TLCONTACT - Tool contact

The TLContact command provides information about the normal to the machining surface at the point of contact of the tool with this surface. This is used to calculate 5D correction. In fact, this information determines in which direction (along which vector) the tool needs to be shifted in space by the amount of correction (the difference between the radius of the theoretical and actual tool).

Access from sppx

Handler: program TLContact

Parameter	CLD array	CLD name	Description
OnOff	CLD[1]	CLD.OnOff	Determines whether the tool contacts the machined surface in subsequent movements. ON(1) - there is contact information, OFF(0) - there is no contact information.
NX	CLD[2]	CLD.NX	The X component of the surface normal vector
NY	CLD[3]	CLD.NY	The Y component of the surface normal vector
NZ	CLD[4]	CLD.NZ	The Z component of the surface normal vector

This command will be generated in CLData only if the corresponding option "Set tool contact surface normal vectors" is enabled in the settings of the machine schema.

Example:

! deltaR - difference between the tool radius set in CAM and the real tool radius on the machine
! (assign it once, where the real tool radius becomes known)

program TLContact
  ! cld[1] - contact flag ON(1)|OFF(0); cld[2..4] - contact surface normal NX, NY, NZ
  if cld[1] = 1 then begin
    NcX = cld[2]  NcY = cld[3]  NcZ = cld[4]             ! remember the contact normal in globals
    HasContact = 1
    Output "( CONTACT N = " + Str(NcX) + " " + Str(NcY) + " " + Str(NcZ) + " )"
  end else
    HasContact = 0
end

program AbsMov
  ! shift the tool tip along the remembered contact normal by deltaR
  if HasContact = 1 then begin
    X = cld[1] + NcX * deltaR
    Y = cld[2] + NcY * deltaR
    Z = cld[3] + NcZ * deltaR
  end else begin
    X = cld[1]  Y = cld[2]  Z = cld[3]
  end
  OutBlock
end

Access from .NET

Handler:

public override void OnTLContact(ICLDTLContactCommand cmd, CLDArray cld)

Inheritance: ICLDTLContactCommand : ICLDCommand.

Read the parameters from the strongly-typed cmd object (recommended); the raw cld[i] array (same indices as in sppx) and the named cmd["..."] helpers are available too. The table lists the command's members, including those inherited from its base interfaces; the common ICLDCommand members (navigation, CLD, CLDFile, TechOperation, ...) are described in the CLData access model.

Member	Type	Description
cmd.IsOn	bool	Determines whether the tool contacts the machined surface in subsequent movements. "True" - there is contact information, "False" - there is no contact information.
cmd.IsOff	bool	Determines whether the tool contacts the machined surface in subsequent movements. "True" - there is no contact information, "False" - there is contact information.
cmd.ContactNormal	TInp3DPoint	Machining surface contact normal vector (X, Y, Z).

Example:

// deltaR - difference between the tool radius set in CAM and the real tool radius on the machine
TInp3DPoint contactNormal;
bool hasContact;

public override void OnTLContact(ICLDTLContactCommand cmd, CLDArray cld)
{
    if (cmd.IsOn) {
        contactNormal = cmd.ContactNormal;      // remember the surface contact normal
        hasContact = true;
        nc.OutWithN($"( CONTACT N = {contactNormal.X} {contactNormal.Y} {contactNormal.Z} )");
    } else {
        hasContact = false;
    }
}

public override void OnGoto(ICLDGotoCommand cmd, CLDArray cld)
{
    // shift the tool tip along the remembered contact normal by deltaR (radius correction)
    if (hasContact) {
        nc.X.Show(cmd.EP.X + contactNormal.X * deltaR);
        nc.Y.Show(cmd.EP.Y + contactNormal.Y * deltaR);
        nc.Z.Show(cmd.EP.Z + contactNormal.Z * deltaR);
    } else {
        nc.X.Show(cmd.EP.X);
        nc.Y.Show(cmd.EP.Y);
        nc.Z.Show(cmd.EP.Z);
    }
    nc.Block.Out();
}

See also

• CLData access model