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Large Part Families

Good morning all. I am curious how you guys strategize handling large part families. I am currently finishing up a 52 member family X 2 operations X 2 First Article and In Process = 208 total programs (x2 for back ups, too!). This number of programs has been a challenge to manage, and the space being taken up on the storage is causing the computer to run slower.
I recently took level 3 training with Hexagon and learned about subroutines and File I/O commands being used to extract values from an external document for things like XYZ values. What I can picture here is having one main "skeleton" program, that would allow you to run the part based off of operator inputs determining which subroutine or file to open.

Is this a strategy any of you use?
Are there any suggestions you guys have for program management on multi skew part families? Thank you in advance!
  • I guess it would depend on the differences between the parts.

    I don't get that kind of work here, but I do get 'dual' parts (part 'a' has 7 holes, part 'b' has 5 holes). I just make one program with an operator input for 'a' or 'b'. It can also be done in an automatic way with the ONERROR option.

    storage space? it's cheap, get your IT to put a slave in that machine, use it for all program storage, leave 'C' for the operating system.
  • I've never had a situation with 52 parts, but I do deal with parts that have minor variations. The base part is the same but there may be 3-10 different hole patterns on the part, making it a family of 3-10 parts.

    What I do is use flow control. I will put a variable prompt in at the setup, write the main body of the program, then skip to the hole pattern tied to the variable prompt using If and Goto statements and such. The operator enters the specific part info, the main routine runs, it gets to the end of the main routine and jumps to the proper subroutine. That way I have everything in one program.