Any screens that DON'T use bitmaps?!@!?

[gumbyrulesyou]

Are there ANY screens out there that don't use bitmaps? I know I'm free to make my own, and I'll do it, but I don't want to if they already exist.  I personally find that most of the screens out there are hard to read and are all go overboard with drop-shadow, emboss, gradients and silly fonts, etc, all of which has got to be sucking up RAM and CPU resources. Does such a thing exist?

Andy

[zealous]

Flash uses vector, there is a Mach.swf screen in the Flash folder that you can load. Flash will use %50 less Ram and CPU then redering bitmaps.

[gumbyrulesyou]

50% LESS sounds good. I think if I can find a spare nanosecond however, that I'll go ahead and make a text only screen. For something so CPU sensitive as Mach I'm a little surprised that this doesn't exist. Fear not.. I'm gonna make one, just as soon as I kill off a few of my clients.

[zealous]

if it is a simple GUI let me know and I will make it up for you.

[ger21]

For something so CPU sensitive as Mach I'm a little surprised that this doesn't exist.

I don't think the bitmaps really use any CPU resources, once the screen loads. My Aqua screen probably uses more bitmaps than any, and I run it on a 1Ghz PIII with 512MB of RAM. I can't change screens while the machine is running, but I don't think I could with any screenset.

[zealous]

Vector Graphics are completely different from bitmaps. Rather than a collection of dots, vector images are mathematical formulas. Think about it like instead of remembering all the dots of a circle (in a bitmap format) you just say: a circle with a 3 units radius, I think you get the idea now.The formats include: ai, cdr, dxf, emf, svg and swf.
Because of the nature of vector graphics, they generally have smaller file size than bitmaps (just formulas not info about every dot in the image). They are so easy resizing, double the circle size, the software just has to modify the formula from a circle with 3 units radius; to a circle with 6 units radius and you'll get very sharp new image without any loss in quality and in a double size. Fonts are a good example of vector graphics no matter how you enlarge your font, it will look very sharp.

I can also tell you that I can use 10,000 wacth function like the macro pumps in Mach at the cost of 1 macro pump in VB by mach for the same CPU usage

[gumbyrulesyou]

Man, I hope anybody that runs a CNC knows the difference between vector and raster. We've all experienced it when somebody asks to CNC cut a picture of their dog. Seriously all joking aside, the macropump vs VB macropump comment makes me wonder if the "best practices" are really known to all who customize Mach, and all these sleek screens that look like a science fiction movie do nothing except to impress your wife when she visits the shop. The reality of it is that there is ONE critical process, and that is the proper and timely production of pulses from the LPT port, and anything that jeopardizes that process, no matter how small the impact, must be looked at carefully and a determination should be made whether the additional load's benefit outweigh the risk of corrupting the pulse train and hence destroying a part.... hence my question about the text only screens. I know that I don't really dare to switch screens during a run...especially when I use a smooth stepper. If the part is even moderately complex and there's a graphic of the tool path, it will often conk out while redrawing. Never a good thing.

[zealous]

Sorry I did not mean %50 but %5