Autodesk HSM Post Editor for Visual Studio Code goes live

[fonsecr]

Hi all post developers,

We just pushed Autodesk HSM Post Editor for Visual Studio Code live as an Open Source project under the MIT license. Check it out at:

https://github.com/Autodesk/cam-posteditor

This project is an extension for Visual Studio Code that makes life much easier when developing posts.

You can get the installation for Visual Studio Code at:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Autodesk.hsm-post-processor

@GeorgeRoberts has been working on this until now. But my hope is that we can work together as a community to make it even better. So if you are interested in contributing make sure to engage. Of course you are welcome to just make requests for the post team also. You can use the post idea station for such requests.

Note that you need to sign a small agreement before we can accept contributions.See the README for details.

George will post introduction to the extension here.

[GeorgeRoberts]

Hi all,

I have put together a quick overview of the extension >>HERE<<. For anyone looking to get started with this extension, I would advise watching the full Screencast to ensure you get a full understanding of the functionality.

You may also access the HELP information once the extension has been installed. To access the help, open VSCode and click F1, this should bring up the command bar. Inside the command bar, type 'HSM Post Utility' and press Enter. Following that, simply click the 'Help' option from the drop-down that appears.

If anyone has any feedback or issues, please let us know!

[narzinskin]

This is awesome!!!!!

[makko74]

Hi,

a little thing that confuses me are the operation notes.

I do not know if it has anything to do with the settings or just a small bug.

If I have operation notes, then these are also printed, except for the first line.

This makes the whole NC code a bit cluttered when reading, because I use the operation notes very much.

Screenshot to show what i mean.

The first yellow marked text section is what bothers me. The second is the one that should be output by the postprocessor inclusiv the first line.

Then there seems to be problems in the output with ü, ö, ä, ß, which I do not have with the normal post process.

Mario

[GeorgeRoberts]

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback! This looks like a small bug, I will take a look at it now.. I believe I know what causes this.

Please drop me an email (cam.posts@autodesk.com) with an example where you are having an issue with the output, there shouldn't be any issues as it is simply passing the intermediate file through to the post engine.

Cheers

[fonsecr]

Note that the editor will likely show the output UTF-8 encoding even if you change the post to output the codepage you would like to use:

E.g. try either:

setCodePage("437"); // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437

setCodePage("1252"); // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252

Note sure which code page your CNC actually uses.

Replace the setCodePage("ascii"); in the post.

[makko74]

Hi,

i use setCodePage("1252")

with normal post process this works with ü,ö,ä etc.

only in the VS Code i get � instead ü or so but no problem, I know what should be there, its only for debugging

Mario

[fonsecr]

Ok, the it is just because the editor doesnt know the actually encoding used (at this time). You can choose a different encoding when you have the file open.

[makko74]

I had already tried that then i get � instead of ü.

Mario

[makko74]

i attach the cnc file that i use, maybe that helps.

Mario

[GeorgeRoberts]

@makko74 I've pushed a new update which should install automatically when you restart VSCode, this should fix the notes showing. Please let me know if it works for you

I'll take a look at the issues you're having with the CNC file.

Thanks for bringing the issues to our attention, all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Cheers

[makko74]

@GeorgeRoberts Thanks for fix this.

Ok, with the operation notes it works now, sorry i forgot to tell, with the setup notes are the same issue.

Mario

[makko74]

@GeorgeRoberts

sorry my fault, looking at the false window,  its also ok with the setup notes.

Thank you

[makko74]

now its another problem, when i click in the nc-code, it shows me not the right place in the post processor.

i tried it with Disable auto line selection ( true and also with false ) it works not more ???

Mario

[GeorgeRoberts]

@makko74 looks like that was something to do with how I had hid the notes. It should hide Multi-line notes (setup and job) and Material (I found this was output in the code if it was multi line as well)

Can you give this new one a try?

[makko74]

@GeorgeRoberts

now it jumps in the post processor, but to the wrong place, badly to write, hope the gif helps

he jumps in the post window to the place where the nc code comes two lines later as i clicked actually in the nc code

Unfortunately, I'm done with the work for today and can test again tomorrow.

Mario

[GeorgeRoberts]

@makko74 thanks for the GIF! I will try and reproduce on my end and come up with a solution

[makko74]

@GeorgeRoberts

Now I can not wait to get back to work.
You can do it, I believe that.
If the tool works properly, I do not want to miss it anymore, it really saves a lot of debugging time.

Thanks for your work.

Mario

[narzinskin]

@GeorgeRoberts do we need to install Git?  I get a popup frequently about installing within it VSC but I'm not sure what it is or what it does.

thanks!

[GeorgeRoberts]

Hi @narzinskin,

Thanks for posting! You shouldn't need to install GIT, I believe VSCode looks for a GIT connection when starting, which I guess would cause that notification. You can try adding the following to your settings file:

"git.enabled": false

To add this, follow these steps:

• Open VSCode
• Click F1 and type 'settings' and choose 'Open user settings'

• If you have any settings, add a comma to the last element then create a new line
• Type the following: "git.enabled": false
• Save the file and restart VSCode

Hopefully that will get rid of the message. However, GIT might be worth looking into, it can be really useful with post development projects, see this overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUuTYDg9XoI