Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach Screens => Works in progress => Topic started by: ger21 on December 30, 2008, 08:15:53 PM
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With some Photoshop help from Graver, I'm going to redo my screen I made a few months ago. Here's the start.
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Oh sure, take him away from finishing his screen set that we'd all like to see. Nice one Gerry! :D
Dave
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Yeaaaa,
What He said............
:-*
scott
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I didn't think it COULD be improved Ger.
But if it can, looks like Andy's the man.
Thanks,
RC
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this looks a little better. At least I think so. :)
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Looking good Ger. Nice and clean. :)
Brett
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This will be the first screen when you start Mach. Looks like I'll have 6 wizards built into the screen set, so no waiting for wizards to load. Need to add jog controls to the blank spot.
This screen will let you load the code, home and jog the machine. I need to add a status bar, and maybe an MDI on here too. I think I'll shrink the toolpath dispaly and see if it looks OK like that.
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1 Down.
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Looks great Gerry.
Brett
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It looks very nice Gerry. Very readable. Mine leans to the very busy side. But I want everything on one screen :D
Where are your DROs and how do you zero an axis from this screen?
Screen4 sure is a pleasure to use isn't it? ::) Having done a little of this now I appreciate how much work it really is.....and how frustrating it can get. I know I have had to solve many problems with the software to end up where I have. It is definitely a pleasure to have the wizards built into the screenset. Way,way faster way to work.
Andy
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Where are your DROs and how do you zero an axis from this screen?
The Run Program button will take you to the Run Screen. This screen is just for loading code, but I figured it'd be nice to be able to home and jog the machine there too. That way, you can start Mach3, home the machine, load the code and go.
Screen 4 is not that bad, once you get the hang of it. However, I do the images in 1280x1024, but set up the screen at 1024x768, because Screen4 makes it hard to select anything when at 1280x1024. I like to copy and paste in the blank area, and there isn't one at 1280x1024.
The trickiest thing so far were the MPG LED's. Getting the dual states set up so they don't move left and right when toggling the states. And the fact that I had to label them to save space, made me have to make 8 instead of 1. Also, the gradient background forces me to make extra LED's so the edges blend in correctly. :)
The built in wizards may not end up what I have them labeled, btw. Just threw in some placeholders until I get to that part. :)
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I need to create a folder to put the LED's and images in, so I guess I need a screen name. Any suggestions? :)
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Ocean Blue ?
Graham
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Aqua Mach ?
RC
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How about "Off the Chain" or "Gerry's Bomb" cause it is the bomb. ;D
Brett
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How about iMac Mach
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I kinda like Aqua Mach. I thought about Mach Mac, but the buttons are too square. Ocean Blue is too british.
How about The Shiznit? ;)
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Yeah, I like The Shiznit. LOL
Brett
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Shiznit, very American, use it
Graham
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Actually, I think I'm going to go with something simple.
R2
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Figuring out where to put everything sure takes a long time. :( I've got this so far. Instead of LEDs, the buttons will change color when active. (Axis Zero, Run, etc..) I played around with the button face being a two state LED, and using a transparent button over the top. It works, but you seem to lose the "button push". I'll sacrifice that for the coolness of two color buttons. :)
With any luck, I'll have something for you guys to play with soon. It'll be far from finished, but good enough to run code. maybe. :)
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NICE Gerry,
How bout a little screen shot of a button ON beside one that is OFF.
Like to see the difference.
Overanxious.....I know,
RC
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When I get home tonight I'll post one.
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:) Thanks Ger :)
RC 8)
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How about this?
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Nice.....REAL nice.
Thanks Ger,
RC
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Here's an update. Forgot to add an Error Line, so I used the mode line and added a new smaller mode line, and downsized the code window a hair. This image shows the X axis ref'd, and the Start button pushed, with code running. When stopped, the Start button goes back to blue.
I have to shrink the start buttons a bit. If you look closely, you can see the square corner of the button image overlapping the round corner of the border. What a pita. :( They don't shrink well in Photoshop, so I'll have to make new ones. At least I only have to make one, then copy/paste and edit the text.
I might have these two screens done enough to run code with most of the functions working in a week or so. Then I'll upload it so you can play with it. It looks really cool when running. Blows away the last screen I made.
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Gerry,
I see you have retained the scale buttons. I have always wondered who uses those. I can't see how they would be of much use on a mill. Do you perhaps run a plasma cutter?
Andy
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I don't even have a machine. :) I've been working on a router on and off for about 5 years, though. It's been almost done for over a year. And I've been designing a better one for the last year too. As soon as the first one is done, construction of the second one will start. Maybe. ;)
I'm making this screen as a testbed for another screen that I'll do for the newer router. I'm basically duplicating the simple screen that I made a few months ago. But since I have room, I figured I'd throw in most of what the standard screens have, to make it more useable to more people. But a lot more organized and easier to read.
To answer your question, I doubt that I'd ever use the scale DRO's. But since there's room, I figured why not. :)
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I don't even have a machine. :)
I wonder how many things you'll change after you really start digging into your machine. ;)
I've made so many changes to my screenset after I started doing certain things repeatedly and eliminating others that don't ever get used or at least moving them to another screen in the set that I "thought" were going to be used.
It looks really nice so far.
Dave
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Like I said, this is a test before I make my real screen. :)
I just found out that this is going to be trickier than I thought. Putting transparent buttons over LED's doesn't always work as expected. Looks like it may take a tricky balancing act of "Bitmaps to back", and Cut and "Paste in Place".
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What kind of problems are you having with the transparent buttons?
One thing I found out is that Mach doesn't like a Persistent Image Button. I had to recreate all the buttons on each screen so that they were unique to each screen.
You wrote in an earlier post that you work at the 1024 resolution in screen4. Do you then scale it up to the higher resolution? Do you scale things down in the lower resolution. It sounds like a lot of work.
I designed all mine at the 1280 res. It was a pain.
Andy
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Yeah, I found out early the persistent buttons didn't work.
Here's what's happening. The X axis DRO lablel/ zero button is actually an LED with two states, so that it turns a glowing green when ref'd. On top of the LED, is a transparent button using a transparent .png.
When I start Mach, I can home the X axis and the LED turns green. Then I click on it to zero the DRO, and I see the blue LED state on top of the green LED state. ( I can see the green glow around the edges.)
However, if I go to View >Load screens and reload it, it'll work correctly after that. Weird. Even weirder is that the run button is the same way, but is working OK.
Do you know if Bitmaps to back only affect the selected bitmap, or all of them? It seems like if I select the background image, and do a bitmaps to back, it actually moves the background to the back, but only on that screen. on the second screen, it moves the buttons to the back :o
I think I need to load the backgrounds, then the LED images, then transparent buttons.
Wait, I think I have it figured out. The screen I've been playing with didn't have the transparent .png loaded for the transparent button.
Here's what seems to work. Follow the instructions I just mentioned, then, select the transparent button, then Edit>Cut and Edit>Paste Exact. Then right click and lock in place. Then it seems to work correctly. the buttons with LED's under them don't "depress" like the others, but they do change colors like i want.
Another thing that's tricky is making the dual state LED's, where one has a glow. Sizing is critical so they don't jump left or right by a pixel or two when changing state. Sometimes cropping from the edges can fix it, but sometimes I need to move the button by 1 pixel in Photoshop to get the spacing right.
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Almost filled up.
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It looks like a nice screenset. Now finish it so you can go back to work on your router.
BTW...5 years seems like a long time to build a machine ;D
I built mine last winter. It was a fun build. I never really needed a router but I wanted one. I've done more work for my friends with it than for myself.
Here is a youtube video of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZC8v0UnWdM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZC8v0UnWdM)
Andy
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Does anyone want to try it? No built in wizards, and the Offset buttons, and Goto zero, to go, machine coords and softlimits don't work. But it's somewhat functional.
Can anyone tel me how "Reverse" works. I set it up like the standard screen, but I can't get it to do anything.
And Run From Here? How does that work? Set Next Line does what I'd think run from here would do???
Put the .png's in Mach3\Bitmaps\R2 and load R2.set
Feedback appreciated.
Vacuum Button is set to Output #5.
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Home All buttons don't work, and Reset on Run screen doesn't work either. oops. :)
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I'll give it a try if I have time this afternoon Gerry.
If you select "run from here" the machine immediately takes off from the current line in the Gcode window. "Set next line" just queues it up. Then you will need to hit the run/start button. The reverse button is probably most useful for plasma machines. It will trace back over the toolpath in the opposite direction. I modified my Goto Zero button to only affect the x and y. I don't like the idea of my machine rapiding down to the top of the stock. Makes my butt pucker....
Andy
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No guinea pigs??
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The FRO label/button is an LED that changes when FRO is active. I wanted to duplicate this functionality with the spindle override. Unfortunately, there doen't appear to be a spindle override LED.
Here's my workaround:
Create a user LED for spindle override, and create a Brain that toggles the LED if spindle override is less than 100%. (OEM DRO 74) ( I have the spindle override set to 50%-100%). I believe that if you wanted more than 100% override, a second Brain (or Lobe??) could handle this as well.
One thing I noticed, though, is that I need to use an S word in the initialization string to make sure the spindle speed is not "too slow for pulley" when Mach3 starts. I haven't tried with the pulley min set to 0, but that might work. The S in the initialization seems to work fine.
Question is, is there somewhere else that spindle speed is specified when Mach starts? I'm using OEM DRO 202 for the spindle speed.
PS. These images are full size screen captures with Mach3 running at 1280x1024, so you can see that it looks pretty good. :)
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That is a nice clean screen Gerry. I'd help test it if I had time but will be at least a few weeks before I could. Hopefully there will be some helpers come your way sooner than that.
Brett
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looking good ger
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Gerry, what do you want tested? I thought this was just fictional at this point, no?
Dave
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Just looking for comments, don't need any testing, although it'd be nice to know everything works correctly on other PC's.
Fictional??? ;)
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i find it often hard to comment on something i have not tested but from the look of it, it look very functional
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Just looking for comments, don't need any testing, although it'd be nice to know everything works correctly on other PC's.
Fictional??? ;)
Yes, fictional as in not "for real" yet? :D
I'm having a look at it now and I was curious to know as what use is the simulate run button if you don't have an elapsed time DRO? Do you somehow utilize that for something else?
Love the program run/run program buttons, that's a slick and a really nice feature. It looks and feels great - :)
Dave
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I'm having a look at it now and I was curious to know as what use is the simulate run button if you don't have an elapsed time DRO? Do you somehow utilize that for something else?
Dave
That's why I wanted feedback. :) Never used the simulate button. So It works with the elapsed time DRO? Thanks. I'll look into that later.
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Actually the DRO is called "Estimate Time" and the format string looks like this "%.2f" (no quotes)
Dave
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OK, fixed the simulate and changed the Reset button. I'm going to redo the plain LED's so they match the LED buttons better.
I'm still confused about run from here. Screen4 says the system function is "set next line". Set next line uses OEM156, which is "set this line as next to execute". The Set next Line button works, but I don't know how to use Run From Here. Anyone?
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Gerry, I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're after with run from here.
You scroll through the GCode in the code window down to where you want to "run from here" and then click the run from here button. Is that what your asking?
Dave
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Yeah, but I can't get it to work. I checked the standard screen and another one, and I set mine up the same way, but it doesn't seem to work for me. Would you mind checking it on your end?
I think I finished up the layout of the second screen. I have a spare button in the bottom left corner. Any suggestions?
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Gerry,
The run from here is working perfectly for me, wonder what the issue is for you. What's it doing for you?
As for the extra button, how about making it smaller and then adding an LED and small dro (thickness for touchplate) for the touch plate macro set up?
Dave
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It doesn't seem to do anything here. I'll try it on my laptop tomorrow and see if it works there. But if it's working for you, that's fine. At least I know it works.
As for the button, I already have the Auto zero button (same thing). As for the DRO, I figured that, how many people would actually use different plate thicknesses? It's simple to just change the thickness in the macro and leave it. I do appreciate the suggestion, though.
And thanks for checking things out. :)
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I'm going to remove most of the LED's and replace them with the two state buttons I'm using. This will give it a more consistent look. I think the only LED's I'll need are the MPG axis selections and modes. I'll redo those as well to look a little better. I'll try to get it all done by tomorrow and post a working version minus the settings screen and wizards.
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Ok, then maybe you could have the button do what I used my "leftover" button for ;D
(http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=10149.0;attach=12456;image)
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Here's a usable version for testing.
Unzip all the .png's to Mach3\bitmaps\R2\
Place Spindle OR LED.brn in Mach3\Brains\
Put R2.set in Mach3 folder.
Spindle Override
The brain is needed so the spindle override can match the FRO, because Mach didn't have a native spindle override LED. In order for it to work correctly, if you have no spindle, you may need to set a spindle speed in the initialization string, and set the pulley 1 max and min speeds.
Note: Make sure to enable the brain.
I haven't gotten to the built in wizards yet, and they'll be a while. Also, the settings screen isn't done yet. Actually haven't started them yet. I think I have between 40-60 hours in this so far.
The only thing I'll probably change on these screens are the few remaining LED's for MPG selections.
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Thank's i will try ...
Fabrice
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Got a suggestion to make it appear that the wizards all load where the toolpath screen is. By making a bunch of duplicate screens, each with their own wizard, I think I can give the appearance of having only two screens, but actually have 6 or 7. I'll know better in a few days if it'll work OK.
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man ger that screen is awsome i really like the blue background it makes everything popup and clear the layout also seem really intuitive
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I redid the whole design from scratch. And used Overloaded's name, Aqua. :) Here's a (hopefully) usable beta.
http://tinyurl.com/ak8q2z
Auqa.set goes in the Mach3 folder.
.png's need to go in \Mach3\bitmaps\Aqua\
For the spindle override LED to work correctly:
Spindle OR LED.brn needs to go in \Mach3\brains\
Under the Operator menu, go to Brain Control and enable it.
This is the only way I could think of to get it to work like the FRO does.
Note: Occasionally, I've the reset spindle LED lit when starting mach3, but no spindle OR applied. If you move the slider and reset, it sems to work fine after that. I'll look into this further down the road.
Most things work, but not the tool change position buttons.
Let me know if there are any problems, or if there are any suggestions.
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when machine setting is click i get a script compile error also how do you switch between the screen
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That screen's not done yet. :)
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I think I've got it all working now.
http://tinyurl.com/bol3zf
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A very nice and clean screen set. I like your led buttons particularly well.
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I posted an update in the "Finished Screens" section