[CncCodeMaker]

I'm pleased to announce the (pre)release of "Cnc Code Maker", a small, simple and FREE 2D CAD/CAM software. It's made with a user-friendly way to be easy to use and to understand. It's not as powerful as commercial CAD/CAM programs, but used as a tool when manually creating CNC programs it will be very handy.


It is at the moment in beta stage and the website is somewhat rough.

Read more about it here: http://www.cncsimple.com

[blowlamp]

I can't get it to work because the refuel code is invalid.

Martin.

[CncCodeMaker]

It's beed updated and I've disabled the recharge system for the time being.
New version available at: http://www.cncsimple.com/

[per.e]

CncCodeMaker.
There will be a lot of people interested in your program at this Swedish forum.
look under "Mekatronik"
http://elektronikforumet.com/forum/
Best regards PerE

[Khalid]

I really love programmers.. Thanks for putting efforts and sharing this great program with us.. What Language you used to program this great software?

[CncCodeMaker]

Thank you for the suggestions.
The softwware is made in Delphi, pure Win32. I'm currently looking inot the possibilities to convert it to a Linux verion aswell.

[Andre' B]

Just downloaded build 514 and installed.
When I do the recharge I get an error.
From the Out of energy window
Code: AMMSJSJHSLSLLN

And the code I got back from the web page.
Fuel code: ELWFWWNFZVXK

Then I get a wrong code window.
Hit OK on that and Exit the Out of energy widow and windows errors and sends a dump home.

OS is XP x64 on a Dell M6300 laptop.

[CncCodeMaker]

Just downloaded build 514 and installed.
When I do the recharge I get an error.
From the Out of energy window
Code: AMMSJSJHSLSLLN

And the code I got back from the web page.
Fuel code: ELWFWWNFZVXK

This code should work: ELLLWFWWNFZVPG

And the error has been corrected in the recharge script. Sorry for that.

[Andre' B]

Thanks, it is working now.

[lgalla]

fuel code doesn't work
AMMLAMYL3AMJND

[Andre' B]

I tryed uploading some screen shots but somthing is not working.

I drew a rectangle with some fillets and did the arc in, pick the path, and arc out like in your video.
In the g code I am getting all X values in mirrored (*-1) of what the drawing is. Also I values in the G2 arcs are mirrored.

The NcDemo1.avi video looks to show the same but the g code text is a bit small and fuzzy on my screen.

Edit:
It is also putting a redundant G1 move in after the arc out move, same X,Y values as the end of the arc.

[CncCodeMaker]

In the g code I am getting all X values in mirrored (*-1) of what the drawing is. Also I values in the G2 arcs are mirrored.

The NcDemo1.avi video looks to show the same but the g code text is a bit small and fuzzy on my screen.

Thanks for for the feedback. I just noticed that the wrong postprocessors were supplied with the installation. Gonna fix that asap.

fuel code doesn't work
AMMLAMYL3AMJND

Get the last build (516), you should get it started there without a fuel code

[CncCodeMaker]

There's a new build, with the right postprocessors /and some fixed other aswell)

[Andre' B]

I have been playing with your program build 517.
Below is a screen shot of the shape I drew and programmed and the G-code generated.

A few things I noticed while doing this.

The G0 moves between the arc outs and the next arc in is being done at the cutting depth and not at some safe height above the part. If you have something in place to do that I just have not found it yet.

I had a few problems getting the arc in to happen on the side I wanted, mainly when the geometry is small and there is a lot of other geometry close by. Had to zoom in very close to get it to work, had some similar problems trimming lines.
Would be nice to be able to set the arc in out parameters one time and not have to click thru that stuff every time.
Maybe think about clicking on the point, clicking on the geometry to arc into and then as the user moves the cursor around the point show a preview of one of the 4 different arc in moves that would be selected with a third click.

You will see in the picture that I have a large circle around the shape in the center, that circle represents the part blank before machining. So I trimmed the path to that circle.
On some of short paths the arc in out happens on an arc the end of which is not a quadrant that caused some problems with the arc in move so I added a short line tangent to the arc, then the arc in out worked fine.

I did have an few errors pop up but I clicked thru them before saving any of the info, will try to get it next time I see them.

Seems to be something that is not getting closed down properly in the file save in the Save as type box.
I saved the ccmd file, then saved the .nc file at which time the type box was showing the ccmd options.
Then I hit the Print Scrn button, minimized the codemaker program and opened up IrfanView pasted the screen shot, cropped it and when I went to save the picture the save as type box was showing the .nc option, which seems really strange. I hit cancel and then tried to save the pic again and it worked as expected.
I will watch for that again and see if I can get some better info on what happened.


Last
You have a really nice simple and useful project going here, I like simple, clean, small, and fast software. I use programs like KeyCreator, SolidWorks, and MasterCAM at work and they have all grown into big bloated pigs, they work great but you need a super computer to get anything done.

Let me know what you used to make those demo videos and if I have time I will make some more. Maybe give you some ideas on what operations can be automated to make the tool paths faster to create.

Thanks;
Andre' B.

% 
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%

[CncCodeMaker]

Thank you very much for the feedback Andre' B. I really appreciate it.

I have been playing with your program build 517.
Below is a screen shot of the shape I drew and programmed and the G-code generated.

The G0 moves between the arc outs and the next arc in is being done at the cutting depth and not at some safe height above the part. If you have something in place to do that I just have not found it yet.

Yeah, depth output is default on, which it shouldn't really be. You turn it on/off (and other parameters as well) under the Settings tab in the NC-code output window.

There's also the NC Parameters button to check out. (Where you set the working depth etc)

I had a few problems getting the arc in to happen on the side I wanted, mainly when the geometry is small and there is a lot of other geometry close by. Had to zoom in very close to get it to work, had some similar problems trimming lines.

Yes, there is a issue with selecting lines/arc. Gonna look into that.
The Toolpath entry is currently bugged, so is the trim 2 lines.

Would be nice to be able to set the arc in out parameters one time and not have to click thru that stuff every time.
Maybe think about clicking on the point, clicking on the geometry to arc into and then as the user moves the cursor around the point show a preview of one of the 4 different arc in moves that would be selected with a third click.

Awesome idea, that's going in
I was thinking about how I could improve the parameter selection for then entry/exit since it is somewhat diffuse.

You will see in the picture that I have a large circle around the shape in the center, that circle represents the part blank before machining. So I trimmed the path to that circle.
On some of short paths the arc in out happens on an arc the end of which is not a quadrant that caused some problems with the arc in move so I added a short line tangent to the arc, then the arc in out worked fine.

The entry/exit is currently only supposed to work against a line. Entry/exit against an arc is on the to-be-done list. If that's what happened that is.

I did have an few errors pop up but I clicked thru them before saving any of the info, will try to get it next time I see them.

They end up in "errorlog.txt" in the installation directory.

Seems to be something that is not getting closed down properly in the file save in the Save as type box.

Thanks for the info, gonna look into that.

Last
You have a really nice simple and useful project going here, I like simple, clean, small, and fast software. I use programs like KeyCreator, SolidWorks, and MasterCAM at work and they have all grown into big bloated pigs, they work great but you need a super computer to get anything done.

Cheers for the good words! I have to say I agree with you too, and that's the actual reason this program exists.

Let me know what you used to make those demo videos and if I have time I will make some more. Maybe give you some ideas on what operations can be automated to make the tool paths faster to create.

I used Cam Studio. Some open-source software that I Googled. It's working alrite.
http://camstudio.org/

[CncCodeMaker]

Just an update. The software has evolved somewhat in the last 2 weeks.

Cnc Code Maker now got a User-defined cycle, which can be adjusted (through the post-processor) to work with built-in cycles in the controls. (for example G71, G72 etc in Fanuc Lathes). There's an experimental post-processor supplied.
There's also a (currently only Milling) contour cycle operation, with automatic entry/exit.

Here's a link to a few YouTube videos: Videos

This is the fix-list(s) from the last two weeks:

* Entry/Exit revamped
* Added a Parameter box for the Entry/Exit 
* Fixed the mouse pointer jump on Mouse-wheel zoom in.
* Fixed messages for dimension
* Added some missing icons to the menu
* Added the modified menu (not done)
* Fixed a misspelled XML entry.
* Fixed a bug where it would soft-crash if the file were missing on open.
* Major rewrite of tool-path generation/handling. 
* Added "NC operations"
* Added "New operation" button, for manual Operations
* Added "Contour operation" with depth-cuts, automatic entry/exit and automatic Machine cutter compensation.
* Fixed a bug in Manual Entry
* Added stuff in the post-processor.
* Added depth output on tool-path drawing
* Added Layers
* Added confirmation on tool-path clear
* Added Eob in the Post-processor engine ([MACHINE] - EOB )
* Now the NC text box scrolls to the bottom when new tool-paths are added.
* Redesigned Layers (Hold Control and click to make active)
* Fixed missing associations when hovering center-point and mid-point
* Fixed the circular bug in NC Auto-route
* Added Offset contour (yet limited, no arc support). See the example here: http://www.cncsimple.com/forum/index.php?topic=5.msg68#msg68
* Fixed the icon and text for the function move between layers
* Fixed a bug where the Save menu, icon always asked for a filename.
* Fixed a bug where the Free block didn't immediately appear in code window
* Remade Auto-route tool-path to use the new chain select function. It's not 100% working as intended yet (the chain select).
* Fixed some various stuff in the post-processor engine.
* Changed some incorrect text in the Contour operation, and offset contour.
* Fix a bug where the hovered lines/arc didn't highlight when chain-selecting.
* Added Custom cycle operation.
* Added a bunch new variables in the postprocessor
* Added [USERCYCLE] + more in the postprocessor
* Added User defined messages for the Custom Cycle operation in the postprocessor
* Remade the Condition check in the post-processor (Was "? VALUE>1, n, Do Stuff", is "IF VALUE > 1 THEN n, Do stuff")
* Added the user cycle to the file format (Load/save)
* Added an experimental Fanuc 0T Lathe post (New post-stuff in it, check it out if interested)
* Added experimental incremental coordinates (iX, iY, iZ)
* Added a bunch of missing variables comparing in the post-processor engine
* Added a bunch of missing variables updates in the post-processor engine
* Fixed a selection bug
* Added a tolerance in the chain-select function
* Fixed some DXF Layer errors (still need to overhaul the DXF layers)
* Fixed Trim 2 Lines to work as intended (line -arc, arc-arc still bugged)
* Fixed the issue that made Auto-route to spit out doubles.
* Fixed the issue that made Contour Operation  to spit out doubles.
* Fixed the issue that made Custom cycle to spit out doubles.
* Fixed some missing stuff and typos in the Iso mill posts processors.
* Added file associations in the setup program.
* Remove the automatic new operation when you make a Custom cycle (allows you to do entry/exits w/o issues)
* Fixed a bug that the I, J, K & R values weren't assigned their correct value in the custom cycle (in post-processor engine)
* Fixed a forgotten coordinate in the end block of the custom cycle. It shouldn't really matter, but it looked bad graphics-wise. Save files could still display it the wrong way.
+ more

If you still haven't tried it out yet, give it a shoot. It's free.

The first release is getting closer.