[mfg-smartcam] Re: vmc to hmc conversion

[Mark]

>Mark, would you make the Word Macro's available?

To all,

I would love to, except, they are protected under an Employee Invention clause, in my employment contract.

I can give you some tips, tho...  The VMC to HMC macro is simply search & replace, nothing else....

The JSF to TXT is much more complicated, keep the following tips in mind when building the macro...

1.      Separate the file into "sections".... header, body (notes), tool numbers, & tool comments, by inserting some marker strings (%%%%, etc)

2.      When searching, replacing, deleting, etc..., "cut" everything out of the document except the "section" you are working on, then "paste" the stuff back in when done with that section.

3.      When developing long complex macros, create small macros, each one doing a function or two, then paste them all together when everything is proven.

4.      Practice each phase a few times before turning on the macro record button....

5.      Bonus tip on the JSF macro... convert the Tool info and tool comments into tables, merge them, then convert the new table back to text.

Sorry for being vague... I will be glad to help with problem solving, if and when you get into the project.

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>Subject: [mfg-smartcam] Re: vmc to hmc conversion
>
>
>I now this thread is now a little old.... but figured I would contribut
>another proven conversion method.
>
>The benifits are that this method can be performed on any of our shop PC's
>and by most of the machinists in the shop.
>
>What I did was a macro for MS Word, which basically search/replaces all the
>X,Y,I,J values, and does a little 'start-up' formatting... the macro has
>ran flawlessly for more than a year... and as I said, doesn't require any
>assistance from programming.  They just drag and drop the CNC program onto
>the Word icon, and click the VMC2HMC button.
>
>On a similar note, I have also done a macro that converts old obsolete JSF
>files (Job Plans) to a nice clean generic text format.  Just drag and drop
>the JSF file onto Word, and click the smiley face... These setup sheets can
>now be maintained by the shop floor personell, using any text editor.....
>( Note that a separate macro is needed for each of the 2 versions of JSF
>files.  The version is easily identified to the operator on the first line
>once displayed in Word)
>
>Don't under-estimate Word macros as a generic source of all kinds of
>conversion routines.
>
>Mark