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... 12 is turret capacity, more precise is how many different turrent index positions are there, or, if you wish, is magazine capacity
... 32 is the number of available offsets; if it was lower, like 12, thus equal with magazine capacity, then perhaps it would have made more sense
the reason why 32>12, is there in order to allow using more than 1 tool / turret index, like dual/stacked toolholders, or live tooling with more than 2 shafts/chucks
P is the compensation quadrant, so for the machine to know how to calculate tool nose center: let's say that you just mounted an external and an internal tool, and you just measured them, then you executed the program; machine will call each tool as T020202 and T060606, then it will need to compute tool nose center, as appropiate for each operation; for example :
... for external cilindrical cutting, tool nose center = X offset + 2*radius
... for internal cilindrical cutting, tool nose center = X offset - 2*radius, and so on, combinations appear
machine has no clue if to use "+" or "-", even if you measured those 2 tools, on X, at different positions on the touch setter; the one that tell's the machine where to use +/-/do nothing, is the P argument
so P argument will help the machine locate tool nose center, in respect to offset data i don't have time now, but if you search a bit on the forum you can find images that show how P actually corelates those datas; also, at least on newer machines, there is an on-screen guide
with/without such images, i can tell that for normal ( asimetrical tools ), P numbers are shifted trigonometic quadrants, starting from 180*
... asimetrical tools will always use "+" or "-" when computing tool nose center in X and Y
... simetrical tools will use "+" or "-" only once, like when computing tool nose center in X or Y, while Y or X will be equal to offset value
*do you need more infos on this topic ?
[ extra infos here ]
to use a tool inside the program, then you have to call turret station and offset : Taabbcc, where:
... bb is turret station, thus between 01 and 12
... cc is offset, thus between 01 and 32, more precise is the sum of main offset + wear
... aa is radius, thus also between 01 and 32, more precise is referring to nose radius and compensation quadrant, or P
in other words, T is a macro comand, that assings like this T[ radius & P ][ turret index/station ][ main offset + wear ], towards data from your tool offset table
is not a must to always use T with all those 3 arguments, for example :
... if your turret is allready indexed at position 2 and you wish to cut a face in mdi, then T020202 and T02 will both do just fine; calling T with a single argument, is like calling only the last one[ main offset + wear ], and since turret is allready indexed at position 2, then you no longer need to index it at position 2; also, if you face cut in mdi-manual, then you won't use radius compensation, so no reason to use [ radius & P ] argument;
... if your program does not use radius compensation, then T020202 and T0202 ( or T202 ) will all do just fine; calling T with a 2 arguments, means that a 3rd one, [ radius & P ] argument, is ignored; how the code does not use rad compensation, then calling, or not calling, [ radius & P ] is irrevant, since this is not needed; as a consequence, if data from offset table has wrong inputs for radius and P, then you can simply leave them as they are, only if you don't need them, so no need for extra care, or keeping tool data table updated unnecesary; this allows to set up a turret using minimal amount of data, and, for example, on a newer machine, you simply autoload all this informations inside the controller
as a short brief conclusion :
... Trto : rad, station, offset
... Tto : station, offset
... To : offset
* maybe you shouldn't bother right now with such things, unless you are coding yourself and wish for tricks; igf and other software will define automatically their needed T format
T0202, T202 and T000202 are equivalent / kindly