Prestageing tools

[vf1kf]

Hi, my company recently switched to featurecam, and I think it's fantastic software. I've got the post doing everything I want except prestageing tools. I run several haas verticals with side mount tool changers which would benefit greatly from this. Also, my horizontal mill ( 70 tool changer ) can take up to half a minute pulling the tool if it's on the far side of the changer. Currently I am manually adding tool prestages, but would very much like to get them to post properly. If anyone has managed to get this workng, I would appreciate some insight. Thanks guys.


As an example, I get this output:

...
G17 G20 G40 G49 G80 G90
T12 M6 ( TD_01285_30:J  0.1285 DIA. )
G00 G58 G90 X-0.689 Y-0.1772 S6145 M3
G43 H12 Z0.437 M8
G83 G98 Z-0.5436 R0.25 Q0.0642 F10.8
G0 G80 Z0.437
M5 
G91 G28 Z0. M9
/ G28 Y0. 
M1
G17 G20 G40 G49 G80 G90
T13 M6 ( TAPM0400-070:D4:GP  0.1575 DIA. )
G00 G58 G90 X-12.5394 Y-0.1772 S1000 M3
G43 H13 Z0.437 M8
G84 G98 Z-0.505 R0.25 F27.6
G0 G80 Z0.437
...

And I would like to get something like this:

...
G17 G20 G40 G49 G80 G90
T12 M6 ( TD_01285_30:J  0.1285 DIA. )
G00 G58 G90 X-0.689 Y-0.1772 S6145 M3
G43 H12 Z0.437 M8 T13
G83 G98 Z-0.5436 R0.25 Q0.0642 F10.8
G0 G80 Z0.437
M5 
G91 G28 Z0. M9
/ G28 Y0. 
M1
G17 G20 G40 G49 G80 G90
T13 M6 ( TAPM0400-070:D4:GP  0.1575 DIA. )
G00 G58 G90 X-12.5394 Y-0.1772 S1000 M3
G43 H13 Z0.437 M8 T(whatever the next tool is)
G84 G98 Z-0.505 R0.25 F27.6
G0 G80 Z0.437
...

[vf1kf]

I was able to accomplish this with the variable "<NEXT-TL>"

By adding

T<NEXT-TL>

to the tool change format

and adding

<IFNOT><LAST-TOOL><THEN>
	<BOL> T<NEXT-TL>
	[:more_than_one_tool=true]
<ENDIF>

to the Program Start format.