Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Bug Fixes
=========
The G69 coordinate rotation command was not resetting the commanded angle
back to zero, this is fixed.
Fixed a bug in the G65 subprogram call. This bug ocurred when the machine
type was set to lathe and a "T" value was included in the G65 block. In this case
any "D" or "H" values that were also included in the block were being passed as
zero instead of the commanded value.
Closed LWPOLYLINE entities were not being read correctly when importing a DXF
file, this is fixed.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
Fixed a problem with the two line lathe canned cycles incorrectly giving an
error message. This was caused by the system variable #4009 not being updated when
a canned cycle was cancelled by a group 1 code.
Some Group 00 G-Codes were incorrectly being treated as motion blocks, this
is fixed.
When a "T" address was passed with a value of zero from a G65 block, the
actual value being passed was the last commanded "T" code instead of the value in
the G65 block.
Fixed a bug in the DXF importer. If the last vertex in a polyline included a
bulge value, it was added to the drawing as a line segment instead of an arc.
The program expand tool would not output literal blocks after the first one.
Blocks in the format ("Literal") will now output the text between double quotes as-
is.
If G92 was commanded while G68 was active then the first motion block after
the G92 was not being rotated, this is fixed.
A few of the scripting commands were giving errors when an optional parameter
was omitted, this is fixed. The affected commands were: NCPMirror, NCPRotate and
NCPShift.
Improvements
============
The machine configuration setting "I/J/K values are modal" no longer requires
the setting "Absolute Arc Centers" to also be on. These two settings can now be
turned on or off independently.
The machine configuration toolbar button now also has the dropdown list of
configurations. Clicking the button still opens the machine configuration window,
but the button now includes the dropdown arrow that when clicked shows the list of
available configurations.
The scripts toolbar button now opens a file browse dialog where you can
select a script file to execute. A dropdown arrow has also been added to the
button which shows the list of available scripts.
On the variable display window the "Eval Block" now shows the block after any
customizations have been applied to it. If you have "Interpreter Customize"
enabled on the machine configuration then this will allow you to see each block
with the customizations applied.
New Features
============
The macro debugger has a new breakpoint feature. You can now add breakpoints
to your program by inserting blocks containing the text "(BREAK)". Both the "Run
To Breakpoint" and the "Macro Animate" tools will stop when a break block is
encountered. These tools are located on the macro variable display.
Added dwell time to the run time estimation page. This adds any G04 dwell
times to the run time estimation seperately from the other times. This also shows
up as a seperate item on the generated report. By using the interpreter
customizations you can add times for M-code events such as clamping and unclamping
to the run time estimation.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
The DXF importer would incorrectly read some arc entities as mirrored, this
is fixed. This seems to be an issue only with drawings saved from a few particular
CAD packages.
If a file was dragged and dropped onto a document being edited the dropped
file replaced the edit file instead of opening a new document. This was true even
if the edit file was not saved, resulting in loss of work. This has been fixed,
this action now opens the file in a new document.
Fixed a bug in the Find functionality that was introduced in v2.25. If the
search text was not found a run time error ocurred after the message asking if you
want to search again from the beginning of the file.
Fixed a problem with 'Replace All'. When the CR/LF representation "^M" was
used in the find/replace text it was possible for NCPlot to lock up in a never-
ending loop. This has been fixed.
Fixed a problem with 'Replace All'. If the replace text contained multiple
address words and colorizing was enabled then no replacements were made.
When a new document was loaded by a script the document tiling was not being
applied to it, this is fixed.
Text typed into the editor was being colorized even if the colorize setting
was turned off, this is fixed.
The 'Convert arc I/J/K to R' tool was incorrectly converting helical arcs
when the start and end points were the same on the active plane, this is fixed.
The 'Convert arc I/J/K to R' tool was not allowing very small arcs to be
converted even if the start and end points were not the same, this is fixed.
Improvements
============
The location for saving the license manager settings has been moved. This
allows the settings to be shared among all users of a computer rather than
requiring each user to define these settings.
Made a change to the isometric view behavior, this view will now pan when
both the left and right mouse buttons are pressed together.
The milling canned cycles have been updated to more accurately represent each
cycle. This will improve run time estimation for programs that use these canned
cycles.
The popup menus for selecting machine configurations and scripts are now
alphabetized.
Added a new program coloring scheme. The program can now be colored by the
modal G-Code state.
The machine configuration toolbar button now opens the machine configuration
instead of the popup list of configurations.
The "save to file" feature of the viewport print preview window will now
prompt for a desired image width.
Changed the 'Eval Block' display on the variable display window. This
display will now show results of IF, WHILE and GOTO expressions as well as variable
assignments.
New Features
============
The toolbar style can now be selected from the Preferences window. Available
styles are Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Visual Studio 2005.
Added the ability to define the colors for buttons and frames. These
settings can be found on the Preferences window.
Added a setting to the machine configurations "G/M Codes" page. This setting
is labeled "Maximum Subprogram Nesting Level" and allows NCPlot to match the
maximum nesting level of your control.
The "Break arcs into lines" tool has a new setting that allows you to break
only arcs smaller than a specified length. This is useful for converting very
short arc moves into line segments.
Added a line width setting to the viewport print preview window. This allows
setting the drawing line width for printing and for saving the preview as a .BMP
file.
Added a new tool called 'Program Expand' to the 'Tools' menu. This tool
works similar to the Macro Translator tool, except that it works on the currently
selected edit file. It will convert macro programs into longhand G-Code as well as
expand loops and subprograms. The expanded file is created in a new document.
Add a new "File" menu item called 'Send To'. This menu allows sending the
current edit file to an external application. The application list is customizable
via the file 'SendTo.ini' which is in the NCPlot application folder.
NCPShell(strShellCMD)
This function allows scripts to launch external programs. This would
be useful for sending data to other programs such as CAD/CAM or DNC software.
NCPBreakLines SegmentLength
This function is equivalent to the "Tools / Break Lines Into Segments"
tool. The specified segment length determines how many smaller moves are created.
NCPBreakArcsAtQuadrants
This function is equivalent to the "Tools / Break Arcs At Quadrants"
tool.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
A test routine for the G71 lathe roughing cycle had been left enabled and
could cause bad geometry to be created when plotted. This routine is not yet
complete and has been removed.
Fixed some display problems for systems that have the desktop DPI set higher
than 100%.
The run time estimation report was always showing the rapid rate from the
machine configuration rather than the setting on the run time estimation page, this
is fixed.
Viewport window selection now works properly with motion elements that
include rotary axis movement.
The block renumbering tool was not properly handling blocks that use numbered
block skips, eg. "/2". This is fixed.
The block renumbering tool was improperly updating blocks containing keywords
that begin with "GOTO". Some controls use the keywords "GOTOB" and "GOTOF", NCPlot
will now ignore these keywords when renumbering.
Fixed a bug in the subprogram formats that allow specifying a target block
number. The subprogram call was incorrectly jumping to a block in the same program
rather than the target program if a matching block number was found. This has been
fixed.
Improvements
============
The display of rapid motion on the backplot now includes rotary motion. This
includes all three rapid types: interpolated, dog-leg and Z first/last.
Improved the calculations for the length of motion elements that include
rotary axis movement. This will improve run time estimates for programs that
include a rotary axis.
Improved the find / replace functionality. The Replace All tool is now case-
insensitive and now works when a line break (^M) is included in the find or replace
text.
Improved the handling of the machine configuration folder. This will enable
selecting a configuration folder that is not a sub-folder of the NCPlot
installation folder.
The viewport modal display will now hide H and D addresses when their value
is zero. The H and D modal values will also be reset to zero when a tool change is
commanded so that these addresses will only be displayed when a new offset has been
commanded.
Made some changes to the Remove Redundant Endpoints tool to prevent removing
endpoints from blocks immediately after a tool change, from offset activation
blocks and a few others.
The file comparison tool now uses the active font settings for displaying the
files to compare.
Added support for G10 to most of the included machine configurations. This
is done by means of a G10 macro that supports G54-G59 and G54.1 P1-P48 work offset
setting.
New Features
============
Added a new setting to the machine configuration "G/M Code" setting page.
This setting allows the canned cycle repeat address to be set separately from the
M98 repeat address. Either address "L" or "K" can be selected.
Added a new rotary axis type. This new type treats the rotary axis endpoints
like a linear axis. If the rotary axis is commanded beyond 360 degrees it will
rotate back the same amount when going back to zero regardless if it passes through
zero more than once.
Added a macro variable renumbering tool. This tool will display the macro
variables that are used by a program and will allow you to renumber them. This
tool is found under the "Calc / Renumber Variables" menu.
Added rapid rate settings for each axis to the machine configuration. These
settings allow for more accurate backplotting of dog-leg rapid motion and are only
enabled when this rapid type is selected.
Added a system variable that indicates which address has been selected for
the rotary 4th axis. The variable is #5110 which will contain one of these values:
1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 21=U, 22=V and 23=W. When used in a macro statement the rotary axis
commanded value can be retrieved with the statement "#[#5110]".
Added support to the Haas machine configuration for G47 text engraving.
Supports literal string, character and serial number engraving.
Added two new scripting functions to support the "Convert coordinates to ABS"
and "Convert coordinates to INC" tools. These functions are:
NCPlot.NCPConvertCoordToABS
NCPlot.NCPConvertCoordToINC
*************************************************************
Added a viewport tool that allows moving the rotation center for the
isometric view. This is selcted via the menu "View / Set ISO View Rotation Center"
or the viewport keyboard shortcut key "Q". When selected this command waits for
you to pick an endpoint on the viewport then shifts the view so that the picked
point is centered on the viewport.
Program blocks that begin with the character "%" are now ignored by the
interpreter.
Changed the behavior of the "Calc / Measure" tool. Instead of requiring that
entities be selected before invoking this tool it will now prompt for 2 endpoints
to measure between. This is identical to using the viewport shortcut key "M".
Added a new preferences settings that allows reversing the zoom direction for
the mouse wheel. The setting is called "Reverse mouse wheel zoom direction".
Fixed a bug in the DXF importer chaining tool. It was not allowing chains to
be created from single entities, this is fixed.
*************************************************************
NCPlot v2.24 Release Notes
April 26, 2012
Updated the status bar to match the style of the tool bars.
Fixed a bug that was causing some menu items to appear checked that shouldn't
be.
Updated the backplotter to allow more than 256 tool changes in a program.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
Fixed a problem with rotary axis plotting that was introduced in v2.22
G66 modal macro call was not working with G02 or G03 blocks, this is fixed.
There was a bug that allowed the viewport refresh while macro stepping was
active. Doing this caused an error message when trying to continue with the macro
stepping. Now when macro stepping is in progress and a viewport refresh is
requested you will be prompted to confirm the cancellation of macro stepping.
Fixed a bug in the zoom extents tool on the lathe front turret view.
NCPlot would crash when attempting to load a binary DXF file. This file
format is not supported and a message will now be displayed when attempting to load
this type of file.
Fixed a bug in the Break Arcs into lines tool. When breaking a helical arc
command that did not include a Y axis endpoint the tool would incorrectly insert
two "X" values.
The print black and white setting now works for the print program tool.
New Features
============
The keyboard shortcuts can now be exported and imported via the 'Setup' menus
'Export Settings' and 'Import Settings'
The viewport print preview now allows the preview image to be saved as a
bitmap file.
NCPMsgClose
When a message window is displayed without a timeout value, this
function will close the window. A new message may be displayed without first
closing the previous message. The message will close when the script execution
ends.
Improvements
============
Viewport set as reference will now use only the visible viewport entities.
The viewport rotation icon now draws on top of the backplot, keeping it
visible.
The break arcs tool now gives a default value when prompting for the 'Maximum
Path Deviation Distance'.
The print program and print viewport tool will now remember the orientation
and print black and white settings between uses. These settings are remembered
separately for program and viewport printing.
Changed the data entry for the work offsets and extended work offsets on the
machine configuration so that pressing 'Enter' is not required.
Added a setting to the license manager settings, you can now specify the
hostname where the license manager is located.
The "Remove Redundant Endpoints" tool will now reset when an M02, M30, M99 or
M06 is encountered.
*************************************************************
Rotary 4th axis motion was not correctly displaying incremental moves greater
than 360 degrees, this is fixed.
Fixed a display problem when rotation G68 and scaling G51 were applied at the
same time.
Fixed a display problem that occurs when multiple files are open and
maximized then one is closed.
Fixed a problem that was preventing NCPlot from being registered on machines
that had Asian language packs installed.
New Features
============
Added feed override and rapid override controls to the run time estimation
page. These controls may be adjusted to see the effect that they have on machine
run times.
Added new functionality to the tool list toolbar. The tool list can now
control the visibility of its corresponding tool path on the viewport, allowing
individual paths to be turned off or on. The plot controls then will skip over any
hidden parts of the backplot graphic.
Added two new buttons to the plot toolbar, these buttons are "Plot backward
to previous tool" and "Plot forward to next tool". As their names imply these two
buttons allow jumping the plot forward or backward one toolchange at a time.
Added a new option to the rotary 4th axis configuration. The new option
allows selecting one of two rotary command types. The two types are "Take shortest
path to endpoint" and "Sign indicates direction". When the shortest path option is
selected the rotary axis chooses a direction that results in less than 180 degrees
of movement. When set to 'Sign indicates direction' the rotary axis will move to
the designated endpoint in the direction indicated by the sign of the endpoint
value.
Improvements
============
The mirror tool will now swap G41/G42 commands in the mirrored code.
Updated the script function "NCPRotate" to allow rotation in any of the three
planes.
*************************************************************
Improvements
============
The tools "Break Arcs Into Lines" and "Break Arcs at Quadrants" now support
both absolute and incremental endpoints as well as center points.
The tool "Break Lines Into Segments" now supports both absolute and
incremental endpoints.
When the subprogram setup is set to warn if sub not found there is now an
option to cancel program execution when the message appears.
*************************************************************
NCPlot is now an MDI application. This means that you can now open and edit
multiple documents at the same time. This is a major interface update that will
lead to some useful new features.
Added a "Window" menu that contains a list of the open files as well as
tiling options for automatically arranging the files in the document workspace.
There is a new toolbar that displays the currently open files. Clicking the
name of a file on the toolbar will make the associated file the active document.
If there are more documents open than the 'Open Files' toolbar can display you can
click the small band at its right end to see a list of the non-visible document
names.
The graphics viewport now behaves like a toolbar, allowing you to detach it
from the application window or close it altogether. Added a heading just above the
viewport that displays the name of the file that the viewport is currently
associated with. Clicking the viewport or using any of the plot controls will
activate the edit file that created the backplot.
Added an option to the Preferences dialog called 'Auto Arrange Files'. When
this option is checked the open files will re-tile themselves whenever a file is
opened or closed, the application window is resized or any of the toolbars are
moved. The last selected tiling option from the 'Window' menu is used.
Added a file comparison tool. You can access this tool via the menu "File /
Compare files" and also the new toolbar button on the "Edit" toolbar.
Added a "Toolbars" submenu to the "Setup" menu. This menu displays all the
current toolbars and allows you to turn them on or off from the menu.
The extended work offset commands G54 P and G54.1 P will now allow the "P"
address to be anywhere in the block.
New Tools
=========
Added two new tools to the 'Tools' menu: Convert Coordinates to ABS and
Convert Coordinates to INC. These tools allow translating program endpoints
between absolute and incremental coordinates.
Added a new arc tool called "Break arcs at quadrants" which will break any
arc command that passes through one of the four quadrants. The arcs are broken
into up to 3 additional commands of up to 90 degrees each.
Added a new tool called "Break lines into segments" which will break any
linear motion into shorter movement segments.
Added a new address translation tool called "Address calculator". This tool
lets you create custom translations by allowing calculations to be performed on
address values. For each block in the file the address values are loaded into
local variables and one or more calculations can be performed using these values.
The values in the block can be updated or even removed. For more info, please see
the help file.
The rotate tool now allows rotating in the G18(ZX) and G19(YZ) planes.
Added two new menu items to the "View" menu. These are "Set as Reference"
and "Clear Reference" which allow you to set the current backplot as the background
drawing. This allows you to easily compare two backplots by using one as a
background image.
Improvements
============
Cleaned up the toolbar customize command list. Also added the available
icons.
Added another range of variables for extended work offsets. The variables
now are:
Any variables written in these ranges are duplicated in the other two. For
example, writing a value to #14001 also writes the same value to #70001 and #7001.
This makes the extended work offset values available at all three variable ranges.
Improved the viewport measure tool. This tool now displays the signed
distance in each axis instead of the absolute distance. This gives an indication
of direction from the first selected point to the second. The viewport is made
active again after dismissing the measurement results, this will allow you to
activate the measure tool again without needing to click the viewport in between.
The renumbering tool will now allow you to renumber a selected section of the
program only.
The entity info window will now close automatically when closing the file
that is currently the active viewport file.
You can now de-register NCPlot from the splash window (Help/About). You must
enter the same registration key that was used to register the software. Note that
licenses aquired from the license manager cannot be de-registered.
Preferences
===========
If the Preferences dialog is open and changes have been made to the settings
then NCPlot will prompt you to save these changes before shutting down.
Added a new preferences option called 'Zoom After Translate'. This option
will automatically zoom to extents after a translation tool is applied as long as
the 'Auto Refresh Viewport' is also on.
Machine Configuration
=====================
Added a machine configuration setting for default script folder. This allows
you to specify a script folder for each machine configuration. If this setting is
blank then the default scripts folder will be the "\scripts" folder under the
installed application folder.
The variable display will now show common variables that are assigned by the
program regardless of their contents.
Improved the way the variable list was being drawn. When there was enough
variables being displayed to show the vertical scroll bar, the old method caused
the list display to jump back to the top of the list after each block in the
program. This has been fixed so that the variable list will stay where it is even
while animating a program.
Printing
========
Printing selected text will now allow printing the colorized text.
Removed the printing setup menu option, printing operations now use a common
setup dialog.
DXF Exporting
=============
The DXF exporter will now export helical arc moves. These moves are actually
saved as a series of line segments when saved.
DXF Importing
=============
The DXF importer would not accept polyline bulge values of 1.0, resulting in
some arcs being incorrectly imported as lines. This is fixed.
Deleting entities from the viewport after loading a DXF file for conversion
would cause an error. The error has been fixed and there is new behavior for
deleting DXF entities. You can now only delete entites after chaining has been
applied. When the delete key is pressed the chains belonging to any selected
entities are removed from the drawing.
When a DXF file is loaded there are now indicators on the drawing that show
where each chain start point is as well as the chain directions.
The DXF Conversion Options dialog now has a few new menu selections:
The "Chain" menu has a new option called "Select Chain Start Point".
This option allows you to pick the starting point of a chain. After clicking this
menu just click a point on the drawing that you want to be the entry point for the
chain. Note that this tool only allows you to select closed chains.
There is a new menu called "Rotate". This menu allows you to rotate
the loaded DXF drawing.
There is a new menu called "Mirror". This menu allows you to mirror
the drawing in either the X or Y axis.
There is a new menu called "Scale". The menu allows you to apply a
scale factor to the loaded DXF drawing.
Added a new setting to the 'Text on Arc' group called 'Arc counter
clockwise'. This setting changes the output from clockwise readable text to
counter clockwise readable text.
Scripting
=========
Added several new scripting functions to give much greater control over
NCPlot from your scripts.
License Manager
===============
Added a license manager settings window that can be used to specify the
network IP address of the license server. This is helpful when automatic server
detection fails or cannot be used on your network.
Bug Fixes
=========
Fixed crash on startup when using a 3Dconnexion device with Windows XP.
Fixed the shortcut keys on the 'Find' dialog for the 'Find What' and 'Replace
With' settings.
Shortcut keys assigned to the items on the 'File' menu were appearing next to
the wrong menu item. This is fixed.
Fixed the error message when trying to import settings 'Setup / Import
Settings'.
Fixed a bug in the 'step backward' tool. When the step backward tool
shortcut key was held down the cursor moved backward through the program correctly
but the graphics would not update.
The 'Break Arcs Into Lines' tool was not properly breaking helical arc moves,
this has been fixed.
Fixed an error when exporting settings via the "Setup / Export Settings"
tool.
When a loaded file was locked by another application is was possible to lose
your edits when NCPlot closed. NCPlot now lets you know when a file has been
locked.
System variables #4314 and #4315 were not being set, these are the modal
values for the "N" and "O" addresses, respectively.
The macro translator tool was allowing macro statements through into the
resulting code if used before the first g-code or motion block.
Fixed a problem with the program extents being miscalculated in some cases
when an arc motion is at the extents.
Fixed a bug in the DXF sorting that could cause some objects to disappear
from the drawing.
Fixed a problem with the local variables when using M98 subprogram calls.
The local variables were being properly passed to the subprogram, but were not
being passed back to the calling program. The M98 sub calls should maintain the
local variables.
Fixed a bug in the renumbering tool. If there was a "GOTO" statement in the
program without a block number after it the renumbering tool would crash.
Fixed a problem when using the Machinist Toolbox to send code back to NCPlot.
Fixed a problem with the viewport scroll bar. Dragging the scroll bar back
and forth several times would eventually lead to an error message.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
Backslash characters "\" were being removed from the file when loaded, this
is fixed.
Fixed the issue with toolbars not restoring to their saved locations.
The auto radius and auto chamfer commands ",R ,C" were not working under
lathe configurations, this has been fixed.
The saved variable state was overriding the machine configuration's work
offset settings, this is fixed.
The entities created by the auto radius and auto chamfer commands were not
being given the correct tool number, this is fixed.
When the M98 subprogram format is set to use the K address as the repetition
count the canned cycles will also recognize the K address as the repetition count.
Editor
======
Added the ability to drag text within the edit window. You can now select a
region of text and then click and drag it within the edit window.
The text input boxes on the Find & Replace dialog will now force text entry
to be all caps if the "Always Caps" setting is enabled in the Preferences.
DXF Converter
=============
The DXF Conversion Options dialog has a new menu called "Shift". This menu
contains tools that allow you to set the zero point of the drawing.
MultiStep Translate
===================
Space Navigator
===============
Added a setup dialog for the SpaceNavigator. This dialog allows you to
customize the orientation and sensitivity of the rotate, pan and zoom controls.
Also added the option to export these settings on the "Setup / Export Settings"
dialog. Likewise the "Setup / Import settings" tool will import these new
settings.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
The animate slider, fade slider and tool list would disappear when the close
"X" button was clicked on the NCPlot titlebar. If the shutdown was cancelled,
these items did not reappear. This has been fixed.
On the address color setup dialog, if the selected color was black then the
color box actually showed white.
Some fixes to the toolbars were made. Mostly issues with menu items not
being shown in the correct check state on startup.
The "Step Forward" and "Step Backward" buttons on the plot toolbar were set
to auto-repeat when held down, this has been changed back to 1-click equals 1-step.
The milling canned cycles now properly support G18/G19 plane selection.
Fixed a bug in the DXF conversion setup window. NCPlot was reporting an
error when using saved layers.
General
=======
External subprogram files no longer need to have filenames that begin with
the letter "O". NCPlot will now find subprogram files in either format, ie.
"O1234.nc" or "1234.nc" is acceptable. The file extension is ignored and can be
anything you like.
Added the ability to select and backplot any program in the loaded edit file.
There is a new status bar panel that can be used whenever you have multiple
programs in your file. When the panel is clicked a popup menu appears that
contains a list of all the programs in your file. Clicking a program on the menu
jumps to the selected program and selects it for backplotting. This allows you to
backplot any program in your file without the need to rearrange the programs.
Added a tool list toolbar which contains a list of the tool numbers used in
the program. This list is populated any time the backplot is refreshed. Clicking
on a tool number in the list causes the editor to highlight the line in the program
where the tool change was commanded. This creates a convenient way to navigate to
the beginning of each tool in the program.
Added a system variable for requesting user input. The variable number is
#3009 and it's format is:
#3009=100(Enter Pocket Diameter)
When this block is encountered a user input box appears with the message
"Enter Pocket Diameter" and the current value for variable #100. A new value
entered into this box is then copied to variable #100.
When saving DXF files the geometry is now saved on separate layers by tool
number.
NCPlot will now ignore "$" symbols if present at the end of the block.
There is now support for a network license manager. There are three new menu
selections on the "Help" menu:
- Enable Network License Server
Checking this menu item will enable communications to the license
manager.
- Check In License
This will return a stored license back to the license manager.
The network license manager is a free download from the NCPlot web site at
www.ncplot.com.
The addition of the license manager required changing the location of the
license file. This just means that you will have to re-enter your product key
after updating to this version of NCPlot.
A third button has been added to the "Help / About" window. This button
enables checking for a license server so that this function can be enabled even
after the trial period has expired.
Macro Translator
================
Changed the layout of the macro translator window. Also, this window can now
be resized and will remember it's size as well as the last selected macro folder
between uses.
Improved the data entry on the macro translator window. After pressing the
"Enter" key to accept a new value, the data entry box moves to the next item in the
list. After reaching the last item it will move back to the top of the list.
Pressing the up or down arrow keys moves the data entry box up or down the list of
variables.
The macro translator will now remember each macro's parameter settings
between uses.
Machine Configuration
=====================
The machine configuration option to reverse lathe arc direction has been
moved to the control options page so that it will also be available for mills.
Address Colors
==============
DNC
===
Added some new settings to the Communications Setup page. There are two new
settings on the "Transmit" tab:
"Wait for XXX seconds before transmitting" - This setting enables a timed
delay before transmitting begins. This is a check box that will then enable the
second setting where the actual delay time may be entered.
There are also two new tabs labeled "TX Header" and "TX Footer". These tabs
contain text settings where header and footer text may be entered. The header text
will automatically be sent before the file to send and the footer text will be sent
after.
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
Fixed a bug in the Mill G92 command. The shift values were not being set
properly.
Fixed the "Error 52 - Bad File Name or Number" on startup. There were
several reports of this and it was being caused by files in the recent file list
that referred to drives that no longer existed.
Fixed the mouse pointer flickering while on the edit window. This was more
noticeable on some machines than others.
The DXF reference geometry loader was skipping the last entity in the file,
this is fixed.
General
=======
The translation tools will now apply to each subprogram separately. When a
new program is encountered in the file the modal state is reset.
NCPlot will now ignore values immediately after the block delete character
"/". This makes it possible to plot programs that make use of multiple block
deletes /1 /2 /3 etc...
Added support for G66 and G67 modal macro call. The command format is:
G66 P_ Where P_ is the subprogram number
Double clicking the middle mouse button will now cause the view to zoom to
extents.
NCPlot will now handle nested comments, ie. "(TOOL NUMBER 12 (.5IN_EM))"
Added support for system variable #3006. This variable works similar to
variable #3000. It displays a macro message, but unlike #3000 it does not
terminate the program.
Toolbars
========
There is a new menu toolbar. The new menu bar follows the look of the rest
of the toolbars. The new menu bar also provides icons and a description in the
status bar as you navigate the menus.
Enabled toolbar customizing. This feature Allows adding and removing buttons
from the toolbars and also allows creating your own toolbars. Here's a brief
description of how this works:
The customizable toolbars will have a small band at their end, clicking this band
will display a menu that says "Add or Remove Buttons". Hover the mouse over this
menu and after a moment you will get a new menu that lists all of the buttons on
the menu. Using this menu you can turn on or off each of the buttons on the
toolbar. This menu also has an option that says "Customize". Click on the
customize option and you will get the toolbar customize window. You can also
access this window by right-clicking any of the toolbars and selecting "Customize"
from the menu that appears.
The customize window allows you to turn individual toolbars on or off or even
create new ones. When a new toolbar is created you get a new, empty toolbar. To
move buttons to the new toolbar, drag them from any of the visible toolbars and
drop them onto the new toolbar. To copy the buttons instead of moving them, press
and hold the CTRL key while dragging the buttons.
Viewport
========
The Zoom In / Zoom Out behavior has been changed. The old zoom behavior was
to always zoom around the view center point, forcing you to pan the view if what
you wanted to see wasn't at the center of the view. The new zoom behavior is to
zoom around the current mouse pointer. This allows you to simply point at a
feature and roll the mouse wheel to zoom in or out.
There is a new toolbar labeled "View Fade". This toolbar has a slider
control that allows you to dim the colors of the backplot. All colors are affected
except the currently selected tool. The current tool is updated when you pick an
entity on the viewport or use any of the plot controls.
There is a new toolbar labeled "Animate Speed". This toolbar has slider
control that allows adjusting the speed of the plot animation.
Improved the way the plot controls handle subprograms. The "Plot to Cursor"
tool will now include subprograms up to the cursor position.
Added two new shortcut keys. The "T" key will advance the plot to the next
tool, and the "R" key will rewind the plot to the previous tool.
File Menu
=========
Added menu item "Reset Toolbars". This will load the default toolbar layout.
Draw Menu
=========
Added two new menu items, "Step to Next Tool" and "Step to Previous Tool".
These work similar to Step Forward / Step Backward, but will advance the plot to
end of the current tool.
Tools
=====
On the "Tools" menu the "Show part info" menu item has been renamed to "Run
Time Estimation"
The run time estimation window now has a button that will generate a
printable run time estimation report. This report includes the part extents, a
breakdown of machining time per tool and the total machining time.
Machine Configuration
=====================
On the "Control Options" page an option was added to allow changing the way
addresses with no value are handled. When this option is enabled then addresses
with no value are interpreted as having a zero value. When not enabled this will
generate an error instead.
On the "Viewport Colors" page an option was added under the "Color by Tool"
settings. The new setting is called "Use Global Rapid Color" and allows drawing
rapid motions the same color regardless of tool. This is accompanied by a "Global
Rapid Color" setting.
A new configuration page has been added called "Run Time Estimating". This
page contains machine specific settings used for run time calculations. The new
settings are:
Bug Fixes
=========
The Start menu link to the help file was not working, this is fixed.
Fixed some erroneous results with the ASIN and ACOS functions
The Address Adjustment tool was deleting some address expressions, this is
fixed.
Lathe canned cycles were not passing all local variables, this is fixed.
General
=======
The NCPlot toolbars have been updated. The new toolbar system allows
toolbars to be undocked from the application window. When docking a toolbar, it
can be docked at the top, bottom, left or right side of the application window.
When undocked and inactive, the toolbars will fade allowing you to see through them
(on Windows XP or later).
The backplotter will now ignore addresses when their expression evaluates to
<empty>.
G00 X0 Y0 Z#100
If #100 is <empty>, the Z address will be ignored.
Auto chamfer now works with +-I, +-K and +-C commands
You can now set a font color to the entire program when Colorize is turned
off. The color is selected on the same dialog as the other font settings under the
menu Edit / Font.
The canned cycles have been updated to correctly handle cases when no "R"
value is given in the canned cycle block.
Changed the way certain settings were being saved in order to accomodate non-
English versions of Windows. Because of this, version 2.04 will save its settings
in a new location separate from previous versions.
There are two new menu selections under the "Setup" menu which allow
exporting or importing of all non Machine Configuration related settings. You can
select which groups of settings to save and save them to an .INI file for easy
transporting to another computer or as a backup.
General settings
Font settings
Preferences
Address colors
Text to G-Code settings
Subprogram settings
Added a new scripting method which returns the active file name:
NCPGetActiveFile
Machine Configuration
=====================
Added an option for controls that handle G00, G02, G03 as non-modal. When
this option is selected, G00, G02 and G03 are active only in the blocks in which
they are commanded.
Added an option to allow the Rotary axis to rotate around Z axis (C axis)
*************************************************************
Bug Fixes
=========
Canned cycle values were still being affected by the computer's decimal point
setting under the control panel's Regional and Language settings. When the decimal
point character was set to a comma "," instead of a period "." some program values
were not interpreted correctly. This is fixed.
The Macro Translator tool would not work while lathe mode was active. This
is fixed.
Fixed a bug in the G92 command. The coordinate system was not updating
correctly when G92 was commanded while already active.
Helical arcs were incorrectly being drawn as arcs whenever the X or Y mirror
image commands were active. This is fixed.
The colorize tool would crash NCPlot if either of the curly bracket symbols
"{" or "}" were in the edit window. These symbols will now be automatically
replaced with the square bracket symbols "[" and "]" whenever colorize is active or
the "Remove Garbage" tool is used.
Lathe canned cycles G70-G73 would not plot properly if the profile ending
block was an "N" block number on a line by itself. This is fixed.
General
=======
Added the ability to swap the edit window and the viewport. This is
controlled by a new setting on the Preferences window called "Viewport on the
Left".
New tool added: Break Arcs into Lines. This tool will replace G02/G03
commands in the G-Code program with a sequence of G01 commands that approximate the
commanded arc. When this tool is invoked you are asked to enter a maximum
deviation distance value. This value determines how far the resulting path can
deviate from the true arc and will determine how many line segments are required to
approximate the arc.
The Text to G-Code tool can now convert multiple lines of text at a time.
When entering text into the font preview, press CTRL-ENTER to start a new line of
text.
Changed the behavior of the clipboard paste function. When using the toolbar
button or edit menu item for paste, NCPlot will now only paste the text contents of
the clipboard. This avoids situations where you would get an embedded OLE object
instead of text when copying and pasting from other applications. Please note that
pressing CTRL-V on the edit window still gives the old pasting behavior.
Improved offsetting: The offset tool does a better job of trimming when
self-intersecting geometry is created.
Machine Configuration
=====================
The machine configuration window has been revamped. The new window should
load faster on slower machines. The interface is a little different, instead of a
tabbed window there is a list of configuration pages. To change pages, just click
an item in the list. Also, there are a number of new buttons on the main
configuration window:
Load - Opens a dialog that allows you to browse for a configuration file. This
replaces the old drop-down list.
Save - Applies the current changes and saves them to the active configuration file.
You no longer need to browse for the file to save as.
Save As - Allows you to save the configuration to a new file.
Apply - Applies the current changes and refreshes the viewport to reflect these
changes.
Cancel - Discards any current changes and closes the configuration window.
Expression Calculator
=====================
The results are now always added to the end of the results window instead of
at the cursor location.
Show Variables
==============
The variable list can now be copied to the clipboard or sent directly to the
printer. Two new items have been added to the popup menu that appears when you
right-click the variable list.
DNC
===
The Comm Setup dialog has been reorganized into three tabbed pages for Port
Setup, Receive settings and Transmit settings. The Transmit settings tab includes
two new options, these are:
"Remove spaces while transmitting" - When this option is checked spaces will be
removed from the data being transmitted.
"Wait for XON before transmitting" - When this option is checked the transmission
will be delayed until an XON control code is received from the CNC.
*************************************************************
General
=======
The default file types setting now allows wildcard characters "*" and "?".
NCPlot will now give run time estimates for lathe programs that use constant
surface speed (CSS). This calculates run time for both G20 Inch mode (surface feet
per minute) and G21 Metric mode (surface meters per minute). This also takes into
account the G50/G92 clamp RPM settings "S" Maximum RPM and "Q" Minimum RPM. This
requires that feed per rev also be active.
Improved the backplotting speed for programs that make heavy use of
subprograms.
DXF Import
==========
The layer header and footer text were not being added when converting a DXF
file to a lathe program. This is fixed.
Preferences
===========
Added an option to the Preferences dialog that allows you to set whether you
want the plot to pause at M00 commands.
Variable Display
================
You can now edit variables that are displayed on the variable display window.
Double-clicking a variable number in the list will open a window where you can
enter a new value for the variable. You can enter any valid expression as the new
value. To set the variable to <empty>, enter the null variable "#0" as the
expression.
Expression Calculator
=====================
Clicking a line in the results window will now copy that line back to the
expression text box. This makes it easier to go back and re-evaluate an earlier
expression.
*************************************************************
General
=======
The backplotter now allows comma characters for the auto radius and auto
chamfer commands ",R" and ",C".
Made a change to the Lathe G76 threading cycle to support plotting tapered
threads.
The viewport now allows deleting selected entities. Pressing the 'Delete'
key will remove any selected entities from the display. This does *not* delete the
corresponding blocks from the program. To restore the deleted entities, simply
refresh the viewport.
Machine Setup
=============
Added a setting to the 'Machine Type' tab that allows defining the default
file types. This defines the types of files that are displayed when browsing for
files to open or save.
Added a setting to the 'Control Options 2' tab that allows defining the
address used by the G04 dwell command. This setting defaults to the "X" address.
Preferences
===========
Added an option that allows turning on or off the plotting of files when they
are loaded into NCPlot.
Added an option that will cause the viewport to zoom to extents when the view
orientation is changed.
DXF Import
==========
When using the "Z Increment" setting, under certain conditions the last
entity in the drawing would not be converted to G-Code. This is fixed.
Added support for ELLIPSE entities. Imported ellipses are broken into line
segments when read.
Fixed a problem in the chain sorting tool. If the last chain was a single
entity, it would disappear after sorting.
The sorting tool now allows defining the start point for sorting. To do this
simply select one entity that is part of the chain you would like it start from.
Macro Stepping
==============
Helical arcs were not being drawn when plotted from the 'Show Variables'
window. This is fixed.