How to make Gpost list tools used by "t" and dimensions.

[jferguson4]

Has someone discovered a way to put a list of tools and their dimensions used in an operation(s) at the head of a post?  This way, the operator could check by reading the G-Code to make sure he/she has the machine set-up properly.

[KenFarley · Accepted solution]

This comes up now and then on here. A quick search and I find the last time I got involved in answering a similar question:

community.ptc.com/t5/Manufacturing-CAM/Getting-tools-to-Post-Out-to-my-programs/m-p/40539

In brief, the way I use it is to specify all the stuff I need when I define my tools, then use the tool comments to build the list of used tools. I included one of my post processors in the discussion, as an example. Hope this helps.

[jferguson4]

Thanks much.  It is a bit amazing to see that the person who asked this question in your earlier thread posed it almost exactly as I did.

[KenFarley]

It's something that comes up when folks are at a point, like I was when I figured it out myself, where you're absolutely sick to death of manually editing programs to add the tools, especially if you are making changes to tools after a few iterations. I want everything to be output automatically for me, and only the tools I'm using.

Once all this stuff is set up, you start to wonder how you ever got along without it. It's saved my butt a couple of times, too, where I didn't remember to change the tool for the finishing program after roughing. I'll look at the G-code and say "Hey, where's my finisher? I have finishing passes, but the tool's not there." You hyperventilate a bit in recognition, then fix it. Much better than the gut-punch of rough-cutting my final surfaces...