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Post by jimsmsm on Sept 1, 2012 12:56:00 GMT -8
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Post by DaveCVI on Sept 2, 2012 10:37:51 GMT -8
Hi, I am only a little bit familiar with the Tormach product you referred to. I've looked at the documentation in the past, but I've never personally used the product. The product measures a tool offline and places the measurement information into the mach tool table. I am not aware of anyone using this product with MSM and I would have a concern that there could be a compatibility issue with the product. The anticipated technical issue is that MSM extends the Mach tool table in order to implement the additional tool attributes which MSM supports (RH/NRH, PTL, Empty etc). The internal mechanism used to do this is to hide the required additional information inside the tool description string of the mach tool table. Thus any script or software which writes to the description field of the mach tool table can potentially mess up that additional information. This is the reason that MSM provides a MSM specific call to read and write tool descriptions (See MSM user manual section 15.9.3). Since I doubt the Tormach tool measurement product software has any specific knowledge of MSM's existence, I would not be surprised if this ended up creating a conflict between the product and MSM. I'll also offer some additional information for you to consider: The Tormach tool measurement product is designed to measure tools "off-line" - this means that it can't be used to measure tools that are mounted in holders which change the length of the tool when the holder is mounted (for example a tool mounted in a R8 collet will change length as the collet is tightened). Off line tool measurement is depends on the exclusive use of RH tool holders. This ability to measure tools that change length as they are mounted is a key reason that MSM supports on-machine tool measurements - as the tool length can then be determined after the tool is mounted (on machine) rather than only before (offline). The ability to do this in MSM requires that a TCP TP (Tool Change Position Touch Plate) be installed and configured. A TCP TP can be a very inexpensive addition - the one one my mill is a piece of PCB mounted to a piece of scrap aluminum extrusion - the total materials cost was about $2... Even if you needed to add some interface electronics to have both a TCP TP and a probe tool (See section 6 of the MSM user manual), The total cost will still be way less than the $$266 the link shows for the Tormach tool... Just some food for thought...  Dave |
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Post by jimsmsm on Sept 6, 2012 10:37:52 GMT -8
Thnx Much Dave,
I will proceed with the TCP TP option.
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