Announcements
Attention for Customers without Multi-Factor Authentication or Single Sign-On - OTP Verification rolls out April 2025. Read all about it here.

Tool Holder dgk to pmlth

jelrod
Advocate

Tool Holder dgk to pmlth

jelrod
Advocate
Advocate

Is it possible to convert tool holders derived from dgk to a pmlth format?  When trying to load two holders it seems I can't do it unless the second one is a pmlth format.  If both are dgk I get an error that there's already a valid holder. If I load a dgk first and then load a saved pmlth then it works correctly.  The problem is all of my holders were created dgk and I'm trying to not have to redo them.  Is there something I'm missing or a workaround?  Thanks

0 Likes
Reply
Accepted solutions (2)
1,312 Views
10 Replies
Replies (10)

LasseFred
Collaborator
Collaborator

you can import your dgk"holder" into a tool an then save it as a pmlth.

remember to rename it as xxxxxx.pmlth

see pictures belowtool1.PNGtool2.PNG

______________________
Lasse F.

5axes
Advisor
Advisor

Yes that's something strange .. I don't know if it's a bug, a software limitation; you can load and add as many Pmlth files as you want but just one dgk file.

If your holder are simple you can easily with a macro convert a DGK file into a PMLTH file .. But in some case if your Holder shape is complex it's not possible to save your holder under the PMLTH format. 

I would suggest to make some manual test before to write  a macro to do that.

Dgk.jpg

jelrod
Advocate
Advocate

Thanks guys.  That's an error I've seen @5axes when trying to load in a dgk and save out as pmlth. It seems to just work in some cases.

 

For the time being I've recreated the immediate need in pmlth format and have a tool assembly with one dgk and one pmlth. I would like to know the reason two dgks can't be assembled. If there's reasoning for this or if it's a bug? 

5axes
Advisor
Advisor

If you really need to convert a DGK holder into a PLMTH file ..  It's possible to do that with a macro unfortunatly this piece of code is in a VERY complex macro so i cannot provide you the macro code. But if someone wants to do that and share the code the solution is :

 

Load the Dgk file into a dummy Tool definition and try to save the holder as a PMLTH file .. If the file exists nothing to do  the conversion have been succesfully made.

Otherwise load the DGK file into a Pattern.
Save the pattern as a PIC file
Read the Pic file (it's a text file ) and convert each line of the profile into a PLMTH format.

 

Very Simple ๐Ÿ™‚

 

0 Likes

5axes
Advisor
Advisor
Accepted solution

Finaly extract the usefull code from my macro was not so difficult.  PLMTH file are saved in a directory called ExportTool created in the current PMILL project. If you want to change the destination folder change in the code the line :

STRING $dirpath = project_pathname(0) + "/ExportTool"

 

Can be also used to export an holder under the PLMTH format when you want to modify a complex holder after a DGK or Tool Library import.

Note : As it is the first modification of this macro it doesn't have fully tested, so in some situations you can have some unexpected issues.

 

Enjoy ๐Ÿ™‚

jelrod
Advocate
Advocate

Thank you @5axes for the effort.  I'll examine your provided macro and see if I can get some of them converted.  Manual conversion via save as hasn't worked but on one so far.  Thanks again

0 Likes

Chetan.Bankar
Alumni
Alumni
Accepted solution

@jelrod wrote:

Thanks guys.  That's an error I've seen @5axes when trying to load in a dgk and save out as pmlth. It seems to just work in some cases.

 

For the time being I've recreated the immediate need in pmlth format and have a tool assembly with one dgk and one pmlth. I would like to know the reason two dgks can't be assembled. If there's reasoning for this or if it's a bug? 


Hi @jelrod,

 

This is an intended behavior and there is already a wish task for ability to import multiple dgk files as tool holder : "PMILL WISH - ability to import multiple tool holders".

 

I have added your request to the above mentioned wish task.

 

Thanks and Regards,  

 


Chetan Bankar
Global Product Support
Submitting & Viewing Support Requests | Web Support | Phone Support

iamcdn79
Mentor
Mentor

Is multiple shank holders included as well?


Intel Core i9 13900KF CPU
128 GB Kingston Beast DDR4 SDRAM
PNY RTX A2000 6GB Video Card
WD 1 TB SSD Hard Drive
Windows 11 Pro

jelrod
Advocate
Advocate

Thanks @Chetan.Bankar for adding me to the wish task.  Hopefully as @iamcdn79 mentioned, multiple dgk shanks are included in the wish.  If not can you please add that.

 

Attached is a situation I had to recently deal with. The tool assembly has an endmill, extension, Cat40 hydraulic holder, and a representation of the spindle.  This was in to collision check against on the fixture without having the mtd for a HMC.  The Cat 40 is the only dgk and it had to be loaded first with a series of guesses as to the order to add the other pmlths. It's still not ideal because you can't calculate overhang of the extension in the Cat40. That seems to only work if the tool's shank is also part of the extension which makes it custom to every tool with multiples needed in the database. I'm not sure if there's a better way to handle extensions that can move in and out if its holder.

 

 

Chetan.Bankar
Alumni
Alumni

@jelrod wrote:

Thanks @Chetan.Bankar for adding me to the wish task.  Hopefully as @iamcdn79 mentioned, multiple dgk shanks are included in the wish.  If not can you please add that.

 

Attached is a situation I had to recently deal with. The tool assembly has an endmill, extension, Cat40 hydraulic holder, and a representation of the spindle.  This was in to collision check against on the fixture without having the mtd for a HMC.  The Cat 40 is the only dgk and it had to be loaded first with a series of guesses as to the order to add the other pmlths. It's still not ideal because you can't calculate overhang of the extension in the Cat40. That seems to only work if the tool's shank is also part of the extension which makes it custom to every tool with multiples needed in the database. I'm not sure if there's a better way to handle extensions that can move in and out if its holder.

 

 


Hi @jelrod,

 

Thanks for the feedback. I have updated the wish task to also include this functionality for importing multiple shank components from a dgk file.

 

Thanks and Regards,

Chetan Bankar


Chetan Bankar
Global Product Support
Submitting & Viewing Support Requests | Web Support | Phone Support
0 Likes