Visual G-code editor

Hi, is anyone aware of a visual Gcode editor? I have my Skeinforge generated Gcode and when I see the Skeinview window I REALY want to be able to delete or alter some of those lines. For example, if you have a hole somewhere your reprap is often very capable of bridging that hole. If the hole is more a concave opening in your form then the direction in which to bridge this hole is very important. So it would be nice to just move some lines in a different direction. Is there an app for that? Some kind of vector editor for G-CODE?

Hi unfold,

i think it's simply the wrong way from G-code back to the 3D-visialisation.

Normally you have your 3D-object in the CAD programm which you can change, optimize and so on ... and when ready, the exporter generates the slices and/or paths for your reprap or mill.

I sometimes reimport toolpaths back into my CAD/CAM for refining or adding some extras or simply reviewing, but then it's a CAD-file assembled from separated horizontal polygons only roughly representing the original 3D-object and wouldn't export back again as the same type of G-code, but complete different.

So the standard toolchain runs only the direction CAD/CAM->GCode->reprap/mill and i don't think there are programs for the way back ...

Viktor

Unfold, not sure what you really need but I'm making gcode editor attm. Using lazarus and gl to make it as portable as possible ... still in the predesign phase but the idea is to have text box where you edit your g-code using normal text tools and being able to preview changes in the GL windows. Some "vector highlight" when you are on g-code (so when you are on line G1 X10 Y10 Z10, the line representing that code changes color) ... I spent some time going wrong way about it so I'm now going back to basics .. but I expect to put some initial code on public svn in few weeks

Sounds useful. I find that I sometimes want to place with the raw traces.

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Regards,

Erik de Bruijn
[Ultimaker.com] - [blog.erikdebruijn.nl]

arhimed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfold, not sure what you really need but I'm
> making gcode editor attm. Using lazarus and gl to
> make it as portable as possible ... still in the
> predesign phase but the idea is to have text box
> where you edit your g-code using normal text tools
> and being able to preview changes in the GL
> windows. Some "vector highlight" when you are on
> g-code (so when you are on line G1 X10 Y10 Z10,
> the line representing that code changes color) ...
> I spent some time going wrong way about it so I'm
> now going back to basics .. but I expect to put
> some initial code on public svn in few weeks

arhimed, thats halfway what i mean and would already be very useful! Ultimately I would like a pen tool to draw those lines at a position in the Gcode. But if you have a visualizer where you can hover or click to get the coordinates that would be nice too.

Using EMC2 in "simulator" mode is quite useful as a a GCODE visualisation tool. I do find that I have to change the -999 "homing sequences" into 0 first - as EMC2 doesn't understand these as meaning "home to 0,0", it understands these to mean travel into negative coordinate space.

Anyway, you get a nice tool-path visualisation that you can zoom and scroll around, and it shows the exact G-Codes in-use at the time, for each path. I'm not sure you can "edit on the fly" - I've never been tempted, but the visualisatino is all there.

Buzz

Thanks buzz, will give it a try.
Here I have an example of a possible use for this app. Im printing 50 small objects without a raft to save material. Problem is that the first 50mm of my prints never sticks because the flow of material is not up to speed. Normally that is the first line of the raft so not a problem at all but now I'm missing part of my perimeter. So I manually added a line to the beginning of my print to give time for the material flow to get up to speed. The current workflow is adding coordinates in a text editor and checking in skeinview, this involves lots of trial and error to get the right coordinates. So a visual live code editor with preview is definitely something I hope will be available one day.