PowerMILL Excel SetupSheet plugin

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

Hi Everyone,

I've been working on another plugin last year that was just publicly released.  This one will let you create an excel template to export your setupsheets.  It gives you a bit more flexibility than the current setupsheet we have in PowerMILL.  On top of that, since the source code is available you can do whatever you want with it.  The plugin include a folder of sample files and some documentation as to how to use it.

I'm joining the pdf I made to give you an idea of what is available but also what can be done with it.

https://github.com/Autodesk/powermill-api-examples/tree/master/addin-excel-setup-sheet

Enjoy!

Michael

[Aadithya01]

Yes , the other plugins are working fine. 

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

What version of DotNET do you have installed?

Michael

[Aadithya01]

@michael.grenier4GVTU .. The above is the .Net release that shows in my computer registry. Seems to be 4.8 version. 

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

I’m off till the 9th but I can try to recompile it with that .Net when I come back and see if that helps.

[Aadithya01]

Sure .. No Problem @michael.grenier4GVTU 

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

Can you try with this version and see if it helps?

[Aadithya01]

Hi @michael.grenier4GVTU ,

I installed the Excelsetupsheet plugin with the installer you had provided in your previous reply. Still the same crash is occuring (please see attached video). Also I am an Autodesk Reseller. 

So if you want to take a remote session of my system and see why the crash is occuring. I will be happy to help you for the same.

Regards

Aadithya

[TK.421]

great tool!!!

Has anyone modded this to create a tool list with picture previews for the tools? I have an html version of what i like, but it would be great to incorperate it into this plugin. If no one has done this i can start poking around with it, i just dont want to reinvent the wheel.

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

You should only have to add a column and use the following tag in it:

{tool.image}

Michael

[TK.421]

i actually saw that on your pdf so i've been playing around with that & other things. the below is what it spits out. any ideas? i'm in the process of perusing your code on github but so far i've not come across anything for tool images. do you know where the below image would be stored?

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

it saves them within your existing PowerMill project in a ExcelSetupSheet folder:

Project_Path + "\\Excel_Setupsheet\\"

It then uses the toolname as the image name and call that file within Excel,  I'm joining what I generate with my template and the template I use for images so you can try.

Let me know how that goes

[TK.421]

i did try that one earlier but it made the image so small it was not useful, and it just stayed blurry when i made it larger. i'm jagging around a little in your plugin now to try to get it. i found one bug on line 1966 in the WriteFiles class- it needed an ! before File.Exists. 

I've got it close to what I want it to do (after three hours of changing code, closing powermill, rebuilding, opening powermill....).  Now i just need to get it to repeat properly if there's more than one toolpath in an nc program, currently it takes all the snapshot of all the tools and dumps them on the last page.

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

the image size uses the current cell size and adjust to it.  If you make your template cell size bigger, the image will be bigger.  Glad you are playing in the code and adapting to your needs, this is exactly why I released it few years ago.

Have Fun!!

[MIKAELNADAUD]

hello, there is possibility to put {ncprogram.picture1} and {project.picture1}. How can I create and find these pictures in my folder?

thanks

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

As explained before, pictures are saved in a dedicated folder called Excel_SetupSheet within your PowerMill project folder.  To create the snapshots, all you have to do is build the view in your powermill graphic window, select what you want to attach it to (Project, NC Prog or toolpath) and click the green + sign.  That will save it in the previously mentioned folder and pull it when you run the plugin.

[j_zander]

Thanks for this great Plugin!

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

It's been a long time since I wrote it but I thought only specific functions would not work with languages other than English and few others. Can you send your template and a test project and I'll take a look when I have time?

[nathanANTQX]

@michael.grenier4GVTU 

Thank you for the awesome plugin, it has been a mainstay and backbone to our company. It gets used at least 10 times a day everyday.

Our only issue is that sometimes the link between Excel and Powermill crashes, forcing Powermill to "stop working". Seeing your latest post about " .Net Framework affecting the Plugin Behavior", We are Running the following software combinations:

Powermill 2024

Plugin Version 1.0.5  

.NET version 4.8

Excel (Microsoft 365 Version 2310)

We have noticed that sometimes it seems that Excel fails to paste the information and hangs, causing Powermill to crash.  Sometimes we have noticed that it can be a clash between the NC file name and Machine option file name, as well as a potential clash with the Workplane name and NC File Name.

We might be completely wrong about our findings, perhaps you have some advise to improve the stability of the plugin.

Kind regards Nathan

[michael.grenier4GVTU]

Hi @Anonymous,

glad you are finding this plugin useful!  I've released the source code of this plugin so that people can debug it on their own if a problem arise or if you would like to make it better or your own.  That said, if you have a project you can reproduce the crash with, I'm happy to run it in the debugger to understand where the problem is.  Your assumption makes a lot of sense as I doubt the link between both software dies, those kind of crash are usually due to the plugin searching for something it can't find or encountering an "invalid" character while analyzing some of the information it's pulling.  That will crash the plugin and often lock PowerMill up at the same time.  Again, if you can share a project, I can take a quick peak at it for you.

[TK.421]

@nathanANTQX @michael.grenier4GVTU  I’ve had this happen several times as well within the last month, but I haven’t had time to debug it yet. If/when it happens again, I’ll post my project on here. However, I did change some of the code so the original may very well run without issue. I’ll be interested in seeing any findings you or @nathanANTQX find.  

I want to echo @nathanANTQX  in saying this plugin is a staple to me as one of two programmers to keep multiple machines running. Aside from that, I’ve learned more about coding just from picking this apart and seeing how it works. Thanks!