Hi All:
Just a note on the forward progression of the program as I see it.
The next phase is for multiple tool cuts. Each one building from the previous. The way I think its all going to work
is that the user will have only one button, "Cut" , which will replace the "rough" button. If you select a tool, and press Cut,
the system will do as it does now, BUT if no material will be removed, the user will be prompted as such and asked if he
would like a "finish pass" to be performed. So if a user presses Cut twice without changing tools, he will be promted
for a finish pass authorization. On the other hand, if material CAN be removed, ie: the tool or direction was changed, the system
will simply add just another rough pass only on the material left over from previous passes.
This means Users will not be able to decide on their own to do a finish pass and no button will exist for one, LTurn will
only trigger a finish pass when a cut is requested with a tool that cannot remove any further material with arough pass.
Its my hope this will firstly ensure that no tool can be hurt by improper finish passes that attempt to take away too much
material for the tool's previous passes, and reduce the amount of decisions made by the user as well as reducing the number
of buttons to two, one for tool selection, and one for CUT.
Optionally, A third button, FACE, will be added then to allow for the entire job to rotate 90 degrees on the screen
to allow for the other two buttons to be used identically, only in facing operations instead of profiling. That will leave only the final
optional button, BORE to be added for inside operations should I decide to go there.
Finally,and optionally, two editing operations need to be added, one for drawing or modifying the a DXF profile, and one for drawing a custom tool shape.
This would pretty much meet the specification I had planned from the start, an easy profiler system, with few buttons, and not a whole
lot of understanding required by the user as to tool loads and such, and as little "air" cut time as possible. If that can be accomplished I'll
feel we have managed to build something not readily available to the public as it stands, most programs being difficult to conceptualize exactly
what will happen in the cutting progression, and having many complex decisions to be made in the DXF to Gcode process, or simply too expensive
for the hobby level or intermittant lathe user. LTurn was never meant to replace CAM as Ive said many times, it is simply being engineered to
make a resonable and fairly powerful way of doing a quick Gocde operation from a simple DXF. The word LAZY is seomthing Im taking very seriously
in its design. We live in a Lazy world, and Im a lazy type guy.
Im getting pretty close. The next phase will tell me just how capable I am of completion,as Im about to swap the "single pass" system to one
of linear progression of material removed from pass to pass. If that phase works out as well as previous phases have Ill add the final finish pass
before Releaseing in Beta form and making a decision as to if I feel that facing and boring are worth moving into,though Im of the opinion
that drawing the profile to be used and saving profiles of DXF's may be a necessary thing in order to make the program fully
independant.
Personally Im of the opinion that profiling shouldnt be that long to full completion allowing removal of Turning from lazycam alltogether. Mayeb another 2-3 months
, who knows.. All development from that point will depend on popularity and how much the program is downloaded and used (support levels ) as Ill release a standalone
of the program to that point as a test.
I guess from there we'll find out how many lathe people are out there that dont currently already have a favorite way of generating toolpaths.
, and if
indeed there exists a real need for easy Gcodeing in Turn op's. Its turned out to be far far more complex than I originally though, and the work required has
been long and arduous, so we'll need some metric to tell me if my time is better spent elsewhere after that.
Thx, just a few noted on how I see the program developing, and what my rough schedule is on this one.
Art
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