Yeah, I see it now.  Maybe I'm just not understanding the Z values in the min/max dro's.  My thinking I should be able to apply a bit of math like I did on X and Y and match that up with the extremes of my particular program the dro's are analyzing.  In one case my Z travel extreme would have been right at 3.9".  See the attached pic for what I got as a readout.

There is a G43 Z20 there,
And the z extents are just over 20 .

also, I found that if the program coords overlap the machine coords, the Z pos will show above the home on the Z. If it is homed at z0.00 and all z moves are -.

Dang, good catch.  I bet I read that line 10 times and read it as 2.0 every time.  2.0 is what it should be so I guess I just expected that when I read it.  That's one of the few lines I have to edit on most programs so I fat fingered it.

Thanks for the help, I'll fix that and see what I get.

Regards
Bob

Hi,
if you really want DROs to read in work coordinates, and it seems its only the Z axis which is giving you grief
there is room in the existing DRO block/container for two new DROs, Z_MAX and Z_MIN.

I fiddled around with the screen editor and ended up with these DRO's. Have yet to write the code to drive it....
but first step.

Craig

I corrected the Z20. for H2 in the program.  Found my extreme +Z in the program is 3.0, extreme -Z is -.9127.  Total of 3.9127 in my pea brain.  Of course that changed the DRO readings and I did the math between the two readings for Z and got exactly 1.5" more than the 3.9127".  So I guess I'm still not quite getting it right.  I looked for a - or + value in the programmed don't find any other than those I mentioned.  The Z3.0 moves are in prep for a tool change, all the g43's then set the new tool at Z2.0.  I'll drop the program in this response along with another screen shot fo the dro's. 

That might be something worth exploring, getting them to read in work coordinates.  The - Z values that are displayed in machine coordinates are a bit confusing.

Hi,
OK, I have some code to drive the two new DROs in work coordinates.

First you need to make two new instance registers iRegs0/workZMax and iRegs0/workZMin, attached
The two DRO's need their driving register set in the DRO properties, I've shown Z_Min, attached

And then this code needs to go in the PLC script:

--*****************************************************************************
local zOffset=mc.mcCntlGetOffset(inst,mc.Z_AXIS,mc.MC_OFFSET_FIXTURE)
local workZMaxHandle=mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst,'core/inst/PathZmax')
local workZMax=mc.mcRegGetValue(workZMaxHandle)-zOffset
local workZMaxHandle=mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst,'iRegs0/workZMax')
mc.mcRegSetValue(workZMaxHandle,workZMax)
local workZMinHandle=mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst,'core/inst/PathZmin')
local workZMin=mc.mcRegGetValue(workZMinHandle)-zOffset
local workZMinHandle=mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst,'iRegs0/workZMin')
mc.mcRegSetValue(workZMinHandle,workZMin)
--**********************************************************************************
Pretty quick and dirty code but it seems to work.

Craig

That's awesome Craig, you're pretty quick with that code.  I barely understand that stuff.  Going to take your work there and give it a go on my system.  Been a a couple years since I messed with the code behind Mach, but I've been in it before for my console.   I'm recalling the PLC script being different than the screen script so not intimidated too much by it.

I was actually looking at the properties of the two Z dro's in the screen editor earlier and think I know exactly where those are there.

Thanks
Bob

I corrected the Z20. for H2 in the program.  Found my extreme +Z in the program is 3.0, extreme -Z is -.9127.  Total of 3.9127 in my pea brain.  Of course that changed the DRO readings and I did the math between the two readings for Z and got exactly 1.5" more than the 3.9127".  So I guess I'm still not quite getting it right.  I looked for a - or + value in the programmed don't find any other than those I mentioned.  The Z3.0 moves are in prep for a tool change, all the g43's then set the new tool at Z2.0.  I'll drop the program in this response along with another screen shot fo the dro's. 

That might be something worth exploring, getting them to read in work coordinates.  The - Z values that are displayed in machine coordinates are a bit confusing.

Hi Bob, just curious as to how you are referencing your Z axis, and what your G54 Z offset is for this part prgm. Your file does go to +Z3, mach coords,which is strange. Are you homing somewhere other thant Z all the way up ? Typically, no mach coord Z should be positive. In my limited experience