Re: CNC UI (V hj vs. conversational prgmmg)

> Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 13:37:27 -0800
> From: Alan Marconett KM6VV <KM6VV@...>
>Subject: re: CNC UI (V hj vs. conversational prgmmg)
>

>Did you see any other salient "improvements" in ShopBot's "new"
>language? More human friendly stuff? I think that's Ballendo's point
>of bringing up ShopBot. Better human interface. 18:24, He was just
>having a little fun with us! ;>)

Shopbot is great with the M2 & J2commands. When it comes to M3 or J3, however, they do a 2 byte communication, takes twice as long. Not too good with a 286 or a 386, 486DX-100 seems to be OK. When we first started to give the controller 3 axis commands(July, 1998), it would stutter quite nicely. The newer versions of the software have been tweaked a lot to better accommodate 3 axis wood "carving" type of movements. That was one of the primary reasons that we developed Vcarvz, was that there was suddenly several thousand potential "hobbyist" customers who wanted to carve signage, nametags, etc. They were definitely hobbyists since the machine still costs less than $5000 for a 4 x 8 sheet sized machine.

Shopbot included a new CG command with the last release (2.0). This is a G-code style coordinate command for arcs.(G-code circle command). It does not support G18-19 arcs. They also include G-code, Dxf, raster to SBP translators, and two font Tesarna chipcarving to develop shopbot language programs. Every new Shopbot also comes with a seat of Vector, which posts directly into the Shopbot codes.

Shopbots also support probing, conditional and parametric coding, & have a crude preview/simulation mode.

http://www.shopbottools.com

Best Regards,

Fred Smith
IMService