Manage Program Names And Comments

Manage Program Names And Comments

File: Process_Document_Scripts/Manage_Program_Names_And_Comments.py
Version: 1.0
Document Type: CATProcess

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Description

An editor for the names and comments of a machining process. The part operations, manufacturing programs and operations of the active CATProcess are listed in one grid, each with its name, comment, tool and machining settings, so a whole job can be read and put right in one place. The settings columns are the ones Export Process Table Parameters writes to Excel — stepover, tolerance, depth of cut and offsets — alongside a warning where an operation is missing one its own type normally carries.

Names and comments are picked from template lists rather than typed: die parts and machines for a part operation, headings for a divider, machining descriptions for a program or an operation. Program names are assembled from the job — programmer, project, die, revision and die part — and can be renumbered across the process in one pass. Program comments are composed from the tool, the description and the two offsets, so a comment always says what the tool is, what it is doing and what it is cutting to.

Edits are staged and previewed against the current values, and the document is untouched until Apply is pressed.

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Requirements

Requirement	Value
Python	>= 3.10
pycatia	>= 0.10.0
wxPython	Required
xlsxwriter	Not required
Open document	CATProcess

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Usage

1. Open the CATProcess in CATIA
2. Run the script
3. Check the Job bar — initial, project, die, revision, code, metal and master
4. Double-click a row, or select it and press Edit selected row
5. Pick a name and comment, or compose one, then Stage
6. Apply staged edits to CATIA writes them; save the document in CATIA to keep them

Button	Does
Edit selected row	Opens the name and comment dialog for that activity
Renumber programs	Numbers the programs in sequence, or by hand
Refresh from CATIA	Reads the whole tree again
Clear staged edit	Drops the staged values on the selected row
Apply staged edits to CATIA	Writes every staged value

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Program comments

A program comment is composed rather than typed:

32BN SEMI-FINISH SWEEP TO +0.3MM
32BN FINISH SWEEP TO 0.0MM (M/C: -0.7MM)

Piece	Where it comes from
Tool	The program's tool change, closed up for a ball nose — T2 32 BN becomes 32BN
Description	The description list
TO ...MM	The stage: rough +2.0 or +0.7, semi-finish +0.3, finish 0.0, Z check 0.0
(M/C: ...MM)	What the operations actually machine to, from Offset on part

The stage figure is what the stage always means and does not move when metal comes off. The machined figure does, and is shown only when the two differ — so a part that is its own master reads TO 0.0MM with nothing after it.

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The offset rule

The master side is cut to nominal; the other side has the metal taken off it. BOTH means no metal comes off either side.

Master	Upper parts	Lower parts
UPPER	nominal	nominal - metal
LOWER	nominal - metal	nominal
BOTH	nominal	nominal

Worked through, metal 0.7 with UPPER IS MASTER:

Stage	Upper part	Lower part
Z-level rough +2.0	TO +2.0MM	TO +2.0MM (M/C: +1.3MM)
Rough +0.7	TO +0.7MM	TO +0.7MM (M/C: 0.0MM)
Semi-finish +0.3	TO +0.3MM	TO +0.3MM (M/C: -0.4MM)
Finish 0.0	TO 0.0MM	TO 0.0MM (M/C: -0.7MM)

The rule is only a fallback. Where the operations state an Offset on part, that is used instead and the rule is used to check it — a program whose operations disagree with its stage is reported rather than corrected.

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Where the job details come from

Detail	Source
Project, die, revision	The CATPart file name — TJ862, D20_08
Metal thickness, master	The design part, from the body naming them: MASTER PANEL RH CP12 REV47 - UPPER IS MASTER - METAL IS 0.7mm
Side	The UPPER / LOWER prefix on the die part name
Die part code	Suggested from the die part name — LOWER POST is LP — and editable
Programmer initial	Typed once and remembered

Metal belongs to the panel, so it is read per part operation: two die parts of different thickness each get their own. Where one part names more than one thickness, the choice is offered with the body name each came from.

Nothing here is guessed. A die number found only as an OP number is reported unconfirmed, and a part whose side cannot be read from its name gets no offset at all — being wrong about the side is wrong by the whole metal thickness.

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Program names

Programs are named as one token:

K   862   D20   08   US   01
|   |     |     |    |    +-- program number
|   |     |     |    +------- die part code
|   |     |     +------------ revision
|   |     +------------------ die number
|   +------------------------ project number
+---------------------------- programmer initial

Renumber programs numbers them in sequence from a starting number and step, or one at a time by typing in the Number column. Dividers take no number and are skipped. Rebuild the whole name from the job settings switches between regenerating the whole token and changing only the trailing number.

A trailing number is read as a program number only where the name is built on the job's stem. A program CATIA named itself — Manufacturing Program.19 — ends in CATIA's own activity counter, so it is ignored and the next free number is offered instead.

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Colour key

Colour	Row
Blue	Part operation
Amber	Divider — a program carrying a *** heading ***
Grey-blue	Manufacturing program
Lavender	Operation
Green	Staged, waiting for Apply
Red text	A setting this operation type should have but does not

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Notes

• Nothing is written until Apply. Edits are staged beside the current values and shown in green. Opening a row and pressing Stage without changing anything stages nothing.
• Placeholders in a template — **.**MM, ***mm, 0.*mm, POS_## — are asked for when the edit is staged, and the template's own spelling of the unit is kept.
• CATIA's No Description placeholder is read as no comment at all.
• Templates are embedded in the script; user additions go to %APPDATA%\pycatia_scripts\Manage_Program_Names_And_Comments\.
• Only the programmer initial and the default machine are remembered between runs. Project, die, revision, metal and master belong to the document and are read from it every time, so a part name that fails to parse can never inherit the last job's die number.