Feature Request

Problems and questions
1

Les…

This might be easy. Add Material Type and Plasma Cut Current to the Material setup with matching variables available in the post. Most of the industrial controls allow you to set just about any process or job parameter via special codes in the program.

Thanks

2

It is easy enough to add parameters to the tool definition. Would that work for you?

3

That would work. I cheated and used a laser tool, which has a power setting. If we could add power, material type and arc voltage to the tool definition, that would work great. Power and material type can be integers. Arc voltage should be a float.

New issue though. When I switched the tool type, all feedrates are coming through as 0 using the feedRate variable. Is there a different feedRate variable for a laser tool?

4

Actually, material thickness could be on the tool definition also. That way all job parameters could be set up on one screen. You could save a tool called something like…

1/4" HRS, 50A

and

12ga HRS, 50A

Each tool definition would have a different thickness.

5

PreStop is another one. It is a float. It tells the control how long before the end of the cut in seconds to shut off the plasma. It changes with accel/decel rates and speed. It’s purpose is to shut off the torch at the exact moment motion stops…or slightly before.

6

To add a parameter use this function in a post:

post.DefineCustomToolParam("PlasmaTool", "Current", "amps", sc.unit0DECPLACE, 40, 0, 200)

The function must be outside of any other function. At the end of the file is a good place.

This will create an extra tool parameter called ‘Current’. The value will be available to the post as the variable ‘amps’. You can create as manay parameters as you like.

Now you need to use those values to ganerate code. What g-code would eb used by your machine to set the current?

7

It uses a serial string to communicate with the power supply and THC. How does the operator set the value of “Amps”? Does this add an edit field to the tool dialog?

8

Never mind…I see that it adds an edit field to the tool dialog. Very cool and exactly what we needed.

Thanks