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Does anyone know where one can go and download g posts, for Pro/E, it would be easier, to make a collection of gposts and list them and pro/e users could go in downlaod them and make adjustments as they need.
I have posed this question before and got little response. I was surprized when no one was interested in developing a section for post processors here. I had one response that in essence said that the responsibility for having post processors that "work" (I will get into what I think this means in a little bit) straight out of the box was large. The other issue posed is that if someone has a usable post processor they either took the time to develop it, or they payed a lot of money for it. When you start getting into four, five, six and on axis type posts, they cost a lot of money if you can not develop them yourself. So is it fair to share this with others?
Now, what I mean by "work" is that you are going to find that there are many different approaches to programming that can be used to accomplish the same task. One example is the drill routines. I have yet to find a post that has any or all of the drill routines defined properly. Another example could be that someone may want to call a subroutineand use this subroutine in a pattern, versus having ProE create the code for you and have a large program. Now, there are areas where you get into machine control memory issues etc... that force you tocode a certain way.But if a post processor can not handle what you need from out of the box, then from a certain point of view, it does not "work".
Maybe someday we will be able to use a post processor without any issues. But until then, everyone either has to develop the post or buy one. Good luck!
Thanks Christopher, I hear what you say, I know it takes alot of work to make a post that "works" but as soon as I get into more post processors I am going to post them for people, I now it may take time, but for me I want to help as many people as possible, I am still stuck doing alot of training for people, and hae only done one post so far, but as soon as I start developing these I will post them
I have also raised this issue with PTC reps but invain. They are adamant and wrongly so that they take full responsibility if someone buys maintenance liscence. I have myself gone through the ordeal of developing posts for G Post. I have a small library of posts including one 5 Axis post for a VMC with Siemens 840 D. I have few posts downloaded from PTC site also. The posts from PTC are only for reference and would require necessaru tailoring prior to actual test. Any way this is a noble cause and I would support anyone who needs it. Cheers!
I would like to have a place to share posts and solid models oftooling. Both are hard to obtain. I would be willing to donate what I have if others would do the same.
I have gposts for a few machines I would be willing to share.
I think it's a terrific and timely issue. I would think that anyone would be willing to share if they were not in the business of either producingposts or selling them.
The arguement against sharing because someone invested alot of time and/or money just isnt valid and is actually an arguement for sharing. In issues like this, someone usually has to "take it for the team" to get the 1st onefrom whichall others benefit. The next time they will benefit from someone else's "pain".
I've found much more success creating a post from scratch than downloading one and trying to tweak it. All you have to do is go into the Intercim software, new, answer questions. This will get most machines running. The problem with downloading a post for say a Haas VF3 and tweaking it for a VF1 is that there most likely is stuff in the FIl (Factory Interface Language) that won't jive on the VF1. Clean slate is the way to go. If you need to add stuff to the FIL, then it is a little more complicated, but not that bad with a little reading, find out about cimfil on, off, major words, then go from there.
Problems I've encountered with posts usually depend on cutters movement ie, 5 axis you can select +/- 360 for C axis or continuous or something else, I'm going from memory and I don't have pro on this machine to check it. Just select one and test it, process of elimination. circle moves tend to cause problems, play around with the ij stuff and believe me you'll get it. Then you can upload for others to download.
I have developed posts for a living from the last 18 years, in GPostand other systems. Taking a post that somebody else built in order to tweak it is definitely must more of a hassle than creating it from scratch.
With the exception of the simplest FILs, it takes much longer to understand the context of why a FIL was written than to write one from scratch. It is like reverse-engineering software. There is 100s of ways to accomplish the same thing in writing a post, and it is unlikely that your line of thought is the sameashowever wrote that post, some you must be careful in anylising what was done, so you do not undo any needed logic.
Both of the last two posters are thinking everyone here either has alot of time on their hands or money. I have had posts built for my machines first by rand and got them to work 95%, thenhad a third party build me a custom post that works better than gpost could do. I bought all the books and training cds from intercim. I spent some time working on it but it wastoo timeconsumingso I payed to have my posts built. Fil files are a PIA if you don't know c+ or sofware like it have fun. As far as alot of people here when they get the price tag for a custom post the big boss will choke on it. For a lot of people here it comes down to getting a post that is pretty close and doing some small code editing so they can get some work done. As far as a vf1 or for the most part any vertical machine I don't see where most of the generic or downloaded posts won't work. When you have a fourth or fifth axis then thats a big bag of tricks to program let alone build a post. I program four and five axis machines and I can tell you most shops don't have these kind of machines.
cncwhiz-
I'm not quite sure what your point is, do you suggest not helping? I have found this stuff pretty straight forward. I do assume people here are technologically savvy, I don't think they would be here if they didn't have time. My posts are merrily suggestions, please download all you want. I just figure if something goes wrong with a post, which most likely it will, even if you paid $5k for it, you might want to have a clue, but what do I know. I have written posts for 4 axis, 5 axis, lasers, edms and found them to be not much harder. I don't want to turn this thing into a pissing contest. I realize everyone has different learning curves, this site is free knowledge, take it for what it's worth.
I agree that FIL is a programming language, and therefore requires some programming knowledge in order to use it. Actually, I agree with you that it is not friendly.I think it is not elegant at all, and could have been made a lot easier to work with. But it is very capable. You can make it do anything you want to. So your post that worked only 95% of the time is a reflection on whoever wrote, not on Gpost capabilities.
My point had nothing to do with this. I was commenting that, in mostcases,it is a lot easier to follow the GPost GUI to get a post that is close to what you want, than to use an existing post from somewhere and try to figure out how to modify the FIL to make what you want. I have access to loads of posts I wrote in the past, and I never try to start a new post from an existing post. I may go back to some elaborate and self-contained macro Iremember and reuse it, but never the post. There are too many special cases, which makes it too time consuming to do so.
For most cases, a 3-axis milling post should be very easy to do. And these post should be exchangeable for like-machine/controllers. The problem is that each of these post tend to accomodate user preferences, which make them very unique and difficult to exchange. For anybody willing to live with some editing, this could work, but not a lot of people want to do that.
In an mold core/cavity type work, where most of the program is XYZ motions, the chances of easily having an exceptable result are very high. These posts tend to be easy to do, even by answerignthe GPost questions fdrom scratch (unless it is something weird like Heidenhein , Anilam, or similar conversational programs).
In a serial production environment, even 3-axis milling, users typically want a lot more control of their NC programs, with a lot of auxiliary commands. Chances of being able to reuse anything thereare very remote.
I am aware that writing posts is not everybody's cup of tea. I was hoping that my comments be taken by some of the people are into doing it, as an advice on how to approach the problem. On the surface, it may appear that it is easier to modify existing posts, but in general, it is easier to start fresh.
I know some VB, some C++, additionally CAM and post softwares use some form of scripting software as well. I've been to EdgeCAM's post classes, coworker has been to DP Espirt post classes, we've tweaked NC Polaris with AutoLISP (ran inside Autodesk MTD)and unless you are ready to devote time to Learnpost creation, lots of it, you are easier off paying someone.
Most knowlegable NC programmers can tweak most CAM softwares' post through their respected GUI to do simple tasks, but to utilize code that controllers today are capable of, would take a lot of time and effort. We run ours through the ringer, literally. All types of probe cycles, multi-part skip cycles, macro programming(subroutines are not macros), muli-axis, etc.
I'm not trying to discurage anyone not to try, I think everyone should try to create posts. But, if you need to produce code for production needs, 3rd party people are availible to support that.
after reading all the posts in this thread, i'm beginning to have second thoughts to attempt to use my custom post. i have absolutely no experience with NC PP and and just flying by the seat of my pants. i have to create a PP for a customer with a Fanuc 0M series controller and i am afraid that what i am doing will screw up their pretty expensive machine.
Not all purchased posts are expensive.. you just have to find the right company. Ive been working with pro/nc for 6 yrs now. We originally approached PTC for a post for the Makino Hyper5 ( 3 axis mill ) which would of cost us nearly
Although our posts are custom(3rd party)paid for our company, I can't share any of them. But if it were a post that I developed, I would be happy to add it to a post site.
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