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Hi, see above. I already do a more advanced version of what you describe.

 

The problem with your approach is that the G10 is absolute to the machine. So if you replace the vice, then your G10 is broken.

 

What I do is run a Manual NC, which calls something like an incremental G10. So I have say P30 set to the corner of the vice. This will get reset if the vice is ever moved. Then I measure in CAD that the part will be incrementally offset X/Y/Z from that corner, and I run my macro to set this increment

 

This leaves me with

- a nice and easy to comprehend program in say G54.

- program is relative to G54.2 P30, so I only need to reset that if the vice moves

- Initial work offsets are set in CAD. This means one less thing for the operator to get badly wrong. However, it still leaves plenty of room for us to refine the position either manually on the machine, or using probing.

(Probing is amazing though. If you consider the workflow above, it means you can almost totally setup the machine from within the CAD/CAM workspace, even the machine offsets are initialised. Operator just needs to ensure vice jaws and tools are correct)

 

What I don't have:

- The offsets can get stale if the CAD is changed. There is no connection between them. Designer needs to remember to update them

- Offsets are manually entered. Especially as they can't be copied from the CAD workspace, this means they have been found through "inspect", written onto a post it, then transcribed into a manual NC call

 

If anyone wants my "offset WCS" macro, then happy to share. It's specific to Brother control, but should work on many Fanuc alike controls.