Topics

1

Machscreen Screen Designer / Change background color of button

« on: April 21, 2013, 12:56:13 PM »

I am a relative new user of Machscreen so this may turn out to be a dumb question.

When I add a button to a screen, the button has a light grey color. Is there a way to change the background color of the button?

2

VB and the development of wizards / Using laser pointer to set x/y origin

« on: April 19, 2013, 11:11:17 AM »

I am sure that this has been covered (probably many times) in the forum, but I can't locate what I need.

I want to use a laser pointer bolted to the carriage to set the x-y origin.

So the steps would be

Manually position the laser dot to the desired point on the part with the jog controls.
Add a button to do the following:
Move the carriage some predetermined amount (distance between the laser dot and the cutter center).
Zero the x and y dro.

I am sure that this is trivial, but I don't have very much expertise in VB.
Thanks

3

VB and the development of wizards / Adding hotkey to a button or just run a macro script

« on: November 09, 2012, 09:05:31 PM »

I am using the script shown in forum post

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,10088.msg62024.html#msg62024

to do auto tool zero with a plate. I have it tied to the "auto tool zero" button on screen 1.

The button works very well and does the auto tool zero when clicked. I am finding that it is kind of a pain to reach over and get the mouse and then move the cursor to the button and click with my right hand while holding the touch plate with my left hand. So I would like to add a hotkey that would run the macro. I am really having a hard time understanding how a hotkey can be either assigned to a button or just run a macro. I would think the easiest way is just to fire off the script when a defined hotkey is pressed. So can anyone give me an example of how this is done.

Thanks

4

General Mach Discussion / Post processor files type in vectric products

« on: November 03, 2012, 07:42:15 PM »

In Vectric software, when you save the toolpath to a file, you can select from a whole bunch of file types. When loading the toolpath file into Mach 3, it expects a default of ".tap". I am currently saving the toolpath file from Vcarve Pro to a Mach3Arcs(inch) which generates a ".txt" file. The file loads and seems to work just fine in Mach 3. Since Mach 3 is expecting a ".tap" file, I have to select "all files". I then have to choose a .txt file from all the files in the folder. I would rather have a ".tap" file ready and just click in the list of ".tap" files and not have to see all the files in the folder.
So my question is:

Can I output the toolpath to a "G Code(inch)" which creates a ".tap" file and have it processed by Mach 3 correctly?
The file type that I am currently saving is Mach2/3 Arcs (inch). Is this correct? It seems to work OK but may be generating more G code than other choices. I don't really know. If the answer to the first question is yes, then this question becomes moot.

Thanks