What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

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Les Newell
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by Les Newell »

hans wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:39 pm
  • Selecting "Full tool paths" in nesting mode toggles also the function "Show input paths".
It has always worked this way. I can't remember exactly why though...
  • In the exported CSV file the items: ToolType, MillTool, ThreadMillTool,VTool
    By the way: Very nice feature, thanks!
This is correct in my opinion. If someone writes an application that loads/saves CSV files for SheetCam it needs to work no matter what language is being used.
  • Some in the shape library: e.g. "basic shapes".
    And for example for the shape Brackets/"Rectangle 4 Holes" the value "Horizontal hole spacing" is not included in the translation but the same string in the shape "Brackets and Mounts"/"Rectangle 4 Holes" is translated ...
    And some shapes appear in more than one category.
Looks like you have some old shapes left over from an earlier installation of SheetCam. The 'Brackets' category is no longer used.
Now all shapes are placed in the same layer. What do you think of creating a new layer for every new added shape? Maybe with the name of the shape.
Yes, I should add a layer option so you can set the layer.
1. What does the value "Plunge distance" represent? I figured out that it is "Plunge safety clearance" + "Depth per pass" or "Plunge safety clearance" + "Cut depth" if Cut depth > Depth per pass. I don't think that this was your intention?
That's correct. It represents the total distance cut with straight down plunge cuts. It does include the plunge safety clearance which skews the numbers slightly.
2. Yesterday I had a number format like this, but i can't reproduce this actually...
capture_20210404_120726_01.png
:shock: I'd love to find out how you managed that one. The numbers are displayed using the same code that displays numbers anywhere in SheetCam. It should round to a fixed number of digits (the number of digits depends on your preferred units). It hasn't changed in over 10 years and I've never seen it misbehave before.
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djreiswig
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by djreiswig »

I am interested to see how this alignment code works.
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Les Newell
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by Les Newell »

I have attached the files. A lot of it is LinuxCNC specific, reading probe parameters and doing the probing etc. The subroutines of most interest would be find_xedge.ngc and find_yedge.ngc

Basically here is how it works:
First zero X and Y on the corner. Now find the X,Y coordinates of a point along the edge. This wants to be a decent distance from the corner. Find the arc tangent of those coordinates (the atan function) to get the rotation angle. Now use coordinate rotation with that angle (I think it's G68 in Mach3)
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touchoff.zip
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djreiswig
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by djreiswig »

Cool. I'll take a look. I'll post back if I get something working.
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djreiswig
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by djreiswig »

Well, not being at all familiar with Linux or CommandCNC. This code is pretty much Greek to me. I tried googling the codes, but I'm still pretty lost.
This might be a task for someone who switched from Mach3 to CommandCNC. I don't think I'm going to be a lot of help, unfortunately.
OldHippie62
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by OldHippie62 »

Hey Les, thanks for the response.
Basic Shapes, got it. Works as advertised 8) . The tool table one, that's going to take a little work, but I will look into it. You don't know how many times I've had to rebuild tool tables.The Align one is the the one I really hope you look into.Just to give yo an idea,
20201211_170436.jpg
20201211_170436.jpg (1.12 MiB) Viewed 463412 times
I can go from this to this in one day.
Thanks for taking the time.
Ed
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20210310_101610.jpg
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hans
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by hans »

Les Newell wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:29 pm
hans wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:39 pm
  • Selecting "Full tool paths" in nesting mode toggles also the function "Show input paths".
It has always worked this way. I can't remember exactly why though...
Hmm may I don't understand that function. Actually it does something like this:
I don't know if that is the intended function...

Peek 2021-04-09 12-32.gif
Peek 2021-04-09 12-32.gif (1.13 MiB) Viewed 463405 times
Les Newell wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:29 pm
In the exported CSV file the items: ToolType, MillTool, ThreadMillTool,VTool
This is correct in my opinion. If someone writes an application that loads/saves CSV files for SheetCam it needs to work no matter what language is being used.
That makes definitely sense.
Les Newell wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:29 pm Looks like you have some old shapes left over from an earlier installation of SheetCam. The 'Brackets' category is no longer used.
Okay your update function only add files. That explains that.
That resolves the issues with the translated items :-)
Les Newell wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:29 pm
Now all shapes are placed in the same layer. What do you think of creating a new layer for every new added shape? Maybe with the name of the shape.
Yes, I should add a layer option so you can set the layer.
Or maybe replace the button "Add to current part" by "Add to current layer" and "Add to new Layer". The same for Text.
That would make it easier to place multiple shapes if a contour is made from a combination of multiple shapes as there is not possibility at the moment to set a position while creating these.
Les Newell wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:29 pm
1. What does the value "Plunge distance" represent?
That's correct. It represents the total distance cut with straight down plunge cuts. It does include the plunge safety clearance which skews the numbers slightly.
Hmm then I just don't understand why that value should be important to be displayed on the status bar. IMHO that would only make sense if there is only one tool...
And I think the total job time is at least as important as the total cut distance. May that could be added?


And what's with that viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8415&start=105#p28610 ?
hans
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by hans »

Program crashes when working with shapes plugin

Regularly when playing around with the shapes cutting library the program crashes. Unfortunately I can't really figure out what causes the crash.
I added a video that you should start watching from the end. And the crash log.
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Les Newell
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by Les Newell »

hans wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:37 am Hmm may I don't understand that function. Actually it does something like this:
I don't know if that is the intended function...
With full paths enabled, all parts show just as they would when they are selected in any other mode. With full paths disabled, only the selected part is show fully and the others are just shown as outlines. This was originally to save CPU and GPU power. Computers are a lot faster these days so for all but the most complex jobs you can probbaly leave it on full tool paths.
Or maybe replace the button "Add to current part" by "Add to current layer" and "Add to new Layer". The same for Text.
That would make it easier to place multiple shapes if a contour is made from a combination of multiple shapes as there is not possibility at the moment to set a position while creating these.
I think I'll just add a box, just like the text plugin.
Hmm then I just don't understand why that value should be important to be displayed on the status bar. IMHO that would only make sense if there is only one tool...
And I think the total job time is at least as important as the total cut distance. May that could be added?
You're probably right. I'll take a look.
Does it happen on all jobs? I can't get that to happen here.
Program crashes when working with shapes plugin
:evil: That one has been driving me crazy. It's something ugly going on deep inside the scripting system. It appears to be triggered by 'garbage collection', which happens every so often when the scripting engine thinks it needs to free up some space. When it happens it messed things up so badly even my debugger can't make sense of what happened.
hans
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by hans »

Les Newell wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:21 pm
hans wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:37 am Hmm may I don't understand that function. Actually it does something like this:
I don't know if that is the intended function...
With full paths enabled, all parts show just as they would when they are selected in any other mode. With full paths disabled, only the selected part is show fully and the others are just shown as outlines. This was originally to save CPU and GPU power. Computers are a lot faster these days so for all but the most complex jobs you can probbaly leave it on full tool paths.
Ok I understand. That previous gif shows the correct function. Now I remember what I meant:

Sheetcam_5.gif
Sheetcam_5.gif (359.4 KiB) Viewed 463384 times
I think I'll just add a box, just like the text plugin.
Ah yes, good idea. I missed the box of the text plugin.
And what's with that viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8415&start=105#p28610 ?
Does it happen on all jobs? I can't get that to happen here.
Actually I can't reproduce this :-/.
But how to select the order in this dialog? And I would suggest adding a button for "finish". Using a context menu here is not very intuitive I think. It took some time for me to figure out that I have to use the right-click menu (on the background window !) in this case ;-)

capture_20210409_152744_01.png
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hans
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by hans »

Shapes-Plugin:
  • Dimensions dissappears when moving shape
  • In develeopment version dimensions are never shown (only on my machine?)
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Les Newell
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by Les Newell »

This is sort of fixed for the next dev release. Dev uses a popup for the help image. The problem is that the popup appears to the right of the text box, putting it off the screen if you have SheetCam full screen. One possible solution is to move the shape panel to the left of the graphics window. I'll need to think on this one...
hans
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by hans »

Hmm I still don't really understand what's the difference between the development and the non-development version.
You release updates for both in the same intervals and they have nearly the same functionality as far as I can see. Or did I miss something?
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djreiswig
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by djreiswig »

The dev version has more goodies, but sometimes they don't always work quite right. That's why it's called development.
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Les Newell
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Re: What bugs you the most in SheetCam?

Post by Les Newell »

hans wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 5:58 pm Hmm I still don't really understand what's the difference between the development and the non-development version.
Currently there is very little difference between the two. That is because V7.x.x is a very new release. From now on both releases will get bug fixes but stable won't receive any major changes. As new features are added dev will slowly diverge from stable until the next major update. At that point stable gets all of dev's new features and the cycle starts again.
Unfortunately the last release was a bit more rocky than anticipated so I'm still in bug fixing mode rather than adding new features. Turning for instance has been put on the back burner until I am happy the current releases are stable.
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