Setting up Hard Stamps for NC Files

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Hard stamps
Setting up Hard Stamps
Environment
Not environment-specific
United States (Imperial)
United States (Metric)

Setting up Hard Stamps for NC files


In this guide, we will talk about how to utilize the new hard stamp features found in Version 2016 and newer. We will also discuss general hard stamp topics. 

Hard Stamps

To find these settings go to File > Export > Create NC Files > then Highlight a setting in the NC file settings dialog and click the "Edit" buttonFrom here navigate to the Hard Stamp tab. 

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The newest features include better placing of the hard stamp itself. This will allow users to pick certain faces in which they want to place the hard stamp. They can also choose to place the hard stamp based on the orientation mark location. For example, previously it was not possible to place a hard stamp on the Web of a beam without either manually changing it in the NC file or using one of the DSTV file modifiers found in the warehouse. We will show some examples of this shortly, and of how you can implement them in an efficient workflow.

The Basics

The basics of hard stamps are simply what you want to apply. See the list below that will describe the different elements and what they output. The Elements list defines which elements are included in hard stamps and the order in which the elements appear in the hard stamp. You can also define the Text height and Case.

Project number: Adds the project number to the hard stamp.

Lot number: Adds the lot number to the hard stamp.

Phase: Adds the phase number to the hard stamp.

Part position: Prefix and position number of the part.

Assembly position: Prefix and position number of the assembly.

Material: The material of the part.

Finish: The type of finish.

User-defined attribute: Adds a user-defined attribute (user fields 1-4) to the mark.

Text: Opens a dialog box where you can add user-defined text to the hard stamp.

Examples

Including part position and/or assembly position in the hard stamp affects the NC filename:

Part position: P1.nc1 , P2.nc1
Assembly position: A1.nc1 , A2.nc1
Assembly and part position: A1-P1.nc1 , A2-P2.nc1

The following example shows a hard stamp that contains the elements Phase, Part position, Material, and Text.
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Secondary Parts and Hard Stamps

By default (depending on your environment) Hard Stamps will not show on secondary parts, such as a base plate connected to a column or a shear plate connected to a beam. To have Hard Stamps shown on secondary parts you will need to go to Tools > Options > Advanced Options > then find the CNC section. From here, find the variable XS_SECONDARY_PART_HARDSTAMP= and change it to TRUE. This will make the hard stamps show up on the secondary parts. 

Examples of Hard Stamp Placement

Here we will show some examples of setting up hard stamp placement. In the example below, the goal is to get the Hard Stamp on the Web of the beam instead of the top or bottom flange which is how Tekla places a hard stamp by default.

The adjustments that we need to make to get the Hard Stamp to the Web and then to the middle of the web are shown below. First, you want to adjust the "side" option, this depicts which side the Hard Stamp will show up on. The options Auto, Front, Top, Behind, and Bottom these options are based on part orientation. You can get a better description of what part orientation is and how to understand it here. The option I chose is Front, which will place the hard stamp on the web. 

The next option we need to adjust is the "Position in depth of part." This adjusts where on the face that we chose above the hard stamp will be placed. In this case, we are going to choose Middle so that the Hard Stamp will come in on the web in the middle of the web. If I were to choose Top, the hard stamp would come in towards the top near the top flange which is not where we would want it located. 

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