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Author Topic: Simple one line MDI required  (Read 6508 times)

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Simple one line MDI required
« on: May 17, 2018, 04:35:56 PM »
Can someone point me in the direction of a simple one line MDI implementation like there was in Mach3? I much prefer the way you could type a single command and hit enter to execute it.

There doesn't seem to be a property that can be set to execute on Enter, or to limit the number of lines to 1

Any help would be much appreciated.
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2018, 07:54:15 PM »
Hi,
the short answer is no.

As it stands you are required to type your MDI code in the MDI window. I presume you are happy with that,
its similar to going to the MDI tab in Mach3.
If you hit <enter> you will start a new line in the MDI window, so you can have multi-line MDIs, quite handy.
Once your MDI code is complete then you are required to issue a MDIExexcute() command and for that purpose
the Cycle Start button is provided.

If you find hitting the Cycle Start button on screen inconvenient it would be possible to assign a spare keyboard
key and have that key execute the MDI. Clearly <enter> is used in other manners would not suitable, every time
you hit it an MDI would execute whether you intended it not.

Does that sound like a reasonable work-around?

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'

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Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2018, 03:08:40 AM »
Ctrl-Enter will execute the MDI.

Steve
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2018, 03:54:06 PM »
Hi,
the short answer is no.

As it stands you are required to type your MDI code in the MDI window. I presume you are happy with that,
its similar to going to the MDI tab in Mach3.
If you hit <enter> you will start a new line in the MDI window, so you can have multi-line MDIs, quite handy.
Once your MDI code is complete then you are required to issue a MDIExexcute() command and for that purpose
the Cycle Start button is provided.

If you find hitting the Cycle Start button on screen inconvenient it would be possible to assign a spare keyboard
key and have that key execute the MDI. Clearly <enter> is used in other manners would not suitable, every time
you hit it an MDI would execute whether you intended it not.

Does that sound like a reasonable work-around?

Craig

Thanks Craig. That's a real pain because I use the one line and hit enter MDI on Mach3 all the time and this just isn't that convenient. Heaven knows why they changed it, if I need something in several lines of g-code I use a temporary program.
I'll put in a feature request. All it needs is a single property that says single or multi line in the MDI component and then everyone it happy.
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2018, 03:54:36 PM »
Ctrl-Enter will execute the MDI.

Steve
Thanks for that Steve.
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2018, 04:01:43 PM »
Hi,

Quote
Heaven knows why they changed it, if I need something in several lines of g-code I use a temporary program.
Funnily I find exactly the opposite, I often stack several lines and let it rip....As a matter of reflex I often end up hitting <enter> only to remember
that it doesn't work in the manner that it used to, but so what, there are a lot of things which don't work like they used to but they work so much
better now!

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2018, 04:37:08 PM »
Hi,

Quote
Heaven knows why they changed it, if I need something in several lines of g-code I use a temporary program.
Funnily I find exactly the opposite, I often stack several lines and let it rip....As a matter of reflex I often end up hitting <enter> only to remember
that it doesn't work in the manner that it used to, but so what, there are a lot of things which don't work like they used to but they work so much
better now!

Craig
As it happens, you can do that in the Mach3 single line MDI too, you don't need a dialog box for that functionality
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2018, 04:52:00 PM »
Hi,
Quote
As it happens, you can do that in the Mach3 single line MDI too
Yes, I seem to remember stumbling over that when using Mach3 but it was quite a while ago now. I personally find the structured approach adopted by
Mach4s developers to be very much more comprehensible than the amorphous chunk of code that Mach3 became.

Indeed its my understanding that Mach3 having become on amorphous block of code made further development extremely difficult, you fix one fault only to find
that you have broken some other seemingly unrelated item, thence the decision to write a completely new program...Mach4.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2018, 05:08:57 PM »
I couldn't agree more about Mach3, it grew into a monster. Mach4 is a different animal, but it's frustrating to find that things I used to take for granted now can't be done that way. I'm also struggling to get the old pendant to work, despite a kind forum member writing a basic driver for it. Setting up used to be dead easy, and now it's a pain in the neck until I work out ways round these issues.

I foolishly thought I'd just download Mach4 and start using it, but it's been painful, what with the backlash compensation ESS only just being implemented correctly.

Such is life, at least you can customise Mach4 and rip out all the stuff you don't need. I don't mind putting a bit of effort in to get it how I need it to be, but I don't want to spend months on that when I have jobs that need machining. I might have to go back to Mach3 in the interim until I can beat Mach4 into the shape I want it.
Re: Simple one line MDI required
« Reply #9 on: May 19, 2018, 05:32:42 PM »
Hi,

Quote
Mach4 is a different animal, but it's frustrating to find that things I used to take for granted now can't be done that way
That very much sums up the way many feel about transitioning to Mach4 from Mach3. What I remind people is that Mach4 is NOT Mach3 and
wont ever be so. Over a period of time there were all sorts of tricks and workarounds in Mach3 that were employed and we all became familiar with them
without realizing that they were a total 'kludge'.

Mach4 has done away with all those hacks. In most cases you can replicate, or come close to replicating, the same behavior with Mach4 by programming
it so. The programming itself imposes a structure based set of restrictions and so you are extremely unlikely to break something else as would be the case
in Mach3.

To date there are few manufacturers who have invested the time and effort (read....money) into writing Mach4 plugins for their pendants. CNCVista is the only
one I know of where the business did it of their own volition. The XHC plugin was written by a couple of enthusiasts, no doubt with XHC support but not
the business itself.

Have a look at Daz's Xbox 360 plugin, it might fit the bill really well. In addition you have the ability to contribute to the ongoing development of it rather than
purchasing from a business.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'