Macro Variables

The $BRKMAC Variable

Whether break macros are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

Break startup and shutdown macros are invoked only if the $BRKMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, break startup and shutdown macros will not be executed.

The $CYCMAC Variable

Whether cycle macros are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

Cycle startup and shutdown macros are invoked only if the $CYCMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, cycle startup and shutdown macros will not be executed.

The $DIAGMAC Variable

Whether diagnostic macros are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

Diagnostic macros are invoked only if the $DIAGMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, diagnostic macros will not be executed.

The $EDTMAX Variable

Number of Tape Editor expressions defined Type: Numeric, Read-only

The $EDTMAX variable indicates how many Tape Editor expression are defined in QUEST. It defines the upper limit of the $EDTSTA array described below.

The $EDTSTA Variable

Whether Tape Editor expressions are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

The $EDTSTA variable is an array of length $EDTMAX, with each element in the array defining the active/inactive state of the corresponding numbered Tape Editor expression as defined in QUEST. All tape editor expressions are enabled by default at the start of GENER processing.

The $LCSMAC Variable

Whether LCS macros are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

LCS startup and shutdown macros are invoked only if the $LCSMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, LCS startup and shutdown macros will not be executed.

The $MNEST Variable

Macro nest level Type: Numeric, Read-only

The $MNEST variable indicates how many macros are active. If the variable is equal to one, the current macro is the only active macro. A value greater than one indicates that the current macro has been called by another macro. (e.g., If the $MNEST value is 3 this indicates that there are 3 active macros: the current macro; the one that called the current macro; and the one that called the one that called the current macro!).

The $MTNLPP Variable

Automatic Motion Macros activation for LPP-RTA-AP sequence Type: Logical, Read/Write

When utilizing Motion Startup-Shutdown macros for LPP-RTA-AP programming activating these macros for all motion in the program would create a performance-costly solution. One way around that issue is to activate the Startup-Shutdown motion macros only when respective optimization motion list is created. This is not always possible. For example, RTA can be generated at any feed (cutting) move, as needed. Since we do not know at which motion RTA will be generated the only solution (apart of costly by itself $FLOOK) with the use of $MTNMAC would be, in fact, to keep the macros always active.

$MTNLPP helps to automatically activate the Startup-Shutdown macro processing when LPP-RTA-AP list is generated. In other words, it is strongly recommended to put the following sequence in the Machine Startup macro:

$MTNMAC=$FALSE
$MTNLPP=$TRUE

Later on, GENER will automatically activate motion Startup and Shutdown macros each time when the respective motion list is generated and will deactivate these macros as soon as the motion list is fully processed. Any use of $MTNMAC will “remove” effects of last automatic macro activation. When both, motion Startup and Shutdown macros are active when $MTNLPP is set to TRUE then setting $MTNLPP has no effect on processing.

The $MTNMAC Variable

Whether motion macros are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

Motion startup and shutdown macros are invoked only if the $MTNMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, motion startup and shutdown macros will not be executed.

The $OEMAC Variable

Whether the Operation Event (OE) macro is activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

The Operation Event (OE) macro is invoked only if the $OEMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, then an OPTYPE command will not result in an OE look-ahead and the OE macro will not be executed.

The $P0 Variable

Number of arguments in post-processor command Type: Numeric, Read-only

The $P0 variable (the last character is a zero, not the letter O) gives the number of arguments in the post-processor command that matched the user-defined post-processor macro. It has the value zero in startup and shutdown macros.

The $REGMAC Variable

Whether the Register macro is activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

The Register macro is invoked only if the $REGMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, register macros will not be executed.

The $REGMATCH Variable

List of registers to match Type: Sequence, Read/Write

The $REGMATCH sequence variable defines the registers that are candidates for matching with the Register macro. If empty or $NULL, all registers are candidates for matching. The $REGMATCH sequence can contain zero or more register index numbers and zero or more text strings matching one or more characters of a register’s descriptor.

The $SEQALLOC Variable

Sequence allocation size/strategy Type: Numeric, Read/Write

The $SEQALLOC variable defines how internal memory should be allocated when sequence variables are created and when they grow in size. This increase in size occurs when the += operator is used to append to an existing sequence, or when a sequence variable is overwritten by a larger sequence, as in A={A,B} or even A={B}. Note that internal allocation size is not the same as the actual size of a sequence as determined using $FLEN().

–n:

Reserve at least |n|, double size when extending

 0:

Reserve as required, double size when extending

+n:

Reserve at least n, increase size in multiples of n when extending

Setting $SEQALLOC=0 (the default) will generally result in faster macro processing of sequences at the expense of greater memory usage, whereas setting $SEQALLOC=1 will maintain the same memory allocation and speed as for V20 and earlier releases.

The $TAPMAC Variable

Whether the tape macro is activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

The tape macro is invoked only if the $TAPMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, tape macros will not be executed.

The $TCMAC Variable

Whether tool change macros are activated Type: Logical, Read/Write

Tool change and first-tool change startup and shutdown macros are invoked only if the $TCMAC variable is set to $TRUE. It is initialized to $TRUE by GENER at the start of post-processing. If it is set to $FALSE, tool change and first-tool change macros will not be executed.