Andy,

> I intended to test this, but haven't found the time.
> It seems extremely likely that the tool table units will be assumed to
> match the machine units. There is no field in the data to indicate the
> units.
> 
> Any manual editing of the tool table would have to be in base machine units.
> 

I spent some time on the IRC and cradek told me that the tool file offsets are 
interpreted in the same units the machine has been configured in.  So it sounds 
like there is some consensus here.

> The more interesting question is what happens if using the various
> versions of G10. I would actually expect that to do the conversions
> based on the current G-code units.
> Is that not what was observed?

Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this.  This issue was relayed to me as a result 
of the last video I completed on the CNC for the Hobbyist from a subscriber.  
This arose because I suggested that configuring the machine unit based on the 
leadscrew or pinion travel of a rack and pinion would be the simplest thing to 
do.  I agree that I would expect the controller to convert to the appropriate 
unit based on which G-Code was used, G20, G21

Personally, I have never had the need to use cutter compensation because the 
CAM software I use for my router bases it path on the selected too geometry 
rather than the programmed vector points.

I suppose in reality, leaving the tool table set to the machine units is fine 
as I guess most people have either imperial tooling or metric.  But playing the 
devils advocate, I can see where some people, perhaps in the UK and Australia 
may have both.  This means they are forced to convert some of their tools to 
metric or imperial.  In a perfect world perhaps the tool file would reflect the 
units of the tool and make conversions as needed.  I am not a programmer and I 
am sure there are reasons this does not work that way.

My main goal was to wrap my brain around how it works so when I get to the part 
of the series where a machine is configured that it is clear to the end user

1) Configure the machine unit to the bulk of your tooling.
2) When creating tool table entries and associated offsets, the values have to 
be the same as the machine unit.

My hope with the series is that I can cover enough material over time to get 
more people into the hobby.  I am not the best teacher in the world, but I am 
starting to see traffic and comments surrounding the series.  Thank you Andy 
for answering this question and the many questions you have answered for me in 
the past.

Regards,
Joe


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