[Japazo]

Hmmmmmmmmm

Have you considered looking into the post yourself? If you haven't done it ever it can be intimidating, but it only took me a couple days to get the idea and end up adding the features I wanted and also making some changes that I had been wanting to do for months. It was really satisfying, as I am sure you can imagine.

Problems 1) and 2) seem reasonable to try and fix yourself. Problem 3) seems like it might be difficult, I'm not sure.

I dont know if you have done any post processor editing yet or compiling, but you might only be a few hours away from fixing your problems if you are willing to dive in. Try this:

-go into "edit toolpath" in camworks and make absolutely sure that problems 1) and 2) are not appearing as problems in camworks..

-look at the NC code and confirm that the problem is in the NC code where you expect. I.e. for problem #1, go to the offending G85 and make sure it has the wrong value (wrong start point).

-turn on the "DEBUG" option in the post processor so it tags all the NC code with the location in the post processor where it was generated. this will help you locate the "bug" in the post processor. debug option is turned on by editing two lines of code in the post processor with notepad, then recompiling and reloading your post processor in camworks. you recompile in UPG. its really easy. literally just open the post processor in UPG then go to file-compile and select the .SRC file. then reload your post processor in camworks.

-now post process again and go and look at the NC code. see what the debug tag is for the offending G85. now go hunt down that debug tag in the post processor files and see whats going on. note that not all post processor sections have debug tags so you need to go to the debug tag previous to the G85 command then follow its execution until you come to whatever outputs the actual NC code

all in all its no more complex than debugging a program written in BASIC

I started with a rather generic FANUC post for my mill and have refined it to work perfectly for the work we do. The thing that bugs me, is that the mill rapids where CWx tells it to. It feeds to where CWx tells it to, it doesn't EVER need to be manually adjusted. Literally every program I output for my lathe needs to be scanned over and edited to correct these little hiccups.

I'm pretty comfortable editing the post myself, even so far as editing the .LIB files to change the way calculations work, but if I cant find the culprit I cant fix it. The debug option works well but I don't think it is supported for the mill portion of mill-turn operations. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

When you say "edit toolpath" in CWx, what exactly do you mean and how do I get to that option? I'm not familiar with any options or GUI's with that name.

[acannell]

I started with a rather generic FANUC post for my mill and have refined it to work perfectly for the work we do. The thing that bugs me, is that the mill rapids where CWx tells it to. It feeds to where CWx tells it to, it doesn't EVER need to be manually adjusted. Literally every program I output for my lathe needs to be scanned over and edited to correct these little hiccups.

I'm pretty comfortable editing the post myself, even so far as editing the .LIB files to change the way calculations work, but if I cant find the culprit I cant fix it. The debug option works well but I don't think it is supported for the mill portion of mill-turn operations. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

When you say "edit toolpath" in CWx, what exactly do you mean and how do I get to that option? I'm not familiar with any options or GUI's with that name.

in the operations tree in CWx, if you right clock on a feature, you get an "edit toolpath" option that lets you see each step of the toolpath and make manual changes. itd be nice to confirm that there is no G85 problem there.

it should be fairly easy to locate the code in the post processor text files that actually spits out the G85 NC code. once you are there, you can work backwards and figure out where things are going wrong with the start location.

what post processor and what version of camworks are you using?

[Japazo]

in the operations tree in CWx, if you right clock on a feature, you get an "edit toolpath" option that lets you see each step of the toolpath and make manual changes. itd be nice to confirm that there is no G85 problem there.

it should be fairly easy to locate the code in the post processor text files that actually spits out the G85 NC code. once you are there, you can work backwards and figure out where things are going wrong with the start location.

what post processor and what version of camworks are you using?

I'm using CWx 2014 SP1.0. Getting ready to upgrade to 2.1, but I'll wait another week or two for someone else to find the major bugs (CWx releases are unreliable in the past few years). I'm using a post processor from a Captain lathe with the same controller as mine. The captain has some features mine doesn't, but that shouldn't affect the things we're talking about here.

I see the edit toolpath option now. You have to click on the sub feature for the given operation to see it. Using the drill rapid error as an example, CWx SHOWS that it is making a rapid move to Z.025 before drilling, but the posted tool path does not include that move. There is a definite disconnect there.

[acannell]

I'm using CWx 2014 SP1.0. Getting ready to upgrade to 2.1, but I'll wait another week or two for someone else to find the major bugs (CWx releases are unreliable in the past few years). I'm using a post processor from a Captain lathe with the same controller as mine. The captain has some features mine doesn't, but that shouldn't affect the things we're talking about here.

I see the edit toolpath option now. You have to click on the sub feature for the given operation to see it. Using the drill rapid error as an example, CWx SHOWS that it is making a rapid move to Z.025 before drilling, but the posted tool path does not include that move. There is a definite disconnect there.

I asked about the post processor because I wanted to take a look at it, but my CW is 2001 so I probably dont have it.

Thats good news about the edit toolpath. So Z0.025 is missing from the toolpath. I think you are only a few lines of code away from fixing it.

Can you open up the post processor and locate the G85 routines? It might just be a single section. Or, you might have a section something like "FIRST RAPID Z DOWN" or "RAPID Z DOWN" and such that is the culprit..