Machining

3 Axis Surface Machining

Customizing the Surface Machining Operation Editor

Customize default operation tab pages
Use Case

Abstract

This article discusses the CAASmiUserOperationUI use case. It explains how to customize strategy, tool and macros tab pages of the surface machining operation editor.

This paper accompanies the Surface Machining Operation Sample [1], but it can be used for any Manufacturing Activities.

What You Will Learn With This Use Case

When a surface machining operation is edited by double clicking or through its contextual menu, a default dialog box is displayed.

This use case is intended to help you to customize some of the tab pages of this panel. This involves the following:

[Top]

The CAASmiUserOperationUI Use Case

CAASmiUserOperationUI is a use case of the CAASurfaceMachiningItf.edu framework that illustrates Surface Machining capabilities. It is a part of the sample described in the technical article [1].

[Top]

What Does CAASmiUserOperationUI Do

This use case customizes three tab pages of the CAASmgOperation editing panel:

  1. CAASmgOperation has 1 strategy parameter

  2. CAASmgOperation has 2 macros parameters

  3. CAASmgOperation has 2 allowed types of tool and an End Mill default tool:

[Top]

How to Launch CAASmiUserOperationUI

This use case is a part of Surface Machining Operation Sample [1]. You should build all the modules of this sample at a time to be able to launch it [2].

Don't forget to edit the interface dictionary located in:

Windows InstallRootDirectory\CAASurfaceMachiningItf.edu\CNext\code\dictionary\
Unix InstallRootDirectory/CAASurfaceMachiningItf.edu/CNext/code/dictionary/

where InstallRootDirectory is the directory where the CAA CD-ROM is installed, and uncomment the appropriate lines by removing the '#' character.

[Top]

Where to Find the CAASmiUserOperationUI Code

This use case is made of source files located in the CAASmiUserOperationUI.m module of the CAASurfaceMachiningItf.edu framework:

Windows InstallRootDirectory\CAASurfaceMachiningItf.edu\CAASmiUserOperationUI.m
Unix InstallRootDirectory/CAASurfaceMachiningItf.edu/CAASmiUserOperationUI.m

where InstallRootDirectory is the directory where the CAA CD-ROM is installed.

[Top]

Step-by-Step

There are three logical steps in CAASmiUserOperationUI:

  1. Implementing CATIMfgStrategyActivity
  2. Implementing CATIMfgMacroEditorActivity
  3. Implementing CATIMfgToolActivity

We now comment each of those sections by looking at the code.

[Top]

Implementing CATIMfgStrategyActivity

To overload the strategy tab page, we should create an extension class that will implement CATIMfgStrategyActivity

...
// Tie the implementation to its interface
#include "TIE_CATIMfgStrategyActivity.h"
TIE_CATIMfgStrategyActivity( CAAESmiUserOperationStrategyEditor);
...

In GetMainPanelEditor, we create a frame that contains the frame-editor of our strategy parameter "CAAStep"

  ...
  oFrame = new CATDlgFrame (iFather, "StrategyFrame", CATDlgGridLayout|CATDlgFraNoTitle);
  if (oFrame)
  {
    // Gets strategy parameter
    CATIMfgActivityParameters * pActivityParameters = NULL;
    oRC = QueryInterface(IID_CATIMfgActivityParameters, (void**) &pActivityParameters);
    if (SUCCEEDED(oRC))
    {
      CATBaseUnknown_var spBaseParm = NULL_var; 
      oRC = pActivityParameters->FindElement("CAAStep",spBaseParm);
      CATICkeParamFrame_var spParamFrame (spBaseParm);
      if (!!spParamFrame)
      {
        ...
        // Creates a frame-editor linked to the parameter
        CATDlgFrame *pDlgFrame = spParamFrame->GetInPanelEdition(NULL_var,oFrame,CATCkeWithSpinner|CATCkeNoLabel);
        if (pDlgFrame)
          pDlgFrame->SetGridConstraints( 0, 1, 1, 1, CATGRID_4SIDES);
        ...
  }
  ...

[Top]

Implementing CATIMacroEditorActivity

To overload the macros tab page, we should create an extension class that will implement CATIMacroEditorActivity

...
// Tie the implementation to its interface
#include "TIE_CATIMfgMacroEditorActivity.h"
TIE_CATIMfgMacroEditorActivity( CAAESmiUserOperationMacroEditor);
...

In GetMainPanelEditor, we create a frame that contains frame-editors of our macros parameters "CAAToolAngle" and "CAAApproachDistance"

  ...
  oFrame = new CATDlgFrame (iFather, "MacrosFrame", CATDlgGridLayout|CATDlgFraNoTitle);
  if (oFrame)
  {
    ...
    // CAAToolAngle
    oRC = pActivityParameters->FindElement("CAAToolAngle",spBaseParm);
    CATICkeParamFrame_var spParamFrame (spBaseParm);
    if (!!spParamFrame)
    {
      ...
      // Creates a frame-editor linked to the parameter
      CATDlgFrame *pDlgFrame = spParamFrame ->GetInPanelEdition(NULL_var, oFrame  ,CATCkeWithSpinner|CATCkeNoLabel);
      if (pDlgFrame)
          pDlgFrame->SetGridConstraints( 0, 1, 1, 1, CATGRID_4SIDES);
    }

    //CAAApproachDistance
    oRC = pActivityParameters->FindElement("CAAApproachDistance",spBaseParm);
    spParamFrame = spBaseParm;
    if (!!spParamFrame)
    {
      ...
      // Creates a frame-editor linked to the parameter
      CATDlgFrame *pDlgFrame = spParamFrame ->GetInPanelEdition(NULL_var, oFrame  ,CATCkeWithSpinner|CATCkeNoLabel);
      if (pDlgFrame)
          pDlgFrame->SetGridConstraints( 1, 1, 1, 1, CATGRID_4SIDES);
  }
  ...  
 } 
 ...

[Top]

Implementing CATIMfgToolActivity

To customize tool tab page, we should create an extension class that will implement CATIMfgToolActivity. This interface offers services to manage allowed and default tools. If you like to overload the whole tab page, see the CAAMaiToolEditionCustomization use case [3].

...
#include "TIE_CATIMfgToolActivity.h"
TIE_CATIMfgToolActivity( CAAESmiUserOperationToolEditor);
...

In GetAuthorizedToolTypeList, we set the types of allowed tools of our operation

 HRESULT CAAESmiUserOperationToolEditor::GetAuthorizedToolTypeList (CATListOfCATUnicodeString & oToolTypeList)
 {
   // Allowed Tools
   oToolTypeList.Append(CATEMfgEndMillTool);
   oToolTypeList.Append(CATEMfgDrillTool);

   return S_OK;
 }

In CreateDefaultTool, we set the default tool of our operation

HRESULT CAAESmiUserOperationToolEditor::CreateDefaultTool (CATBaseUnknown_var & oTool)
{
  ...
      // Retrieves Resource Factory
  if (!!spResourceContainer)
  {
    CATIMfgResourceFactory * pResourceFactory = NULL;
    oRC = spResourceContainer->QueryInterface(IID_CATIMfgResourceFactory, (void**) &pResourceFactory);
    if (SUCCEEDED(oRC))
    {
      // Creates Default Tool
      CATUnicodeString ToolTypeToCreate = MfgEndMillTool;
      oTool = pResourceFactory->CreateResource(ToolTypeToCreate);
      pResourceFactory->Release();
      pResourceFactory = NULL;

      // Defines a Default tool for our user operation
      if(!!oTool)
      {
        CATIMfgTool * pMfgTool = NULL;
        oRC = oTool->QueryInterface(IID_CATIMfgTool, (void**) &pMfgTool);
        if (SUCCEEDED(oRC))
        {
          pMfgTool->SetDefaultValues();
          pMfgTool->SetDefaultName();
          pMfgTool->Release();
          pMfgTool = NULL;
        }

        CATIMfgActivity * pActivity = NULL;
        oRC = QueryInterface(IID_CATIMfgActivity, (void**) &pActivity);
        if (SUCCEEDED(oRC))
        {
          pActivity->SetDefaultTool(oTool);
          pActivity->Release();
          pActivity = NULL;
        }
      }
    }
  }
  ...
}

[Top]

In Short

This article provides an example on how to customize strategy, tool and macros tab pages of the editing dialog panel of a surface machining operation. How to customize geometry tab page is described in the next use cases [4] & [5].

[Top]

References

[1] Surface Machining Operation Sample Overview
[2] Building and Launching a CAA V5 Use Case
[3] Customizing Tool Editor for Drilling Tool
[4] Managing Geometry with User Machining Features
[5] Managing Geometry with Machining Areas
[Top]

History

Version: 1 [Mar 2002] Document created
[Top]

Copyright © 2002, Dassault Systèmes. All rights reserved.