Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: High-level g-code language?

Alex Holden wrote:

>On 5 May 2005, at 4:12 pm, Codesuidae wrote:
>
>
>>Last night I added a graphical preview window to my script
>>interpreter. Its not quite as fancy as what you suggest, it just
>>takes the entire output of the program at once and draws the
>>lines. For now there are only two colors, one for anything above
>>the height set for rapids, one for everything below that. I'll
>>expand on that later so that various depths receive different colors.
>>
>>
>
>I wonder how difficult it would be to use OpenGL to draw the preview
>in 3D.
>
>
>

Going to a 3D format isn't that difficult, its something I was
considering. It would require an intermediate vector format, but that
would be useful in other ways too. Currently the routines like 'MoveTo'
just check a global variable to see if they are supposed to be in
simulation mode or not. In simulation mode they do a Move/LineTo
command in the graphical interpreter, otherwise they generate a text
string with the appropriate G code and coords. I'd need to change these
routines to create an intermediate list of vector objects that could
then be translated to either gcode or a 3D model. Not hard, but I need
to do some planning and design before getting into it.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have the prototype up for downloads by this
weekend, I'll post a link when its available.

Thanks for the input,
cs