bar and clicking the mouse there causes the list to scroll up while the arrow at the bottom of the scroll bar causes the list to scroll downwards The reserved words are grouped into four categories as described earlier Numeric String Logical and System To place a reserved word into the format displayed in the main part of the screen scroll the Words List to the desired word and then click the mouse on it The word is placed in the program format at the point where the test insertion bar was last placed The test insertion bar is a blinking vertical bar which shows where text will be entered If it is not visible move the mouse to the format window and click the mouse Reserved words can
68. sed from FeatureCAM Z Surf value passed from FeatureCAM True if the current arc is in the ZX plane True if the tool moves up in the Z direction otherwise lt Z UP gt is false This list contains the various G codes that are valid fixture Ids An example list might be 54 55 56 57 22 FeatureCAM General Post Processor 58 59 FeatureCAM will automatically look in the current post processor and will assign the next available fixture ID to a new setup and to the numeric reserved word lt FIXTURE gt Five Axis The Rotary Center Offset values are contained in the post processor files Enter the following values measured on the machine Y coordinate of A axis centerline Y distance from machine zero to the A axis centerline Z Offset of A axis face from b axis centerline Z signed offset of A axis face from B axis centerline Offset of centerline of axis to centerline of b axis X side to side inaccuracy in mounting of the rotational centerline of the A axis pedestal measured relative to B axis centerline B Axis Z Offset of A Axis Face A Axis Y Coordinate af A Axis Centerline A Axis Machine Zero Formats menu The Formats menu lists four general groups of program formats Each of these groups contains specific program formats which when selected are displayed in the Formats Ed
69. strate types of formatting Expression Result D 3 4 1 0 10 10 0 D 5 4 1 0 10 10 0 LD 3 4 1 0 10 010 0 LP 3 0 1 0 10 010 PT 3 1 1 0 10 100 When no format specification is given and there is no colon specified we automatically use the format of the numeric keyword within the square brackets For example lt X COORD gt 1 is printed in the default format for the lt X COORD gt keyword that is specified in the Words 1 Words4 dialog boxes If there is no such keyword such as in the expression 1 2 the default format for the keyword lt Z COORD gt s format is used 12 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Suppressing the printing of an expression To suppress the printing of the assignment result specify only the colon as the format specification Neither of the following expressions will print a value because the first character of the expression x var lt X COORD gt 1 lt Y COORD gt 2 Example expressions F Set x 3 y 5 z 0 0001 X lt X COORD gt 3 Y lt Y COORD gt 5 Z lt Z COORD gt 0 0001 lt EOB gt Calc x 3 2 lt X COORD gt 3 2 lt EOB gt Calc sqrt pow x 2 pow y 2 sgrt pow lt X COORD gt 2 pow lt Y COORD gt 2 lt EOB gt F Calc atan2d y x atan2d lt Y COORD gt lt X COORD gt lt EOB gt Is z 0 within 0 001 If so print Yes lt IF gt apxeq lt Z COORD gt 0 0 001 lt THEN gt Yes lt EOB gt lt
70. style the value of the angle specifies the angular distance H LOM measured from the current position and the sign indicates the direction hoc of measurement The sign of the angle also indicates the direction of Lf a rotation Lue COSV Winding and Unwinding In this style the value of the angle specifies the angular position ry if measured from zero and the sign indicates the direction of Be s measurement The sign of the difference between the angle and the 7 M pa current position indicates the direction of rotation LJ AJF 4 axis indexing The axis to wrap around is fixed in the post and must match the index specified in FeatureCAM All posts that ship with FeatureCAM assume that 4 axis indexing and wrapping is around the X axis Indexing commands must be added to the Program Start Segment Start and Tool Change formats It is not necessary to add indexing commands to feed move blocks Linear Circular or Macro blocks since indexing takes place only between operations The logical keyword lt INDEX gt specifies indexing either 4 or 5 axis has been activated for the current setup To help create smaller NC programs the lt INDEX gt variable is interpreted differently in different program formats For Program Start and Tool Change formats lt INDEX gt is 32 FeatureCAM General Post Processor true if indexing is enabled in FeatureCAM For Segment Start formats lt INDEX gt is true only if indexing is enabled in Fea
71. t operation is a bar puller operation 45 FeatureCAM General Post Processor lt TAPER gt True for tapered threads lt MAIN SPCMD gt True if the current spindle is the main False if the sub spindle is the current spindle Formats menu The Formats menu in XBuild is used to enter specific program formats for the various blocks which can appear in a part program Each format is made up of combinations of Reserved Words literals comments and user defined variables This section first describes the Formats menu and briefly describes the program formats and how they are used Next the use of the XBuild Formats Editor and its menus and keyboard commands are described in detail The rest of this section is a reference guide to creating program formats in order to build a CNC data file It may be helpful at times to refer to the last chapter in this manual a listing of the ROM35I CNC postprocessor as it would be created in a document file CNX The program formats found in this group are used in almost every part program and include commonly used formats such as Program Start Turret Change Tool Change Segment Start Program End The Move formats include the rapid and feed moves which make up the largest portion of any part program These program formats must be carefully defined These formats include Rapid Linear and Circular The Cycle formats include Drill Thread and Groove These formats also use specific reserved word
72. the mouse in the check box at the bottom of the Words List 5 The Words List can be closed like any window or by selecting Word List a second time in the File menu e Quit exits the Formats Editor saves the modified format in memory If any changes have been made to the selected format when the Quit command is FeatureCAM General Post Processor selected you are prompted to save Yes or No the changes that were made or to cancel the Quit command If Cancel is selected the Formats Editor remains active Edit menu This menus contains five commands found in most Windows programs These are briefly described here but for more details see the Windows User s Manual Using the Clipboard 1 Undo can be used to undo the last action If a reserved word was placed incorrectly the Undo command removes it 2 Cut removes the selected text and places it in the clipboard where it can be recalled with the Paste command 3 Copy places the selected text to the clipboard in the same way as the Cut command does except that the selected text is not removed from its selected location 4 Paste places the contents of the clipboard at the text insertion point 5 Delete removes the selected text without copying it to the clipboard Using expressions in formats Expressions are surrounded by square brackets T They are evaluated prior to being output This example multiplies the current X coordinate by five lt X COORD
73. tribute or Feature Attribute Some CNC machines require the previous Tool and Fixture In this case use the symbol to represent the previous number Tool parameter lines are formatted in PROGRAM START TOOL CHANGE and PROGRAM END program formats Coolant parameters Off Mist and Flood are defined in XBUILD and are output by Post whenever the Reserved Word lt COOLANT gt appears in a program format block Z data XBUILD has a Reserved Word for each Z parameter in FeatureCAM XBUILD also provides words that signal Post to perform arithmetic operations to accommodate the different ways that machines handle the Z axis The following manufacturing attributes in FeatureCAM contain corresponding Reserved Words in XBUILD FeatureCAM BUILD TYPE 28 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Z Rapid Plane lt ZRAPID gt Numeric Plunge Clearance lt ZCLEAR gt Numeric Handling cutter compensation Cutter compensation is handled by XBUILD and can be configured several ways depending upon the CNC requirements The most common configuration is to turn compensation On in the first X Y feed move of the cutter path and turn compensation Off in the last X Y feed move If the aforementioned configuration is utilized then define the LINEAR MOVE program format as follows LINEAR MOVE BLOCK N lt SEQ gt lt COMP STAT gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt E EE D gt lt EOB gt
74. ts Editor and to save the modified format in memory If any changes have been made to the selected format when the Quit command is selected the user is prompted to save Yes or No the changes that were made or to cancel the Quit command If Cancel is selected the Formats Editor remains active 47 FeatureCAM General Post Processor Program format concept For each segment of a part program parameters and calculated values are passed to Program Start Block Post via Reserved Words that are used by the program formats definitions These program formats act as a template they are sequentially filled i e Reserved Words are substituted by Path Data their corresponding values G and M codes as the part data file is post processed Some parameters e g Depth or Finish Allowance are used by Post to compute tool path coordinates Other parameters such as tool number canned cycle parameters and P1 through P9 parameters are passed from FeatureTURN without modifications Using Modality for Reserved Words in Program Formats In some cases the CNC machine can use the concept of modality to avoid redundant data thereby reducing the length of the program When using modality repeated coordinates or commands are stripped from the part program String and numeric type Reserved Words may be surrounded by modality Program End Block delimiters to signal Post to remove redundant data The modality delimiter prevent
75. tureCAM and the machine tool is performing the actual indexing move This example is the Segment Start format from the a Bridgeport control that supports 4 axis The lt Z INDEX CLR gt is a Z clearance value calculated from the maximum Z coordinate of the part or parts if using Tombstone machining plus the Z Index Clearance default attribute lt SEGM ID gt lt EOB gt COMMENT lt SEG CMT gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt S lt SPEED gt lt SPINDLE gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt G97 X lt SHIFTX gt Y lt SHIFTY gt Z lt SHIFTZ gt lt EOB gt lt IF gt lt INDEX gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt Z lt Z INDEX CLR gt lt EOB gt N lt SEQ gt M51 INDEX lt ROT1 MATH gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt lt COOLANT gt lt EOB gt Wrapping 4 axis wrapping in FeatureCAM causes rotary motion of the part while the tool is cutting A simple example of this might be engraving letters on the outside of a cylinder However FeatureCAM can wrap any feature including surface milling features around the fourth axis To support wrapping a test for the logical word lt WRAP gt and the necessary lines should be added to the Program Start Tool Change and Segment Start formats as well as the feed formats Linear and In_Macro Linear It is not necessary to add the fo
76. tureTURN and XBUILD Roughing and Profiling Cycles Post applies the offset and other cycle data parameters that are appropriate to the cycle XBuild provides the lt X COORD gt and lt Z COORD gt Reserved Words to receive the path coordinate data Additional Reserved Words lt ARC X gt lt ARC Z gt lt X CEN gt lt Z CEN gt lt RADIUS gt and lt S RAD gt are provided by XBuild to receive the circular interpolation modifiers that are needed for arc moves START END PTS If start or endpoints have been defined in Feature TURN they become part of the path s definition Post generates a rapid move from a start point to the first part of the machining operation and a rapid move from the last move of the operation to the endpoint is also generated OTHER RESERVED WORDS Optional seguence numbering is defined in Post and is placed at the beginning of any block that contains the Reserved Word lt SEQ gt The end of block character a control code that signals a completed line is defined by the lt EOB gt Reserved Word GENERAL INFO TURN MILL Posts Turn mill posts are a separate type that combines the features of milling and turning On the General page set the Machine Type to Turn Mill TURN Mill Keywords In general milling keywords are available in turn mill mode when a milling feature is being processed The same thing is true for turning keywords The following are some exceptions The milling Keywords lt CYCLE gt
77. urth axis support blocks to the circular move formats since all arc moves are broken into linear moves when the wrap feature is enabled The following is an example of a Linear program format for a Bridgeport Torq Cut mill that wraps around the Y axis Note that in the wrapping case a rotation is used for what would be a Y move in the non wrapping case lt IF gt lt COMP START gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt COMP STAT gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IF gt lt WRAP gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt X lt X COORD gt C lt ROT1 MATH gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt ANG FEED gt lt EOB gt lt ENDIF gt lt IFNOT gt lt WRAP gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTION gt lt COMP STAT gt X lt X COORD gt Y lt Y COORD gt Z lt Z COORD gt F lt FEED gt lt EOB gt 33 FeatureCAM General Post Processor lt ENDIF gt Wrapping requires special consideration in the Rapid move block To prevent a collision between the tool and part during rotation the tool must be withdrawn from the part before the rotation takes placed Since the control does not normally test for this case XBUILD includes two logical reserved words which are used only to test for the wrap setting and the rapid move condition The rapid move block then includes both of these words lt WRAP Z UP gt and lt WRAP Z DOWN gt and is implemented in this way lt IF gt lt WRAP Z DOWN gt lt THEN gt N lt SEQ gt lt MOTIO
78. ve defines the output format for linear moves The following Reserved Words must be defined in this block lt X COORD gt lt Y COORD gt lt Z COORD gt 26 FeatureCAM General Post Processor lt FEED gt and lt MOTION gt Cutter diameter compensation can be turned ON OFF in this format line via the lt COMP START gt Reserved Word Some CNC machines may require the use of the vector Reserved Words lt X VECTOR gt and lt Y VECTOR gt Circular Move Circular Move The following Reserved Words are provided as arc modifiers for I J or R values lt ARC X gt lt ARC Y gt lt RADIUS gt lt S RAD gt lt X CEN gt or lt Y CEN gt File end File End specifies the format of a line s to be placed at the end of a file This is generally used with the END OF PROG specification GENERAL INFO MACRO TYPE Incremental programming rules The following information explains the rules for building postprocessors for controls that only support incremental input Each occurrence of the following Reserved Words must be in the specified form in PROGRAM FORMATS Reserved Word Form lt X CHANGE gt lt X CHANGE gt lt Y CHANGE gt lt Y CHANGE gt lt X COORD gt lt X COORD gt lt Y COORD gt lt Y COORD gt lt Z COORD gt lt Z COORD gt The PROGRAM START format may not contain any of the following Reserved Words lt X CHANGE gt lt AY CHANGE gt or lt Z COORD gt This is assuming that the first tool has bee

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