BlockMill GCode Creation Tool

[Toaster]

Hey folks I created this web tool for making G Code:



This is something that I made for myself to quickly create some simple G code toolpaths, and it turned out a bit better than I expected. I thought maybe folks here would find it interesting/useful.

I mostly work on Centroid controllers, so while the G code this tool generates is as generic as possible it only has been tested on Centroid up to this point.

Check it out, I'd be interested to see if anyone else finds this useful. I'm sure it's got some bugs, and some missing features. If there are enough people that find this interesting I may consider adding more to it.

https://blockmill.github.io/BlockMill/

[cnckeith]

cool. thanks for posting!
has some Intercon vibes to it.

[Toaster]

That's a bit what I was going for... just something simple that you could make some common toolpaths with....

Check out the circular pocket combined with a helix entry. You get nice tool loading that way if you're doing a circular pocket or a slot

[cnckeith]

very cool, Intercon is certainly due for a 2025 make over, when we get some of these other big ticket programming items in the bag we will circle back around to it and combine ideas!

[cnckeith]

fyi. the block mill discussion seems to be going on here viewtopic.php?p=100337#p100337

[Toaster]

I added a few updates per some feedback and requests I got.

Firstly, I added a few more "block groups"

These are predfined operations that you can pull in, like this one for "slabbing" (router folks like to do this to flatten slabs)

Now rather than having to set this one up from scratch each time you can just drag this one in, tweak the size and speeds and off you go:

This is the list of pre-defined blocks. Here's the slabbing block:

Additionally folks were asking for something like "variables" Basically a way you can set something like Feedrate and re-use the same value all over your code:

You can do this now with a coordinate or a feedrate. You can give it a friendly name too, so you could give a feedrate of 120 as "Slow cutting" and then wherever you have a feedrate block you can just insert the "slow cutting" block you created.

If you wanted to change the value of "slow feedrate" you can do that and all the places it's used will update as well.

[grossmsj]

I used this today to put some slots in the bottom of some box sides. It was easy and actually fun to use.
I learned (I think) that you can save the jobs by sharing the link and copying it. Then I saved that URL link to a bookmarked web page. That's a little bit of a cludge, but it's early days.
While I actually was making slots in these box sides, I ended up using the rectangular pocket operation. This operation gave me the option to use 'bottom left' as the origin, which was my WCS XY zero. The slot seemed to start in the middle of the slot and would have required me to set the WCS part zero differently.
This is perfect for those little jobs that don't really require a CAD program.

[Toaster]

Glad it helped you out!

Yes, there is no real "save" option right now. Just like you found you can bookmark jobs you've done. This might break if I do a big update to it.

The slot operation only currently supports zeroing in the middle, and the square pocket can support zeroing in different places.

[richardb15]

I'm just starting to look at this, mainly for quick text engraving of part numbers etc, seems a very quick tool for this, but I think there is an error in the code to draw a number 3:

I think the 3rd arc of the 3 should be:
G3 X2.5000 Y2.5000 I0.0000 J2.5000 F100 ; Draw top arc

rather than the auto coded one near the bottom of the g-code shown above, which has the X as 5.000
G3 X5.0000 Y2.5000 I0.0000 J2.5000 F100 ; Draw top arc

Also I personally would like a Z home block (M25) as I use that a lot between different ops just to make sure regardless of G90 or G91 the spindle is home before big positioning moves at high feed rates.

Nice tool though, thanks!

[Toaster]

I'll check out that number 3.. Those numbers were a total bear to make (at least the way i did them)

For the Z lift you can use the "Safe Z" block that does a G53 Z0 move. That may be the same thing as your M25...