topic Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu in PowerMill Forum

edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

cfastNJWK6 — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 17:18:40 GMT

Is there a way to edit the Cycle Type drop-down menu in the Drilling Form? I would like to add descriptions to the vague extra cycles (Cycle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Bore 3, 4, 5).

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

Jonathan_Artiss19 — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 17:53:15 GMT

Chris,

The way I see it, you have two options. A post-it note on the monitor, or a saved strategy in your "My Strategy" folder with the specific function as its saved name.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

cfastNJWK6 — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 19:15:23 GMT

@Jonathan_Artiss19

I am trying to standardize things across 40+ powermill seats and 80+ powermill users. A post-it note may work for me, but not everyone else. I thought I saw someone change a list like this in the old Delcam forum.

For the most part I have hole drilling fairly well automated with 100's of different drilling methods. The problem comes up when we have a job that wasn't designed by us and there isn't a drilling method associated with a certain type of hole geometry. Then my Powermill users don't know what cycle 1, 2 or 3 is.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

minh.lenhat — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 04:35:54 GMT

For me, I do choose Cycle type then click Ok, then save toolpath as template and put a name for each.

Put all template in "Company Name" Folder, then all 80+ users just need all toolpaths inside your folder.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

cfastNJWK6 — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 10:58:22 GMT

I appreciate your response, and I have thought about creating templates/strategies for the different cycles, but it doesn't solve the main issue for my users. Occasionally a user will run the wrong drilling method on a feature set. Instead of deleting all of the toolpaths and running the correct drilling method, they will recycle the incorrect toolpaths, change the cycle, and re-calculate the toolpath. We use Cycle 1 for ball drilling and cycle 2 for flat bottom drilling. If a user accidentally runs the ball drilling method on a flat-bottom hole, all they need to do is change the cycle of 1 toolpath from cycle 1 to cycle 2, instead of re-creating all of the toolpaths with the correct drilling method.

Again, I thought there was a way to edit these menus in previous versions of PowerMill. Maybe there no longer is. Could someone from @Anonymous chime in and put this to bed? I'm not looking to add cycles, just want to add a description of what the cycles are used for.

Cycle 1 - Ball Drill

Cycle 2 - Flat Bottom

Cycle 3 - Gundrill

etc.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

Jonathan_Artiss19 — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 13:45:03 GMT

@cfastNJWK6

You can save these settings in the toolpath as a strategy, then add an image and name to them? This can be saved as a favorite to appear in the ribbon and your favorites folder.

You could also create a macro to import these strategies, then create a custom tab with images and names and descriptions. The custom ribbon can be exported and delivered to each computer.

These might prove a bit easier than editing and maintaining an installation file which is likely the case with editing within the drilling drop menu.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

cfastNJWK6 — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:29:56 GMT

@Jonathan_Artiss19

I understand that there are simpler solutions, but I am looking to edit an install file to actually change the drop-down list. Do you know what file needs to be edited or where it is located?

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

Jonathan_Artiss19 — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:33:07 GMT

@cfastNJWK6

I'm not sure which file it would be.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 16:58:20 GMT

The safe way: contact your local vendor and ask them for custom localization (~$$).
Or search for the following files:
c:\Program Files\Autodesk\PowerMill XXXX\lib\locale\<Language>\LC_MESSAGES\dcp_messages.mo
c:\Program Files\Autodesk\PowerMill XXXX\lib\locale\<Language>\LC_MESSAGES\form_messages.mo
Back them up.
Open the files in a hex editor and rewrite the text. Attention! The length of the new text must be exactly the same as the original, and leave '.' characters alone.

Original

Edit

New

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

cfastNJWK6 — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 17:34:08 GMT

Thank you for getting me to the right area. I actually had to edit files in a slightly different directory:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\PowerMill 2020\lib\locale\C\LC_MESSAGES\dcp_messages.po

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\PowerMill 2020\lib\locale\C\LC_MESSAGES\form_messages.po

But these files are human read-able so it was actually more simplistic.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 17:52:31 GMT

Congratulations :). Unfortunately, it's not appropriate for me, because we use the Hungarian language. I think your method works only with English language (I haven't tested it).

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

Pijetro — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 19:08:37 GMT

Unfortunately, you've voided the warranty....

But will you have to do this everytime a new install or update shows up?

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

cfastNJWK6 — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 19:14:26 GMT

Haha. Yes, it will have to be done for every update. Luckily, I'm in the position that controls when we roll Powermill updates out to the shop floor so I can stay ahead of the problem.

Re: edit Drilling Cycle Type menu

minh.lenhat — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 07:28:32 GMT

Great help