Does anyone have any ideas on how to auto-magically mark all our .prg files as "read only"?
We're currently supposed to set our .prg's as read only when were done programming them but half the time we forget. This has caused some issues with unintentionally modified programs over the years (the machinists operate the CMM's here).
I'm thinking either a script that can be run once a day/week/etc, and will check all those boxes in our program folder, or a subroutine at the end of each program that will that that particular file as read only (but knowing the file name would have to be automated somehow).
And yes, despite many raised eyebrows at Hexagon, we run thousands of programs as read only and we run them off a server (not a local drive) across 11 different CMM's with no substantial issues.
hm do you have no IT that can write such a script / mini exe?
doesn't have to be in VBA / BASIC if you run it periodically (and don't start it via pcdmis).
anyway, set file attributes is the keyword you should use on google + VBA if you really want it to be basic, that's relatively easy to do.
Even if I don't have a working example at hand right now.
The executing script/exe must have write access.
it's really better if your IT writes you something like that instead of doing it yourself, then there are fewer problems
You can put all of them in a folder / subfolders that are read only by normal users. That's what we do and there is no need to set each one individually
Bite the bullet and take all the programs you have and create marked sets. 2 are needed. MANUAL ALIGNMENT and NO MANUAL ALIGNMENT. Then password protect the login and use operator mode. Our operators were so happy when we did this. No clicking in the wrong spot, 2 options only. Once they got used to it they loved it.
yes, use marksets or "RoboCopy" your masters from the server to each CMM and run them locally like you should btw. You would just have to change your "Set Search Path" on each folder with the copied measurement routines
thanks
Henniger123. We have an IT company that we've asked to do this, but it's been months and they haven't supplied anything. Maybe another nudge and sending them those tips will do it.
constadin we might go this route but making sure we don't leave the whole folder editable is a potential problem.
Schlag we have saved recall alignments or read points for all our programs already, nobody does a manual alignment. We have 2000+ programs so we're not going to be reinventing the wheel for marked sets.
KatmandudaMeow someone had set up the robo copy system at the last place I worked. That might be a future solution as well. Running them off the server has worked well for us though. My Hexagon level III trainer said that running them off the server has potential for corrupting files, but copying them down from the server to run them locally also has potential for corruption so....
I probably did more than that when we moved to MARKED SETS. I copied the entire directory, did the mark sets, then overwrote it. Worked on it daily and probably took me a month ? I could do a program in 20 seconds maybe ?
We tried Protect but we couldn't investigate/re-run features that had a chip/dirt/etc on them without exiting the software, re-entering and re-running the part. We like being able to re-run just the bad hits.
MARKED SET WINDOW automatically opens with operator mode. Thats all they can do. There is no edit window, thats the whole point. NO re-running a feature.