EMC2 v2.4.4 Axis bugs, features, and suggestions:

First, what happened (in 2.4) to the beautiful splash screen that was part of 2.3??? It was fabulous!

Entering a "t1" (MDI line) (virgin install) causes emc to freeze. Try doing anything afterwards, such as changing tabs or running default axis file.

Under certain conditions, setting spindle speed causes emc to just stop program execution without warning. Debug shows "emc/task/emctaskmain.cc 2082: error executing command 1316:EMC_SPINDLE_SPEED" Code which may generate this is "s1, m3, s0, m30" (on separate lines).

EMC sometimes stops for no apparent reason. No error message is emitted, it doesn't crash or lock up, it just stops -as though it hit an M30 or such. Not after seconds, but a few minutes, in the middle of generic X-Y movement code, nothing strange. "Debug reveals "Motion id 0 took 0.000000 seconds." followed by "emcTaskPlanClose() called at emc/task/emctaskmain.cc:639"
[My example file: demo.nc]

"R clearance plane unspecified in cycle" emitted, but no reason they should be. [My example file: demo.nc]

Also, what is this "Maximum number of errors to print exceeded!" I get? It just seems to hide error messages.

If a bad character is in the file, it prints "Bad character '1sed instead of "used".

For large files the warning "Program exceeds machine maximum on axis ..." with the option to "Run Anyway". However, if one accepts that, emc stops with "Linear move on line xx would exceed joint..."

For fast feed rates, the live plot does not track the tool path exactly, this is seen at corners.

The Axis preview image can only be "tilted" 90 degrees. Allow people to rotate 360 if they want.

Click the "Z" axis display, then press the scroll wheel to rotate the display. The image rescales to a small size.

Does anyone actually use the DRO tab? The Preview tab has essentially the same info and much more.

Suggestion: Display "inches" or "mm", perhaps after the DRO, so it is obvious which units are being displayed. Could even be in the upper right corner of the Preview screen.

Suggestion: Allow emc to run without turning on the power button. This would be a "simulation" mode. This mode would not require the axis to be zero'ed either.

Suggestion: Show the current translation (G54,...) coordinates on the screen. Perhaps upper right corner of Preview window?

There seems to be no way to scale the output (without cumbersome changes to the source file, such as seen in axis.ncg). Ideally, there would be a standard 3 x 4 transform matrix. This would allow you to:
Scale X, Y, and Z independently.
Disable axis movement individually (multiply (scale) that axis by zero)
Plot left-right or up-down or Z-axis inversions
Do rotations (without refixturing material)
Do translations (already available through homing, but may be useful for multiples)

The Feed Override display truncates after 3 digits, so 1100% displays as "100%".

The "Go" button near the MDI Command window is unnecessary. With a keyboard, one would normally press enter anyway. If using just the mouse to select lines from the history, the line can be double-clicked to execute it.

"F-1" is confusing in the Active G-Codes window. Presumably it means the feed rate is undefined. "F-" or "F*" would be better.

Display the elapsed runtime in the Preview window. This clock would stop while execution was in Pause, but would increment for Run/Single-step modes.

Have an option to write a "run file" which would begin with the timestamp each code line was read and executed. If would also show the code itself. This might be useful for debugging, productivity profiling, machine wear, and perhaps billing.

The MDI Command line should accept input while paused. Cannot easily clear this input box.

Make the circular "X" (ESTOP) button into an octagon, like a stop sign. A minor change.

The "Active G-Codes" do not update as the program is executed. Not very active...

Display the "Active G-Codes" (actually, it should be "Current Modes", since not all are Gxx codes) in the preview window. Perhaps at the bottom of the viewport, or in the upper-right corner.

If you click on "File", "Machine", or "View", moving the mouse cursor to another pulldown (File/Machine/View) does not show the new pulldown menu.

If the Preview window is resized to tall and narrow, most of the image is cut off. Better to compute the image scaling by using X min Y.

For large dimension files, the warning "Program exceedes machine limits" keeps popping up, even if you click "Run Anyway". If you are single-stepping into the code, this is annoying. Better to have it ask once when the file is first run rather than every line. Worse, emc gives this warning incorrectly by failing to notice that it is set to metric units. Also, the Preview can get out of sync with the machine movement -so that the "live plot" does not follow the program -i.e. a tiny plot is drawn over the large preview window plot. Although the on-screen units should never change from that specified by View (this part is correct -unlike some other controller programs...), the image should be redrawn when a G20/21 is given in the MDI.

A warning should be given if a file does not specify metric or imperial units. Proposed dialog box: "Movement before units specified -interpret this move as ()inches or ()millimeters?"

It would be nice if the "Open" (file) dialog box would remember your previous "Files of type:" setting. It would also be nice if it would find ".tap" (Mach3) files.

G-Code quick reference file:
Should show value in parameters column for F, S, T codes.

Still issues with the Run/Step/Pause/Stop buttons and the code display/current instruction line. But I'm not prepared to write a tretise on them at this point.

Future feature: Allow editing of the code window.