Fanuc 5-Axis Simultaneous Milling Without TCP (G43.5)

[abrownAG8YF]

Hello all,

My company has several Fanuc Robodrills with 31i-A5 controllers, but unfortunately none of them have Fanuc's true five-axis (tool center point control) enabled, only 3+2 milling. Using a slightly edited version of the generic five-axis Robodrill post from Autodesk I've been able to do quite a lot, but can anyone suggest how I could edit the post to do true five-axis work without the Fanuc TCP option? I've attached the post I'm currently using.

I've already gotten a quote from them but have a hot five-axis job that I'd like to move forward on. I do realize that without TCP I have to program on the axes rotation origin, but I'm already doing that anyway. Thanks in advance!

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

I'm looking into this and I think the post is set-up wrong.

@AchimN

By default, it now uses G43.5 for multi-axis commands.

And then gives the pre positioning of the A and C axis.

But according to my Fanuc manuals this is not allowed/possible:

@abrownAG8YF

I do have the idea that if you remove the G43.5 and replace it with G43 that it should already work in the current setup.

But be very careful at testing that.

[abrownAG8YF]

My company is installing the Fanuc Tool Center Point Control option this week. I will test the five-axis simultaneous post and let you know if the G43.5 works.

[AchimN]

@Laurens-3DTechDraw thanks, I´ve fixed that problem. Updated posts will show up soon in the library.

[abrownAG8YF]

I've read that tool center point control requires a higher data resolution (IS-E instead of IS-B) for the machine to accurately calculate vectors and positioning. Is output resolution (i.e. .00001" instead of .0001") controlled in the post processor or in HSMWorks?

[AchimN]

You can control the number of decimals for IJK vectors into the post in this line:

var ijkFormat = createFormat({decimals:6, forceDecimal:true}); // unitless

[abrownAG8YF]

Thank you. I see it is set to six decimals by default, which is the recommended resolution.

Going back to my original question, I just downloaded and tried to use the latest Fanuc Robodrill post. My machine does not have TCPC (G43.5) installed yet, nor does it have tilted work plane installed (G68/G69). How would I turn this off in the post and force it to use the A, B, or C rotational commands?

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

@abrownAG8YF

There is a line in the post that looks like this

var useMultiAxisFeatures = true;

change it to this:

var useMultiAxisFeatures = false;