Testing release of SheetCam for Linux

[Les Newell]

Currently the most recent 32 bit is 7.1.16. The instructions still apply but Debian installations tend to make it a bit hard to run downloaded files using the GUI. You may need to use the terminal. Assuming you downloaded to your Downloads directory you can use these commands from the command line:

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cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x SheetCam_setupV7.1.16-32.bin
./SheetCam_setupV7.1.16-32.bin

In most Linux installations the tab key can auto complete. For instance if you type chmod +x Sh then hit the tab key it will auto complete the rest for you.

[lukasz89]

I need to remove the previous version 6.1.57 before installing new version 7.1.16 ? Installation with a BIN file.

[Les Newell]

You should not need to uninstall but if you want to, look for a folder called 'sheetcamtng' in your hole folder. Deleting that folder will remove SheetCam while keeping your settings.

[lukasz89]

The program works, but the graphical interface is ugly. Windows are not displayed correctly and it is not possible to widen them. Some of the functions are cut off and they are invisible due to errors in displaying windows.

[robertspark]

works and looks fine to me on
Debian 10 Buster
Debian 11 Bullseye
MX-Linux 21

are their some dependencies it could be looking for that are not loaded on your setup?

I have linuxcnc loaded complete with a load of python dependencies, glade and pyQT..... so my setup may have solved what sheetcam needs possibly

[lukasz89]

Will you show some screenshots ?

[rodw]

Got this up and running on a new install of Debian 11 (Bullseye)
All installed OK.
Only thing I could not work out was how to add an icon to a desktop shortcut that is running run-sheetcam which is hte only option I could see to start it.

Nice to have the Plasmac post processor.

[Les Newell]

What desktop are you using? In most cases you can simply drag the SheetCam shortcut onto your desktop.

[rodw]

What desktop are you using? In most cases you can simply drag the SheetCam shortcut onto your desktop.

Using XFCE. I could create the shortcut on the desktop but it did not have the sheetcam icon. What file is that included in?

[Les Newell]

If you drop down the start menu and select graphics you should be able to drag the SheetCam shortcut onto your desktop.
Alternatively you can find the SheetCam icon in ~/sheetcamtng/resources/sheetcamlogo.png

[rodw]

If you drop down the start menu and select graphics you should be able to drag the SheetCam shortcut onto your desktop.
Alternatively you can find the SheetCam icon in ~/sheetcamtng/resources/sheetcamlogo.png

That was the thing. Nothing turned up in the menu anywhere I could see.
I'll use the logo manually.

[Les Newell]

That's odd. I haven't had any other reports of the shortcut being missing.

[rodw]

Les,

The PlasmaC post processor is not sending the kerf width to Linuxcnc.
This line needs adding to UseTool

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      post.NonModalNumber(",kw=", toolDia * scale, precision)

Without a kerf width, Plasmac's cut recovery that moves the torch of the cut path by multiples of the kerf width is not functional
I'm using 7.1.20 for Windows.

I've attached the revised post.

[rodw]

Actually, the postprocessor also omitted the ability to set Plasmac's Auto hole modes
I added some additional parameters.
Set

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holeMode     = 0 

to disable Plasmac's builtin hole processing mode.
The other variables allow you to select the correct mode and and the hole diameter and overcut distance.
All dimensions are set in mm but are converted to inches before use.

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holeMode     = 2     -- Set the hole cutting mode. 0=disabled, 1=diameter velocity reduction,
					 --                            2= vel reduction+ overcut, 3=include arcs, 4=arcs + overcut
holeVelocity = 60    -- Set the velocity for hole cutting mode as a percentage of feedrate
holeDia      = 32    -- Set the hole diameter in device units (mm)
holeOvercut  = 4     -- Set the whole overcut distance (mm)

It would be good if any Linuxcnc users here could test this.

For detailed information about holecutting in plasmac, please refer to the docs.
http://linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/pla ... ting_intro

Hopefully Les can incorporate this as rev 0.3 into his Sheetcam distributions.


EDIT: fixed revised syntax - removed the attachment

[rodw]

Actually, I found a bug in QTPlasmac's gcode filter parsing. Comments broke some of its numeric parsing. This later version works around this

I also removed AutoHoles as it was really redundant as holeMode can do the same thing. So now the hole processing should be disabled if

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holeMode = 0

The linuxcnc guys wanted their statistics data at the end of the gcode file and I found a bug in Les's post so its been fixed too.

This is now appended to the end of the file (Length was not reported previously)

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 ;begin statistics
 ;Pierces = 4
 ;   Cuts = 4,    Length = 627.48mm
 ;end statistics

It should also report the number of scribing segments and distance scribed but I don't have a scriber

LinuxCNC PlasmaC3..scpost.txt

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