Laserengrave and gcode

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Laserengrave and gcode

Postby Mark81 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:03 am

Hello! I'm going to try the laserengrave plugin but I cannot find a way to save/edit the generated gcode.
I want to do this for two main reasons: 1. to re-use the same g-code without run again the plugin and remember settings for each image, 2. to run a post-processor on it.
After clicking on "generate and send to UCCNC" I cannot see the g-code, and clicking on "edit file" leads to a blank editor.

How to do that?
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby cncdrive » Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:26 am

Code is not generated with the laser plugin, it would be just a huge amount of resource waste to generate code plus for very large picture images the generated code might be so large that it would not fit into the memory.
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby Mark81 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:38 am

I don't understand how it might work, then!

Anyway, I generate g-code for laser rastering since several years with no memory issues.
Of course, the files may be quite big, but the same applies for 3D carving for example.
I would like to try this CAM because it seems it's the only one that supports the "overrun" to avoid acceleration/deceleration ramps and to engrave at constant speed only.
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby cncdrive » Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:46 am

You simply send it to the UCCNC from the plugin and then press cycle start and that's all, no g-code, it will run from memory.
To unload it do a RESET.

An image can be several thousands times several thousands of pixels size and it is possible that for each pixel the laser intensity has to be changed, that is a huge amount of characters in g-code while it takes only 8bits per pixel when run directly from memory with the data stored as a byte array.
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby Mark81 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:53 am

cncdrive wrote:An image can be several thousands times several thousands of pixels size and it is possible that for each pixel the laser intensity has to be changed, that is a huge amount of characters in g-code while it takes only 8bits per pixel when run directly from memory with the data stored as a byte array.


I know this.
But as said I never had an issue with that! Most of my files are about 5-6 MB (300-400k rows).
I understand running it from memory is more efficient but you have no further control...
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby cncdrive » Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:57 am

What further control would you need?
If the laser is stopped in the middle of the job then the job is 100% sure ruined, so I see no point for any further control.
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby Mark81 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 5:01 am

cncdrive wrote:What further control would you need?


I said that in the first post: use again the same file without remember the settings for each one (I have hundreds!) and use a post-processor to customize whatever I might need (example, I always add a comment header section with notes about material, size, origin, etc...).
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby cncdrive » Sun Feb 24, 2019 9:53 pm

Yes, that sounds a reasonable idea if you want to save it. Unfortunately there is no such option like that in the plugin at the moment, but I will be thinking about this.
Maybe we could make the data save-able and reloadable in the plugin.
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby Mark81 » Mon Feb 25, 2019 5:56 pm

cncdrive wrote:Maybe we could make the data save-able and reloadable in the plugin.


It would be very appreciated, thanks!
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Re: Laserengrave and gcode

Postby 3d0g » Sat Jun 08, 2019 12:11 am

Yes! Saving engrave params for jobs would be wonderful.

I also asked for these last year but I'll ask again: Please add X axis backlash and S3 parameters to the engrave plugin. Too often I forget to set these, messing up a job. Also provide feedback after the plugin is finished sending the data stream to UCCNC. There's no way of knowing and it can take a few seconds for a big engrave job.
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