calling subroutines

I didn't quite get all of that, but the part about how I need to cut the pieces is right.
If I get the line right about not being able to CAM up a whole big program, your right. I would have to make up a whole new program every half hour for a new block.

The way I got trained to do it was to figure out my blocks, draw the whole block in a 2d program, put the drawing through a deskcnc post, and then cut them

I figured it was too time consuming,so I wrote a program for each block layer scenario that comes up and now I use those. 1 program per layer that needs to be cut. It's faster and works great, but I figured if I could somehow have 1 program call up 5 other programs the whole block could be planned and like you say, nested, on the Linux screen

What do you mean in the last line when you say non-trivial kinematics?

foam wrote:

What do you mean in the last line when you say non-trivial kinematics?

linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/motion/kine...n_trivial_kinematics

Hi and thanks for that spumco
can you maybe clarify this
you said that it's set in the ini file which scale is being used

"connect pulses from stepgen.0.step to parallel port pin #2 AND pin #6 using the green wire"

so, if in the above line stepgen.2.step ( which I believe is Z) is not mentioned, how does it use stepgen2 scale setting

foam wrote:

Hi and thanks for that spumco
can you maybe clarify this
you said that it's set in the ini file which scale is being used

"connect pulses from stepgen.0.step to parallel port pin #2 AND pin #6 using the green wire"

so, if in the above line stepgen.2.step ( which I believe is Z) is not mentioned, how does it use stepgen2 scale setting

Excellent question - Answer: I overlooked that point.

Your suspicions are, I think, correct.  Slabber is not using the slave axis scale; it's using the master scale for both the master and slave axes.

What the author of the HAL file did was to connect one axis output command to two axes (like a Y-cable going to two speakers)  I've never set up a slave axis config in LCNC, but I think this a 'hacky' way to do it and not the 'right' way.

I think it'll get sorted out if you follow Andy's recommendation to set the machine up as XY/UV.

so I entered FOAM=1 next to display, and next to coordinates I entered XYUV, but Foamcutter now does not open. It just has a long list of errors

So what other steps do I have to do to change it over.

More importantly, I don;t understand what will change, as in, what will get better or worse.

What you accomplished with FOAM=1 was to tell the display to use the foam cutter display config.

Something I had a hard time with when I first started messing with LCNC (and still do) is that it's not obvious to the beginner that LinuxCNC isn't just one 'thing.'

LinuxCNC is software.
'Axis' is separate display software that talks back and forth with LinuxCNC.
There are other separate software which also talk back and forth with LCNC that you aren't (currently) using.

So in addition to telling LCNC (in the INI file) to tell the display (Axis) to use the foam config, you also have to configure LCNC itself to 'be' a foam config.

I don't know how to do this for a foam cutter, but a good start would be to undo your change, and then make a copy of the config folder.

Rename your new config folder to 'foamtest', rename the INI file to "foamtest" or something similar.  Also rename the filepaths in the INI file to /configs/foamtest - otherwise LCNC won't be able to find various files it needs.

For a start, you'll need to rename the Z and A axes as U & W in the INI file.

After that, I'm not sure what the next step is... probably editing the INI file under [TRAJ] and a couple other places so it shows SOMETHING = XYUW or similar.  Plus editing the HAL file so the new axis letters match up.

Hopefully someone else with a bit of experience with foam cutters will chime in to help.

or maybe i should just be happy with working in 4 axis mode and go back to the calling programs from a main program conversation

what do you think?

I think you should do what Andy suggested and reconfigure.

Have you tried searching the forum for posts on foam cutters?  The search function isn't great, but have a go and see if you can find a thread where foam cutters are discussed while you're waiting for someone clever to come along and help you out.