Re:DIgitizing a part with no probe

I posted this on CNCzone a while back with no avail so ill try it here

Back when I used to program CNC routers for my job we had a router that we could lay a cardboard template down, drive the machine manually and place the axis where we wanted and hit a button and create a point. The software that drive the machine (windows based if I remember right,this was 7ish years ago and it was old then though) would output a dxf which we could open in autocad and create curves off the point cloud.

Im looking to something similar with my router and Emc. Im currently using ubuntu vs 8.04 and I think EMC 2.3. I dont currently have anything special set up in my config file, I dont even have my limit switches wired in yet Im using the probotix stepper drivers and breakout board for my electronics.

Im not at a point where I want to create a probe sequnce or even really make a probe, I would be happy with manually jogging the machine with a fine point bit and pushing a button when I get where I want to be. Really I would be perfectly happy with EMC creating a text file with the coordinates I need. So jog to a point, click a button, Coordinate output. Anyone have any ideas, I need to do this tonight, so simple is great

THANK YOU!!

That is exactly the kind of info Im looking for. write now im jogging to a location, then writing down the coordinates by hand. Not exactly the best method. This could be useful for a ton of reasons. Ill post up when I make some progress.

I am looking to use Axis 2.5.4 to digitize a paper plot or 2D template on a small gantry router.

Is there a simple to implement (my programming skills are weak) solution for writing current machine XY or XYZ position to a file? I am imaging a small pointed probe, aligning it visually, and a keystroke or GUI button to log data.

Thanks!

I added this to my g540.ini file in the HALUI section

MDI_COMMAND o<logpoint> CALL.

Then in in my PROGRAM_PREFIX directory (home//linuxcnc/nc_files)

I wrote logpoint.ngc containing:

o<logpoint> sub
(logopen, logfile.txt)
(log, #5420 #5421 #5422)
o<logpoint> endsub
m2

and created an empty file logfile.txt in the nc_files folder

What do I do to actually run the command? I get an 'unknown word' error typing logpoint into the MDI window. If I run the logpoint.ngc file from the main page nothing seems to happen.

I trried the links in Andy's post above and they went to 404 error pages.

Thanks. Like I said, I am no whiz at this stuff...