Since more and more people are trying this application I think it's necessary to include release notes from now on. 

In future this document will be updated and expanded with every release.

What's new in Alpha 4

Installation


After you have unzipped the file GenGCodeVxxx.zip to any appropriate directory, such as the windows temp directory double click on the Setup program.

During the Alpha phase I am only supporting the installation in the C:\Program Files\GenGCode directory. This is the default directory that the setup program selects. It is possible to install to a different directory but that would require changing the GenGCode.ini file manually, and I will not support this at this time. Future versions starting with beta will support installation to any directory.

Upgrade Installation


If you are installing GenGCode over a previous version then during setup you will be prompted that certain files already exist, and you will be asked if you want to keep the old files. You must answer No to GenGCode.dll and GenGCode.exe, The exe will not work with an older version of the .dll file. At this current release level there is no need to upgrade the other files such as GenGCode.ini so you can safely say yes to the question and maintain your current settings. Future releases may require you to update the .ini file as well if major changes are made to it, however I will try to keep this to a minimum.

Getting Started

Click on the GenGCode icon  installed in the Programs/GenGCode section of the Windows Start menu. This will bring up the Main Menu window and the Splash Screen window click on the button on the Splash screen to go to the menu. 

Setting the Default Editor
GenGCode requires a text editor to be defined in order to work. This can be any text editor which is capable of saving files in plain text mode. The Windows supplied NotePad.exe and WordPad.exe are two such examples. Any text editor can be defined here, for example if you have a CNC specific editor which you normally use. 

Click on the Files button of the menu.

To select the editor either type in the name of the executable file, the full path is required unless the path is already defined by Windows. For example, NotePad is normally in the Windows directory which is in the Windows path. You can check this by opening a DOS prompt window and typing notepad <Enter>, if notepad come up then you don't need to define the path.

If you don't know where the editor executable is then click on to open up a File Selection window to help you find it.

Once you have defined it click on the button to save it and then to return to the  menu.

One note, notepad at least the Win98 version is limited to the size of files it can successfully load. Initially this is probably not a problem, but as GenGCode evolves it may be necessary to switch to WordPad or some other editor which can handle larger files. When Text engraving is operational the G-Code files could start to become larger than NotePad can handle. As a Test I generated a GCode listing of over 5 million lines, and WordPad was able to open the file (slowly) but successfully, Notepad is currently limited to files under 64K. I don't anticipate that the files would ever grow to that extreme but it's nice to know that it is possible. 


Project Selection

Initially GenGCode is provided with three sample projects Sample1 Sample2 and Sample3. Also by default Sample1 is selected as the default. You can change to a different Project or create your own, the current default Project will be saved each time you exit.

To change the default Project click on button to open the setup menu. Click on the project button and you will see:

 which is a list of currently defined Project. to select a different Project click on any of them in the list box. When you do that the icon will change to which means you have made changes, but not saved them yet. Click on the red disk button to save your changes. To exit back to the setup menu click at the lower left of the window.

If you want to create a new project click on the New Project button and fill out the requested information. Filling out the Directory information is optional, but it is good practice to store project files in separate directories to keep things organized on your system. If the directory does not exist y9ou will be prompted to see if you want it created for you. Once you have entered the information, click on and then  to exit back to the Project window.

A quick word about Projects. I have added the concept of Project to offer a way of organizing files into sets, and to make the use of these file as transparent as possible to the user. All the files are stored on disk in the appropriate project directory as straight text files, and can be copied from there to the actual CNC controller computer in whatever way you are currently using. I will probably incorporate a serial file transfer protocol in future to send the file , but for now sneaker net is probably the 
best way, unless you are running GenGCode on the same computer as the control software.


Pre and Post code files
Click on either of the PreCode or PostCode buttons to bring up the code editor and enter the appropriate code you want to include. This code will only be included if you select the appropriate option buttons in each of the operation windows. 

PreCode Editor:

**There is currently a bug in the way the Pre and Post code files are handled which can cause additional blank lines to be added to these files. If this happens go back to the editor and eliminate the extra returns by first moving to the end of the file by using the down arrow, then use the back key to eliminate the spaces. Don't delete the final blank line, i.e. you should stop deleting when the cursor is on the line below the final line of text.

If you don't mind having a few blank lines inserted after the Pre and Post code then you do not have to do the above.

Axis Defaults

Use this screen to set up the Axis defaults. Once defined they can be loaded into the appropriate text boxes by clicking on the Load Defaults button at the top of most operation windows.


Operations

The following operations screens are currently working

Rect Pocket
Circle Pocket
Circle Peck
Grid
Slot (milling direction and tool selection not enabled)
Ellipse

The following screens are not

Drill Points
Panel
Text

These will be added to future versions


General

Simulation is not enabled except for the brief demo of the ZAxis on the Rectangle Pocket screen. This demo uses canned data and bears no relation to the numbers on the screen. The Peck drilling simulation works and uses the information input.

Selection of Climb milling is not enabled
Tool Changes are not enabled
Joining Files is not enabled

The option screen in the setup menu is not saving values yet

Basics

In order to produce a G-Code file you must have a file selected in the File Name list by clicking on the check box. You should also select either Overwrite or Append to decide the file mode. Append is handy when you want to add a number of similar operations to the same file.