Hey guys I found this gcode plotter you could give a try in the meantime. Its called Kirk (XinCNC) Its and open source project written by Albert Jin. It shows that it only opens with .nc files but I have tried .tp and .cnc and they work as well. There's really not that much there in the way of user controls but a nice feature is the ability to scroll through the code and watch a simulation using the down arrow key. Hope this helps, if nothing else its a fun little program to mess with Mark and Trish Attached files Kirk.zip (103.4 KB)Â
Thanks Gasmasher! A great plugin to see of the Gcode looks good. That way I don't have to start up Mach3 to look at it. Ken
I got the plug in to work but went through an odd series of steps "Place GPlot.rb and GPlot.dll and Win32API.so (this comes from a standard Ruby 1.8 install) in your SketchUP Plugin folder" "Copy the gplot.exe and gplot.rb files to your GoogleGoogle SketchUp 7Plugins folder." latest version 1.9 gplotlib.dll and gplot.exe Downloaded the latest ruby had a Win32API.rb "Error Loading File Win32API.rb no such file to load -- dl" changing it to .so eliminated the error message but no plugin appears I found gplot.rb in resources and made a copy to plugins and now, not sure if i put it there by mistake I tried the Msi install, I have copyed the .dll
>> "is not a valid floating point value" Is caused by the country specific settings in Windows (control panel); I have the swedish preferences which is decimal separated from the integer part with a comma (,) and not the american style of using period (.) Apperently the script is using the win preferences but the gcode files are always having the period convension - a workaround is to change the windows preferences to an international setting - and a long term solution is of course to hope that an updated versions takes this into account nativly. Otherwise it seems like a great script (which I have tried only for a few minutes since I just discovered it) @developer: Another thing, even simpler to fix, is to add a version number into the application so it's apperant which version is running BR/Anders
I'm just starting with GPlot. Downloaded it this morning. The video showing it's capabilities shows the cut path in an isometric view. I just seem to have a top view. How do I get to the to the isometric view to check the tabs etc?? Thanks in advance. I also ran into a problem with generating G Code when I had an 10 by 5 array of holes to be drilled. The G code missed several holes. Don't know why. It's a mystery. I ended up editing the g code to get all the holes. then moved to Mach3 and drilled them. Ivor
Thanks, Took a bit of trial and error to realize I have to hold the middle button and then move the mouse around. I was trying to get results by holding the wheel down and rotating it. All part of the learning process. Going back to Sketchup 7 and the Phlatboys software I might just be able to cut parts this weekend. Thanks again, Ivor
hey, this plotter is great. is there a way to step through the code and see highlights on the backplot?
Hello Joe, If you download the kirk version at the top of this page you can use the down arrow key to step through the code. kirk and gplot are a lot a like in looks, but with gplot you cannot step though the code. Mark and Trish
boy, what a derp moment for me. I cant believe I missed your post....and it's your forum, too! I already had this moved to my machine, I just never saw it. this is awesome. I've been using Kmotion at home to preview because my machine is two flights down to the garage from my main workstation. it did remind me of what I was originally going to post.. kirk wont let you edit the code, so... getting those errant spikes out of the 3d code is not as easy as I'd hoped.
Hi Joe, No worries there is a lot of info to pour over here thanks mainly to everyone who has taken time to post and help others out. This has really begun to grow into an awesome cnc resource for a lot of folks, and thats very cool to us You could give 'Basic CNC Viewer' a try: http://www.cncedit.com/BasicViewer/Default.aspx Another option is maybe you could use notepad++ to edit the code with a replace all? Hope this helps Mark and Trish
The Gplot may have a problem. Is this the right place to report it? I added some dwell statements to my CNC output file then tried to view it with GPlot. It fails to display the file and reports only that 'Number expected on line 1'. If I remove all of the dwell statements, it works OK. This is the statement that I added. G04 P0.080 Delay for 80 milliseconds I do not get any errors when viewing this with CNC-USB and the file cuts with the dwells as expected.
yes, Gplot has a problem, it is a very simple and doesn't understand the more complicated Gcodes, and doesn't ignore them either. read the Sketchucam help for a HOWTO on changing your default viewer to CNC-USB (or anything that will take a filename as a parameter as disply the Gcode). However, do note that you have to close CNC-USB before continuing to edit the sketchup file.
@GrandpawB Check out the first part of this read http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/loading.php Where the plugins are located on SketchUp Make 2014 Microsoft Windows On Windows, the plugins are installed here: C:\Users\<your_windows_user_name>\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp[n]\SketchUp\Plugins Mac OS X On OS X, the plugins are installed in the plugins directory within the user's /Library/Application Support/SketchUp directory: /Users/<your_mac_user_name>/Library/ApplicationSupport/SketchUp[n]/SketchUp/Plugins