Built qtdragon with pnfconf and set mode as lathe.
Still seeing Y axis on the screen
Need to change the default view to look at xz only
Keyboard shortcuts work when nothing is homed. as in Left and right move z (towards spindle) up and down move x (The cross slide). However once homed the keyboard shortcuts go to typical mill fashion where x is left and right...... and z is page up and down.
I wasn't seeing a lathe specific config, hoping I missed something???
I don't mind being the test monkey if anyone could fix those....I'm also going to get my hands dirty learning at to make some changes for tube cutting in qtplasmac and could hop over to building a lathe when done with that.
Seems like the lib/python/qtvcp/designer/readme.txt has the basics for getting started. Anything else I need to know?
Cut a few parts yesterday worked better than I was expecting (was originally debating going to back to gmoccapy but mill is on Qtdragon so similar interface would be nice) glad I have it a shot.
I have both 2.9.2 and 2.10 setup in for run in place so whatever you would prefer working with I'll do. Just let me know when to pull.
Few more ideas after using the machine.
Gmoccapy has displays for both radius or diameter and changes which is highlighted depending on your g code called g7 (dia) or g8 (radius). This is displayed instead of an "x". Nice but not necessary feature.
Some lathes do have Y axis for milling and spindle that can position itself for milling operations (C axis). I don't need this but someone will.
Where the mill tool is on the main page. Would be nice to have a lathe tool but this isn't as useful as it is on the milling side the tool diameter offset isn't useful to know. (Unless it could be edited to dial things in e.g. diameter .01 oversized adjust offset .005 to compensate).
The sfm calculator (surface units per min) would be easy to calculate for lathe tools by just multiplying the spindle rpm by 2π "x position with current tool offset" to get the sfm.
I would be very interested in a lathe-focused version of Qtdragon.
Some wishlist items:
Parts counter
Multiple spindle display/control based on INI num_spindles (sub & live tools)
Placeholder(s) for spindle load and axis load indicators
DRO display based on INI (show C- and Y-axis)
SFM display (as mentioned earlier)
Chipload display (ipr/mmpr)
Easily 'flippable' backplot views
Some lathes are 'normal', some are back-tool, and some have both tool orientations. An automatic (or semi-automatic) method of flipping the display based on tool orientation (and maybe spindle direction) would be extremely helpful for visualization. @Aciera and I discussed this last year a bit.
In addition, being able to flip the Z-axis for subspindle work would be nice
Collet/chuck status and/or controls
Parameter value display tab/window
I use parameters frequently for things like part length, parting tool width, and similar job-specific values for use in barfeeder/puller and part-family calculations . Being able to quickly view/verify what's in the .vars file would be spectacular.
