Basic Util Ops-Dev.pdf

Basic Utility Ops

Development

Guide

Gibbs and Associates

323 Science Drive

Moorpark, CA 93021

May 2005

ProprietaryNotice

This document contains propriety information of Gibbs and Associates and is to be used only pursu-

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either trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of Gibbs and Associates in the United States and/

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marks of their respective owners.

Written by Will Gaffga

Thanks to Bill Gibbs, Jeff Myers and Israel Klain for their input and assistance.

Printed in the United States of America

Created: April 6, 2005

Current: July, 2005

Modified: July 27, 2005 4:42 pm

BASIC UTILITY

OPS

DEVELOPMENT

GUIDE

❖

Basic Utility Ops Development Guide

❖

BasicUtilityOpsDevelopmentGuide

ABOUT THE BASIC UTILITY OPERATIONS

The GibbsCAM Basic Utility operations provide users of the Lathe and Mill/Turn products (i.e. users

who do not have MTM) to easily program Bar Feed, Tailstock, and Part Catcher commands as well as

use the Add G-Code plug-in. The Basic Utility operations are defined and controlled by templates.

The templates are created by GibbsCAM Post, MDD and VMM developers.

End users must have a custom post that supports this feature and may have a custom MDD that is

associated with the post. This document discusses the creation and content of the Basic Utility

Operations for the creators of the templates and the posts that need to be modified to support this

function.

ABOUT THE BASIC UTILITY OPS TEMPLATE

The templates used to create Basic Utility operations are an XML-like

format which can be created and edited using any text editor. The text file

must have the extension TMPL.

Example.tmpl

<sgml>

The file must start with the tag

<sgml>

and end with the closing tag

…

(body)

…

</sgml>

. Everything in the file must be bracketed within the tags. The tags

signify the block of code to be read. The example shows the basic layout of a

Basic Utility operation template file.

There are two types of objects that may reside inside the <sgml> tags,

. Comments may be made throughout the template. Any text that is

not within brackets, e.g. < text in brackets> is considered a comment.

and

Types of Templates

There are two types of templates, generic and specific. The utility ops found in a generic template are

available to any Lathe or Mill/Turn MDD but the user will still need to have a post that supports the

Basic Utility ops. Specific templates are tied to a particular MDD, see the “mdd_key” section for

specific information.

If an open part file has Basic utility operations and the MDD is changed or if the template that

supports the Basic Utility operation is not available, the user will get a warning about unsupported

operations that is basically identical to the warning you receive in MTM.

Where To Place the Templates and Posts

Templates must reside in the application folder in a folder called

Utility Templates

. If they are not in

such a folder they will not be recognized. The posts may be placed anywhere.

sgml>

<mdd_key>

❖

Basic Utility Ops Development Guide

❖

MDD_KEY

object is used to lock a template to a specific MDD. If the specified MDD is not the

current MDD, this template will not be available. This object is optional, if it is not used the template

will be available to all Lathe and Mill/Turn parts. This does not mean that the Basic Utility ops will be

useful as the user still needs a post that has been modified to support Basic Utility ops. An example of

this object’s use follows.

<mdd_key>

<mdd_key = "GIB.TST.BUOP-1">

Example.tmpl

is the

Unique Key that this template is locked to. The

GIB.TST.BUOP-1

<sgml>

<mdd_key = "GIB.TST.BUOP-1">

…

</sgml>

Unique Key

can be found using the MDD

Editor.

UTILITYOP

The <utilityOp> object defines an option or

capability of the template. An example is

seen to the right. Utility ops will be sorted

alphabetically in the process dialog but the

attributes of each utility operation will

remain in the order in which you place them

in the file. Therefore, placing important

things like the name and units near the top is

a good idea.

An example of the use of <utilityOp>

<sgml>

<@ToolPosX = 2.5/>

<@ToolPosZ = 1.0/>

<@ZClearance = 1.5/>

<@Dwell = 5/>

</utilityOp>

<@code = "M255"/>

</utilityOp>

</sgml>

There's a lot there so let’s look at this a little

more closely.

• One

object is used for

each utility operation that will be

available. Everything within the

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