qtvcp issues

Here are some pictures that show the embedded versions of what we discussed before. It looks like they are coming along well.

In the MacroTab one I noted some issues:
In qt designer it show the text "No Usable Macros Found In:" on top right of its panel:
When the gui is running this does not show up.
Also If I push the cancel button the panel goes blank and can not be made to return to normal. Only by termination and bringing the gui will bring it back up as not a blank panel.

Here are the pictures of the ones I have added when they are selected. I did load a file using the file panel and it changed to auto mode and displayed the file in the gcode display panel as show. All these panels were set to. 600x400 at 0, 0.

Pushed a fix for macrotabs.

Looks like you need a MDI-history-only widget?

Chris M

auto-mation-assist wrote: In ref to the tool table:

I have always liked the interactive pictures to enter tool parameters. I know there are some suppliers catalogs that have lots of pictures so they are likely available from sites like:
tracepartson line.net
partclould.net

or other sources like them that offer free 2D & 3D cad models. They may need conversion to .png or other formats but picture files may be available from these sources. You would need to search the categories.

If a table entry for these cannot be added to the tool file then there could be a prefix added to the description/comment to call up the correct interactive picture. Such a picture could be placed embedded in a stack or as a pop-up.

To be added to linuxcnc the images need to be licensed properly too.
ther eare possible work arounds for the toolfile - there has been work on adding a database to it - looking forward to that.

Chris M

auto-mation-assist wrote: In ref to the tool table:

I have always liked the interactive pictures to enter tool parameters. I know there are some suppliers catalogs that have lots of pictures so they are likely available from sites like:
tracepartson line.net
partclould.net

or other sources like them that offer free 2D & 3D cad models. They may need conversion to .png or other formats but picture files may be available from these sources. You would need to search the categories.

If a table entry for these cannot be added to the tool file then there could be a prefix added to the description/comment to call up the correct interactive picture. Such a picture could be placed embedded in a stack or as a pop-up.

Andy proposed using SQLite for tooltables.
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ToolDatabase
If something like this was adopted it would be trivial to add a new field to hold either a path to an image or embed the image in the database itself.

SQLite supports the binary blob data type so you could read an image in its entirety and store it in the database. I'm not sure if you can display an image held entirely in memory though which is what the binary blob approach would imply.

Ya that's the work i was referring to.
There has been other toolchange work done by Rene to work towards a better system. But i haven't heard about anything in a while - probably higher priority work being done (or more fun work)
Right now there is work toward pushing out 2.8 relatively soon.

Chris M

I don't have any experience with tool changers but I don't think it would be hard to incorporate a SQL tool table right into the GUI using Python. I suspect the real problem is not many people understand the power of a relational database and think a database is just a flat file in a spreadsheet.

I have played around with SQLite recently and wrote two scripts. One to build and populate a relational database for plasma and another to extract the data with all of the selects and joins to present a cut chart. I posted these scripts here
forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser/35449-an...nent?start=10#119922

Just remember the key to good database design is correct definition of the data entities before coding anything. Each piece of data should only be stored once to avoid what we call data redundancy. Think in terms of one to many and many to one relatonships between tables. (eg, invoice header and invoice line items = one invoice header and many line items)