Homag machining centres
Homag is the German machine builder whose machining centres are programmed in woodWOP. Its programs are .mpr files: plain text, readable, and organised as a header, a block of variables and then one block for each operation.
- Type
- Machine builder
- Based in
- Germany
- Part of
- Dürr Group
- Programmed with
- woodWOP
- Machine control
- powerControl, powerTouch
- File formats
- .mpr
A Homag program is a file of blocks
An MPR opens with a header naming the format version and the panel, then a block that gives the panel dimensions names so the program can be resized without being rewritten. After that comes one block per operation: a macro for a vertical hole, another for a hole into an edge, another for routing. The file is plain text throughout, which means a program can be read, compared and corrected in an editor rather than only through the software that wrote it.
Variables make one program fit several panels
The variables block is the reason woodWOP programs are worth keeping. Because the panel dimensions are named rather than written as fixed numbers, and because operations can refer to those names, a single program can serve a family of parts. This is also why a converted program should be checked in woodWOP before it is run: a conversion from a format without variables produces fixed numbers, which is correct but gives up the flexibility a hand-written MPR would have had.
Contours are stored apart from what is done to them
A path is a numbered list of points: where it starts, then each straight or curved move from there. The routing macro does not contain the path. It points at a range of it, naming the first and last element. The same path can therefore be routed twice with different tools, and a path can be drawn and left unused. Arcs are written by radius rather than by the offsets to a centre, which is the opposite of the ISO convention an SCM program uses.
The details that decide whether the file opens at all
woodWOP expects the code page Windows used, not UTF-8, so a program with an umlaut in a comment will be mangled if it is written in the wrong encoding. Lines end with a carriage return and a line feed, and the file ends with a single exclamation mark: woodWOP treats a file without it as cut off. Measurements are written to the thousandth of a millimetre. netool writes all of this deliberately rather than by accident, because each one of them is a way for a file to look right and still fail to load.
Coming from an SCM machine, and what is not yet proven
netool converts Xilog Plus XXL and Morbidelli PGM programs into MPR, translating the moves, remapping the faces and inverting the depth convention along the way. It is worth being blunt about the state of this: the MPR writer follows the published description of the format, but no file it has produced has yet been opened in woodWOP or run on a Homag machine. Every conversion says so, and the 56 reason codes report anything else it would not carry across. Treat the output as a draft to open and inspect, not as a program to load and cut.
File formats on this site
.mprwoodWOP MPR
Converters for these formats
XXL to MPR converter
Turn a Xilog Plus XXL program into a woodWOP .mpr program for Homag, Weeke and Brandt machines.
Open toolPGM to MPR converter
Turn a compiled Morbidelli PGM program into a woodWOP .mpr program for Homag, Weeke and Brandt machines.
Open toolMPR to XXL converter
Turn a woodWOP .mpr program into a Xilog Plus XXL program for SCM and Morbidelli machines.
Open toolMPR to PGM converter
Turn a woodWOP .mpr program into a compiled Morbidelli PGM program for SCM and Morbidelli machines.
Open toolMPR to G-code converter
Turn a woodWOP MPR program into plain ISO G-code for routers that take it.
Open toolRelated entries
Common questions
What file format do Homag machines use?
woodWOP writes .mpr, a plain-text program. It holds a header, a block of named panel dimensions, and one block per operation. Homag, Weeke and Brandt machining centres are all programmed from the same woodWOP toolchain, so the format is shared across the group.
Can I open an MPR file without woodWOP?
Yes, in any text editor, because the format is plain text. Reading it is easy enough; what is harder is judging it, since the depth of a contour is written as the material left standing under the cut rather than as the depth of the cut itself.
How do I get a Morbidelli or SCM program onto a Homag machine?
Convert it. netool reads Xilog Plus XXL and Morbidelli PGM and writes MPR, handling the differences in how faces are named and how depth is measured. The result should be opened in woodWOP and checked before it goes anywhere near a panel, because netool's MPR writer has not yet been confirmed against a real machine.
Why is netool's MPR output marked unverified?
Because it has never been proven on a machine. The writer follows the published description of the format, but nothing it has produced has been opened in woodWOP or cut on a Homag. Rather than let that pass quietly, netool reports it on every conversion. When that changes, the label changes with it.
Is netool affiliated with Homag?
No. netool is an independent converter. Homag, Weeke, Brandt and woodWOP are trademarks of their owner and are named here only to describe the file formats netool reads and writes.