topic Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs in Fusion 360 Feedback Hub

[OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

GeorgeRoberts — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 19:52:03 GMT

Good afternoon,

Several months back we introduced the preview feature 'Post Process with NC Programs' as a way of enhancing the post-processing experience across both Windows and Mac. Since then, we have received a lot of feedback and have made significant improvements to the NC program dialog, and have decided that it is almost time to turn this feature on for everyone!

As a reminder, you can use this feature today by enabling it inside of your preferences dialog:

If you have any feedback or face any issues using this, please let us know.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

carl.j.barker — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 11:21:10 GMT

I much prefer the look of NC program - post options, and operation control in one place is good,

One small issue I dislike, When clicking the post process button on the tool bar, if i dont have the nc prog selected in the browser it creates a new one. Good maybe for users who have need to create a few but can be annoying for when we only meant to have 1.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

GeorgeRoberts — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 12:52:58 GMT

Hi @carl.j.barker,

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated! The creation of the NC program items in the tree is something that we are thinking about now. When we have a planned workflow (hopefully very soon), I'll post an update here to get your thoughts!

Many thanks

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

engineguy — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 21:44:26 GMT

@GeorgeRoberts

George, with respect :-

If this is to be "foisted" upon us then at least make it actually readable, that has been the main reason why I don`t use the NC Program, it is just like the new Tool Library, too faint to see easily, the old (Legacy) Posting Dialog and the old Tool Library were great, proper contrast and not looking like something that is "greyed out".

Same as on here, I have to use the "Bold" option in order to make text good and clear to see !! 😞 😞 😞

OK once it is Posted but not while typing!!

Grrrrrrr!!!

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

parkerledwards — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 21:34:15 GMT

Glad you have a feedback channel for this.

I dislike the change. I am often writing and over-writing gcode quite quickly. I'll export, run on a machine, then make a change and re-export often within 30 seconds. The new dialog does not allow me to easily re-name and over-write gcode files with new files. Before I would simply click "OK" (because my post settings were saved) then click on the last iteration of the code in finder to overwrite the old file rather than typing in the entire name for the gcode file.

Best

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

carl.j.barker — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:01:38 GMT

One feature I would like to see is filename improvement.

The programme name being 0001,0002 etc is fine, but I don't want to save the file under that name.

something like projectname.0001 etc would be better.

Even better would be a field to input a prefix for the file name.

prefix.projectname.0001 i.e job58000.sampleproject.0001.

Also it would be nice if the prefix propagated to following ncprograms and the 0001 auto incremented.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

engineguy — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:32:00 GMT

@carl.j.barker

You can already have the name that you want eg your job58000.sampleproject.0001 at the start of your code then where you set that in the Setup just try placing it in brackets () ie (job58000.sampleproject.0001) which will depend on what the PP being used will allow but that can be easily checked.

The above file name in brackets posts out as :-

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 12:26:30 GMT

Hi,

Today I put the Post Processor dialog back to the legacy dialog. The reason for that is that I liked that Windows Explorer opened when I posted the program, it then let me change the name of the nc program and also I was able to choose a directory of choice (I have multiple directory for different customers).

Maybe it is something that I didn't found yet in the new dialog, I would like to hear if that is the case.

Greetings,
Coert

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

centurydarkroom — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 17:10:47 GMT

I much much much prefer the legacy NC program to write my toolpaths. I use one Mac to design and manufacture and send tool paths wirelessly to folders on another Mac that controls my CNC router. (Carbide 3D). The change to the new NC post processor significantly complicated things. I could not choose a folder to write to. The new system would not properly name the tool path nc files. If I typed in for example "A - First Contour _ 1/41F.nc" as the filename and chose the folder on the remote machine, what I got was a new folder on the remote machine with a meaningless file name inside it. Also, first use of the new post processor crashed my machine with significant damage as I did not notice that the safe height in the new code was set to G28 by default.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

rob.blanch — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 14:03:51 GMT

Reverted back to old post also, as I absolutely require windows explorer to come up! Like people above I have many different post folders, and I am regularly overwriting old files - so I need to be able to simply click on the existing files to do so. With the new screen this is impossible, as such it is completely unusable for me.

Suggestion - a tickbox to bring the windows explorer box pop up after clicking post, giving us the same options as before. If you dont do this, then please please please never remove the "legacy" option!!

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

b.haygood — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 18:45:56 GMT

I am sure the update is great, however please allow the subscribers a chance to review before making the change. I have a small shop and only program when I have people out or behind on programing. I was unable to post programs to any of my mills or lathes for over 24 hours. It took a very knowledgeable and down to earth good tech about 2 minutes to get me up and going. I had to revert back to SolidCam for posting programs during this time.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

carl.j.barker — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 23:37:16 GMT

One other thing I would quite like to see is the dialog remembering which property groups have been collapsed when it is re-opened. I have a quite heavily modified post proc with quite a few extra exposed properties but they don't need to be on display most of the time. Just in the interest of neatness, not a real important issue.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 08:39:16 GMT

Me again!

On the other hand it's something I need to change. I do never reuse posted programs. So it's not efficient to select folders for me.

It's me, not you 😛

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

johnXH8PE — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 23:07:23 GMT

I would really like to see a web page explaining this new UI and how it's better than the old one. The help pages appear to be task-based. But I'm confused by the new behavior, as it seems to create a new NC entry every time I post a setup.

Also, as others have explained, not being able to set the file name that I want is a bit of a bother. Sure, I can use ( and ) around the name, but that then becomes the file name. I really don't care what the "program name" is in NC. But I do care about the file name as that's what I see on my 2009 Haas controller when I'm browsing files on the share.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

engineguy — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 01:15:05 GMT

@johnXH8PE

The idea is that if you create a new Setup then you right click on the existing NC Program icon and click "Edit", the NC Program will open and your new Setup will be shown in the list of setups that you have in your Browser, you can select which Setup(s) you wish to generate code for, you should be Posting within the NC Program if you only want the one NC Program, hope that clears that up a little for you.

Whatever you type in the box that has the 1001 default number in it will be output in your code so will be shown on your control screen if you are using the HAAS Pre NGC control then by default it doesn`t allow the user to use a Name where the default 1001 number is.

The HAAS NGC PP does allow it, have a look at the images below, the first one is code from the HAAS NGC Post Processor, the second image is code from a modified HAAS Pre NGC Post Processor, in the images below you can see that what I typed in the default 1001 box appears in the code !

So, whatever you type into that box will be the name of the file that you save to wherever 🙂

Is this what you are asking for ??

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

Vohnsen — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 05:09:39 GMT

Was this forced as standart recently? i cant post like i used to do - and like others here the nc programs does not fit my work flow AT ALL..

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

johnXH8PE — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 06:22:13 GMT

@engineguy, not quite. I have a Pre-NGC Haas, and the post processor therefore won't let me use anything other than numbers for the program name. I don't care about the program name, but I do care about the file name when it's saved. The new UI doesn't seem to have an option to specify a file name that is different from the program name. So when I post to my network share, I get 1001.nc. That means I need to rename the file after I've posted it to one that has meaning to me, like Front.nc.

Additionally, I typically post a separate file for each setup. That's because even though the WCS might be the same, the orientation of the part is different. I'm not understanding why having a single NC file for all setups is useful. The descriptions I've seen in the document describe how, but don't provide the why. I really like to understand the why so I can see how best to fit something into my workflow. But with only document that says how, I have to try to figure out the why myself. I'm currently lacking information about why this new UI is better. I suspect from reading some of the other comments that I'm not alone.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

engineguy — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 09:21:52 GMT

@Vohnsen

OK, first of all, you are quickly and easily able to go back to using the old system by going to your "Preferences" and under the "Preview" tab enable the Legacy Posting as in the image below, then you are back to how you were working before 🙂 🙂

Legacy Posting

@johnXH8PE

Yes, you only need a small modification to your Pre NGC PP for it to allow "Program Names", here attached is the one that I modified for the example images attached for you to play with, usual Caveat, use carefully and at own risk !!

If it is of use to you but not exactly the same as the one you currently use then make a copy of your PP and upload it and I (Or someone more skilled than I) will have a look at making it work the way you want, that way you can have it there in your PP Library to use or not as you wish !

As for being able to Post code for a single Setup that is simple, just check/uncheck the boxes of the Setups/Operations that you want to Post/notPost so no issue there that I can see !

If it is really that big a problem for you then see the image above and go back to the Legacy system.

As for the "Why", it has been designed to provide greater flexability for users, in that respect it enables the user to do everything in one place rather than selecting/deselecting items in the Browser tree etc.

If you do wish to use the new NC Program system and want to post out/save out then an easy way to do it is to have the Posted code automatically launch your NC Editor (I use Visual Studio) and once opened you can use the "File > Save as" usually at the top left corner of the Editor to save out with any location and name that you wish.

End of the day you don`t have to use it, go back to your old way, but IMHO it is worth the effort to keep learning new stuff if you have both the time and inclination, much better to be positive 🙂 🙂 🙂

To be fair, I didn`t like it much myself on "Day 1" but I am getting more used to it although I do still sometimes revert back to the old way if I get myself confused 🙂 🙂 🙂

Hope the above is of some help to you !

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

johnXH8PE — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 19:31:00 GMT

@engineguy thanks for the reply. I'm aware I can go back to the old version, and I can us VS Code and save as from there. But I know the old version will go away at some point. So I'm determined to either figure out the best way to use the new version, or to provide feedback that will result in changes that handle my case better.

After working with it a little more, I do like some of the things I'm seeing. For example, having a different NC for each setup would allow me to quickly repost that one with the latest changes. I also like that it shows it's out of date after I've updated tool paths. That's a nice indication that I need to repost to get the changes I've made.

Regarding the file name, I would really like to see an option to set the file name separate from the program name. As I've mentioned, I don't care about the program name at all. I also don't want to stray from the standard PP, as that way I can get updates without having to modify the PP each time. I really like the idea of being able to set the file name to be different for different NCs and then just repost without having to make sure I've used the correct file name again.

Re: [OPEN] Post processing with NC programs

a.r.j.dunbar — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 08:46:58 GMT

Hello,

I quite like the NC programs workflow, right-clicking on an NC program and choosing "Post Process" and have it just happen without further input is quite nice and straightforward, and I imagine it works perfectly for repeated jobs but it's a bit of a pain in a "job shop" R&D environment.

What's annoying though is the extra cruft that is created when I want to run just one or two operations. It always tries to create a new NC program, even if I choose just one operation. If I'm writing a program as I go along, perhaps starting with the adaptive roughing in the background then continuing with other features then it creates an entire new NC program for just that one toolpath. Adjust and re-run a 2D contour? New NC Program. Forgot to include a certain feature on the final chamfer? New NC program.

I'm probably never going to have to run that single chamfer, or that single 2D contour toolpath again so there's no need to create an NC program for it. Next time around it will be the whole setup for the production run or whatever, so that's good for an NC program.

All these extra browser tree additions add up and it can start to look messy and confusing. I'm not sure how exporting one toolpath should work within the new workflow, but this isn't it. Perhaps when selecting "Post" instead of "OK" in the NC Programs window it doesn't create an NC program, it only Posts the code and doesn't close the window and create a new NC program as well - it only does that when you click OK?

Thanks