Making an HSM Post for tool length probing routine

Hey folks,

I'm looking to cut off a step in my workflow. My tool probing macro uses the temporary tool length to limit the travel so the tip absolutely positively won't break the tool setter probe tip. I figure if I'm already putting all the holder and tool dimensions into HSM (Inventor CAM), why can't I make a simple post that will create a probing macro based on already measured dimensions? End result would look like this:

O1001

T(First tool) M06

G9010 S01 H**(Tool) B***(Temporary tool length) D**(Radius) M0;

T(next tool) M06

(repeat for each tool)

M30

%

Sifting through the dump file, it looks like I'd have to add tool.bodyLength with a whole bunch of tool.holder[**] H=***. That alone makes what looks like a simple post become something demonic. I was thinking this would be a great project for a novice at post editing such as myself, but it seems to be quite a bit above my experience level. Just looking for some healthy pointers if anyone has any. Worst case, I keep on hand jamming my offset routines.

The gage length of the tool can be calculated from:


Also, the Haas post has this logic built in already. The post property "optionallyMeasureToolsAtStart" will insert the renishaw cycles at the beginning of the program for setting the offsets all of the tools used. That code can be adapted for other machines and probe systems.