Virtual controller

Mill
1

When creating a virtual PP controller, am I actually connecting to my PCNC440? Should I be able to see the tools that are loaded and the files that are on my real machine, or do I need to create a virtual tool crib with the tools that I want to use every time I create a new virtual controller? When I connect to the VPPC I don’t see the real tools that I have programmed in my crib and I don’t see the files that I have loaded on my machine. When I connect through the HUB I see the files that are on my machine.

2

Scott,

No, you are not connecting to a physical machine, files and offsets are separate with the exception that Hub also acts as a file transfer service if you connect a networked machine to a Hub account.

Thank you,
Norman

3

Ok, thanks. If I setup a tool crib, will it be remembered the next time I create a VPPC?

4

Scott,

Not on its own, you would have to export the tool table to your Hub account, then import it to the new controller.

Thank you,
Norman

5

@Scott_Galvin here is a pro tip. On your actual machine run the MDI command ADMIN SETTINGS BACKUP and move that file to your hub account. Then when you load a virtual controller you can run ADMIN SETTINGS RESTORE and pull in your tool tables and such. You would need to do this each time you create a virtual machine but this way you can capture the state of your physical machine.

6

Now how do I set this to automatically backup every day?

while we are at it is there a way to sync up the tool table from path pilot into fusion360 keep everything synched across all the machines?

7

Assuming Dr. Jones is talking about your actual PP controller on your Tormach?

I don’t know if there is a Linux command line equivalent of the ADMIN command or an easy way to hook to what routine PP is calling to do that, but you can setup a cron job in Linux to do tasks on a schedule, assuming you leave your PP controller on at all times or on a schedule…

Tool table idea would require some additional scripting to translate the PP config file or database it is stored into something you could lookup or manipulate your Fusion tool library.

Not exactly a complete recipe but an outline…

8

I have used this with success: GitHub - TimPaterson/CNC-Tool-Library-Manager: Excel application that helps you synchronize CNC tool libraries between various programs and machines.

gerrit