I just picked up an older DATRON Cat3D and I'm in the process of creating a custom post processor for it. One thing I haven't previously had a reason to delve into was creating any kind of custom machine functions that could be called. With this machine, it has the ability to probe the z height and create a correction map that can be applied to the programmed Z height during machining, thereby maintaing a constant depth of cut on a surface that may not be flat.
I've been trying to figure out if there is a way to create a custom operation that could be used within solidcam to call the probing routine with the proper parameters. The got me thinking about how SolidCAM would handle custom M code usage for things such as pallet changers, robots, etc. as well. Can a customer operation be defined that can then be added in with the machining operations?
On a related note, I can write a post for the DATRON MCR format this machine uses, but if there is one already out there that I could get my hands on, that would save me some time.
-Dave