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Author Topic: New Screen released ( Beta 1)  (Read 127485 times)

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ynneb

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New Screen released ( Beta 1)
« on: April 03, 2006, 10:04:26 AM »
Well here it is in beta format.
Please be gentle with me.

Down Load it from here http://machsupport.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=421.0;id=327

To get this screen set to work you will have to do a few things carefully.

First run the exe file, this will set up a new folder in your Mach bitmaps folder. The folder will be called "Benny Screen"
Once that is done you will need to browse to that folder and drop the "1MACHLED.ttf" font that is in there into your fonts folder. You will find your fonts folder in Start/settings/fonts/ ( right click and open) Just drag and drop the font into this folder.
Once this is done, you will find another file called "controldeskscreen.set" place this in the main Mach3 folder( C:\Mach3 )

Open Mach3 up and select Config/fonts and fro the Dros select the new font that you recently installed. ( You will find it is the very first font in the list, and you may have to scroll backwards to find it.
This font will not become effective untill Mach is restarted. (Restart Mach)

When you re open Mach, select View/ Load screens/ and browse for "controldeskscreen.set"

Once this is selected you should see the screen appear.

This is best viewed on a 768 x 1024 monitor. It is not suitable for smaller res monitors. I suggest if you have mach to auto scale, you turn off this setting. ( Config/state/ untick auto enlarge ( Bottom left) and restart Mach)

If your monitor is set at 768x 1024 you will need to set the windows task bar to either not display on top, or  uese the auto hide feature instead. This is done by right clicking on a blankof the bar and selecting properties. You will see the options to change the settings there.

Enjoy :)
« Last Edit: April 10, 2006, 04:21:04 AM by ynneb »
Re: New potential screen ( I just dont know any more)
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2006, 01:45:36 PM »
:)

Great start Benny. Looks really impressive. Here is some feedback.

Install went fine.

The files extracted to my c:\mach3\bitmaps\BennyScreen.

Font installed fine.

On first run I had made the taskbar autohide so the screen could be seen 100%

I had errors on :-

 ALL REF HOME button. - Error on line 1. Sub or function not defined: None (*)

ALL SET TO ZERO - Button hides when pressed and does not resume unless page changes

The Dro's will only display 3 digits before decimal point. Does this need to be more ?

The scale access DRO will not display the leading digit if scale is more than 9. Even with scale of 1 the +/_ is almost offscreen.

Edit G-Code does nothing

The font size when looking at program limits on the toolpath display is so small its hard to read. Very.

The DISPLAY MODE button on the toolpath giver the error (*)

Jog increment textbox too small to show all digits.


This is a brilliant start to a screenset that looks impressive. I will add any more problems as they arise.

Great work !!!

(Really jealous as I have been using screen4 for a few days and have nothing like this to show :(
Re: New potential screen ( I just dont know any more)
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2006, 02:48:44 PM »
Please ignore the comment on font sizes above. I needed to change the font to the new one and restart for it to look ok.  ::)

The font on the program limit page is very small however and the G-Code text display is really hard to read.

If I use 1MACHLED.ttf for the DRO's only then use arial narrow on labels and code things are better.

Cheers !
« Last Edit: April 03, 2006, 04:13:47 PM by santiniuk »
Re: New potential screen ( I just dont know any more)
« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2006, 03:24:38 PM »
Nice work,

I think its a very clean look. I especially like the little tiny highlights on the glass buttons. It shows a serious attention to detail.
I hope you realize that we appreciate the hard work you must have put into this, considering you'll never satisfy everyone.
I think for you to present it at all for our consideration is a sign of respect and confidence in what you're doing.

Thanks again
Re: New potential screen ( I just dont know any more)
« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2006, 04:08:31 PM »
Hi Benny

Bussy downloading your sceenset as I write this..... Looks great!!!!!
I also like to play with the screen designers but Screen4 is not so easy to work with , can you help out with a couple of pointers.

First of all do you have to save all bmp's or png's ...........or what ever graphic file you use in the main Mach3 bitmaps folder even if you are doing a Wizard screen set. I find when saving my bitmaps with the wizard ,the bitmaps does not show in Screen4.

Next qeustion related to Realdraw. I used your DRO skins(red, green,yellow and blue) I need to get them a littel darker in collor.How
about a little tutorial in doing that and how to get a round button's background transparent instead of a white square.

Your help will be greatly apreciated

Thanks
Deon Gerber
If A is a success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z.
                               Work is X: Y is play and Z is keeping
                                                             your mouth shut.

ynneb

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Re: New potential screen ( I just dont know any more)
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2006, 05:54:13 PM »
Ah yes I didnt consider that many people have the windows tak bar to display always on top. Thats a depressing thought to have to move all the graphics. I might tell art to change the default black area in the designer to take this into account. If people want to change the windows tool bar to auto hide, they can right click on the tool bar ( in a blank area, and select properties) You will then see the settings.

Yeh, I am aware some of the buttons might not be working, its the very first beta version and I expect heaps of mistakes and tweaking.

Yes you only need to change the font for the DROs only, otherwise its hard to read.

Deon,the screen designer will not show the pictures unless you press the unhide bmps button at the top. Just a little bug with the designer.
To get round buttons without a black or white square background, use transparent PNG files. RealDraw gives you the ability to export your picture out as these. I will write up a tutorial once I have finished with getting this screen up to scratch.

I have descided to only post the screens here without making a big public announcement, until it is sort of up to scratch.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2006, 05:56:44 PM by ynneb »
Re: New Screen released ( Beta 1)
« Reply #6 on: April 04, 2006, 04:38:16 AM »
Benny

Thanks for all your efforts on this - both the screnset and the development, with Art, of the infrastructure to make them possible.

A few early thoughts:

(a) The hotspots on a bitmap architecture feels very responsive compared with multiple bitmap buttons and the automatic animation feels very natural - wondeful given that no work is needed by the "designer" for pressed/unpressed renderings etc.

(b) I have tried Arial and the 7-segment font. Arial works fine and is vastly more legible IMO. Users should not be put off feeling they must use the 7-segment version.

(c) Now a problem: I really need to have the S DRO on screen and ideally some buttons to increment/decrement it (My screen buttons multiply and divide by 1.2 to give geometric speed steps). In the current release format the screens are, for all practical purposes, uneditable. One of my principal requirements is to be able to optimise a screenset to the hardware it is controlling (e.g. one needs spindle pulley controls on a multi-geared head, a Tool Change request LED if manual tool change, different coolant options etc.) A universal screen is so crowded as to be useless.

Have you considered a "release package" including the "object" format files? My personal view would be that as there is no proper standard format and as RealDraw Pro is such a good and reasonably priced piece of software that .RDW files would be the best format.

(d) Finally some details:

I feel that + buttons should be on the right and - on the left when in a pair (e.g. for jogging)

It feels wrong that the page selection buttons are so much bigger than the Cycle Start etc. The latter are too small (in height) for safe use with my fingers on a 17" touch screen.

The screens need to display their "revision data".

It is useful (to me at least) to have the profile name displayed.

I frequently refer to the Modes line.

If you are planning work on Offsets then I have found it useful to display the arithmetic involved (see attachment). The screen shot may be too elaborate as G52/G92 may be little used.

Best wishes

John Prentice

« Last Edit: April 04, 2006, 04:41:46 AM by japrenticeuk »
Re: New Screen released ( Beta 1)
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2006, 07:17:26 AM »
Great looking screen. 
Some button problems...

On Program Run page
1. In Y-Axis contol box, set to zero button does not work
2. In Jog Settings contol box, under Jog Increment section, the plus (+) button does not work and the minus(-) button actually works as a (+) button

ynneb

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Re: New Screen released ( Beta 1)
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2006, 07:47:44 AM »
My silence over the last few days doesnt mean, I am not reading the comments. I can see lots of valid changes need to be made.
I will wait a few more days for all the comments to come in b4 I make the fixes, and post an update screen.
Thanks for the comments so far.

Offline Chip

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Re: New Screen released ( Beta 1)
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2006, 12:31:35 PM »
Hi, Benny

Downloaded your screen.set really nice.

I see your having problems as I was with the double click to straight view it only work's on your Diag. screen..

I fixed mine by using Scree4 and Copy/Past the  good View/cut  screen (Diag.) and replaced the ones generated with Screen4.

There is still a problem with safe Z level red dashed line's getting behind the cut view must be a code error.

Thank's Chip