SERIOUSLY...THANKS!!!
I finally got to impliment the program, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. It reached in the nc file, and ran one tool at a time thru 8 positions.
9 tool changes as opposed to 72. With the added ability to run any tool at will thru any positions. And its freakishly simple.but....(lol there's always a butt!)
When it got up around tool 5 it really started to choke having to search thru the program each time it went to a new position. Lots of 3d code, 10 year old makinos, too much for it. By the time it got to tool 9 it took over 4 minutes to search each time for each position. A second butt, the macro would not search across the harddrive on the mill. I was forced to load the program in memory first.
Not what I wanted, but it still can be useful to the right person. Where I work they bought a small horizontal that has tombstones lined up like a civil war graveyard. They have vices mounted all over that thing. The work they are doing is mostly pre heat treat. Loading up 30 vices, and doing 2d milling. Here's the sad part...say one program mills, drills, chamfers, engraves, etc...each identical part, 30 of them. Not uncommon to have 12-15 tools, especially when drilling, might be 4-5 different sized holes that get relieved, chamfered, etc... Maybe over 20 tools. Now do the math..30 positions, 20 tools. 600 tool changes! Its all the thing does is change tools. This proggy would kick ass for this, small lightweight programs, quick to search thru, new fast controller. Currently the programmers are posting out individual tools, and the operator is typing in forever picking up these programs. (yes, if you listen real hard you can hear cicus music)
again to all who helped, thx/ that was a fun little project.