What the extensions give you

Three extensions do the work you see: one for editing and running SPPX postprocessors, one for looking at the input data, one for C# postprocessors. The assistant drives the same commands, but they are ordinary VS Code features — this page is what to expect from them and where to find it.

Commands are run from the command palette: F1 (or Ctrl+Shift+P), then start typing the name. Commands whose title ends with (agent API) exist for the assistant; you never need them by hand.

SPPX Postprocessor Tools

Editing

Open a *.sppx file and you get the XML structure and the handler code highlighted as two different languages. The XML wrapper is folded away, so the file reads as a list of handlers with their code. The Outline view lists handlers, subroutines and registers and navigates to them, F12 jumps to a definition, completion and signature help cover the built-in language, and syntax errors are underlined as you type.

If VS Code restores an old folding layout and the file looks wrong, run SPPX: Unfold Code (reset folding to default layout).

Generating an NC program

The Generate NC panel is the main working surface. With a *.sppx file open, it opens from the triangular play button in the editor title bar — hover it and the tooltip reads SPPX: Generate NC Program — or from the command of the same name in the palette.

In the panel:

  • named run configurations — the CAM project to process, the output file, and the postprocessor's own input parameters, shown with their captions rather than internal names;
  • Run, with progress while the generation goes on;
  • errors and warnings in the Problems view, each linking to the line in the handler that produced it;
  • the generated program, with diffs against the previous run and against a reference program you point at.

Buttons next to Run open the CLData of the current configuration in the Inspector — the project name opens it in the sidebar, the arrow in a panel below the editor. The same is available as SPPX: Inspect CLData of the Current Run Configuration.

Two more commands are worth knowing: SPPX: Open in Postprocessors Generator IDE opens the same postprocessor in InP, and SPPX: Clean Stored Run Data discards the stored run state if a configuration gets into a bad shape.

CLData Inspector

This is where you see what actually arrives at the postprocessor. Its icon in the activity bar opens three views:

  • Files — the files of the opened project with their command counts. The view's buttons open a CAM project (*.stcp, *.stc) or a single *.inpcld file, reopen a recent one, reload the project after it was regenerated, and open the wide inspector tab in the editor area.
  • Commands — the commands of the selected file, grouped by structure sections; in NC-subroutine files, by subroutine boundaries. Ctrl+F in the view, or CLData: Find Command…, searches on the server side, so it stays usable on files with hundreds of thousands of commands.
  • Parameters — Key = Value for the selected command: the raw array, the named parameters, and the typed .NET view. CLData: Toggle .NET Parameter View switches the last one on and off.

Right-click a parameter to copy what you need for code: Copy Name (sppx) and Copy Name (.NET) give the exact form to paste into a handler, and Copy Value the value itself. On a command, Copy Caption copies its human-readable name.

The assistant can open a specific file, command or parameter here when it wants to show you something — see Develop in Visual Studio Code.

DotNet Posts

For C# postprocessors, with the same Generate NC panel as SPPX Tools — configurations, input parameters, progress, results and diffs.

Two ways to start a generation:

  • DotNet Posts: Generate NC Program, or the triangular play button in the editor title bar of a C# file (its tooltip carries the same name) — works with the postprocessor project open in the workspace and finds the built assembly itself;
  • DotNet Posts: Generate NC Program from DLL…, or a right-click on a .dll in the Explorer — runs a compiled postprocessor without any sources. Several postprocessors can be kept in separate panel tabs and compared on the same project.

DotNet Posts: Reveal Postprocessor Handler opens the handler that processes a given command. The dotnetPosts.autoBuild setting builds the project before each run, so a change is never tested against a stale assembly.

Postprocessor Tools updater

The updater has no interface of its own. When a new version is available, the postprocessor panels show an update action; accept it and reload the window. The same check is available from the palette — see Advanced setup.

Settings

Each extension's settings page starts with the folder where the CAM system is installed — that is the one setting that has to be right for anything to work. Advanced setup lists all three and the picker that fills them in.