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NCL NCCS drilling macro

spam82

Plastic
Joined
Mar 14, 2019
I'm new to this forum and was hoping that someone here might have some experience in programming in NCCS NCL. I am trying to fix some legacy programs at the facility where I work, and I am running into some issues. The largest issue I'm running into seems to be NCL itself. I can't find anyone who uses it to program anymore and there is no information available that is useful on making macros in this language. For those who are unfamiliar with NCCS NCL it's APT based. I am very new to either of these languages.

There is a canned cycle for drilling that I can use but after I process it through postworks, none of the machines in my shop like the format. Before anyone asks, we have Fanuc,Siemens,and Fagor controls. We also have a machine that runs off Westinghouse (Frankensteined) boards and a MOOG (Frankensteined) control...

Its a mixed bag here.

So my question is: does anyone know how to set up and write a deep drilling macro in NCL? Basically, I would want it to loop to a depth, peck at a specified depths, and fully retract between pecks.
 
I'm new to this forum and was hoping that someone here might have some experience in programming in NCCS NCL. I am trying to fix some legacy programs at the facility where I work, and I am running into some issues. The largest issue I'm running into seems to be NCL itself. I can't find anyone who uses it to program anymore and there is no information available that is useful on making macros in this language. For those who are unfamiliar with NCCS NCL it's APT based. I am very new to either of these languages.

There is a canned cycle for drilling that I can use but after I process it through postworks, none of the machines in my shop like the format. Before anyone asks, we have Fanuc,Siemens,and Fagor controls. We also have a machine that runs off Westinghouse (Frankensteined) boards and a MOOG (Frankensteined) control...

Its a mixed bag here.

So my question is: does anyone know how to set up and write a deep drilling macro in NCL? Basically, I would want it to loop to a depth, peck at a specified depths, and fully retract between pecks.

Try starting with their tech support. This stuff is not very common so might be tough finding everyday users floating about.
 
Try starting with their tech support. This stuff is not very common so might be tough finding everyday users floating about.

Thanks, I have been working with them. They are assisting in trying to get the canned NCL drilling cycle to process with Postworks and run on our "11" machine, the problem is, when its fixed for that machine, there are still 14 others that it might not work on. I know it was a shot in the dark asking on here.

NCCS NCL was the "Industry Standard" in Aerospace back in the day, from what I was told. I was just hoping someone who would remember using it, or for some unknown reason still uses it, would be able to give me some guidance.
 
I was just hoping someone who would remember using it, or for some unknown reason still uses it, would be able to give me some guidance.
The best guy to help you would be Bob Drewry, but he died a few years ago :(

Second best would be Tim Markoski, likewise :(

You might try pm-ing JCarroll (I think) here, who has been around a while and knows elderly people.

A third option would be to search out the Personal APT manual, which goes into a lot of detail on APT programming. Bob D actually wrote the arithmetic element for APT (or was part of the group who did) so he knew his stuff.

There were older books about programming in APT, you might be able to hunt some of them down. As I said, the manual for Personal APT was one of the best and I have it, but it's on a sick disk which I can't get to spin up right now or I'd send it to you. But I have seen it on the innernets ...

You can also hunt up a complete version of APT to play with if you like, it's public domain but finding the code has always been difficult. Personal APT is a subset - 2 1/2 axes - should still be floating around but I guess now you can't register it. If you find it, the earlier version that runs in DOS is better (imo). That'd be good for messing with and learning how it works, down on the bare metal.

There were a bunch of sample macros included which might give you some ideas. Cinturn II and Westurn were just big APT macros, so if you can find one of those (ha ha) they might help as well.
 
I can try to help you out, not sure how to get ahold of each other as I have very limited knowledge on this website for personal info. I have been running NCL since it first came out and have many Postworks machine files for different machines. You do need a separate control file for the different machines but most don't need much tweeking to get to work. Self employed so only wasting my time to help out. Glen
 
The best guy to help you would be Bob Drewry, but he died a few years ago :(

Second best would be Tim Markoski, likewise :(

You might try pm-ing JCarroll (I think) here, who has been around a while and knows elderly people.

A third option would be to search out the Personal APT manual, which goes into a lot of detail on APT programming. Bob D actually wrote the arithmetic element for APT (or was part of the group who did) so he knew his stuff.

There were older books about programming in APT, you might be able to hunt some of them down. As I said, the manual for Personal APT was one of the best and I have it, but it's on a sick disk which I can't get to spin up right now or I'd send it to you. But I have seen it on the innernets ...

You can also hunt up a complete version of APT to play with if you like, it's public domain but finding the code has always been difficult. Personal APT is a subset - 2 1/2 axes - should still be floating around but I guess now you can't register it. If you find it, the earlier version that runs in DOS is better (imo). That'd be good for messing with and learning how it works, down on the bare metal.

There were a bunch of sample macros included which might give you some ideas. Cinturn II and Westurn were just big APT macros, so if you can find one of those (ha ha) they might help as well.

Thanks, I actually started reading some ARMY FM manuals from the 1950's about APT. It seems that the military came up with the language. The problems is, NCL is APT "Like" and does not use the same langue.
 
I can try to help you out, not sure how to get ahold of each other as I have very limited knowledge on this website for personal info. I have been running NCL since it first came out and have many Postworks machine files for different machines. You do need a separate control file for the different machines but most don't need much tweeking to get to work. Self employed so only wasting my time to help out. Glen

GLENO,
I sent you a private message, thank you in advance for any guidance you can give me!
 
i can try to help you out, not sure how to get ahold of each other as i have very limited knowledge on this website for personal info. I have been running ncl since it first came out and have many postworks machine files for different machines. You do need a separate control file for the different machines but most don't need much tweeking to get to work. Self employed so only wasting my time to help out. Glen

gleno is the man!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for the help!!!!
 








 
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