In-Place Connection

The CONNECT IN PLACE block is invoked by GPP2 whenever a regular connection scenario is not invoked because the machine is already positioned on the target point.

Without this block, GPP2 would do no connection process at all if the machine was already where it needed to be for the next procedure. For instance, a 5X Connect procedure starts exactly where the previous procedure ended. Similarly, the procedure following the 5X Connect procedure starts exactly where the 5X Connect procedure finished. Similar conditions may occur in other scenarios, where no clearance planes are used.

From a pure motion point of view, no connection is indeed required, since no motions are required. However, in many advanced machine post-processors, other machine commands are executed as part of the connection scenario. In particular, the proper machine setting is defined at the END OF CONNECTION block: a work-plane may be defined, RTCP may be set, etc. This is critical for the subsequent motions that follow the non-connection. However, if no connection process takes place, these commands will not be created in the output file, with serious consequences!

The CONNECT IN PLACE block solves this problem by being invoked by GPP2 whenever a regular connection scenario is not invoked because the machine is already positioned on the target point. In such cases, the single CONNECT IN PLACE block replaces the whole connection process (including the BEGINNING OF CONNECT block, the scenario actions and the END OF CONNECT block). The EX2 program can set the machine parameters as required for the motions ahead - just like it does today in the END OF CONNECT block. In order to avoid program duplication, this is usually implemented with a GPP2 procedure that is called from both places.

The CONNECT IN PLACE block has no system variables.