Aspire Direct Output to UCCNC

[RsX]

Hello,
this is my solution to enable the Aspire direct output function for UCCNC
Let me know if it works for you too and if it can be improved

aspire direct output.png (21.74 KiB) Viewed 850 times

To enable the direct output I added this line into a copy of the UCCNC original postprocessor
The first part is just a name, the second is the ini file that contains the command to execute

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DIRECT_OUTPUT = "UCCNC|UCCNC_run.ini"

Then I put this command into the ini file
What it does is creating a UCCNC subfolder in the temp folder and moves the gcode (%s) into it with a fixed name.

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cmd
/c mkdir "%%TEMP%%\UCCNC\" & move /y %s "%%TEMP%%\UCCNC\Autoload.gcode"

Both files are in the attached zip file and go into this folder, where V is the version of Aspire

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C:\ProgramData\Vectric\Aspire\{Vx.x}\My_PostP

To make UCCNC load the file I created an M20002 macro and setup a macroloop that starts with UCCNC
The macro continuously checks if there is an Autoload.gcode file in the specified folder and, if UCCNC is stopped, loads it then removes it.

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string AutoloadFile = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP") + @"\UCCNC\Autoload.gcode";
//MessageBox.Show(AutoloadFile);
if(exec.CycleStopped && System.IO.File.Exists(AutoloadFile)){
   exec.Loadfile(AutoloadFile);
   while(exec.IsLoading()){}
   System.IO.File.Delete(AutoloadFile);
}

[sebba]

Nice job, I'll try it right after I'll finish my current upgrade.
Thanks for posting

[sebba]

regarding M20002 macro, uccnc and aspire have to be installed on the same computer?
what about if aspire run on different computer?

[RsX]

No, they don't, but they must have access to the same network folder/disk.
You can modify the Aspire command to move the %s file to the shared folder and the UCCNC macro to monitor that folder.
Maybe this might even work with a onedrive/googledrive synced folder or the direct output can be modified to send the file via ftp... The possibilities are endless
What would you like to use to send the file to the other computer? Maybe I can help

[sebba]

Understand, thanks.
I'll let you know when I'll test it in real life.
For now it was just a preview, having a break with my current task.
Thank you,
Seb

[Battwell]

this works well. modified to work with vcarve pro and tested.
the only annoying thing is it loses the original job name. which i use for pre run file checking.
makes loading one of the last 10 gcode files impossible too.
cant have everything i suppose

[RsX]

Yes, it does lose the job name. Aspire names the file something like "Vectric_b35c675c-547a-4db3-8561-1b40ac22b7b9".

I encountered an issue where I cannot reload/rewind the file because it was deleted, so I modified the macro like this.

the command in the ini file creates an "AutoloadUCCNC.tmp" file in the temp folder with the Aspire generated gcode path in it.

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cmd
/c del /F "%%TEMP%%\AutoloadUCCNC.tmp" & echo %s>"%%TEMP%%\AutoloadUCCNC.tmp"

The UCCNC macro now looks for that file and loads the gcode path contained inside.

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string AutoloadFile = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP") + @"\AutoloadUCCNC.tmp";
string gcodeFile = "";
//MessageBox.Show(AutoloadFile);
if(exec.CycleStopped && System.IO.File.Exists(AutoloadFile)){
   //read the file, it should have only one line
   gcodeFile = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(AutoloadFile);
   //clean the string
   gcodeFile = gcodeFile.TrimEnd('\r', '\n');
   //load the gcode
   exec.Loadfile(gcodeFile);
   while(exec.IsLoading()){}
   //delete the tmp file, not the gcode
   System.IO.File.Delete(AutoloadFile);
}

[Battwell]

that works a lot nicer.
as the file still exists i can pre file check too.

i cant remember if mach3 used to bring in the file name or not.
i know it had to have registry entries added. long time since since i used mach now!