PixelCNC Has Moved: deftware.org

CAM software developed by artists for artists to create unique and original works on a 3-axis CNC router or mill. · By Deftware

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PixelCNC Has Moved: deftware.org community

Updated plans to the tool library?

A topic by AKEric created Oct 31, 2021 Views: 170 Replies: 5

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AKEric2 years ago (1 edit)

New Pixel CNC user, but I've been a hobbyist (X-carve) for years. Pixel CNC does just what I need, I do a lot of custom 3d mesh cuttings.

Question about the 'tool library': Is there any way/plans to expose it better to the user, so as to be able to organize/categorize the bits? I found an older thread here on it: https://itch.io/t/464265/tool-feature-suggestions But not much else since?

Config -> Tool Library : sort of option, to re-order them, or list them by type/size/etc

Also: Is there a way to 'remove' a tool from the Project tool list once added? Right now it only seems to have 'Clear Tools list': I don't want to clear them all, just one.

Thanks

DeftwareDeveloper2 years ago

Hi AKEric,

There's not yet a way to view/edit the tool library other than when loading or saving tool definitions from/to it, but adding in a simple sort by type/size shouldn't be too hard. You can remove a tool from your project by setting its type to "None" under its parameters and hitting Apply. I'll go ahead and spiff up the tool library a bit and add a button to simply delete a tool. It's important to make sure the tool isn't being used by an operation still when it is deleted (i.e. change the operation to use a different tool and re-generate its toolpath before removing the previous tool it used).

Feel free to share any other thoughts/ideas/suggestions you have and I'm glad to hear PixelCNC is a good fit for your work :)

Charlie

AKEric2 years ago

Sounds good, thanks

DeftwareDeveloper2 years ago

Hi AKEric, here's what I've done so far with the tool library. I was hoping you could provide some further feedback on it, if you have any ideas or suggestions:

So now there's four buttons at the top to sort the tool definitions by different means, their slot #/index, their cutter type, diameter, and flute length. The diameter is a bit tricky because a tapered endmill is defined by the diameter of its tip and the flute length and taper angle are used to calculate its diameter from there. Also it's not currently differentiating between inches/metric when sorting by physical dimensions. A 6mm diameter cutter is "bigger" than a 0.5" diameter cutter purely because it's going off numeric value. It's all fixable, I just thought I'd show you what I've done on it so far.

Let me know what you think :)

Charlie

valhallaCNC2 years ago

That looks like a great addition Charlie, Is there a way to load tool list on start-up ?

AKEric2 years ago

Great first pass, and thanks for the fast turnaround. Overall it looks great, few questions:

Will you be able to reorder the slots? I may want them organized by my own logic, and if I could change what slot they were in this world make it easy.

Will you be able to edit the tool from that menu? That would be nice.

Thanks!