The GENER verification file always contains an NC control tape listing. This is provided as a reference for the NC machine operator. The tape listing is an exact copy of what appears on the tape file except that man readable are omitted.

The verification file may also contain status information listed in column format beside the NC control tape.

You can control the width and length of pages. Use NCPOST to control the width of a page. Use thelines_per_page symbol in the definition file to set the length of the page.

The title block at the top of each page displays the page number, run date, post-processor name, and PARTNO string. The post-processor title appears on the first page only.

Occasionally instead of a PARTNO string, the text Undefined PARTNO appears. This happens when a PARTNO command is not found within the first 20 records of the CL file.

The NC control tape data (as it would appear in the tape file) is located at the left hand side of each page. A single block is output at a time. The dollar sign ($) character replaces non-printing characters so as to not interfere with the printer, however the tape file contains the true characters.

The right hand side of each page may contain status information in column format. Control the appearance of this information by responses in the General Description—Display Format section of NCPOST QUEST. A header appears above each status column. Descriptions of the various status types follow:

Displays the position of the named axis, in normalized machine coordinates, at the end of the NC command block.

Linear axes are output in machine units using the right hand rule (i.e. reversed axes are output with a normal sign convention). Primary linear axes are identified in the header by X, Y and Z; secondary linears by U, V and W; and the extending axis by E.

Rotary axes values are output in degrees regardless of the actual units used by the machine. Sign conventions follow the right hand rule. Rotary head axes are identified by A, B and C; rotary tables by A’, B’ and C’; and the nutating axes by N and N2. Rotary axis positions shown in the display are actual positions and may not match the tape output where values of 360 degrees or greater occur.

If there is not enough space to display all axes in unique status columns, GENER uses the same column for similar axes (i.e., Z, W and E) outputting 2 or 3 lines of status information for each NC command block. The first line of linears lists primary axes; the second line lists secondary axes, the third lists the extending axis under the Z-axis column. The first line of rotaries lists the head axes; the second line lists the table axes; the nutating axes always appears in their own column.

Displays the calculated velocity of the tip of the cutting tool with respect to the part coordinate system. Normally this value matches the requested feedrate in the CL file. A value of zero is output on blocks that do not contain motion instructions. This column is not available for punch presses.

Displays the calculated revolutions per minute of the spindle at the end of the NC command. A value of zero is output when the spindle is stopped. Negative values can indicate CCLW rotation if the creator of the post-processor specifically requests this feature. This column is not available for punch presses.

Displays the elapsed machining time in hh:mm:ss (absolute) format or the delta block time in mmm:ss.ss (incremental) format.

Displays the actual machining time in absolute or incremental format for the MAIN and SIDE heads of a 4-axis merging lathe. Actual machining time does not include the time spent waiting for a synchronization event.

Displays the number of the CL record that result in the NC instruction block being output. This provides a cross reference between CL records and NC commands. A value of zero is used during start-up processing.

Displays the Internal Sequence Number of the APT statement (or CAD/CAM instruction) that create the CL records that result in the NC instruction block being output. This provides a cross reference between the original APT program statements and NC commands. A value of zero is used during start-up processing and also when information concerning ISN numbers is not provided in the CL file (which is common with some CAD/CAM systems).

Displays the number of hits per tape block. This column is available for punch press machines only.