Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: Mauri on January 22, 2017, 04:35:16 PM

Title: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: Mauri on January 22, 2017, 04:35:16 PM

Hi,
Is there a way to only display the Gcode Toolpath as it is being processed (cutting) and not the full Toolpath of the loaded Gcode?
Regards,
Mauri.

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: smurph on January 22, 2017, 06:24:15 PM

Unfortunately, not at this time.  :(

Steve

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: joeaverage on January 27, 2017, 08:25:55 PM

Hi Mauri,
could you not achieve something similar by making the Gcode path the same colour as the background?
The cut path would stand out only.

Craig

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: joeaverage on January 27, 2017, 08:33:19 PM

Hi Mauri,
I just tried it out, I made both the top background and bottom background colour the same likewise the rapids, the linear gcodes and the
arc gcodes. The toolpath loads but you don't see it until the job runs.

Craig

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: Mauri on January 28, 2017, 02:15:32 PM

Craig,
My question on this is, does it have any affect on the GPU usage?
My requirement would be not to display the loaded G-Code, hence no GPU usage on this through the cycle process, but display the actual cutting of the part of the G-code.
I am not sure changing colors would make any difference.
If I knew how to stop (turn off) this first G-code Toolpath display, then this would achieve the low GPU usage I am after.
Regards,
Mauri.

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: joeaverage on January 28, 2017, 04:12:26 PM

Hi Mauri,
no the GPU usage is the same, its just that you cant see it.

Isn't there a control on the Mach/Toolpath page  'VBO', its my understanding, possibly mistakenly, that turns the toolpath display off altogether.
That would reduce GPU usage for sure!

Craig

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: DazTheGas on January 28, 2017, 04:21:39 PM

from this post by smurf

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,34027.msg235880.html#msg235880

Quote

There are two options on how the tool path is run.  Vertex Buffer Objects (aka VBOs, and requires OpenGL version >= 1.5) and the old Mach 3 way.  We test for the v1.5 and if the driver supports it, we use VBOs.  Typically, using VBOs puts more of the work on the GPU and less on the CPU.  But usually, it also lends to smoother video as most graphics cards have faster memory that the RAM that the CPU uses.

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: Mauri on January 28, 2017, 05:06:20 PM

Daz,
I fully understand that.
Mach4 is written to cater for old video cards that operate as low as V1.5 OpenGL and use single thread CPU processing.
This thread questioning whether we can eventually get an option not to display the initial full G-code at all, but just the G-code Toolpath that is being processed.
Steve answered that by saying not yet.
Regards,
Mauri.

Title: Re: Question on Toolpath?
Post by: DazTheGas on January 28, 2017, 05:27:59 PM

Sori Mauri that was for craig in regards to

Quote

Isn't there a control on the Mach/Toolpath page  'VBO', its my understanding, possibly mistakenly, that turns the toolpath display off altogether.

DazTheGas