Screen Grabs

Phil

The screen which comes with Mach3Turn is very annoying to use with its jumping back and forth between the screens.

The Lathe screen works, but having to jump around as described is rather annoying.
M3M is better than Turn.

Cheers

DaOne,

tell me what your thoughts

I am completely open minded at this point. Looking for suggestions and we'll have  time to discuss in detail in the other thread.  

RICH

Where's Scott.... any thoughts on the matter?
RICH

Hi Phil,
You have already implemented a lot of the things that I would have liked to see in the lathe screens. Is there a chance you could post your latest screenset?

Cheers
Dave

Hey Rich, Phil, others.......

   My screen, all I did was move all the funcs/buttons of the OEM lathe screen, the ones you use, and a few oddball buttons, on the main page since I hate jumping around.  I didn't make any custom buttons, or vb outside of what was on the OEM lathe screens. It was just a quicky, version to do day to day lathe work, thus the "Practical" aspect of it.
   I purposely, left ALOT of open space and even comment about that fact in the original release for others to "Add to it" as they saw fit, i.e. extra axis, extra this ro that what ever. Reason being that there are some many ways that people like to use thier screens and the way they work, that it would be impossible, or at least improbably to make everyone happy.......   So, my though, was put on the basics, plus a few of the lesser used stuff, but leave some space so Who-ever could add a "Kanuter-value" or an "Allen Bradley Recabulator" if they wanted....

     personally, I really dont have a dog in this fight, and gladley admit, that at best, I am a hobbie level user of the lathe. BUT!!!  I can do the VB macros, graphics, wizards, macro pumps, brains, plugins........ what ever the final verdict is on this stuff........
I have a CHEEZY  "Shop Task" three in one machine that has the Lathe on it that I use. so, no real complexity there just wanted to turn some crap via CNC control.

   In the end, I will gladley be one of the "Wizards behind the curtain", on the screens/wizards that you decide you want to do.  My goal in all of this, is to make a "Standardized"  Lathe screen, that would help the largest number of users, without all the "Stupid Pet Tricks", that the current OEM screen does.....

I will be in and out, for the next 10 days, going up to WA to do some stuff wont really be back at home till after the 20th of Jan.....  so, if I dont answer right away, dont worry, I will get to it enventually.

scott

Scott,
Your talents will certainly be called upon and know that all this takes more time than folks may think.
Follow the threads and from your perspective think about the time required to do some of the things and also what someone could do or help  to reduce the effort
and not overburden yourself. Some things you are the man though.
__________________________
To all:
Where the new lathe screen ends up is anyones guess. I am leaving all four threads on this subject totaly open and seeking suggestions
and not passing a go-no go on any one of the suggestions or opinions. It would be very easy to just provide one, but, this way users will
have input and see how the final product came about.

Each thread about the lathe screen is a task in itself. I know darn well that there is no one ideal screen. That is not going to limit my thinking
at this time as we  continue to "collect stuff". Some of it seems implementable on the surface but may be harder than this guy thinks.

Let me get off thread here a little as an example about the effort. I am thinking that some of the tasks can be done by a number of folks.
Certainly won't be just a few. I am not worth poop on this end for doing any kind of programing and can't test or check some of the things
on a new lathe screen if implemented. So i personally will pick and choose what i can do effectly and would hope other users do the same.

I spent a hard 16 hours ( not complaining )  just scanning the info which was posted in three lathe threads and never even got to make comments on the wizards yet.
As an example, there are about 45 wizards were the code has been modifed  such that say 38 of them will post code
with comments and should be good for both radius and diameter mode ( that in itself was probably a PITA, , but the task is hopefully done,  ).
 Now to just check them out, say 45 wizards x 2 backplots each  = 90 things to do x 20 minutes each= 30 hours of happy effort, and we haven't even
created a new one or created new screens for them, etc, etc. So we will need more than just a few to do all this.

BTW, I'm just a hobbiest also, my lathe can be used daily or just collect dust for weeks, but one never knows what needs they will have in the future so those
users working at a higher level of lathe use really need to chime in with comments. 

Just some thoughts on it all,
RICH

Well.. how do we start getting the ball rolling. I think it sounds for the most part people want most everything required to run a program on one page. No flipping around. I myself would love a conversational programming interface so I don't have to break out cad/cam to do something simple. As for layout I personally like something along the lines of Gerry's mill screen set shown here...


http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,17004.0.html

Something you just look at and you know how to use if you have ever used a CNC lathe. Very simple and elegant on the first page but if you need more you go deeper into it and its there.

Hi Rich, where are all these existing wizards? Would it be worthwhile collating them into one location, then they could be tested / researched, to see what we already have.
Perhaps someone could act as a project manager and assign testing tasks, milestones and  goals to individuals?

Cheers
Dave

how do we start getting the ball rolling

By waiting for comments, just need to give it some time. 

RICH