Maybe I am doing something wrong, but every time I have a tool change in a job, the tool change resets my current library back to 0, and sets the Z to something crazy high (+14 on my last job).
Maybe its my order of operations? I usually have a diff tool in the spindle, so before I start a job, I do a manual “draw bar” to change to the correct starting tool. Should this be a MTC instead? The job runs correctly using that first tool, but then it goes to the tool setting and does its “lets change tools” process. measures the tool but then sets the Z crazy high. The descriptions stay the same, but all my offsets are reset to 0 (even my REFERENCE tool 1)
I have EX servos, and a CNC depot spindle, but no tool rack so I do the somewhat manual holder change each time.
Avid has it set to reset every time and it will need to remeasure. Once their ATC is released this may change but if you want to address it sooner, look at Corbin Dunn’s software update that he did. It addresses this issue as well as a few others.
That’s correct. We reset all too heights at each tool change because the current software release isn’t designed for ATC. That will change in the future.
I had bookmarked but not read your ATC stuff, Corbin, as a “I need to finish my spoil-board setup before I tackle any ATC.” BUT if your software is able to do the “semi-manual holder change” before I can get my forks set up, I am going to try it today!
I already did the VFD warning + jumper re-programing you suggested in that other thread, and it was super simple and worked perfectly! Eric, maybe that is something that could be added to the walk-thru for the DS-10 VFDs that some have?
Corbin, after reading your ATC walk-thru tho, I had a thought. This is not on you at all, but I wish there was a way to ‘merge’ profiles The way any source control software can merge WIP code and show the diffs. I wrote a few macros for my specific spindle warmup (both daily warmup and long term sitting warmup) that i want to be able to keep using. I am a User Experience designer by trade, so I know about this much coding, which means I break things before I fix them haha.
I will let you know how the tool change stuff works! This community has been so very helpful. Thank you Eric for being so active here, it sets a very good example!
Yeah! It will work fine that way. You have to check the “Enable ATC”, but just don’t setup any pockets. Let me know if you have problems.
Yeah - Eric, feel free to copy that section of my guide!
Yup, there are ways to do this, and here’s what I do:
WinMerge: This is a free program that lets you diff the directories and see what changed. I use this for diffing profiles.
git: I setup a git repository in my cncm directory and check things into it (all local). This lets me see what files are changed by cncm when it is running, and how I figured out what does what by watching changes. I copy my .git directory to a new profile and I can easily see what files have changed, and revert/modify things based on current profile. This does require git knowledge and/or a GUI to do this.
We all really appreciate it! Even though I do most of the posting here, the rest of us do read the forums and love the engagement.
You rock
I would be slightly careful doing this… We (avid) alter the wizard with every release, and some of the macros, and occasionally other things. The main files (like CNCM.exe) come compiled from Centroid and we (Avid) don’t have visibility into exactly what changed (outside of their release notes and talking with them)
DIF’ing is fine if you just want to see what got tweaked, however don’t mash up different profiles, that can lead to problems… Just putting this out there in case someone wants to try to do that…
much coding, which means I break things before I fix them haha.