No MSM Beta Release is currently available

[DaveCVI]

<Mar 11, 201>
A new beta has been posted: v1.0.2.d69

Since the 1.0.2 release of MachStdMill in January, MSM has been quite stable and work has been progressing to add the features that were on the list for a v1.1.0 release.

A new beta (v1.0.2.d69) is available which now has all the features slated for MSM v1.1.
Beta development will now enter a stabilization period where any bugs discovered will be fixed, but new features will not be added while stabilization is ongoing.

For those running release 1.0.2, this seems an appropriate time to summarize the more significant features that have been included since that release.

For MSM CVI uses an internal bug prioritization of
Class 1: Safety issues or problems that prevent usage of the software.
Class 2: Most things fall into this category.
Class 3: “Yeah, someday, maybe, when there is nothing else to do”.

There is one recently discovered Class 1 bug V1.0.2 which is fixed in dev69.

As I write this there are no open Class 2 or 3 bugs in the production release, and no known bugs in dev69.

The later part of that statement may be a tad misleading…. Dev69 is a beta release and it really needs more beta user testing. Some of the features implemented between dev49 and dev69 required changes to some of the core components in MSM. This carries with it a risk of having introduced problems which have not been discovered yet. While dev69 is behaving in the shop here, I won’t be too surprised if some things crop up as others start poking at it.

Please treat dev69 with healthy skepticism until more hours are accumulated with it.

Please report any bugs you find and I’ll do my best to promptly fix them.

When you see a bug, please refer to the release notes’ “known Mach 3 Errata” section. This lists the known bugs in Mach 3 which have impacted MSM use. MSM just has to live with these unless/until ArtSoft decides to fix them.

1 Major feature enhancements since MSM 1.0.2
It is hard to know what has happened without combing thru the release notes, so I’ve summarized the most significant changes here.

(Hey I admit it, this is intended to entice you to try the beta and thereby get you all to help me get a v1.1 release ready <grin>)

1.1 V1.0.2 Class 1 bugs fixed:
• Fixed bug where a license file date could get set to an incorrect date. This could only happen if MSM was installed on a windows version that did not use the US short date format. Under some conditions, the MSM license could get an incorrect date stored in it. This caused MSM to incorrectly determine that the current installed version was unlicensed.
The recovery process is to
A) install a version of MSM with this bug fixed, then
B) reactivate MSM to get corrected license date recorded

It is currently undecided if the fix will be retrofit into v1.0.2 to create a v1.0.3 release. The bug has only impacted one user, the work to retrofit the fix to v1.0.2 is non trivial, and it was discovered and fixed just as the stabilization for a v1.1 release is starting. Given resource limitations, I’m leaning toward letting 1.1 be the official fix for the bug.

1.2 Probing Enhancements
• The probing facilities of MSM have been significantly enhanced. MSM now provides the most extensive set of probing operations known to be available for Mach.

• Supported operation groups now include:
o Edge, Surface and Corner finding (with edge angle measurement)
o Ridge & Valley center finding
o Rectangular and Circular Pocket center finding
o Rectangular and Circular Post center finding
o A and B Axis alignment support
o Surface rotational angle measurement
The WC can now be rotated to match the measured angle.

• Probe Tip calibration
o Calibration can now be done from a circular pocket or a post.
o Calibration now utilizes diameter wear to store the calibration adjustment.
o Implemented replace & average for wear diam tip comp value

• Misc additions:
o Implemented “Extra Probe Depth” input parameter.
o Implemented a “1st Z only” button to the post and pocket probing page.

1.3 Auto-TLO and On-Machine Tool Measuring:
This is a major set of enhancements which gives MSM the most advanced tool measuring support available for Mach.

• There is a new “Measure tool” button on the tooling page.
o MSM now provides the ability to use the TCP TP to do on machine measurement of tools. This can eliminate the need for expensive offline tool pre-setters.
o Tools can be measured on the machine and TLOs are entered automatically into the tool table.

• Auto-TLO: Tool Measurement is now supported as part of a stop & wait tool change for all three documented TLO techniques (TLO=PTL, TLO=WCZ0 and Master Tool mode).
o The requirement to use Master Tool Mode (MTM) with Auto-TLO has been removed.

• There is a new option to randomly distribute wear on the TCP TP over a user specified wear area.

1.4 Tool Table Handling:
MSM Tool Table handling has been significantly enhanced.

• The MSM v1.0.2 distinction between MSM tool table files created by an imperial (inch) setup units machine and a metric (mm) setup units machine has been removed. A V1.1 tool table saved by any MSM machine can be loaded on any MSM machine.

• Support for mixed units tool tables at the user level has been added.
Tool diameters can be entered in the natural units of the tool independent of the setup units of the machine. A 10mm Drill diameter can be entered as 10mm. (It is no longer necessary to enter 0.3927 inches on the imperial machine for a 10mm tool).
Note: This caused an internal rev of the MSM Tool Table file from v1 to v2. However, MSM v1.1 can load either file version so the user will not be inconvenienced.

• Revised TT report to support new TT features and to be easier to read.

1.5 Installation Improvements
• The installer now has Auto uninstall ability. If the version change requires an uninstall of the prior MSM version, the installer now does it automatically and no longer asks the user to do a manual uninstall first.

• MSM Install no longer always forces an overwrite of the MSM Configuration and Probing debug configuration files to default state. Once v1.1 is released (the beta devXX releases are marked to force a full uninstall and new install), for minor updates it will no longer be necessary to reconfigure editors / readers / debug states after installing a minor update.

1.6 Improved hardware diagnostic support
• There is now support for Parallel Port 2 in output mode. MSM now displays the correct LEDs for PP2 in both input and output configurations.

1.7 Misc User features:
• Re-enabled the MSM alpha feature to save the state of mach menus on/off and to start up in that state.

1.8 Customer Support tools:
• Under the hood, the MSM debug login facilities have been revamped. It is now possible to turn on MSM internal diagnostic tools at run time. This means that there will be much less need for CVI to provide a user with debug modules to help diagnose a problem. Which is expected to enable faster info gathering and thereby reduce turn around time for fixes if a bug is encountered.

[DaveCVI]

<Mar 21, 201>
beta 1.0.2.d72 is available from http://www.calypsoventures.com

This fixes the hang if bad tool table is put into the tool table bug that was reported in .d69.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<Mar 23, 2011>
Beta 1.0.2.d77 is now available from http://www.CalypsoVentures.com

This fixes a couple of bugs discussed in the support forum since .d72.
This release also improves the "1st Z only" rect/cyl post probing by replacing it with independent "First Z" and "Last Z" contols.

See user manual / release notes for more info.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<Apr 4, 2011>
Beta 1.0.2.d81 is now available from http://www.CalypsoVentures.com

A bug was reported re corner finding: The corner location was not correctly accounting for a rotated block.
The repair turned into a revamp of the corner routines and teh addition of separate edge angel finding measurements.

See user manual / release notes for other changes.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<Apr 9, 2011>
Beta 1.0.2.d87 is now available from http://www.CalypsoVentures.com

This beta release is very likely to become MSM V1.1 - think of this as MSM 1.1.0 RC1

If you are using the beta series, please update to this release as the more exercise .d87 gets the less chance there is of bugs in MSM 1.1


.d87 has two key changes:
1) A bug was found that caused MSM Beta > d69 to not start when running on Win 7 Home Premium. IF you are running the beta MSM on win 7 please update to d87.

2) The "rotate XY" button has been removed from the MSM edge group probing page. Further detailed testing has exposed multiple serious bugs in Mach wrt to G68 (Rotated WC systems). It did not make sense to temp users into using a feature of mach that causes problems, so this is gone until such time as Mach gets fixed.

As usual more details are in the release notes.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<Apr 14, 2011>
MachStdMill v1.1 has been released.
V1.1 includes the final content of the 1.0.2.dxx beta series.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<July 1, 2011>
Hi,
Beta v1.1.8 is currently available.

This release improves some minor aspects of Tool Change ATLO options.

Significant revision done to user manual to bring it up to date wrt to
Touch Plates, TLO touch operations and TC ALTO options.
Separated Master Tool Mode from TCP TP setup; added TC ALTO option combination examples.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<July 2, 2011>
Hi,
MSM 1.1.8.d2 is posted.
Only change is more user manual work re Auto TLO and TLO=WCZ0 mode.
No software change from 1.1.8

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<July 3, 2011>
Hi,
MSM 1.1.8.d4 is posted.

Revised the user manual section for Master Tool Mode.
Honest, you really do want MTM over TLO=WCZ0... hopefully the doc now has a better explanation of why.

Fixed some MTM bugs that showed up during regression testing of the Tp changes in 1.8.8.d2

Dave

[DaveCVI]

<July 14, 2011>
Hi,
Beta v1.1.8.d6 is currently available.

This release
1) fixes a bug in non-rotated corner find that caused and incorrect amount of X movement before raising above Z0 level.
2) Enables user edit of PTL via tool edit dialog.

See release note for other changes.

Dave