GUI that somewhat resembles haas or fanuc workflow.

Kieran wrote:

Im thinking I can send-cut-send a panel, with switches as desired, and use a keyboard USB "brain" to read them. then basically map them however needed at that point. that's the easier part for me. Learning the computer/software GUI stuff is gonna be a learning curve.
 

S-C-S is a great idea.  And I sympathize with you about the software learning curve... 

LCSC offers custom panel fabrication.

They aren't fast, but they are inexpensive and good, if somewhat odd.

What would be a short list of requirements for an industrial screen?
No axis movement without START button?
No graphics?
Mostly text styles or more modern graphical elements?
Multi function soft keys? Hardware only keys.
What target monitor size?
Etc.

for me personally its mostly the ability to use physical buttons to navigate instead of a mouse. the backplot is cool but could be relegated to its own screen mode with perhaps absolute/distance-to-go ("position" screen on fanuc for example). Offsets, both work and tool, should have their own dedicated screen toggled by an "offsets" physical button. with ability to use arrow keys to navigate the columns and enter values. physical heavy duty tactile cycle start and stop buttons are a must for powerful machines, as sometimes time is of the essence when its plunging toward doom.

I actually really like the functionality of the arrow keys and pgUP and pgDN for jogging linuxcnc. Just mapping those keys to physically beefier switches for jogging would be great. A Proper real life feed rate over ride knob is great too. I actually use it more than feed hold on the Fanucs. I can turn feed all the way down, hit cycle start, then use the feed to "drive" the machine carefully when needed.

Here is my current attempt to have a fanuc like gui
github.com/cakeslob/regularmac_800

I dont have all the controls mapped to the Tab/arrow keys yet, or a softkey menu

Cmo wrote:

What would be a short list of requirements for an industrial screen?
No axis movement without START button?
No graphics?
Mostly text styles or more modern graphical elements?
Multi function soft keys? Hardware only keys.
What target monitor size?
Etc.

Fanuc has a nice workflow because you dont have to screw around with a mouse and find buttons and stuff like that.

- Not everything needs to be on the screen at the same time.
- I dont think people have a problem with graphics, most stuff is crude text shortforms.

- It uses a combo of hard keys for each menu -(some multi press buttons, ie press offset for tool, press offset again for work offset) and soft keys that change with each menu

- you can load/setup/run the program with like 5 buttons(some soft) + arrow keys

- some modes (ie edit/MDI/Jog/pendant/auto) disable other features , so you cant run a program from edit mode, you can edit a program in MDI mode, you cant jog in auto, etc

-the whole gui is bacically controlled by pg up/down, arrow keys, and function keys

- monitor aspect is usually 1:1 square, but thats uncommon in consumer stuff, so 4:3 is closest

- no axis movement until start button. so any probe routines or toolsets, you need to press cycle start.

Aciera wrote:

Not sure what GUI you are using but it seems to me that you might not have given the existing GUIs much consideration other then the fact that it does not look and feel like the controls you are used to.
External buttons can be implemented with most GUIs. Start/stop/pause, jogging, overrides, homing, etc. with physical buttons, encoders and potentiometers. This has been possible for a long time.
None of my machine refits use screen jogging buttons and _certainly_ no keyboard shortcuts.
Also tool and work offsets pages have been around for years.

As an example, Gmoccapy which I use, but there are others:
linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gui/gmoccapy.html#_hal_pins

I have tested out every gui to find the most similar one. All the GUI could be made to be like fanuc style, The cloest ones to fanuc style workflow were keystick and mini, but its been a long time since I was able to use those so maybe its nostalgia. Qtdragon or the smaller one could be made to work like fanuc style with not to much changes, but it would be more python backend behavior for keyboard behavior/navigation (no mouse needed), and softkey stuff than actual GUI organization, the layout of the small one (woodpecker?) is pretty close to what fanuc stuff looks like .

cmorley wrote:

What would be a short list of requirements for an industrial screen?
No axis movement without START button?
No graphics?
Mostly text styles or more modern graphical elements?
Multi function soft keys? Hardware only keys.
What target monitor size?
Etc.

My preferences are very similar to @cakeslob's post.  I think Gmoccapy is the closest current GUI available, although there are quite a few changes I'd make if I were handed a magic wand.

• General Layout
  • 4:3 or 1:1, although it looks like I have to walk back my previous statement about commercial controls never using 16:9.  Siemens, Fanuc, Okuma and others appear to have 16:9 options on their latest controls.
• General concepts/restrictions
  • No on-screen controls can cause movement or spindle activation
    • This includes probing and tool-change functions
  • No axis movement (besides jogging & homing) unless cycle start is pressed.
    • i.e. for MDI you have to enter the command and then press cycle start
  • Icons/cartoons for function keys optional
    • Ideally, a GUI config page would be accessible where each softkey button could be named or have an icon assigned by the user.
    • Default to text in the desired language.
• Navigation
  • Option 1 - softkeys on bottom & side
  • Option 2 - softkeys on bottom, and external hardware buttons or selector switch for different screens/modes (i.e. 840d)
  • Option 3 - Haas arrow/page navigation
• Main screen
  • No backplot/preview
  • Large DRO - gmoccapy's DRO is excellent, although the "R/D" in lathe mode is annoying
    • User selects which axes are displayed, and gets to pick one of two 'sizes' to save some space.
  • Large G-code window
    • User-selectable font and size within window
    • No editing g-code inside main run screen
  • Spindle & override windows
    • No on-screen sliders/buttons. All adjustments made via external hardware.
    • No temperature bar for override % - a number is sufficient but a blinking/highlighted function is nice if not at 100%
    • Small temp bar for spindle load
    • Room enough for multiple spindles
• Jogging
  • External hardware only
  • Disabled unless jogging 'mode' is selected (i.e. as @cakeslob described)
• Auto
  • No run/stop or other motion via softkeys.
  • Part counter
  • Remaining time (estimate, of course) window/display
• Tool page
  • User settings page with checkboxes for which columns are displayed.  No digging in a yaml file needed.
  • User settings page has 'tool changer installed' checkbox along with number of slots
    • If selected, top of page has non-graphical array of the slot numbers plus spindle position, and empty boxes next to them which are automatically updated when a tool change is performed.
    • Although the Probe Basic graphics are impressive, I think they're unnecessary.  But a simplified display of what's in the tool changer or turret would be helpful.
• Parameters page
  • I'd like to see a page with realtime (or nearly) display of all parameters, at least the numbered ones.  I really miss this one in LCNC.

Sorry for rambling.

The whole idea of a more industrial gui is difficult to implement/deploy on linuxCNC since theres not really a premade unit with a unified set of controls. Everyone is going to have different physical setups. I think lots can be done in hal already but some stuff is hard to do, like the ability to not need a mouse by default. Axis is already pretty close to technically not needing a mouse to operate, but it lacks features. The peripherals needed to run axis (file manager, tool editor, gcode editor) kill the whole thing also.


second for the parameter page, I made an attempt to make a parameter display for axis, based on qtvcp code, but I am stuck on how to change them.
github.com/cakeslob/regularmac_800/tree/offset
Ive made good progress making the axis gui more fanuc like, PhilC has helped me a lot, and I use lots of stuff from qtvcp because it has all the features I want. I post this to show its not all gui whining but computers are hard.

 
 

by computer gui standards, its pretty shit, and its hard as all hell to do stuff, and this is the "new", they went with a dark mode.
But Cnc workflow wise, its very fast, stable and safe, with very little screwing around. Its annoying compared to the LinuxCNC guis, but the workflow is less clumsy.
they always blast me for this in irc