As many of you have done in the past, lots of our customers call in with issues regarding the installation of Post Processors. This is one of the core building blocks to making sure your CNC and Mastercam Implementation go as smoothly as possible. Below there are a few items that each Post question has revolved around. These items should help you on your way to making sure all the proper parts are put in the correct places to make your Post Processor run effectively.
MACHINE DEFINITION—File extension matches machine type:
ƒ .mmd (Mill)
ƒ .lmd (Lathe)
ƒ .rmd (Router)
ƒ .wmd (Wire EDM)
Each file contains a single machine definition.
CONTROL DEFINITION
ƒ The control definition stores settings about your control unit and its capabilities. For example, configuring feedrates, cutter compensation options, tolerances, arc and helix
creation options, as well as canned cycles and subroutines are all control
definition settings.
.PST
which is a text file containing MP language instructions
that define exactly what NC code will be produced and its format.
.PSB
Some post customization files make use of a .PSB file. This binary .PSB file must have the same file name as the post customization file but with the .PSB extension and resides in the same directory as the post customization file. This is usually only with some “high end” posts. You want to make sure that if your post processor uses a .PSB file, that you back up it along with the .PST and .TXT files!
Now that we know what the files types are, let’s take a look at where to put them once you’ve copied the appropriate file to your computer!
Mill
Copy the pst file to the following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\mill\Posts
Copy the control-9 & mmd-9 files to following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\CNC_MACHINES
Lathe
Copy the pst file to the following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\lathe\Posts
Copy the control-9 & lmd-9 files to following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\CNC_MACHINES
Router
Copy the pst file to the following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\router\Posts
Copy the control-9 & rmd-9 files to following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\CNC_MACHINES
Wire
Copy the pst file to the following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\router\Posts
Copy the control-9 & rmd-9 files to following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx9\CNC_MACHINES
Thanks for taking a moment to explore Post Processors with us at QTE. Don’t forget to stop by our Post Processor landing page, https://qtemfgsolution.wpengine.com/support/post-processor-policy/ to see what kind of Post would be best for your Implementation.
Check back in next week when we feature another of our Top 10 Tech Questions to help you run more efficiently!
