View Menu
The amount and types of information traced to the Input, Output, Console and Macro windows can be set using the Tools»Preferences»Trace menu function as well as from the launch panel Output dialog (see here).
View»Input
This toggle activates or disables the input CL file trace window. When active, CL records will be listed in the Input window as they are read. Right-mouse in the Input window and select Options to bring up the following Tools»Preferences»Trace settings that affect Input tracing:
Original input file source lines: If selected, CL file records will be shown in their original input format whenever possible. By default, GENER traces CL file data in an ICAM standard format. This setting only has an effect when a record is first read. Records that are re-read following a look-ahead or CL file repositioning, will always be shown in their standard format.
Look-ahead processing, curve fitting and the $FGET search: If selected, tracing will also be enabled during all forms of look-ahead. Select this only when debugging macros that use the look-ahead features of GENER.
The last 20,000 input trace lines are remembered unless changed via the Tools»Preferences»Trace settings. The Output, Console and Macro trace windows (described below) are similarly limited.
View»Output
This toggle activates or disables the output NC program file trace window. When active, NC program data will be listed in the Output window as it is written.
The Run»Details toggle affects tracing and stepping in the Output window. When selected, tracing and stepping occurs as individual registers are placed in the output NC program buffer.
Hovering the cursor over the output trace will show a tooltip containing the following contextual information: the code or register type, the post-processor command name that caused the code or register data to be output, and the current ISN and CL record numbers at the moment the code or register was output. The appearance of contextual help tooltips in the output trace is controlled from the Tools»Preferences»Debug “Enable output trace context information” checkbox.
View»Console
This toggle activates or disables the console trace window. When active, operator messages, diagnostic messages and macro processor I/O will be listed in the Console window. Right-mouse in the Console window and select Options to bring up the following Tools»Preferences»Trace settings that affect Console tracing:
Operator and other message: traces operator messages (DISPLY command).
Macro IO commands: traces macro processor file I/O (OPEN, READ, WRITE and CLOSE commands).
Diagnostics: traces diagnostic messages with the specified and higher severity.
View»Macro
This toggle activates or disables the Macro trace window. When active, macro commands will be listed in the Macro window as they are processed. The Macro trace window also identifies when macros are activated and completed. The formatting of macro code can be controlled from the Tools»Preferences»Debug “Macro format” selection.
View»Controller
This toggle shows or hides the Controller window. This window includes a Codes tab pane that lists active modal G and M codes, and a PPFUN tab pane that lists the current state of the various PPFUN commands. When running with Virtual Machine, the controller window has additional tab panes to view and modify model related data.
View»Diagnostic
This toggle shows or hides the Diagnostic window. This window records all diagnostic messages output since the start of processing, regardless of whether or not the window was visible or not.
The diagnostic window provides “filter” toggle buttons that can be used to hide/show errors, warnings and informational messages. A right-mouse pop-up window provides access to additional functionality, as follows:
Synchronize simulation, trace and source windows to the selected diagnostic.
Mark as reviewed marks individual diagnostics as reviewed, as an aid to a systematic review of the program. Various options permit marking of similar diagnostics. Diagnostics can also be marked reviewed by selecting them and checking the Reviewed box.
Hide reviewed toggle shows or hides all diagnostics marked as reviewed.
Clear reviewed clears the “reviewed” state of all diagnostics. The reviewed state of diagnostics can also be cleared by selecting them and clearing the Reviewed box.
Clear sorting causes diagnostics to be listed in the order they were originally output. Clicking on a diagnostic column header causes diagnostics to be sorted in increasing or decreasing order by that column’s information.
Column settings indicate the type of information to be listed.
Copy selection to the paste buffer.
Diagnostic window settings are remembered with other user preferences in the Windows Registry.
View»Loading Sequence
This brings back the Loading dialog that normally appears while the software is initializing and that then disappears once processing is ready to start. This dialog lists the various initialization actions and the elapsed time taken for each. Indentation is used to break down multiple steps of an initialization process. The Loading dialog must be closed before continuing processing. The appearance of the Loading dialog at the start of processing can be controlled from the “Loading/ Processing Detail” selection in the Tools»Preferences»General settings.
These change the width of the left hand field that lists axes names in the Controller»Axes tab.
View»Status bar
This toggle enables the display of the status bar. The status bar lists various information about the progress of the post-processor, including: count of diagnostics, CL and ISN numbers, machining time, NC program length and a progress bar.