Cycle Program Templates

Cycle Programming lets an operator describe a part as a table of holes. What that table compiles to is set by a template: a plain text file that belongs to the machine, not to the control software.

You write it once, when the machine is commissioned, in a text editor. The operator never opens it; they see its result in every cycle program the panel produces from then on.

Coolant, the safety line, how tool length is applied, whether a rotary axis carries a part angle: these differ from machine to machine, and none of them should need a software release.

The two files, and which one wins

data/cycle_templates/
    default.tmpl        ships with the control
    machine.tmpl        this machine's own, if it has one

machine.tmpl is used whenever it exists. There is no setting to point at it: copying the file in is all it takes.

default.tmpl is deliberately simple: standard drilling and tapping codes, no macro calls. A machine with no macros installed still drills. A machine with its own macro chain copies the file to machine.tmpl and calls its own macros from there.

The five sections

A template is five blocks, each introduced by its name on a line of its own. Anything outside a section is ignored, so notes in the file cost nothing.

Section	Written
[header]	once, at the top
[tool]	once per tool change
[cycle]	once per cycle block, and this sets the drilling cycle
[hole]	once per hole
[footer]	once, at the end

The shipped default.tmpl:

[header]
O1{{programId}} ({{name}})
G17 G21 G40 G80 G90
{{workOffset}}

[tool]
G80
T{{tool}} M06
G43 H{{tool}}
G00 Z{{retractZ}}
(TOOL {{tool}} - {{groupHoleCount}} HOLES)

[cycle]
S{{speed}} M03
{{returnMode}} G{{cycleCode}} Z{{negDepth}} R{{clearance}} Q{{peck}} P{{dwellMs}} L0 F{{feed}}

[hole]
X{{x}} Y{{y}}

[footer]
G80
M05
G00 Z{{retractZ}}
M30

Placeholders

Usable in	Placeholders
any section	{{programId}} {{name}} {{holeCount}} {{workOffset}} {{retractZ}} {{returnMode}}
[tool]	{{tool}} {{groupHoleCount}}
[cycle]	{{cycleCode}} {{tool}} {{depth}} {{negDepth}} {{diameter}} {{clearance}} {{feed}} {{speed}} {{peck}} {{dwell}} {{dwellMs}} {{posCount}} {{seq}}
[hole]	{{seq}} {{x}} {{y}} {{angle}}

{{workOffset}} and {{returnMode}} arrive already written as codes: G54, G98. {{negDepth}} is the depth the operator typed, negated, so nobody types a minus sign. {{cycleCode}} is the drilling cycle the operator’s entries selected: 81, 82, 83 or 84.

The template decides which fields the operator sees

A placeholder your template never uses is a field the panel stops asking for.

default.tmpl has no {{angle}}, so a three-axis mill shows no part-angle field. Add A{{angle}} to your machine.tmpl and the field appears.

The alternative would be a form that accepts a number and throws it away, and an operator with no way of telling.

Four rules that alarm when broken

Each of these has a failure the template author does not see until a machine cuts.

L0 goes on the cycle line, before F. A cycle line with a zero repeat count sets the drilling data up without drilling. That is what lets [cycle] be a setup line and each [hole] a bare coordinate. Leave it out and the cycle line drills a hole wherever the tool happens to be standing, because Z and R already make it a move. It goes before F because the block-order check expects it there.

P is whole milliseconds and takes no decimal point. Use {{dwellMs}}, never {{dwell}}. Half a second is P500; P0.5 is rejected. The operator enters seconds and {{dwellMs}} is where they are converted. {{dwell}} is still there for a template that passes the value to a macro instead.

G80 opens [tool]. The drilling cycle is still active when the tool block runs, so without it the tool block’s own retract move becomes another hole.

Depth is negated for you. Use {{negDepth}} where the program needs Z-12.. Using {{depth}} there drills upward.

The same file reads the program back

When the panel reopens a cycle program it reads the NC file back through the template: each {{placeholder}} becomes a value it recovers. One file defines both directions.

Two consequences follow.

• The panel can never be left reading a format the machine no longer writes.
• A program that does not match the template is not treated as a cycle program. The panel says so and opens the plain editor rather than showing a form that does not match the file.

So editing the template is not free for programs already written: it changes what the panel can read back. Re-saving each program from the panel puts them back in step.

Where to go next

• Cycle Programming: the operator’s side of this.
• Macros: where machine behaviour lives when the template calls out to it.