Haas A-axis Post - Making Retract Position Variable

[Anonymous]

Quick question for the masses:
I am using the default Haas with A axis post provided with HSM. 
Everytime a rotary move is commanded, the post sends the machine to home in the Z axis. 
Is there a way to make this retract distance a user-defined variable? 

Along the same lines, the post also retracts to Z home when switching work offsets. 
I know lonnie has a version of the haas post that only retracts to the clearance plane when changing offsets. 
This may work, but I possibly would like a "happy medium" retract distance.  Somewhere between home and and the part clearance plane. 

Any suggestions on post edits here?

Thanks,
Steve

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

Not at a pc now. But you would want the retractions for which fullretract is true to have a property in the post that you can set at the post process screen.
Assuming the toolchange doesnt do a full retract. If that uses full retract as well you would need a little more complicated edit

[Greg_Haisley]

Clearance plane (clearance radius in this case) would be nice a solution. Also when moving from job to job within the same program, this scenario currently goes back to Z home also. It is a safe practice, but costs machine time.

[Anonymous]

Doing some post editing today, so I figured I would bump this to the top. 
Any ideas on making the retract between WCS changes and on rotary moves a variable height?

Thanks,
Steve

[Greg_Haisley]

I thought that some of the posts have a retract to clearance plane option in the properties page. Would be nice to see this for indexes and/or work offset changes for all posts.

[AchimN]

Steve have a look in your inbox, there should be a working solution for you 😉

[soldanr]

Would love to get a copy of that post!?

I find the G53 G0 Z0 annoying as well. 🙂

[AchimN]

You can customize the Z value in the G53 line to your desired value.

Using G53 is the safest way to handle retracts.

[soldanr]

Thanks. I still want to use the G53 Z0 to go home on the "on close".

During tool changes M5, M9 and G53 G0 Z0 are not required. The machine knows that.

I don't want to have the machine going home for every new work plane plane change. I rather control that myself with the clearance plane.

So I think I found it:

Changed line

if ((insertToolCall && !properties.fastToolChange) || newWorkOffset || newWorkPlane || toolChecked) {

to

if ((insertToolCall && !properties.fastToolChange) || newWorkOffset || toolChecked) {

PS: I am not responsible for any crashes on your machine. Use edit at your own risk.

Hope it helps someone.

[sderyck]

Has anyone made this change and if so can they send me some sample code from the change

thanks

[soldanr]

I made the change. The only difference is that you will not see a G53 between work offset changes. It is a little dangerous. Ha!