Screen shots of gui designs

It seems to me that Chris Morley has done a tremendous amount of work and a great job so far on the QTvcp. I would like to encourage him to keep up the good work.

It seems that the GUI's he can create relatively easily are almost usable on real machines. I miss only the tool touch off and some editing features (gcode, tool offsets, etc.). It will be a tremendous step forward if a user can create his own GUI to fit his machine and his own personal requirements and preferences, especially for 5- and 6-axes and other special purpose machines.

As a very impressed and happy user of PathPilot on a lathe and milling machine (standard machines), I can see many similarities in the thinking behind the new GUI developments in Linuxcnc. It will of course allow much more flexibility and wider application than PP, therefore we must hope and press for ongoing development of QTvcp.

Thank yo for your encouragement - it's sometimes needed

I'm not really that good at building screens but I wish to make it easier for others that are good at it, to. I'd also prefer that we work towards a common infrastructure for screens rather then 5 close but not compatible ones. In linux we tend to splinter precious developer time by creating multiple ways to do things when a couple would be more efficient.

In the sample screens there is a tool offset editor and a touch off button.
They may need some tweeks yet. Gcode editing is still missing.

Chris M

It is re-assuring that you are still keen about this new development on GUI's for Linuxcnc. I fully endorse the approach to keep it focused and concentrate the effort. I will focus on the foundation you have created and try to contribute by by testing and communicating my experiences with it.

RdP

cmorley wrote: I'm not really that good at building screens but I wish to make it easier for others that are good at it, to. I'd also prefer that we work towards a common infrastructure for screens rather then 5 close but not compatible ones. In linux we tend to splinter precious developer time by creating multiple ways to do things when a couple would be more efficient

This reminds me of a suggestion fro Gene on the mailing list (one I dismissed at first).
I wonder how hard it would be to parse Glade and PyVCP XML into the QTDesigner format?

I think PyVCP would be relatively easy - as it's so simple. But there is less reason to as AXIS/PyVCP toolkits are the same so there is little in maintenance work.
I suppose if a user wanted to switch to the more rich toolkit of qtvcp it would be nice to import the basic layout.

Gladevcp would be quite difficult. There are many more widgets and the concepts of space utilization is quite different. I find GTK's easier (but I am also more familiar with it) I think it would be a project in it's self. if fact IIRC qt version 1 or so had a utility to import GLADE and convert - guess they gave up on it.

Chris M

Here's my first attempt at a custom GUI. It's made strictly for my 3 axis DIY router. The layout is based on another project currently in development and under the hood, it's gmoccapy and gscreen. Not ready yet to tackle qt.