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The Standard-New Post Processor
The EDM-Standard-New profile and post processor create a file that is similar in structure and format to the legacy "ERP" format, but follows the EDM setup "new" mode. While the PP itself is very simple, it does highlight several key features of the "new" mode.
Recall that the EDM Setup "new" mode supports individual operations. The user can select to output a specific electrode tool at a given location. Unlike the legacy mode, the user does not have to output all tools (Rough, Pre-finish, etc.) for each selected location. The use of a given tool, of a given electrode, in a specific location is called an operation, and generates several blocks as described above.
Output File Structure
The legacy standard ERP format was location-based. Following a small header (under [COMPONENT]), each selected location has a separate section, with all the data of that electrode and that location.
In contrast, the new standard ERP format is operation-based. After an identical header, the file has a section for each operation. The section describes all the data of that electrode tool. That information includes general electrode information (For example, ELEC_NAME or BLANK_TYPE) as well as information of the specific tool used in that operation (Rough, Finish, etc.). It also includes location-specific data, such as the start and end points. As can be expected, all that is output in the BEGINNING OF OPERATION block.
Note the data "inheritance": every parameter of the relevant electrode or the relevant location is also available at the operation (which is always related to one electrode and one location), even if the file has many electrodes and many locations. That’s why system variables such as ELEC_NAME can be safely used in the BEGINNING OF OPERATION block (see EX2 program).
Special Operation Parameters
As mentioned above, an operation is the use of a single electrode tool (For example, the Finish burning stage) of a given electrode. It may be very useful to know the specific parameters of that tool (For example, finish-stage spark gap) without having to use a lot of IF statements about which tool and which stage it is.
For that purpose, special TOOL_* system variables have been defined, such as TOOL_SPARK_GAP and TOOL_OFFSET. GPP2 automatically copies the relevant tool information to these variables before the BEGINNING OF OPERATION block. For instance, in a Finish tool operation, GPP2 copies ELEC_FI_SPARK_GAP to TOOL_SPARK_GAP. If this was a Rough tool, it would copy ELEC_RO_SPARK_GAP instead, and so on.
Note how the PP outputs all the specific tool information using the dedicated TOOL_* system variables (starting at TOOL_QTY).
In addition, in order to complete the operation-specific information, the PP outputs the other two operation-specific variables OP_ID (sequential number) and OP_TOOL (1 to 4), described above.
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