Messages

3111

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 LED's

« on: February 05, 2019, 10:13:56 PM »

Hi,
I think that with the suggestions that Chad has made, ie using those functions that NFS has left exposed for our use
you will get close to the visual style that you want.

Some other visual styles are not left exposed. I rather think you could get stuck in and do something about it but might
involve some effort and NFS's cooperation.

I too am an engineer by training and inclination and I have come to the conclusion that certain things about Mach I would
do slightly differently but faced with the scale of the challenge you are talking about I decline to go there. I could spend many
tens or hundreds of hours getting some small feature to my satisfaction but not alter, materially, how the machine behaves.
For instance I would ideally build Through Spindle Coolant into my machine or even a much better filtration system for my
existing flood coolant setup and constitutes a better use of my time and resources.

Craig

3112

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Sending Info to a Database from a Script

« on: February 05, 2019, 10:00:32 PM »

Hi,
well I suspect you will have no trouble with Lua, it is deceptively simple. The syntax is "syntax that only a mother could
love' but the rest of it is fine.

I have this open when I am coding:

https://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/

Smurph tells us that the most recent builds of Mach now use Lua 5.3, there are a few subtle differences.

Craig

3113

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Sending Info to a Database from a Script

« on: February 05, 2019, 09:02:51 PM »

Hi,
the example is:

Code: [Select]

function m401()
inst = mc.mcGetInstance();
    -- create the wxFrame window
    mainframe = wx.wxFrame( wx.NULL,          -- no parent
                        wx.wxID_ANY,          -- whatever for wxWindow ID
                        "DummyFrame", -- frame caption
                        wx.wxDefaultPosition, -- place the frame in default position
                        wx.wxDefaultSize,     -- default frame size
                        wx.wxDEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE ) -- use default frame styles

    -- create a panel in the frame
    panel = wx.wxPanel(mainframe, wx.wxID_ANY)--We are not going to show it but we need to have this to use the File dialog

local file = wx.wxFileDialog(panel, "Select Probe File", "", "", "Text files (*.txt)|*.txt|Tap files (*.tap)|*.tap",
                             wx.wxFD_SAVE,wx.wxDefaultPosition,wx.wxDefaultSize, "File Dialog" );
        if(file:ShowModal() == wx.wxID_OK)then
            local path = file:GetPath()   
--wx.wxMessageBox(tostring(path))
--[[
Set the output of the probe points with the format String
Example:
X%.3AXIS_X
will output X<xprobevalue>
]]--
mc.mcCntlProbeFileOpen(inst, path, "X%.3AXIS_X Y%.3AXIS_Y Z%.3AXIS_Z A%.3AXIS_A\r\n", true);
        end

end

if (mc.mcInEditor() == 1) then
dofile ("load_modules.mcs")
    m401()
end
Hi you may not be particularly interested in wxLua but it is in fact an integral part of Mach, the GUI especially.
In this instance you will have m150 in your Gcode job and a function would run which among other things opens
a file to store results. You could have it run automatically but it would save to the same file on each and every occasion.
You could also have it run with this dialog so that you could choose the directory and filename of the file and the dialog
would dismiss itself thereafter for the remainder of the session.

One thing is almost certain that when you start manipulating files or databases I would guess then having wxLua dialogs
to chose the correct files and/or directories is going to be mandatory.

Craig

3114

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Sending Info to a Database from a Script

« on: February 05, 2019, 08:50:58 PM »

Hi Ken,
there are some differing styles of syntax when dealing with files, I often get confused and end up writing faulty code.
This is the style of syntax that I now use which seems to work best, or at least consistently:

local fileHandle=io.open(pathfilename,"w+")       --This opens a file with the path and file name =pathfilename in append write mode.

I can now refer to that file (as a first class value) as fileHandle. thus to write a line to the file would look like this:

fileHandle:write(offset,'\n')                              --This appends the string offset to the open file

And these statements flush the buffer and close the file when I've finished writing to it:

fileHandle:flush()
fileHandle:close()

There is a somewhat simpler syntax, syntactic sugar, I think its called but I get better results using the longer more formal approach.

Craig

3115

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 LED's

« on: February 05, 2019, 08:31:15 PM »

Hi,

My only other complaint of Mach4 is the raised buttons/frame. That I imagine is a whole other problem.

I think that all the buttons, panels, tabs, frames in fact all of the graphical elements in Machs screen are wxWidgets
elements. Thus Machs screen is no more than a large collection of wxLua code.

If you are at all familiar with wxWidgets then you will also be aware that there is a wide range of graphical styles from which
you can chose, including things like raised borders. When in Machs screen edit mode a number of parameters of the
button, say, are available for user update, colors, font, blink rate etc. The structure of the underlying button is not
accessible through the edit screen, things like raised borders etc.

I think that your guess 'That I imagine is a whole other problem' is probably correct. A worthwhile selection of wxWidgets
parameters are made available for user manipulation others are not, including the nature and size of the boundaries.
If you had the GUI source code then ALL the wxWidgets parameters would be available to you.

NFS does have a policy of allowing interested developers access to the inner workings of Mach and presumably the source
code. In order to secure their intellectual property you would have to enter a N(on) D(isclosure) A(greement) with NFS.

To make the case to NFS you would want to demonstrate the need and/or demand for the project you were undertaking
and your ability and stickability to achieve a result.

I have recent come across a quote that is appropriate here 'Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without'.
The question I pose is that 'does the visual style that Machs screen is constructed with preclude you from using it?'
I suspect from your preceeding posts that your sense of 'offended visual style' is a weak argument in face of the demonstrated
usefulness as a CNC program. Remember we are talking CNC here.....not some high end desktop publishing software.

Craig

3116

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Sending Info to a Database from a Script

« on: February 05, 2019, 08:03:33 PM »

Hi,
the simplest is an example.....most if not all of my file opening/closing has started life as an example which ships with Mach4.

Mach4Hobby/LuaExamples/ProbeToFile/M401.mcs

That provides a simple file dialog using wxLua to browse to either an existing file or create a new one.
Study it and see how it works. I've always struggled with wxLua but in recent weeks have done a bit more work on wxLua,
the wxWidgets reference manual and most recently wxFormBuilder. I may be able to help with some of the simplest of
questions.

Craig

3117

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Sending Info to a Database from a Script

« on: February 05, 2019, 06:54:27 PM »

Hi,
I'm not familiar with sending data to a database but I am familiar with having Lua scripts open files
to either read or write data. Would that work?

Craig

3118

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 CNC Controller Build and asking for LUA scripting help

« on: February 05, 2019, 06:34:51 PM »

Hi,

For 3), are there native timers to LUA or do you need to build your own by incrementing a counter?

wxTimer() is the function you are looking for. Try Daz-the-Gaz's video:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=32573.0

Craig

3119

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 LED's

« on: February 05, 2019, 06:25:56 PM »

Hi,

I wonder if it's because I'm using the hobby/trial version

To my knowledge the only restriction of the Demo version is the length of time  (six minutes) that it will run
before it requires a restart. Absolutely no changes in how the GUI works.

Craig

3120

General Mach Discussion / Re: Engrave/V-Carve Toolpaths overcutting corners

« on: February 05, 2019, 05:37:36 PM »

Hi,
I suspect it's the ratio of acceleration to velocity. The higher the acceleration allows the spindle to follow the tool path
at a given speed. Increasing the acceleration OR reducing the feed rate achieve the same result.

Craig