Editing Post Processor to Turn Spindle On and Off

[DonFrambach]

To more experienced users this may not be a big deal. For me, it really makes life a lot easier.

I can turn on my Spindle on with a "M03" command and turn it off with "M05". I can also pause with a "G04 PXXXX" command (ex "G04 P3000 pauses my system for 3 seconds - this allows the spindle to get up to speed before cutting anything).

Today, I asked Vectric if they would consider implementing an option to include these commands in a header and footer of their g-code files in future versions of their product. They told me to edit my post processor!

All I had to do was add the commands
M03
G04 P3000
to the header section in my post processor file
and
M05
to the footer section for these commands to automatically appear in the g-code output.

Before I had to add the commands manually. This is better!

[MicroMill]

Awesome.

[bperfetti]

Some Post editing can really help save time, repetitive steps, and make the code look more to your liking. Always make a back-up 1st...I don't think i need to describe what it is like to muck around, make a mistake and not be able to get back to where you were...been there....

[DonFrambach]

Backing up the post-processor is a good idea. In fact, I made a new post-processor with a different name, leaving the original untouched. I was, at first, a little confused because Aspire listed two post processors with the same name in the list where you select the desired post-processor. I solved the problem by identifying an area in the post-processor file where you designated how it apears in Aspire. Once done, then the post-processor name I selected appeared properly in Aspire. (in other words, Aspire doesn't simply use the filename as I expected.