LazyTurn

[ART]

Hi Guys:

  As you probably know, I tend to futz about form one project to another. But Turning is something I had intended to do for
some time. SO while I can't promise this will come to full development, I am working on a replacement for the turning mode in
LazyCam. When complete, Turning will be removed from LazyCam and will be replaced by this program.
   
  Turning is pretty hard to do for most people. Im really looking for an easy way to make my own profiles. This program is a DXF
or other vector file loader, which then will assist is creating a turning Gcode. It is planned to do boring, facing, roughing, grooving
and finishing from an imported profile. Presently, all thats done is the input and display sections. But Id like to have any input from
Turn people on what exactly makes a program easy to use in terms of generating a Turn profile.

  This program is a raw begining. Dont expect fancy menu's and such till I get there, each step along the way I am analysing just how
easy it is to use and create profiles. This program will , in the end, also allow for profiles to be drawn. At the moment, all you can do is load
pre-existing dxf's, hpgls, or other vector format data. In your mach3 folder under examples, is a "ainsideprofile.dxf" and an "aoutsideprofile.dxf"
which you can use to test this program, and subsequent releases.

  Any comments are welcome as to ease of use, or ideas you may have for the graphical display of whats going on.

 As I said, this is raw, it will allow loading, display of the profile, stock, and measurements of various things in the loaded profile.

The next post wil show a screnshot, have a download link for the program as it stands, and a short description of function.
We'll go from there. This is being done because Ive always felt a bit bad about not supporting lathe users to the levels I had always hoped,
and also as an experiment as just how to make LazyTruning, truly lazy. From the users perspective at any rate.

Thanks
Art

[ART]

Hi Guys:

 OK, heres the program, as well as a screen shot of progress to date. In the phot you can see I have loaded a profile, ( any profile must be a single connected group of entities.
LazyTurn will swap around and reconnect as it sees fit, so your drawing order can be as arbitrary as you like. In the end though, it must all connect to a single chain. You may have a detailed face
on the chain if you like as LazyTurn will allow for facing operatiosn in the end. The rulers are smart and zoom and pan with you and are programmed to stay on the screen. Ctrl key and shift key are
the modifiers for zooming and panning as in LazyCam, and the center button of the mouse if the rotational control. ( as in LCam)..

  The pentagons on the ruler indicate Stock size ( blue) , profile diamter ( orange) , and bore size ( Not yet implemented) and moving the mouse over them will tell you the actual measurement. ( the ruler is a visual rough guide). Clicking on any pentagram, will allow you to change that value. You may use this to set stock size, or eventhe profile diamter prior to asking for a toolpath generation. The bottom green pentagram is for seting the location of the Z origin. ( many of us prefer to have the Z start at 0 ) and go negative towards the chuck.

  You need to copy this program into your mach3 folder to use it as it uses a dll from lazycam. While this looks similar to lcam, this is a completely new program using almost no LCam code. Its designed to be fast and efficient. Its using many ticks Ive learned to speed things up, and make things more robust.

 Id appreciate any comments on the work so far so that I dont veer away too far from what the majority think is a better GUI interface to control operations. Of course, at this time, the only thing you can do is
display the profile as a turn object, change stock size, start Z, profile diamter, and zoom around and instapect the object. Toolpath generation will come soon when the side bars are ready. Unlike LCam, LazyTurn will
not be displaying chains, and entities, but rather only a list of generated toolpaths and allow you to order them for execution. A button bar will appear for various operations, grovving, boring, roughing..ect..

  My concept of this is a quick load of a profile, a fast easy way to set general relationships between objects, and quick button presses to generate paths. Tools will be a library od graphical tools so you can see the effects as a path
is generated. But all this is in the future. Id like comments on work so far.

Thanks
Art

[kiran_list_groups]

Hi Art,

The LazyTurn interface is neat! Just a quick thing I noticed - you might want to place the pop up dimensions (mouse over)  on the left side of the ruler for the X axis. The numbers appear superimposed on the scale and could be difficult to read.

Looking forward to helping in any way I can..

Cheers

Kiran

[mammike]

Looks cool I imported a dxf and it worked I will haft to play with this some more later.
Thankyou mike

[La_coterie]

Hi Art,

I just downloaded & tried to run - no dice, says app failed to run cos Lvkrn.dll was not found

Oh? what do I do now?

steve

[ART]

Steve:

 You need to have LCam installed. And the program needs to be in your Mach3 folder to test it..

Art

[ART]

BTW:

 Make sure you have the latest lazycaminstalled. Use the lazycam standalone download link if you like..

Art

[ART]

Kiran:

 Thanks. Alreay noted here. Im going to place the numbers in their own little box for clarity.. Nice to hear form you by the way,

Art

[La_coterie]

Hi Art,

Yeah that done it!

my 2cents..

change the pentagons to triangles pointing at the scale and make them dragable, I found myself wanting to move them just to see what happened to the image

Here's an idea.... have a table of standard bar sizes (metric and for those across the pond, imperial so 2 tables, user definable) and dragging the triangle jumps from one stock size to another and inicates the current size of stock when the moves moves over the triangle

When you click on the pentagons (now redesigned as triangles ) to change the size make the numbers in the box highlighted so you can instantly enter a new number (hey it is supposed to be lazy )

I found it unnerving the Z scale changing when I altered the stock size etc - though I'd changed that as well!

go to it art! looks like a fun thing 2 do

steve

[ART]

good idea.. Ill look into doing both. Not sure I understood the comment on the Z ruler changing when stock chnages, nothign shoudl happen to it unless you reset the Z start.. But I do like the triangles being draggable thing with standard sizes being allowed. Perhaps a double click to enter a diamter, and a drag that click from size to size for standard stock diamters. OF course I havent a clue whats standard, but I imagine thats easily looked up...

Art