Tool change position

rduart · Post by **rduart** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:16 am

I am having trouble with tool change location. Meaning I do not have enough clearance on the Z-axis to insert new tools. It looks like VM has the ability to set the tool change position on Machine Setup tab -> Tool Change Position section. Is it correct to assume that X, Y, Z are set relative to where I touch off? Meaning that if I set X1, Y1, and Z4. My machine would move over 1 inch on X and Y, and up 4 inches on the Z-axis?

I have the following lines in the post for the tool change macro.

[SEQ_PRECHAR][SEQNUM][DELIMITER]G00 Z[TOOL_CHG_PT_Z]
[SEQ_PRECHAR][SEQNUM][DELIMITER]G00 X[TOOL_CHG_PT_X] Y[TOOL_CHG_PT_Y]

Please advise,

Thanks,

Randy

Post by **MecSoft Support** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:51 am

Yes, you are correct. The tool will move to the specified X Y Z location based on the programmed machine zero before a tool change.

mbr72cnc · Post by **mbr72cnc** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 3:25 pm

Does this option work with all PP? It doesn't seem to work when I set for Mach 3 any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

Post by **MecSoft Support** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:58 pm

This is not set by default on all the post processors as it is not required for machines with automatic tool changers.

You would have to add the following macro's to the Tool Change Macro block in your post processor under the Tool Change tab.

[SEQ_PRECHAR][SEQNUM][DELIMITER]G00 Z[TOOL_CHG_PT_Z]
[SEQ_PRECHAR][SEQNUM][DELIMITER]G00 X[TOOL_CHG_PT_X] Y[TOOL_CHG_PT_Y]

Make sure to specify the tool change position under the Machine Setup dialog.

mbr72cnc · Post by **mbr72cnc** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:50 am

Thank You, I will give it a try.

Regards,
Mike