MDI and Jogging at the same Time ?

Hi Folks,

this has propably been asked before, but forum search went nowhere useful:

Is there any workaround to have the Axis MDI Tab active while still be able to jog with keyboard and the jogwheel ?
Would really make the work on the lathe a lot easier ...

Hi Ben,

Maybe that is hard coded in Axis.
I think it can be done if you click with your mouse on the gremlin screen while the mdi tab is open. The black screen where
the picture of your product is.

Normally mdi is only active when pressing the mdi command execute button. That's how i write gui code.
The Manual and Auto mode is then inactive.

You can see it sometimes. Linuxcnc has a 3 state mode. Automode, MDI mode or Manual mode.
Some screen widget's will go of in auto mode, such as manual move button's will go off.

MDI is a sensitive item. I only use it for test purposes.

ben_benson wrote: Hi Folks,

this has propably been asked before, but forum search went nowhere useful:

Is there any workaround to have the Axis MDI Tab active while still be able to jog with keyboard and the jogwheel ?
Would really make the work on the lathe a lot easier ...

That is hardcoded behavior in AXIS, not easily changed AFAIK.
Is it the annoyance of switching back the tab each time that is the problem?

Chris M

Yeah, it is the switching between manual and mdi (F3/F5) that makes working on the lathe with a lot of repetitive moves so cumbersome. I might dig into keyboard shortcuts for move macros....

Hi Ben,

# With joints_axes support and jogging while mdi
# (ref: emctaskmain.cc:allow_while_idle_type())
# behavior is better without changing tabs upon detecting
# a task_mode change.
# Restore behavior with this local var: enable_tab_change
this is found in the source code of axis.py line 775

Do you currently use a newer linuxcnc version?

I use the "Touchy" interface, which allows you to press the "jogging" button while on the MDI screen.

On My lathe I additionally have a button on the lathe apron above the jogwheels that toggles halui,mode-manual, which enables jogging.