Accessing the Post Processor

SURFCAM’s post processors are accessed using the NC Operations Manager dialog box. To open this dialog box, either click its icon on the SURFCAM toolbar or press Ctrl+N.

NC Operations Manager dialog box

You must first select the operations to be post processed from the NC Operations Tree. You can process all the operations in a single Setup Section, by clicking its icon, or a single operation, by clicking its icon.

You will then select a post processor from the NC Post list box—to the right of the Operations Tree. You can display another list by changing the entry in NC Mode box —for example, to 2 Axis. The posts displayed in the NC Post list box are those listed in that section of the SURFCAM.PST file set aside for the mode shown in the NC Mode list box. Changing the entry in the NC Mode box will display the posts listed in another section of the PST file. The PST file contains commands to run both MPOST (consisting of MPOSTWIN, LPOSTWIN and EPOSTWIN) and Spost post processors. Spost is the other post processor package shipped with SURFCAM. To begin post processing click a post name in the NC Post box and click the Post button.

You can also display all of the currently available MPOST post processors—for all NC modes—by double-clicking the “List all” entry in the NC Post list box. When you do this, SURFCAM will search the SURFCAM.PST file for a PostItem corresponding to “List all”, such as the following.

PostItem List all

The Command line in this example will run the MPOSTWIN post processor in such a way as to first bring up a menu of available post processors stored in the current POSTFORM file—POSTFORM.M, POSTFORM.l OR POSTFORM.E.

A POSTFORM file contains the actual code for each of the current MPOST post processors. SURFCAM accesses this file to run a post processor. You can run a post from the displayed menu by double-clicking it.

All of the post processors shipped with SURFCAM are stored in the SURFCAM\PostLib\MPOST or Spost subfolders. You can add any of these post processors to your current version of SURFCAM by using the Post Menu Wizard utility.

To run the Post Menu Wizard, click Start > Programs > SURFCAM > SURFCAM Tools > Post Menu Wizard. The Post Menu Wizard dialog box will be displayed. Follow the prompts to add or remove a post processor.

If you select an Spost post processor it will be copied from the PostLib\Spost subfolder to the SURFCAM.PST file.

If you select an MPOST post processor it will be copied from the PostLib\MPOST subfolder to the SURFCAM.PST file and to the end of the applicable POSTFORM file.