Discovered part of the problem with Jetcam

[David Morrow]

I just discovered a major problem with Jetcam. It may have been mentioned before, but I haven't seen it.

The problem that I have is the same that others have had. When you create a button in Jetcam, it is doubled when you open the screen in Mach3. I have seen all kinds of suggested solutions such as incorrect directories, incorrect versions of Mach3. It's actually much simpler. Jetcam is corrupting the button's jpg file. Just go look at the jpg with Windows Explorer. I even opened the original 1024 screen with Jetcam and Jetcam corrupted just about everything.

Mach3 just requires a garden variety jpg button file. To prove this to myself, I took one of the original Mach3 button files and renamed it. I then used a graphics utility program and created a new, replacement button and gave it the same name as the original Mach3 button and put it in the same directory as the original buttons. I opened Mach3 and I had a nice new button of my own design. I can't believe that this simple identification of the problem hasn't been identified before.

I love Jetcam's ease of use but the jpg corruption is a major pain. As a partial work around solution, I have been opening the original Mach3 buttons in a drawing program in order to determine the size and aspect ratio's. I then create new buttons and put them in Mach 3's bitmap directory with the others. A very slow solution to a problem that probably shouldn't exist.

I have created a completely new screen with Jetcam but of course all of the buttons are corrupt. My next project will likely be to go back and make replacement buttons with the button utility program that I downloaded. I'd love to get rid of the features of Mach3 that I never use. I also really dislike ( is "hate" to strong a word ) the cluttered layout and button with fake glare - for god's sake Polaroid made a fortune selling polarizing lens glasses to get rid of glare, why do we want to add it back and call it "coool". - My humble rant for the day.

I'd love to hear back from some of you other Jetcam users on this issue. By the way, I use the original Jetcam - the one where you can save files. I like it much better, once I got used to it, than the later release - the one you can't save files with.

[RandomAccess]

Mr Morrow,

You are 100% INCORRECT.
There are 2 button images because 1 represents the up position and the second the "pressed" position.
MACH simulates pressing using scaling.  Jetcam uses a second image.
MACH 3 "knows" how to split and display the images,  or at least it used to.

regards

Stan

[David Morrow]

Mr Morrow,

You are 100% INCORRECT.
There are 2 button images because 1 represents the up position and the second the "pressed" position.
MACH simulates pressing using scaling.  Jetcam uses a second image.
MACH 3 "knows" how to split and display the images,  or at least it used to.

regards

Stan

It's not nice to burst my bubble so early in the morning.

But, why is it then that when I create a simple jpg button in a graphics program, and slip it into the Mach3 directory, if you click on it the button gives that depressed look ( no, not that kind of depressed - that's the kind I am now.)

I sure hope that you and the Mach3 folks get their wires uncrossed because Jetcam was the only real bright light on the horizon for cleaning up the Mach3 screens by us non-programming types. Many of us wasted a lot of time creating screens only to find that they wouldn't work.

[RandomAccess]

Hi David,

It's not nice to burst my bubble so early in the morning.

Sorry about that.

But, why is it then that when I create a simple jpg button in
a graphics program, and slip it into the Mach3 directory,
if you click on it the button gives that depressed look
( no, not that kind of depressed - that's the kind I am now.)

I can't honestly say.

I sure hope that you and the Mach3 folks get their wires uncrossed because
Jetcam was the only real bright light on the horizon for cleaning up the Mach3
screens by us non-programming types.

Not much chance of that happening in the foreseeable future.
I haven't had time to work on the editor in over a year now.

Many of us wasted a lot of time creating
screens only to find that they wouldn't work.

This is certainly unfotunate.  And I do appologize for this.
The thing is that I wrote this editor on my own time,  and for free.
But things started getting out of hand with requests for Flash support
and PNG support etc,  which really aren't necessary but take a lot of
time to investigate and then develop for,  which wasted alot of my
time - (so I know how you feel too).

With my current workload,  I cannot say when I'd have time to get back
to looking at the screen editor.

best regards

Stan

[OzzieII]

Hello Stan,
First let me say that the editor labeled 1.01 was, and is, fantastic; thank you so much for it.
Yes there are a couple things that don't work, but there is so much that works better than any of the other editors.
The really cool thing is being able to do it all, buttons of super design, VB script, etc, from a single program.
I have my copy but I don't see that version around anywhere, for others.
The link from above, http://files.jetcam.net/stan/mach/, doesn't yield anything but a blank screen.

Thanks again,
Ozzie

[RandomAccess]

Hello Ozzie

Thanks for your kind words.
The reason that the original editor is no longer avialable is
that a user contacted me on these groups asking for it
to be removed.  The reason given was that my editor
allowed screen designers to bypass the security of other
people's screens.  If a someone designs a screen with a
password,  my editor would ignore the password and
allow you to load and edit it anyway.

I'd be happy to put it back,  but I can't find my copy
of the original designer.

kindest regards

Stan

[OzzieII]

Hi Stan,
Very interesting.
First, I have it and if you want it I can send it one way or another, snail mail or email if your setup will take that size.
Then you can decide if you want to post it.
I've designed a lathe set with it and have offered that for sale for a few bucks, $14 including postage. The .lset has appeared in a recent article in "Digital Machinist. I've posted it for sale on CNCZONE and am thinking about putting it on 'Bay.
Since buyers can't edit it without Screenedit 1.1, I'm asking you if I can include your program on the disk?
No big deal either way, so far I've only sold a few.

Thanks again,
I love that little program,
Ozzie

[RandomAccess]

Hi Ozzie,

Since buyers can't edit it without Screenedit 1.1,
I'm asking you if I can include your program on the disk?

That's fine with me.

Regards

Stan