bCNC 0.9.14.33

Swiss army knife for all your CNC/g-code needs

bCNC
====

GRBL CNC command sender, autoleveler, g-code editor, digitizer, CAM
and swiss army knife for all your CNC needs.

An advanced fully featured g-code sender for GRBL. bCNC is a cross platform program (Windows, Linux, Mac) written in python. The sender is robust and fast able to work nicely with old or slow hardware like [Rasperry PI](http://www.openbuilds.com/threads/bcnc-and-the-raspberry-pi.3038/) (As it was validated by the GRBL mainter on heavy testing).


# Installation (using pip = reccomended!)
This is how you install (or upgrade) bCNC along with all required packages.
You can use any of these commands (you need only one):

pip2 install --upgrade bCNC
pip2 install --upgrade git+https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC
python2 -m pip install --upgrade bCNC

This is how you launch bCNC:

python2 -m bCNC

Only problem with this approach is that it might not install tkinter in some cases.
So please keep that in mind and make sure it's installed in case of problems.

If you run the `python2 -m bCNC` command in root directory of this git repository it will launch the git version.
Every developer should always use this to launch bCNC to ensure that his/her code will work after packaging.

Note that on WindowsXP you have to use `pyserial==3.0.1` or older as newer version do not work on XP.

PyPI project: https://pypi.org/project/bCNC/

# Installation (manual)
You will need the following packages to run bCNC
- tkinter the graphical toolkit for python
Depending your python/OS it can either be already installed,
or under the names tkinter, python-tkinter, python-tk
- pyserial or under the name python-serial, python-pyserial
- numpy
- Optionally:
- python-imaging-tk: the PIL libraries for autolevel height map
- python-opencv: for webcam streaming on web pendant
- scipy: for 100 times faster 3D mesh slicing

Expand the directory or download it from github
and run the bCNC command

# Instalation (Linux package maintainers)
- Copy `bCNC` subdirectory of this repo to `/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/`
- Launch using `python2 -m bCNC` or install bCNC.sh to /usr/bin
- Alternatively you can fetch the bCNC Python package using pip when building Linux package
- refer to your distro, eg.: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Python_package_guidelines

# Instalation (Compile to Windows .exe)

Note that you might probably find some precompiled .exe files on github "releases" page:
https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC/releases
But they might not be up to date.

This is basic example of how to compile bCNC to .exe file.
(given that you have working bCNC in the first place, eg. using `pip install bCNC`).
Go to the directory where is your bCNC installed and do the following:

pip2 install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --onefile --distpath . --hidden-import tkinter --paths lib;plugins;controllers --icon bCNC.ico --name bCNC __main__.py

This will take a minute or two. But in the end it should create `bCNC.exe`.
Also note that there is `make-exe.bat` file which will do just that for you.
This will also create rather large "build" subdirectory.
That is solely for caching purposes and you should delete it before redistributing!

If you are going to report bugs in .exe version of bCNC,
please check first if that bug occurs even when running directly in python (without .exe build).

# Configuration
You can modify most of the parameters from the "Tools -> Machine"
page. Only the changes/differences from the default configuration
file will be saved in your home directory ${HOME}/.bCNC or ~/.bCNC

The default configuration is stored on bCNC.ini in the
installation directory.

*PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS FILE, IT'S GOING TO BE OVERWRITEN ON EACH UPGRADE OF BCNC*

# Features:
- simple and intuitive interface for small screens
- import/export **g-code**, **dxf** and **svg** files
- fast g-code sender (works nicely on RPi and old hardware)
- workspace configuration (G54..G59 commands)
- user configurable buttons
- g-code **function evaluation** with run time expansion
- feed override during the running for fine tuning
- Easy probing:
- simple probing
- center finder with a probing ring
- **auto leveling**, Z-probing and auto leveling by altering the g-code during
sending (or permanently autoleveling the g-code file).
- height color map display
- create g-code by joging and recording points (can even use camera for this)
- **manual tool change** expansion and automatic tool length probing
- **canned cycles** expansion
- Various Tools:
- user configurable database of materials, endmills, stock
- properties database of materials, stock, end mills etc..
- basic **CAM** features (profiling, pocketing, drilling, flat/helical/ramp cutting, thread milling, cutout tabs, drag knife)
- User g-code plugins:
- bowl generator
- finger joint box generator
- simple spur gear generator
- spirograph generator
- surface flatten
- ...
- G-Code editor and display
- graphical display of the g-code, and workspace
- graphically moving and editing g-code
- reordering code and **rapid motion optimization**
- moving, rotating, mirroring the g-code
- Web pendant to be used via smart phones

# Debuging
You can use following command to connect to debug serial traffic.
ttyUSB0 is real HW, ttyUSB23 is gonna be new fake device to which you'll connect the bCNC in order to intercept trafic:

interceptty -l /dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyUSB23 | interceptty-nicedump

# Disclaimer
The software is made available "AS IS". It seems quite stable, but it is in
an early stage of development. Hence there should be plenty of bugs not yet
spotted. Please use/try it with care, I don't want to be liable if it causes
any damage :)