Current Tool Status

[barbter]

Hi Scott,
Is there a way to have the current tool (that is plotting) show its active status?
ie
T5 S8000 F1500
H5 D5 M8

I think it would be really good to show it in the top left of the screen (below where it says isometric).

Just a thought.
Cheers,
Terry

[MetLHead]

Terry,

There isn't anything that updates dynamically, which I think is what you're after. You can pick a line in the program and then go to "Tools / Show Modal State" and this will show you the active state at that spot in the program.

Thanks,
Scott

[Andre' B]

It would be nice if it worked with the animate/single step.
In which case the modal state window would itself be modal and need to get updated at least every time the animation stopped, updates while the animation is free running may slow things down to much.
Currently when I stop the animation and do the show modal state it completes the plot and shows the modals at the end of the program.

I say this because unless I am missing somthing just clicking on the code may not always get the right modal info, an example would be a sub that is called multiple times from a program with different tools, spindle speeds, feeds, I have even used subs that had a g-code like this "G#1" where #1 could be passed in as 2 or 3 as needed.

[MetLHead]

Andre',

I do have an idea of how this could be done. The modal state display works by taking a snapshot of the modal state as the program is executed. Obviously you wouldn't want to have to do this very much because it's time and CPU intensive. Another option is to store this information in a database and look it up as needed, but this is very memory intensive. Luckily, there IS another way...

The sub programs also present another level of difficulty. But, I think this will get worked out when I start updating the plot controls.

Scott

[Andre' B]

I am not sure how it would be much different then clicking on the text, but then you have the benifit of having written the software.

I also cannot say I have needed to use the modal state display.
But playing with it now and the program below, clicking on any line with a g code and then showing the modal state seems to work, shows the proper S and T values. Why I J & Y show up under Other Modals but X does not is a puzzle.

But clicking on a line with an S or the M01 and then the modal display does not seem to update, it is showing the same S & T value it did the last time.

N1 G00 X0.0000 Y0.0000
N2 G01 X-0.0300 Y0.2455 G42
N3 S100
N4 G02 X0.0000 Y0.2755 I0.0300 J0.0000
N5 S200 T1
N6 G02 X0.2440 Y0.1280 I0.0000 J-0.2755
N7 S300
N8 G01 X0.3820 Y0.1280
N9 S400 T2
N10 G02 X0.3820 Y-0.1280 I0.0000 J-0.1280
N11 S500
N12 G01 X0.2440 Y-0.1280
N13 S600 T3
N14 G02 X-0.2440 Y-0.1280 I-0.2440 J0.1280
N15 S700
N16 G01 X-0.3820 Y-0.1280
N17 S800 T4
N18 G02 X-0.3820 Y0.1280 I0.0000 J0.1280
N19 S900 T5
N20 G01 X-0.2440 Y0.1280
N21 S1000 T6
N22 G02 X-0.0250 Y0.2744 I0.2440 J-0.1280
N23 S1100
N24 M01
N25 S1200
N26 G02 X0.0000 Y0.2755 I0.0250 J-0.2744
N27 S1300
N28 G02 X0.0300 Y0.2455 I0.0000 J-0.0300
N29 S1400
N30 G01 X0.0000 Y0.0000 G40

[MetLHead]

Andre',

The missing "X" address in the modal state has been fixed. I spotted this a while back and fixed it, but didn't mention it in the release notes. You're right about the M&S codes not updating though, I'll have to check on that one.

Thanks,
Scott