Messages

541

Machscreen Screen Designer / File Corrupt error

« on: February 05, 2010, 10:57:13 PM »

I used MachScreen to develop a screen, then used mach to edit the VB button script. I was in and out of the editor many times in Mach until I got the button script to work correctly.

I then returned to MachScreen to work on the screen and when it tried to open the file it reported the screen file was corrupt. I went back to Mach and the screen opened OK, so I went back to MachScreen and tried again. This time I clicked the button to try to open the corrupt file. It seemed to open OK, and the screen looks OK, except for the background grey seems not to fill the whole screen.

I closed and reopened the file, now it opens without the corrupt error.

Im using Mach 3.042.030 and MachScreen 1.37c

542

Finished Screens / Re: Image button over a Label

« on: February 04, 2010, 09:25:33 PM »

I tried it, and it crashed the program. I got to the point of having the dialog open showing both elements, side by side.  I made a couple corrections of the sizes to make them exactly the same , then when I hit the Swap button it crashed, with the 'send error report" dialog.

This was with the latest version, 1.37a

I tried it a second time, and it did not crash, and it now works as I want, I  can click the label and it changes state.

thanks, MachScreen is a gem.

543

Finished Screens / Image button over a Label

« on: February 03, 2010, 09:44:31 PM »

I want to put a button over a label- its the label that shows feed/in or feed/rev and I want to overlay it with the button that toggles it.

Ive tried and it looks like a label overpowers the image button. I made the image button a transparent png button

Anyone know how to do this?

544

General Mach Discussion / Re: Conversational Wizard Problem

« on: February 02, 2010, 08:51:17 PM »

There have been a number of bug fix versions of the wizards since the days of machV1.90

The latest wizards are now V2.83 see the section of this forum on Newfangled to get the latest version. Note that some recent versions of the Mach install have had an older (2.79) set of wizards. The version number will appear in the upper right cornet of teh first wizards screen

545

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3D Printer: Extruder

« on: January 29, 2010, 09:43:33 PM »

I started to do some work with this. I bought the extruder control board from makerbot and did some reading about hooking it up to my mill.

I got turned off after looking at all the parts beng made- they are really rather crude. Its neat to be able to make something this way, But Id like to be able to print parts that could become patterns for casting and everything Ive seen is much to coarse to be usable.

There was one of the thingvers units running at Cabin fever and I got to handle some of the parts it made and they were not very impressive.

I think if you make the extruded filament fine enough to make smooth parts it will require days of run time to build up anything interesting.

I may still move ahead on this, but for now Im kind of put off by it.

546

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: CUT RECTANGLE

« on: January 12, 2010, 08:27:46 PM »

Glad you figured out your problem. I am going to try hard to get Brian to update his copy of the wizards so he stops sending out 2.79. We have done it a couple times and somehow he always winds up going back.

I am looking at dong lathe wizards. I have a lathe nearly ready to run. When its running Ill need some wizards. Im going to focus on the idea of a semi-automatic lathe, more of an automated manual lathe.  If you have a turning center you need real CAM software, but for simple tasks on a semi-automatic lathe wizards seem right.

547

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: CUT RECTANGLE

« on: January 07, 2010, 10:25:41 AM »

Wow, that does sound like a long job.

There is no single wizard to do something like this, and I think its a bit beyond the idea of wizards. I see them as a way to do a simple, quick job.

My first reaction is I would have done this job by using a CAD program to make the layout, then something like Sheetcam or Cut2d to make the gcode.

One way to do it with wizards would be to use the rectangular hole array wizard to create all the  code for the array, then edit that code to drop in the code to make a slot instead of a simple hole. One problem might be that the hole routine uses canned drill cycles, you might have to hack that code a bit, but at least the wizard could generate all the base geometery.

There is also a nesting wizard, not part of the newfangled set that might work. You could use the newfangled to generate the slot code, then the nest wizard to make the array of slots.

548

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: CUT RECTANGLE

« on: January 07, 2010, 07:21:52 AM »

The screen button is programmed to call the wizard as C:\mach3\addons\newfangled Thats where the standard install puts the file.

When I post a new version I name it newfangled283 so it will be clear which version it is. If you simply unzip that package it will wind up in C;\mach3\addons\newfangled283 so the button gets the old script. If you look st the wizard pull down menu you will see both and can select teh one you want.

There is no reason to keep an old version. Delete your file called newfangled and rename the newfangled283 to be just newfangled.

I have had problems that Brian keeps getting an old version into the mach install kit so if you update Mach to a new version it replaces the newfangled with the old one.  Ill try again to get Brian to only use the current version.

549

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: CUT RECTANGLE

« on: January 06, 2010, 10:26:33 PM »

Thanks for all the screen shots- that makes it easy to see what you are doing.

The first thing I notice is you have an old version- 2.79. You should be using 2.83

In the Change log file I have

V2.80 Nov 24, 08
Fixed Cut Rectangle to include F word after plunge

So I think getting the latest version will fix your problem. Its right here in this forum, down a few topics.

550

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: What am I doing wrong

« on: January 03, 2010, 09:28:08 PM »

Yes, the newfangled wizards use tool offset code, so if you have values inthe tool table Mach will use them.

I think that if you have set up the tool table correctly the wizards will work OK. If you do not use the tool table, and all the entries are 0 then they also work OK.