New Gui Instructions

[Ray <rehenry-at-up.net>]

Oops



Fellow EMC explorers.

I made these instructions a little bit pedantic to help new users.
Bear with me if you are more experienced.

The file raytk.tgz is a tarball of a whole bunch of files that together will
allow you to run two new guis from the same set of library processes.  I'll
start here by describing how to get it going and then describe what it is.

Since these files are based on the latest sourceforge stuff, I added some
catch commands here and there in an attempt to make these files backward
compatable.  I am not completely sure just how it will work on older
versions.  Let me know.

To setup your emc with this tarball, download and copy it into the emc
directory that you want to use it with.   Rename the emc/tcl directory
to something else. You will need to login as superuser to get the files
copied correctly.   To untar issue the following command in a terminal that
is active in the emc directory

tar xzvf raytk.tgz

and you will see a bunch of files go by in the terminal.  These are the
files that are being extracted from the tarball.  They should match the list
shown below.

There are three things that you need to do before you can run the emc
using these new gui's.  The first is to set up two links FROM files in
emc/tcl TO the emc/plat/nonrealtime/bin/ directory

1 - The files to link are tkemcex and tkemc1.  If you are using the bdi or
the kde window manager, you can do this by pointing kfm at the emc/tcl
directory and you will see the files listed there.  Click on the little gear
in the upper right corner and it will make a second kfm in the same
directory. Click up arrow and then follow the icons to
/emc/plat/nonrealtime/bin.

Click on the kfm in emc/tcl and left click and drag the tkemcex icon over
onto the kfm window showing emc/plat/nonrealtime/bin and release the mouse
button.  Answer the prompt to link the files.  Repeat for tkemc1 and you
will be almost ready to run.  You can see the specifics of the link by
hovering the mouse pointer over the link icon and you will see what the link
points to on the bottom line of the kfm browser.

2 - I included a pair of run and ini files.  They are miniex.run/miniex.ini
and minit1.run/minit1.ini.  You may need to edit the ini files a bit for
your system.  They are setup for minimill and will run with nothing on the
parport.

The file minit1.run is the tkemc gui except that it has been revised to use
the library routines rather than being complete in itself.

The file miniex.run is my own revised gui.  It uses the aspect ratio of a
normal computer screen and can be set to run at several resolutions.  I have
to warn you that each monitor will react differently to the same batch of
settings.  Monitors have masks and other settings that change the actual
size of objects.

3 - The smallest version of the gui will only work right if you edit
emc/TkEmc and use the 10 font rather than the default 12.  If you plan to
use the larger screens, the 12 font looks a little better.

Once you get tkemcex running, there is a menu button settings->size that
you can play around with to show yourself how to resize the stuff for your
own preferences.  If you want to save the settings, you will have to edit a
file emc/tcl/lib/extkemc/expSetSize.tcl and add your list of preferences or
change the values that are in one of the ones that are there already.

Make a backup copy of this file so that you can restore it if you make a
mistake and can't get the gui to come up after your editing session.

One addition to the gui called with miniex is a binding of toggleFeedhold to
the pause key on your keyboard.  If I'm running a milling job, I like
to set feedoverride to about 5% and then toggle it with pause and watch
the moves.  That way I can start and stop without hitting the abort button
and having to start over.

Oh, yes!  Starting the new guis will take a bit longer because there is a
routine called that updates all of the libraries used.  This routine takes
about 30 seconds longer than the normal startup.

Good Luck.  Please report any problems that you have with this new stuff
to me.

Ray <rehenry-at-up.net>

Tar command and File list
[root-at-localhost emc]# tar xzvf raytk.tgz
tcl/lib/
tcl/lib/tkemc/
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcJog.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tclIndex
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcFiles.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupRunMark.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcSetFont.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupProgramEditor.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupHelp.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcLoadProgramText.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupAbout.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupDiag.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupParamEditor.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupToolEditor.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupToolOffset.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupOride.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcAxisOffset.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcAxisSelect.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleEstop.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleMachine.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleCool.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleSpind.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleDisplay.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleJointWorld.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleLimOride.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupMsgs.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcPopupFont.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcToggleLube.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcSetFeed.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcUpdateStatus.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcSetDisplay.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcSetKeyBindings.tcl
tcl/lib/tkemc/tkemcSendMdi.tcl
tcl/lib/changes
tcl/lib/updateLib
tcl/lib/extkemc/
tcl/lib/extkemc/tclIndex
tcl/lib/extkemc/toggleBrake.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/showMode.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinScript.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/updateStatus2.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/toggleFeedhold.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinHelp.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/toggleJogType.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinToolEditor.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinProgramEditor.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/expSetSize.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinFont.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinDiag.tcl
tcl/lib/extkemc/popinParamEditor.tcl
tcl/scripts/
tcl/scripts/IO_Exercise.tcl
tcl/scripts/IO_Show.tcl
tcl/scripts/MDI_Input.tcl
tcl/scripts/Subroutine.tcl
tcl/scripts/feedrate.ncw
tcl/scripts/gohome.ncw
tcl/scripts/probing.tcl
tcl/scripts/Set_Coordinates.tcl
tcl/scripts/balloon.tcl
tcl/scripts/emchelp.tcl
tcl/scripts/mouse.tcl
tcl/sourced/
tcl/sourced/exdebug.tcl
tcl/sourced/exlog.tcl
tcl/sourced/extuning.tcl
tcl/sourced/exgenedit.tcl
tcl/sourced/excalib.tcl
tcl/sourced/extesting.tcl
tcl/sourced/exbackplot.tcl
tcl/sysinfo.tcl
tcl/tkemc1
tcl/tkemcex
miniex.ini
miniex.ini.bak
miniex.run
minit1.ini
minit1.ini.bak
minit1.run

The tcl/lib/tkemc directory contains all of the processes used by tkemc as
they were written there.  Tkemc1 has been modified just enough to allow it
to run using these processes.

the tcl/lib/extkemc directory includes new or modified tkemc processes
that work with the new gui -- tkemcex.

the directory tcl/sourced contains revised source files for the new gui.

The tcl/lib directories include a listing of all of the processes in the
directory.  It is named tclindex and is man readable.  This index file is
updated each time that you run either of the new guis.