Featurecam Backdating Post

[g-coder05]

A while back on the PM site wheelieking71 ask me to help see if I could get some post to work with an older version of Featurecam (2014). They had been accidentally saved to a newer version and in Featurecam's brilliance they made it no longer backwards compatible. I have worked on them off and on for a few months and had zero luck with it.

Lobust messaged me last night and said he would take a look at it if I uploaded the files. I sent bill an email and asked if it's ok to upload them and he had no problem with it. There has been some serious mods to these post so I can see why he would like to make them usable again.

If anyone else has any idea lets see if we can help him out.

 

[lobust]

I'm getting an incomplete file error on the brother post, something gotten corrupted?

 

[g-coder05]

I'm getting an incomplete file error on the brother post, something gotten corrupted?

I'll try extract it again. I just. realized I need to allow .CNC files in the manager here.

 

[lobust]

I have the Haas and Fanuc ones taken apart and ready to rebuild, was it definitely 2014 he wanted to use? Whatever I use will have to be the same or older.

 

[g-coder05]

Wow, that was fast. Yes 2014 is what his originals were.

 

[lobust]

My last installed version before I bit the subscription bullet was 2016, and the only other install media I have to hand is 2008 which I think is probably too old. I've had to resort to alternative means to get 2014. It might take a while.

 

[lobust]

Here's the Haas post.

Changes made:

Some basic edits to the formats before reimporting to match older xBuild words. <OFFSET-NUM> to <OFFSET#> etc.
In the program stop format there was a line {N<SEQ> }<OLD-COOLANT-OFF><EOB>
I don't know what <OLD-COOLANT-OFF> is. It's not a valid xBuild word in any version of FC that I am aware of. I commented that line out and changed it to basic <COOLANT-OFF>.
The TOOL-BLOCK-OFFSET-NUM word format was not set at default values, but does not exist in 2014. It's not relevant to a 3 axis mill in any way that I can tell, but better to mention it.

It goes without saying that this and the others when I have done them are technically new posts, and probably shouldn't be trusted 100% immediately.

 

[Herding Cats]

Now if we can just get Bill to publicly say hello, I've seen him lurking

 

[g-coder05]

Here's the Haas post.

Changes made:

Some basic edits to the formats before reimporting to match older xBuild words. <OFFSET-NUM> to <OFFSET#> etc.
In the program stop format there was a line {N<SEQ> }<OLD-COOLANT-OFF><EOB>
I don't know what <OLD-COOLANT-OFF> is. It's not a valid xBuild word in any version of FC that I am aware of. I commented that line out and changed it to basic <COOLANT-OFF>.
The TOOL-BLOCK-OFFSET-NUM word format was not set at default values, but does not exist in 2014. It's not relevant to a 3 axis mill in any way that I can tell, but better to mention it.

It goes without saying that this and the others when I have done them are technically new posts, and probably shouldn't be trusted 100% immediately.

Ill send him a link now.

 

[B&A Bill]

Here's the Haas post.

Changes made:

Some basic edits to the formats before reimporting to match older xBuild words. <OFFSET-NUM> to <OFFSET#> etc.
In the program stop format there was a line {N<SEQ> }<OLD-COOLANT-OFF><EOB>
I don't know what <OLD-COOLANT-OFF> is. It's not a valid xBuild word in any version of FC that I am aware of. I commented that line out and changed it to basic <COOLANT-OFF>.
The TOOL-BLOCK-OFFSET-NUM word format was not set at default values, but does not exist in 2014. It's not relevant to a 3 axis mill in any way that I can tell, but better to mention it.

It goes without saying that this and the others when I have done them are technically new posts, and probably shouldn't be trusted 100% immediately.

Awesome! Thank you!

 

[lobust]

Awesome! Thank you!

You're welcome, I had the spare time last night, and I'll get to the others as time permits, and hopefully if gcoder figures out what went wrong sending me the Brother post.

 

[B&A Bill]

You're welcome, I had the spare time last night, and I'll get to the others as time permits, and hopefully if gcoder figures out what went wrong sending me the Brother post.

How are you doing it? I started to manually document every format as a .txt file (copy/paste to notepad). So I could just re-install 2014 and pretty much "write" the posts in that version X-build. Pretty time consuming! I am very NOT tech-savvy, so I struggle pretty bad with this stuff.

 

[lobust]

How are you doing it? I started to manually document every format as a .txt file (copy/paste to notepad). So I could just re-install 2014 and pretty much "write" the posts in that version X-build. Pretty time consuming! I am very NOT tech-savvy, so I struggle pretty bad with this stuff.

That's basically what I did, except that you don't have to copy the formats. You can just export/import those.

Everything else is more time consuming, especially the word formatting. I left all my working files in the folder, so you can see what I did.

It took about 15 minutes to take the post apart like that, and not a whole lot more to put the new one back together.

Not a big deal for a 3ax mill post, something like my ntx or doosan post would be a nightmare to do, as those have 20+ custom formats tied in to a similar amount of defined post variables - hence why I'm pretty fluent at this!

 

[g-coder05]

Yeah, Bill if you can upload the Brother post here it may work. I get the same error message when I tied to open it. I think whenever I was trying to repair it I may have messed something up.

I set the file format to allow .CNC files to be uploaded so no reason to have to zip it.

 

[B&A Bill]

See if that works. That is my latest post, and the one I use pretty much exclusively for the Brothers.
I have some crafty mods in there centered around the coolant. With much gracious help from gregor on PM:

FeatureCAM post modding

So, I am tweaking on my Brother post. Basically copied my current post, and created a G100 post. I am also trying to figure out if it is possible for me to add a dwell after the Through-Spindle-Coolant call. It takes the pump a second to build pressure, and with no dwell I get the occasional...

www.practicalmachinist.com

 

[lobust]

I'll take a look at this one this evening before I go home. I'm using my up to date seat at work to break these down, but I installed 2014 at home for obvious reasons.

 

[lobust]

That one works, I'll post it up here when I have time to do it - not tonight I'm afraid!

 

[B&A Bill]

That one works, I'll post it up here when I have time to do it - not tonight I'm afraid!

Do not even put it on your priority list! LOL. I wont be using it again for at least a month.

 

[lobust]

Do not even put it on your priority list! LOL. I wont be using it again for at least a month.

Roger that