Morbidelli machining centres
Morbidelli is the SCM Group brand of CNC machining centres. Its programs are written in Xilog Plus as plain-text XXL, and on older controllers they have to be compiled to a binary PGM before the machine will load them.
- Type
- Machine builder
- Based in
- Italy
- Part of
- SCM Group
- Programmed with
- Xilog Plus, WinXISO, Maestro
- Machine control
- Xilog, Tria
- File formats
- .xxl, .pgm
Where a Morbidelli program comes from
A Morbidelli program is authored in Xilog Plus, the programming environment SCM supplies with the machine, or posted out of a CAD/CAM system by a post-processor written for it. Either way the result is the same thing: a .xxl file, plain text, one command per line. It opens in Notepad. There is no project database and no proprietary container around it, which is why a program written twenty years ago is still readable today. SCM's newer Maestro environment writes .xcs instead, which is a different file and not one netool reads.
Why some machines want a PGM instead
Newer controllers load the XXL text directly. Older ones, typically Author-series machines running early Xilog or Tria control software, cannot read text at all and expect a compiled binary program with a .pgm extension. SCM compiled these with WinXISO. A PGM is a flat stream of records with no header in front of them: each record states its command number, how many bytes of fields follow, and a mask saying which of those fields are actually present. A field the mask marks absent still occupies its bytes, which is why two PGM files can differ byte for byte and mean exactly the same thing.
What netool converts, and what it refuses
netool reads 11 Xilog Plus commands: the H header, the SY side selector, G0 positioning, G1 straight cuts and plunges, the G2 and G3 arcs, and the parameter and macro forms around them. Each one carries a support level. Encodings proven byte for byte against a machine-produced file are marked verified. Encodings derived but never confirmed on a machine are written with a warning and refused outright in strict mode. Drilling cycles and macros netool has not proven are refused rather than guessed, because a silently wrong depth is worse than a conversion that stops.
Where the knowledge of the PGM format came from
The binary format is undocumented. Everything netool writes was worked out by observation: comparing an XXL program against the PGM compiled from it, and confirming the result byte for byte, across a reference corpus of 116 XXL and PGM pairs produced on an SCM Tech 100 with a Tria 4000 controller. No vendor software was decompiled and no confidential documentation was consulted. The command reference says, for each command, whether its encoding is measured or inferred.
Moving a Morbidelli program to a Homag machine
A Morbidelli program will not load on a Homag, Weeke or Brandt machining centre: those run woodWOP and expect an MPR. The geometry is the same; the conventions are not. Depth is the one that catches people out, because woodWOP writes a contour depth as the height of material left standing under the cut, so a 6 mm deep cut in an 18 mm panel is written as 12 and a cut right through is written as 0. netool's XXL to MPR converter applies that conversion, and the 44 reason codes it can return say in plain words what it would not translate and why.
File formats on this site
Converters for these formats
XXL to PGM converter
Convert Xilog Plus .xxl programs to the binary .pgm format read by older Morbidelli CNC controllers.
Open toolXXL to MPR converter
Turn a Xilog Plus XXL program into a woodWOP .mpr program for Homag, Weeke and Brandt machines.
Open toolPGM to XXL converter
Read a compiled Morbidelli .pgm program back as the Xilog text it was made from.
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 toolXXL to G-code converter
Turn a Xilog Plus XXL program into plain ISO G-code for routers that take it.
Open toolPGM to G-code converter
Turn a Morbidelli PGM program into plain ISO G-code for routers that take it.
Open toolRelated entries
- SCM GroupSCM and Morbidelli machining centres
- Xilog PlusProgramming SCM and Morbidelli machining centres
Common questions
What file format do Morbidelli machines use?
Xilog Plus writes .xxl, a plain-text program. Newer controllers load that text directly. Older Author-series machines with early Xilog or Tria control software load a compiled binary .pgm instead, which holds the same machining information in a completely different encoding.
Do I still need WinXISO to make a PGM?
Not to get a PGM. netool compiles XXL to PGM in the browser and reports, command by command, which encodings are proven against a machine-tested file and which are a labelled guess. What it does not do is stand in for a dry run: check the first program on the machine with the spindle clear before you trust it with a panel.
Can a Morbidelli program run on a Homag machine?
Not as it stands. Homag, Weeke and Brandt machining centres are programmed in woodWOP and load .mpr files. netool converts XXL or PGM to MPR, which handles the differences in how depth, faces and contours are written, but the result is still a new program and should be proved on the machine like any other.
Which Morbidelli commands can netool convert?
11 of them, each with its support level published: the header, the side selector, positioning moves, straight cuts and plunges, and arcs. Anything netool has not proven is refused rather than approximated, and the command reference lists every one with the byte layout it produces.
Is netool affiliated with Morbidelli or SCM Group?
No. netool is an independent converter. Morbidelli, SCM and Xilog Plus are trademarks of their owner and appear here only to say which file formats netool reads and writes.