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Sketchup CNC

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  • P Offline
    prismcnd
    last edited by 7 Apr 2012, 12:36

    I am also keeping a keen eye on this thread

    โ€œWhatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.โ€ -W.Clement Stone (American best selling Author and Founder of Combined Insurance Co (now a part of Aon Corp.), 1902-2002)

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    • N Offline
      noelwarr
      last edited by 9 Apr 2012, 10:14

      Drum roll please.

      I'll be uploading my code this comming weekend (In whatever state its in).

      @voljanko: A bone you say. How about a little reflective code. I started out as a kid with pascal and Qbasic. I still find it mind boggling to call functions from themselves. You've just gotta love that OOP style. What a break through.

      
      def gather(target, bundle = self, transformation = Geom;;Transformation.new)
        result = []
        entity = bundle.entity
        if (entity.is_a? Sketchup;;Group) ||
          (entity.is_a? Sketchup;;ComponentInstance) ||
          (entity.is_a? Sketchup;;Model)
          transformation = (bundle.entity.transformation * transformation) if bundle != self
          if target == bundle["type"].to_s + bundle["execution"].to_s
            result.push [bundle, transformation]
          end
          bundle.entities.to_a.each{|ent|
            gathered = gather(target, Bundle.open(ent), transformation)
            if gathered != nil
      	result += gathered
            end
          }
        end
        return result
      end
      
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      • V Offline
        voljanko
        last edited by 10 Apr 2012, 15:47

        @noelwarr said:

        I started out as a kid with pascal and Qbasic.

        I started with the Basic commands written on the rubber buttons of ZX Spectrum ๐Ÿ˜„

        Anyway,we have a Roland cnc router in the office so I can make some tests of your plugin.
        Hope it will not cut itself ๐Ÿ˜„

        SuSolid.com - solid check - solid repair- solid intersection check - weight plugin

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        • N Offline
          noelwarr
          last edited by 13 Apr 2012, 14:47

          DISCLAIMER> The following code will not work for you "out of the box". First, you need to edit minivistii.rb to refference the other files correctly. Then you need to know how the four buttons work (see the readme file). Then edit the postprocessor.rb to suit your machine.

          If you want to contribute, let me know. There are a few things I should explain about the approach I've taken. The Bundle class also needs to be explained.

          If you don't know Ruby I sugest you wait a couple of months for me to improve the script.

          Well, as promissed http://code.google.com/p/minivistii/source/browse/#git%2FMiniVistii

          Use at your peril.

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          • M Offline
            Mike Lucey
            last edited by 13 Apr 2012, 15:24

            Thanks Noel for putting up your efforts so far. I hope that other programmers will be able to row in and help to get this open source ruby developed to a level that will render it useful.

            Mike

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            • N Offline
              noelwarr
              last edited by 13 Apr 2012, 23:16

              Thanks for the encouragement Mike. It's already useful to me ๐Ÿ˜„. As I mentioned before, Sketchup isn't really meant for CAM. Precisely because of this you can do things with it I have never seen a CAM application do...

              With the plugin I can draw a few connected edges, declare it as a toolpath and then copy and paste this operation around my workpiece, stretching, scaling and rotating it as I wish. Very flexible.

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              • M Offline
                Mike Lucey
                last edited by 13 Apr 2012, 23:51

                Yep, I've been using SU since v1 and hardly a week goes by that I don't see some new use it has been adapted for. Maybe not ideally doing the job but still doing the job in some manner.

                I wish I could offer actual productive help on this project but my programming skills are 0! Hopefully others will row in and get involved ๐Ÿ˜„

                Support us so we can support you! Upgrade to Premium Membership!

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                • V Offline
                  voljanko
                  last edited by 15 Apr 2012, 07:17

                  Hello Noel,
                  I tried to have some g-code from your plugin.
                  After selecting the 2 vertexes with the 2nd button (the model must be edited to select vertex),all the edges has been colored black.
                  Then with the 4th button (for generating code) I get this error in the console:
                  Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method each' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files/Sketchup8/Plugins/minivistii/concepts.rb:191:in initialize'
                  What goes wrong?
                  I would like to test the g-code on the simple xyz router to engrave something.What tool and procedure should I select?
                  Congratulations for the plugin,the code seems to be very well structured.
                  Hope your plugin will be useful also for others.

                  SuSolid.com - solid check - solid repair- solid intersection check - weight plugin

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                  • N Offline
                    noelwarr
                    last edited by 15 Apr 2012, 20:16

                    Hi there voljanko.
                    I'm really pleased you're giving it a go. ๐Ÿ˜„ Don't worry, we'll get it up and running in no time. I've had a look at where the error is coming from and I think there is something strange about the way you have declared your toolpath. Hardly surprising considering the fact there are no instructions, no icons and no nothing. I have written a little article in the wiki of the project. Try following those instructions. If you think you've done it right and it's still giving the same error send me your skp file and I'll take a look.

                    From your error I guess the following is the case. You have a group with a bunch of edges that represent your toolpath. The toolpath however is actually defined by the vertices. If there is a vertex in the group that isn't part of the toolpath the method fails. There are a number of reasons this might happen.

                    Engraving should be easy enough. Check out this 6 month old post. I think it was about 50 lines of ruby code. It was just an experiment but ever since this project has been bubbling away in my mind. In the photos you can see a sketchup model, the gcode generated from a small script and the finished product.

                    https://plus.google.com/u/0/106243199685455140135/posts/3rq4Zep9V5b

                    Thanks again for giving it some time voljanko

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                    • V Offline
                      voljanko
                      last edited by 16 Apr 2012, 18:15

                      Jeee,it's working now,I have some g-code!
                      First I have misunderstood the concept of the toolpath.Your plugin is only accepting lines for toolpath.If I want to declare anything else (shape or body) is giving me that error.
                      It's a good start.Now I have to check if the commands and coordinates in the code are compatible with the router.
                      Thank you again for your plugin.
                      I think it is a good start platform for a standard Sketchup to CNC plugin.

                      SuSolid.com - solid check - solid repair- solid intersection check - weight plugin

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                      • N Offline
                        noelwarr
                        last edited by 16 Apr 2012, 19:16

                        ๐Ÿ˜Ž Brilliant!

                        There is a good chance it won't be compatible with your CNC router. But don't worry, if it isn't, I'll write a simple postprocessor for your machine. A simple postprocessor is what this plugin needs to get others to start tinkering around with it. Let me know how you get on

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                        • E Offline
                          errror404
                          last edited by 16 Apr 2012, 20:19

                          I made my own CNC machine using a x2 mini mill... unfortunately, I moved and the machine is still siting at my parent's basement.

                          I'll keep an eye, but can't contribute testing right now

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                          • N Offline
                            noelwarr
                            last edited by 17 Apr 2012, 20:55

                            Oops... ๐Ÿ˜•

                            Just realised a problem with the plugin. Workpieces seem to be taking their origin from the model's origin. Should be an easy fix. Don't know why that's happening. Probably a last minute change before I committed and pushed my code. I'll look into it this weekend. Meanwhile, for testing purposes please position your workpiece origins on the model origin. Thanks.

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                            • D Offline
                              Dropout
                              last edited by 18 Apr 2012, 00:48

                              Ok please tell me how to install this and make it run.

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                              • N Offline
                                noelwarr
                                last edited by 18 Apr 2012, 06:49

                                Hi there dropout.

                                It's a plugin like any other so you just stick the relevant files in your Sketchup plugin directory. The next time you start sketchup they will be read and executed automatically.

                                That said, if you don't feel confident toying around with the code, it's probably best you stay away from this code for the time being. It's all quite exerimental at the moment and the user interface is unfriendly to say the least.

                                Also, you're probably wondering how to download the program. Well, you can't the way you would other programs. What I have uploaded is the repository which allows others to contribute to the source code. If you're still eager but don't want to install GIT you could just copy each file individually creating necessary folders, etc. Good luck

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                                • T Offline
                                  tim
                                  last edited by 21 Apr 2012, 17:49

                                  Noel, excellent start on a really interesting project.
                                  I grabbed the code and notice a couple of things immediately:
                                  a) you've used some words that would need translating before I had a clue what was going on ('cuchilla', 'graus', etc)
                                  b) you've done something I've seen done many, many, times in Smalltalk and Ruby etc - made filenames by concatenating literal strings including the directory separators. Bad move, it makes for OS specific code when you don't want it. There should be useful methods to build a suitable path that avoids that issue. A quick google suggests using things like File.join instead of pwd + '\' + foo

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                                  • N Offline
                                    noelwarr
                                    last edited by 21 Apr 2012, 18:47

                                    Thanks for the feedback Tim. Really encouraging and straight to the point.

                                    a) These are Catalan words and they describe the tools that are available to my machine. Every machine is different so the UI needs to be different for every machine. At the moment this means you would need to edit "ui.rb" as well as "postprocessor.rb". It is poorly thought out I agree, but my efforts were concentrated in the "concepts.rb" and "parser.rb" files and getting them right. I belive that the best solution would be to have the "ui.rb", "concepts.rb" and "parser.rb" files stay untouched.
                                    It seems obvious to me that a class called something like "CNC" or "Machine" should be declared somewhere in "postprocessor.rb". It should have a method tools() that retrieves the tools available to that machine. This can be piped to the UI and should be easy enough for hobbyists to edit for their machine. This class should also contain other methods to aid the postprocessing. Things like number_of_axes(), pods?(), max_spindle_speed()...

                                    b) I thought there was a good chance it would fail on macs but decided to make a concious effort to not loose sleep over it. Something told me that the answer would come to me in the form of a wise man called Tim ๐Ÿ˜„ I'll fix it soon.

                                    Thanks again and I'm sorry there are no comments! ๐Ÿ˜ณ

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                                    • T Offline
                                      tim
                                      last edited by 22 Apr 2012, 05:54

                                      @noelwarr said:

                                      a) These are Catalan words and they describe the tools that are available to my machine.

                                      Really? It probably won't surprise you to hear that I know no Catalan at all. I suspect my mother learned a little many, many years ago because she and her red-headed friend Nancy hitch-hiked across Andorra (amongst other parts of Europe) around 1957 or so. I understand they got into quite a few adventures such as sleeping under hedges in snowdriftsโ€ฆ.

                                      @noelwarr said:

                                      Every machine is different so the UI needs to be different for every machine. At the moment this means you would need to edit "ui.rb" as well as "postprocessor.rb". It is poorly thought out I agree, but my efforts were concentrated in the "concepts.rb" and "parser.rb" files and getting them right. I belive that the best solution would be to have the "ui.rb", "concepts.rb" and "parser.rb" files stay untouched.
                                      It seems obvious to me that a class called something like "CNC" or "Machine" should be declared somewhere in "postprocessor.rb". It should have a method tools() that retrieves the tools available to that machine. This can be piped to the UI and should be easy enough for hobbyists to edit for their machine. This class should also contain other methods to aid the postprocessing. Things like number_of_axes(), pods?(), max_spindle_speed()...

                                      Sounds a good idea. I'd hazard a guess that somewhere in Ruby-land there is a standard way to provide lists of UI related words and phrases that you can choose from at runtime, depending upon a chosen language setting. It's a fairly standard technique that works tolerably well most of the time.

                                      @noelwarr said:

                                      b) I thought there was a good chance it would fail on macs but decided to make a concious effort to not loose sleep over it. Something told me that the answer would come to me in the form of a wise man called Tim ๐Ÿ˜„ I'll fix it soon.

                                      One lives to serve. ๐Ÿ˜‰

                                      As for comments - I always advise against living up to the old joke that goes "Comments? Why do you think it's called code?". A friend put it even better; "Don't document the code, code the document"

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                                      • S Offline
                                        Scott M
                                        last edited by 29 Apr 2012, 13:55

                                        I am also very interested in this plugin one question I have is. Will it be able to generate code for v carvings also 3d carvings etc. I have toyed around with other trial versions of v carve and 3d programs and they have separate post for a multitude of machines of witch even the ones that are set up for ours still have to be edited for our particular machine. I don't know if I have ever seen a single post that was user friendly enough for a person that knows nothing about programing to edit properly. Looking forward to using this in the future

                                        https://www.youtube.com/user/ecabinetstips

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                                        • N Offline
                                          noelwarr
                                          last edited by 29 Apr 2012, 18:14

                                          Looking forward to making this code a bit more user-friendly over the next couple of weeks. Anyone willing to design some icons for the UI? They have to come in png file format and come in two different sizes (24px x 24px and 16px x 16px). There are 5 in total and should represent the following.

                                          1. Declare an assembly
                                          2. Declare a workpiece
                                          3. Declare a toolpath
                                          4. Declare a hole
                                          5. Generate the gcode (or whatever files are necessary for the CNC machine)
                                            It would be nice if they blended into the Sketchu UI but you can hand sketch them for all I care. The problem is I'm used to having blank buttons. I just know which one is which and I'll probably never get round to designing them. Since you're all Sketchup users I sugest designing them in the Sketchup model and then just capturing the screen.

                                          If you're up for it, send me an IM or email or something. Cheers

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