Intercon enhancement proposal

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Surgo
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Intercon enhancement proposal

Post by Surgo »

I mentioned in another thread about how it would be nice to able to add functionality to Intercon. Given how it can already insert arbitrary G-code, I think there's a pretty clean and well-defined extension point already that only needs minor improvement from Centroid. This would allow for users to add whatever arbitrary cycles in Intercon they wanted.

What I propose: In Intercon, where you can insert "M&G Code", you can instead specify a specific macro (which, technically, you already can). Intercon then reads the parameters of the macro and creates a screen where you enter the parameters like other Intercon functionality. The text and type information would be encoded in the comments. For example, take the linear move screen in Intercon. The macro would look something like this:

Code: Select all

; ParameterBlock End
; Parameter A: X (abs position)
; Parameter B: Y (abs position)
; Parameter C: Z (abs position)
; ParameterBlock
; Parameter D: Feedrate (feedrate)
G98
G1 X#A Y#B Z#C F#D
Obviously there's no easy way to connect it to the concept of angle, length, or connect radius. But the parser should be able to see the parameter list and construct a screen that looks like the linear move screen. Seeing the "End" ParameterBlock, it would create a block with the given parameters X/Y/Z like you see in the linear move screen. It sees the units as positional and absolute -- so it would prompt you to enter in units in whatever you've set the machine units to. As they are position units, it would also understand and substitute concepts like "Home".

This would represent a usable way for the end-user to extend Intercon with customized cycles by programming it as a macro. The Intercon parameters screen for each cycle would then be usable in this case as well. With the proper unit support, it could connect to the rest of Intercon like telling it to pick a tool, to go to a certain position, to use a certain angle, etc.
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