Macro to make measurements

[Anonymous]

Good Morning

Overview ;

I am a very, very forgetful man and I have a habit of forgetting to include some data with my line up sheets. Usually parallel sizing or distance from a face of a vise.  

I would like to get around this by having a macro measure the distance of the bottom most part of my "PART" (see screenshot 1) and a pre-defined work plane, then spitting this data out to something I can store and call out on my setup sheet.

My measurement work plane (The active one) is static and will always be available. In my PowerMill session it is a point called "Measurement"

My PART measurement point will be dynamic. I'd like to have that assigned by the "Create workplane from block - Block Edge". The problem with that is the pick command.

I feel like there are likely some macro commands that will omit clicking entirely that will be what I'm looking for.

To break it down process wise;

Activate Workplane "Measurement"

Create Workplane based on the Y- block edge

Name this WorkPlane "Measurement - Part"

Measure relative distance between Measurement and Measurement - Part

Save Y value as "YDistance"

Save Z value as "ZDistance"

Save X value as "XDistance"

I would then like to write these values to my NC Program notes

Any and all help is appreciated. I may be going about this the wrong way entirely.

[LasseFred · Accepted solution]

// Check to see if the project variable "XYZ_MAAL" already exists
 BOOL $chk = 0
 $chk = ERROR $project.XYZ_MAAL
 if $chk {
 // Project variable does not exist so create it!.... Use EDIT PAR CREATE STRING "XYZ_MAAL" ...... for a global STRING variable
 EDIT PAR CREATE STRING "XYZ_MAAL"
 }
 // Edit the value of the project variable
 $project.XYZ_MAAL = " [NONE] "
 
// Check to see if the project variable "Block_Z_MIN" already exists
 BOOL $chk1 = 0
 $chk1 = ERROR $project.Block_Z_MIN
 if $chk1 {
 // Project variable does not exist so create it!.... Use EDIT PAR CREATE STRING "Block_Z_MIN" ...... for a global STRING variable
 EDIT PAR CREATE STRING "Block_Z_MIN"
 }
 // Edit the value of the project variable
 $project.Block_Z_MIN = " [NONE] " 
 
 
// FORM BLOCK
EDIT MODEL ALL DESELECT ALL
DRAW BLOCK
EDIT BLOCK RESETLIMIT "0"
EDIT BLOCKTYPE BOX
EDIT BLOCK LIMITTYPE MODEL
EDIT BLOCK RESET

REAL $BLOCK_LENGTH_X = (-1 * round(Block.Limits.XMin;3)) + round(Block.Limits.XMax;3)
REAL $BLOCK_LENGTH_Y = (-1 * round(Block.Limits.YMin;3)) + round(Block.Limits.YMax;3)
REAL $BLOCK_LENGTH_Z = (-1 * round(Block.Limits.ZMin;3)) + round(Block.Limits.ZMax;3)
REAL $BLOCK_MIN_Z = (round(Block.Limits.ZMin;3))


$project.XYZ_MAAL = "FÆRDIG MÅL : X " + $BLOCK_LENGTH_X + " Y " + $BLOCK_LENGTH_Y + " Z " + $BLOCK_LENGTH_Z 
$project.Block_Z_MIN = $BLOCK_MIN_Z


UNDRAW BLOCK

BLOCK CANCEL
EDIT MODEL ALL DESELECT ALL
BLOCK CANCELLED

it makes project variables 

[Anonymous]

Saving the block dimensions as a variable is something we already do so I'm turbo-dumb for missing it as a valid way to measure two points.

Thanks!