Future Requests for CNC12

[RC-Lights]

hi,

i am not sure, if there is a central thread for functional requests.

i didnt found one, so i created this one.

in the last two years i worked a lot with CNC12 and i have some requests, which would be very nice to see in a future version.

- i work a lot in the graphic window while turning the first parts of a series and i miss a place where i can see my rapid feed speed. not that important, but would be helpful sometimes.

- is there any possibility to define the coolant not only in the tool settings ?
i have some tools, which need coolant in special materials like titanium but no coolant in brass for example. it is annoying to change it in the tool overview all time. would be really great to have the coolant setting integrated in intercon. and as far as i now, the manual coolant control is not working while a cnc program is running. my workaround is to switch on and off the coolant pump on the main switch. but in software it would be great.

- the possibility of changing the feed of the finishing pass in a profile cycle i a central location.
when i write a program with profile cycles and realise, that i want to change the feed of the finishing pass, i have to go in every single part of the profile and change the feed.
i do this quite often, because when i once finished a programm for a certain material, i copy the programm and change the feed and spindle speed, etc.

thats it for now,

would be great if we can see some of these in a future version.

best regards
Michael

[cncsnw]

- is there any possibility to define the coolant not only in the tool settings ?
i have some tools, which need coolant in special materials like titanium but no coolant in brass for example. it is annoying to change it in the tool overview all time. would be really great to have the coolant setting integrated in intercon. and as far as i now, the manual coolant control is not working while a cnc program is running. my workaround is to switch on and off the coolant pump on the main switch. but in software it would be great.

It appears you are talking about lathes.

Intercon Lathe does appear to lack the separate Coolant operation that Intercon Mill has (on the "Other" menu). Adding that operation to the Intercon lathe "Other" menu seems like a reasonably simple feature request.

In the mean time, you can use the Insert -> Other -> M&G Code function to put whatever coolant M code you want into the program, wherever you want.

On both Mill and Lathe, If you leave the tool-related coolant "Off", then Intercon should post an M9 when changing to that tool. That will allow you to run the program with Manual Coolant selected, without interruption. Then you can turn coolant on and off using the Flood and Mist buttons whenever you want.

[cncsnw]

- the possibility of changing the feed of the finishing pass in a profile cycle i a central location.
when i write a program with profile cycles and realise, that i want to change the feed of the finishing pass, i have to go in every single part of the profile and change the feed.
i do this quite often, because when i once finished a programm for a certain material, i copy the programm and change the feed and spindle speed, etc.

Again, this is something that is provided in Intercon Mill, and which is overdue for porting into Intercon Lathe.

[cnckeith]

- the possibility of changing the feed of the finishing pass in a profile cycle i a central location.
when i write a program with profile cycles and realise, that i want to change the feed of the finishing pass, i have to go in every single part of the profile and change the feed.
i do this quite often, because when i once finished a programm for a certain material, i copy the programm and change the feed and spindle speed, etc.

Again, this is something that is provided in Intercon Mill, and which is overdue for porting into Intercon Lathe.

thanks for the reminder, its on the list, we'll see about squeezing it into v5.4

[RC-Lights]

Hi, thanks for your feedback. I am using the Lathe Version, of course. I forgot to mention it.

Sounds great so See it in one of the next Versions. I am excited to test 5.40, sounds like a big step.

Cheers
Michael

[cncsnw]

Regarding modal feedrates for Lathe Intercon, similar to what is in Mill Intercon:

thanks for the reminder, its on the list, we'll see about squeezing it into v5.4

It would be good to see this done.

Since it will require incrementing the .LTH file format identifier, it would be good to do with a more major release (i.e. 5.40.00, vs 5.40.02 or 5.42.00).

Be aware, though, that it is not just a matter of porting a few dozen lines of code from mill to lathe. It is going to take care and attention, and a certain amount of careful planning.

On lathe, each feedrate is paired with a feedrate mode. The two should go together as a package: toggling the mode should mark the current operation's feedrate+mode as the new modal feedrate+mode.

You will need to find screen real estate and an F Key to allow both the feedrate mode (units/rev vs. units/min) and -- separately -- the inherited / modal / one-off selection, to be toggled/cycled.

Currently, Intercon Mill uses F1 to toggle the inherited / modal / on-off selection, while Intercon Lathe uses F1 to toggle the G99/G98 selection.

You could allow the user to click or double-click the mouse on the associated indicator to toggle it, which would be nice, but there still needs to be a way to do it without a mouse or touch screen as well.

Once the user interface design, file format, and postprocessor questions are settled, the same functionality should be applied to the spindle speed and spindle speed mode in each operation.

[suntravel]

There are always pro and cons for changing things...

Global feedrate/rpm on profile finishing can be nice if you need the same values on the whole profile.

But it can also be a drawback if you need different finishes on different sections on the profile

Same with cooling, sometimes convenient automatic from the tool lib, sometimes not.

I have mist by default in the lib, if I want to make parts dry, I have a switch to turn off the mist cooling.

Uwe

[cncsnw]

Global feedrate/rpm on profile finishing can be nice if you need the same values on the whole profile.

But it can also be a drawback if you need different finishes on different sections on the profile

With the model from Mill Intercon, the default will be to have the same feeds and speeds throughout the finish pass (because each operation will, by default, "inherit" the modal feeds and speeds from the preceding operation); but you can change the modal feed and speed at any point; and you can also specify that any one operation have a "one-off" or "fixed" feedrate or spindle speed, which is different from the modal, but which does not change the modal.

[tblough]

I actually prefer a per operation finish feedrate. I slow the feedrate down for radius and angle moves. If I'm feeding at 0.1mm/rev, and I have a 0.4mm radius, that does not leave a well defined feature.