so I am asking this because I cannot understand why when I create a new tool in create and give it a “name” when motion askes for this tool it only asks for it by the number I give it. So i have to have a cheat sheet to remember what tool is what number. Why cant motion ask for the 'Name" of the tool. like “davids 60 degree vee bit” When I use a carbide tool it says #302 60 (degree vee bit) so you know exactly what tool to load.
My understanding of this is that since we allow folks to name tools pretty much what they want — this creates the problem that they might use a name which cannot be easily stored in a G-code comment and reliably parsed and then displayed.
We have this down as something to look into in the future, and hopefully we can work out a way to address it, but because of the simplicity of G-code, it’s a more complex problem than one might at first think.
Impose a naming convention in the tool dialog. Not so restrictive as to make sensibly naming the tools difficult, but to prevent any unwanted characters or name lengths.
i.e. Alpha-Num, underline, dash, decimal pt, spaces?, double-quote?, pound?, max length: n
parenthesis may not work, since that’s the comment character in the G-code.
But then, a comment may be delimited by the first open parenthesis only. Depends on the parser.
and how do we handle the myriad extant customer tools which don’t conform to that convention?
Technical debt is real, and a serious consideration for on-going technical support.
Good point. Pre-existing tools that don’t conform.??
Runtime? When you post with a bad tool name, a warning that it may not display correctly in CM.
And then the post just parses & deletes bad characters.
Obviously the new Edit Tool dialog would catch it when you create or edit a tool.
Perhaps a change of this magnitude is best reserved for a major release? CM800?
The interface currently displays the last comment in the file, correct?
I take advantage of this in my NX post by outputting a comment right before the toolchange with the toolname. The toolname doesn’t appear in the popup to change the tool, but it is displayed in the run dialog.
I have a list of my custom tool numbers posted on my Shapeoko. Seldom used tools can be forgotten so the list helps me remember what tool # is which tool.
Be sure to make unique numbers that do not conflict with existing tool numbers. Cc and cm get confused.
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