I am just getting started with my Acorn but I have a request to take this to the next level...... on a wide screen monitor there is a ton of wasted space. It would be really nice to have a window on the main screen that also shows the graphic screen, along with an indicator as to where the cutter is located as it moves around the image.
Anyone that has run Mach3 will understand this concept. In Mach3, as the cutter moves around the profile, the path changes in colour so it is easy to see at any time what has been cut and what has not. It is really helpful to be able to see the cutting progress as well as the DRO. This way the operator can see what is upcoming, just in the event that they might want to pause, or stop the program at some particular pre-established point. Only being able to see the DRO numbers spin by doesn't help much. So if we can have such a window, that would be great - and also make it so we can adjust the size or the position on the screen please.
Peter Stenabaugh
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I have to say, I'm not really seeing the point, here.
As I understand it, CNC12 already has a graphing feature showing the position of the tool in the path, and even if it didn't, one presumes you can look at the machine and likely quite accurately judge how complete the part is based on the physical status of the cut.
I can imagine a very complex 3D part that takes several hours of machine time, that it might be handy to have a simple feature that just roughly illustrates whether the part is half done, three-quarters done, or almost done, but isn't there a sort of "timer" readout already?
Doc.
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On acorn if you switch from the DRO screen to the Graphics screen, your machine STOPS. That isnt a good thing if you're in the middle of a project.
A progress bar would be fine, that's merely a sliding bar on the screen someplace, however that could be improved upon by having a 'percentage completed' number showing somewhere.
My point is that since we have a huge amount of unused computer screen, lets fill it up, and one thing that would be really nice to see is to copy, or move the graphic display to the main screen, so that at a glance you could see where the cutter is. Currently you cant tell what the status of the job is by looking at hundreds, or thousands of lines of code flashing by, in fact it's even hard to try to read a single line since it isn't displayed very long.
Mach 3 displays the current position of the cutter using a 2D or 3D wireframe model and that seems to be totally adequate. I'm not suggesting that we need a rendered 3D model of the part being machined - but then again why not? Why cant we have the best display for what I see as the best cnc controller software out there.
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