AXIS hangs on redraw sometimes (often)

I have a quirky problem with my setup which runs on an Intel ATOM based board.
If i load Gcode it will usually process the code and draw the gcode moves in the window - no problem.
Now - when i start the touch off procedures for setting my G54 offsets, which forces a RELOAD or if i press the RELOAD button (2 green arrows), it will often hang. The Blue status bar gets maybe 80% of the way across to the right but it never comes back and the timer mouse pointer icon just keeps spinning.

I figured out that MOST of the time i can get it to finish the reload and come back by minimizing the AXIS window and then maybe counting to '10' and then re-maximizing AXIS. I might have to repeat this two or three times but it will come back - timer mouse pointer reverts to normal and the blue status bar has disappeared and all is good.

Sometimes, though, it just won't come back - that Blue Status bar never gets to the end and i am forced to shut down the app and start again - which is pretty annoying when you've got a part that you're working mounted to the table.

Can you help - i'm pretty PC proficient but i just haven't got a clue where to start to figure out what is causing this lack of responsiveness on reloading.

Thanks!

Hi

No idea what RAM, linuxcnc version, underlying distro etc, some Atom boards are quite low power processors, so those aside.

What G Code is loaded that will only

usually process the code and draw the gcode moves in the window

at startup?
Is it some huge bloated CAM output.

If you replace the program with one that just moves the axes back and forth then ends, do you have any problem with that?

You can see where my initial thoughts are going

regards

What kind of processor?
The D2700 is useless on Linux. No suitable driver that supports 3D acceleration.

regards

Thanks to all for trying to help.

It tends to happen more often i think on larger g-code samples but to be honest it also happens with simple bits of g-code (like a simple probing program that works out the centre of a circle). Just yesterday it happened to me on a piece of code that simply creates a single circular pocket 3mm deep.

I'll check which exact ATOM processor i am using - it's using the integrated graphics.
In general thought the set up works in every other way with no problems - i've never had any problems when g-code is being executed,
It's simply caused either by the initial g-code load or when reloading some g-code.

It's driving me mad - because when it happens i have to close down the program so when i get in i need to re-home, reload the g-code.

When i get home i'll figure out exactly which Intel ATOM board it is.
Is there some trace program that i can use to see where the AXIS program is getting hung up?

thanks!

Hi

Is there some trace program that i can use to see where the AXIS program is getting hung up?

No not really. It will be from line 1040 (on the copy I'm looking at) def open_file_guts(......)
All files opened or reloaded go through there.

It will not be a problem with Axis per se, it will be to do with your video chip, the implementation of openGL, how much RAM you have plus processor speed and the size of the file to be processed.
The gremlin display is very heavy on video resources with openGL. If you have an on-board chip and low RAM that can be a bottleneck.

What version of linuxcnc and on what distro (10.04 or 8.04) are you running?
How much RAM do you have.
Do you have a HDD or are you running off a usb stick ( that would be slow ) ?

If the answers to the above are say 1.6 - 1.8 GHz processor, 1GB + RAM, a HDD or SSD, I would be tempted to attack the openGL side and try the software libraries
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Troubl...oftware_based_OpenGL

Just use apt to install libgl1-mesa-swx11 and the libgl1-mesa-glx. packages will be removed, as they conflict
(make a note of which packages are removed so that you can re-instate if necessary, I think however libgl1-mesa-glx is just a meta-package and that will install all the rest)

This can somethimes have dramatic effects, will be interesting to see if it improves / cures your problem

regards