Beginners guide to setting up bCNC (+ autoleveling)

[AnonymousPerson]

Excellent, good write up. Please keep doing them!

The only really difficult part, IMO, was making sure that the bCNC files were extracted into the correct location (i.e the root folder for Python).

Interesting. In theory it's not supposed to need that. For you it obviously did though.

If you don't mind sharing the info, what's the full path to your Python installation?

For example, on my Win 8.1 PC I installed it to C:\Python27. Note the lack of space characters in my path - eg no "X:\Program Files\stuff goes here". That due to learning over the years that some software just isn't quite where it needs to be with it's path handling (yet).

[AnonymousPerson]

Once I got the basics squared away, I was quite impressed with the UI, and was able to get most things done quite quickly: jog machine around (safely), use the various probe functions (touchplate, the basics of autolevel), and so on. It took a little while to get used to the spreadsheet-style menus, but anybody who has used graphics programs and such will quickly get the hang of things: it keeps the screen uncluttered, but I would like the option to always have the jog menu available (not sure if that is practical (i.e it may be that way so you don't accidentally jog on purpose)).

bCNC's UI seems to have been initially put together by it's primary author in a quick and dirty fashion that worked for him at the time. There is active discussion happening about the next version of the UI here, and some code written that can be tested (in the "eval" branch):

https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC/issu ... -119633073
https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC/issu ... -137847631

If you have the time/interest to do so, please try out the eval branch code and add your comments/thoughts about it to the GitHub Issue.

https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC/archive/eval.zip

[vasilis]

@AnonymousPerson the eval branch since September is the master branch of bCNC.

[AnonymousPerson]

@AnonymousPerson the eval branch since September is the master branch of bCNC.

That's confusing. Looking at the bCNC repo, they're two distinct branches with different commits:

• https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC/tree/master ← master branch - last commit today
• https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC/tree/eval ← eval branch - last commit 13th September

Hmmm, maybe it's a terminology thing... do you mean the eval branch was merged into master, so now the "new UI" under discussion is what everyone's already running?

[vasilis]

Correct. The master now has the new UI.

[AnonymousPerson]

Thanks Vasilis.

[ALuomala]

Thanks for the input, guys. I can see a little more clearly why people are fond of open-source software (the discussions, collaboration, etc), but it is still quite new to me (I'm more of a "plug and play" type of computer user). I don't mind beta-testing things and providing input, so I will take a look-see and see I can come up with and contribute.

I'm going to finish documenting the steps I used for autoleveling (not so much from a PCB engraving point-of-view, but from an "odd shaped" objects point-of-view) in a few days (the weekends aren't the best time for me to hit my shop: the "honey-do" projects and family time take priority). Hopefully what I come up with makes sense, and any corrections, insight, etc will be greatly appreciated, since it will highlight this great software, and ease the timid into it.

Allan

[ALuomala]

I tried to use the eval build, but I can't get it to open. I can get the master build to run no problem, but with the eval version all that happens is I see the Python window rapidly open/close, and that's it (much like when I first tried to run/install bCNC in the first place (when I extracted the contents to the root folder of Python)).

On the whole, I am much more comfortable using beta (or working in stable form) software, and doubt I would bring much to the discussion anyway. I will contribute where I can to the master release; otherwise too much effort would be expended hand-holding me through the intricacies of Python/development stuff.

[cvoinescu]

If I understand correctly, 'master' is the development version (most current), and 'eval' is an older version.

[AnonymousPerson]

Yeah. I was wrong about the new UI. It's already been accepted and made the default anyway, so you don't need to grab eval.zip.

Sorry for the confusion.