G-Wizard G-Code Editor (GWE) Change Log and Release Notes (Continued)

G-Wizard G-Code Editor (GWE) Change Log and Release Notes (Continued)

More recent changes are available on the GWE Change Log home page.

 

Change Log

12/26/13: Release 1.37

Release 1.37 is a minor release:

– Added a percentage adjustment parameter for Sim times on the Machine Profile page. This allows you to add a fudge factor to make your sim times match actual production times more closely.

– Double clicking a block in the Hint and Error tabs will navigate to the appropriate line in the g-code tab.

– Fixed a few customer-reported Find/Replace problems.

– Changing the Soft Limit alarms on the Info Tab will force a replot to pick up the new alarms.

– Fixed several issues with 4th axis support. Still a lot more to do here, but it is working on simple cases.

– Fixed issues with G95 feed per revolution mode.

– Fixed an error in the Info Tab statistics which caused it to double count the number of arcs.

 

12/16/13: Release 1.34

Release 1.34 is a minor feature release:

– GWE now remembers last directory used for each file type.

– Fixed several Fanuc MacroB problems.

– Increased allowable precision on machine acceleration to 0.01g.

– Added Soft Limit Alarms to Axis Extents.

 

12/11/13: Release 1.33

Release 1.31 is a minor feature and bug fix release:

– GWE now remembers the last directory used for g-codes or estimates.

– Post is displayed on the status bar.

– H-Words can now be calculated using [<expressions>] in g-code.

– Fixed a bug that caused GWE to always startup in mill configuration even when a lathe was selected.

– Fixed a bug associated with downloading of latest posts. Browse would not come up until the next time GWE was started up.

– Fixed several bugs associated with defining new g- and m-codes using macros for custom posts.

 

12/5/13: Release 1.31

Release 1.31 is a UI release:

– Uses the new UI style like the G-Wizard Calculator v2.0.

– Added support for Haas-style G154 Pxx work offsets.

 

10/17/13: Release 1.27

Release 1.27 is a minor feature release:

– First installment of 4th Axis functionality. 4th axis operates only in indexing mode where just the 4th axis is moved and not XYZ simultaneously. It assumes the 4th axis is on the axis centerline and not offset. Still much more work to complete 4th axis, but a lot had to be done to get this far.

– Added M10 and M11 to lock and unlock chucks and pallets.

– Added M36 and M37 for parts catchers.

– Fixed several issues with Block Delete “/”.

 

9/25/13: Release 1.263

Release 1.263 is a minor release that adds:

– Added the ability to define the properties of the H-word instead of just having it inherit the X-word’s properties in the Post.

– For new users who’ve newly downloaded, I have staggered all the popups that show up so they don’t all come at once. It was just too confusing.

– Cleared up some problems with Heidenhain canned cycle parameters–thanks Lynn!

 

 

 

9/24/13: Release 1.262

Release 1.262 is a minor release that adds:

– Conversational Wizards now remember their settings during a session. They are reset each time you restart GWE.

– In-app registration.

 

9/9/13: Release 1.261

Release 1.26 is a minor release that adds:

– Increased the time limit to be disconnected from the Internet to 28 days.

– Broke out the IJK words under I in the Post Numbers setup so they can be set independently of XYZ.

– Redid the Machine Profile so it uses screen real estate more efficiently. This should reduce the likelihood you get scroll bars when on that page.

– Fixed a bug where the non-perspective views were Tilting/Rotating instead of Panning when right mouse button was held down.

– Fixed some bugs to do with editing number formats in the Post.

– Fixed a bug that could cause the Post not to be changed under certain circumstances.

– Fixed a canned cycle bug where some of the parameters like “Peck” that should have been sticky (modal) weren’t.

– Fixed a bug in the rectangular pocket and face milling wizards where it was calculating the cut depth improperly for a pass under certain conditions.

 

8/13/13: Release 1.25

Release 1.25 is a minor release that adds:

– Panning is now scaled to the zoom level of the backplot so it is much smoother and feels more “right”.

– Rewrote the axis trident position code so it stays in the lower left corner of the backplot and doesn’t bounce around so much.

– Added M998 Goto Tool Change Position to the Mach3 Mill post. This is a Tormach-specific code.

 

 

8/5/13: Release 1.20 (Mandatory)

Release 1.20 is a minor release that adds improved support for Heidenhain modal and one-shot canned cycles on the mill.

 

7/18/13: Release 1.15

Release 1.15 is a minor release:

– A new column in the tool table off the Tool Tab tells the lowest Z for each tool. This is useful for determining what stickout is needed for the tools.

– Fixed a bug where canned drilling cycles were messing up the information on how long a program would take to run in some cases.

– On the surfacing wizard, the plunge feedrate was being used for everything. Fixed that bug.

 

7/10/13: Release 1.11

Release 1.11 is a minor release:

– The UI for defining a Fourth Axis on the Machine Profile is now fully fleshed out and saves to preferences. Still a lot of work to do before the simulator can handle fourth axis.

– Fixed several bugs reported by customers involving passing a file name as a command line argument, information on rapids in the Info tab, and use of #variables in Fanuc Macros.

 

6/26/13: Release 1.1

Release 1.1 is a feature release focused on a major overhaul of backplot navigation. It introduces the backplot navigation toolbar:

The screen shot shows the backplot nav bar shortly after clicking the leftmost icon to perform a rotation. Clicking the icon displays the message telling you to click and drag the mouse to rotate the view. Release the mouse button and the message goes away. The icons also have tooltips if you hover the mouse cursor over them that describe their function. From left to right:

– Rotate: Only available in perspective view. Allows the image to tilt and rotate as you drag the mouse. You can also invoke it without clicking the icon via holding down the right mouse button.

– Pan: Allows the image to pan left, right, up, or down as you drag the mouse. You can also invoke it without clicking the icon via holding down shift and the right mouse button.

– Zoom In: Clicking the button zooms the view in closer. You can also zoom with the mouse wheel. Zoom is towards where the mouse points.

– Zoom Out: Clicking the button zooms out further from the view.

– Zoom Extents: Clicking the button zooms until the backplot just completely fills the backplot area.

 

6/20/13: Release 1.047

Release 1.047 is a minor feature release that includes:

– An improved Heidenhain post with better handling of canned cycles, M99, and M89.

– A new canned post for Roland mills like the MD-40a.

 

6/18/13: Release 1.046

Release 1.046 is a performance and minor bug fix release. Memory consumption was reduced for large g-code programs and a bug was corrected for G02/G03. GWE wasn’t plotting full circles for G02/03 that had IJK values but no XYZ.

 

6/12/13: Release 1.045

Release 1.045 is a fairly significant rewrite and streamlining of the coordinate transformation pipeline. It’s largely focused on fixing some edge cases for G52 and similar commands.

 

5/23/13: Release 1.042

Release 1.042 is a minor release focused macro bugs. Certain combinations would give false errors or sometimes hang the simulator.

 

5/13/13: Release 1.040

Release 1.040 is a minor release focused on the Conversational CNC Wizards:

– Added new Pocket Wizard

– Added a facility so you can tell which conversational wizard is selected from the popup window’s title bar.

– Made a bunch of fixes to the Conversational CNC Wizards for metric users.

– Fixed a bug that could lead to the wrong depths in some cases for the Surfacing Wizard

– Added some tool tips in various places to make the use of the Wizards clearer.

 

5/7/13: Release 1.036

Release 1.036 is a minor release with the following:

– In calculating the total angle of an arc for the Hints, we weren’t taking the direction of the arc into account, so clockwise arcs were too large.

– Added an option to ignore stops like M1’s while in simulator. This makes running through programs with lots of M00’s and M01’s faster and easier.

– Fixed some funny business where sometimes vestiges of the prior post would stick around. This was only happening with a few of the Post Variables.

 

5/2/13: Release 1.035

Release 1.035 is a bug fix release focused on g-code macros and posts:

– Fixed a bug in the Post Editor that caused it to behave poorly for metric users on post variables with numeric values.

– Fixed a case where a program could fall through to an M99 without having called a subprogram and it would loop to the top creating an infinite loop with no warning. Now we loop to top once and give a warning.

– Improved the auto-detection of whether IJK arcs should be handled as incremental or absolute. It is both more accurate and faster.

– Changed the default for Block Delete to be “OFF” instead of on.

– Fixed “JMP G04” button which was totally broken.

– GWE used to require all N-Numbers to be unique for the entire file, but most controls will let you repeat an N-Number in each O-subprogram. GWE now handles that properly and execution of the simulation for that case was also sped up considerably.

– GWE was not processing the optional digits after the Block Delete (“/”) character. Now it does.

 

4/25/13: Release 1.033

Release 1.033 is a bug fix release:

– Normally, when you call a non-existent sub-program, a machine will alarm and stop execution. GWE would issue an error message and stop. But this is not ideal for productivity when developing g-code as it prevents error checking code down the line. So I changed it to issue the error but keep executing.

– Added support for G8, “Advanced Preview Mode”, on Fanuc Post. This one is still a little flaky around subprograms.

– Fixed an error evaluating lines like “G52X-#5”. The minus sign was screwing up proper evaluation and resulting in a bogus error message.

– Fixed a couple other bogus errors too.

 

4/22/13: Release 1.032

Release 1.032 is a bug fix release:

– Fixed some problems with saving the “CAP Non-Comments” and one of the parameters for the Renumber Revision.

– Fixed problems associated with the white “Current Position” cones on the backplot that mark where the tool tip ended up after executing the line of g-code the cursor is on.

– Fixed a problem where the integrated GW Calculator feeds and speeds popup was ignoring which machine was selected.

– Fixed several problems where it was possible to zoom in under certain conditions and get stuck to where you couldn’t zoom out and the backplot wouldn’t change.

– Fixed several Imperial/Metric issues with the Conversational CNC Wizards.

– Fixed a problem where feed or speed on the Conversational CNC Wizards was being limited to unnaturally small numbers.

 

4/17/13: Release 1.031

Release 1.031 is a bug fix release that fixes a memory leak that could crash the simulator under certain conditions, especially when running slowly.

 

4/16/13: Release 1.029 and 1.030

Release 1.029 is a bug fix release that fixes some bugs when inserting text in the g-code editing pane.

Release 1.030 dramatically increases the performance of the Renumber Revision and adds a button to the Revision to delete the Block Numbers.

 

4/11/13: Release 1.028

Release 1.028 introduces the Heidenhain milling post and as well as the new Post variable “Cycles.HeidenhainPL”. This variable enables processing the Heidenhain-style “P01” through “P05” parameters on the canned cycles.

 

4/9/13: Release 1.025

Release 1.025 is a usability and bug fix release. I rewrote the code that decides how to scale the cones that mark the start and end of program as well as the current g-code line. I also fixed a bug to do with delete and backspace of marked blocks on large files.

 

4/1/13: Release 1.024

Release 1.024 is our first release with a LinuxCNC post available. The post is not complete, but includes quite a lot including LinuxCNC-style “#<varname>” named parameters. It also fixes some bugs in the File Compare utility.

 

3/29/13: Release 1.023

Release 1.023 adds a new macro variables tab where you can see which variables are accessed in your g-code program, their current value, and any symbolic name for the variables.

 

3/27/13: Release 1.022

Release 1.022 fixes a startup hang bug for Macintosh users.

 

3/25/13: Release 1.021

Release 1.021 is a minor feature release focused on the new graphical interface for the Conversational CNC Wizards:

Conversational CNC Wizards

 

3/21/13: Release 1.020

Release 1.020 is a minor feature release:

– Finished the Slotting Wizard, which can be found under the “Wizards” toolbar button when using a Mill profile.

– Fixed several bugs related to clipboard operations on large files. Works much better now.

 

3/19/13: Release 1.018

Release 1.018 is a minor feature release:

– Finished the Surfacing Wizard, which can be found under the “Wizards” toolbar button when using a Mill profile.

– Added support for Bridgeport DX32 subprogram calling:

“#” is used to identify subprogram numbers. So “#32” is like “O32” on Fanucs.

“=#” calls the subprogram. “#=32” is the same as “M98 P32” on Fanucs.

“$” signifies return from the subprogram just as “M99” does on Fanucs.

 

3/12/13: Release 1.017

Release 1.017 is a minor release:

– Made some usability improvements to the popup that tells you you’re not registered based on customer feedback.

– Fair amount of work on G10 so it does tool and work offsets.

– Worked on canned cycles for the Bridgeport DX32 post. It now supports the “Triple Z” format. DX32 should be a good post for CAM users. Still need to do the DX32 subprogram support for the hand programming crowd to benefit from.

 

3/8/13: Release 1.016

Release 1.016 is a minor bug fix release that fixes an incorrect error message about tools already being loaded and also fixes a bug in M98 Pxxxyyyyy style calls were xxx is the repeat and yyyy is the target O#.

 

3/6/13: Release 1.015

Release 1.015 is a minor bug fix release that deals with some bugs having to do with saving GWE options and with erroneous reporting that M98 or G65 was too many levels deep.

 

3/5/13: Release 1.013

Release 1.013 is a minor release that includes the following:

–  A File Compare command allows you to compare the current file with another file to see what has changed.

– Macintosh Native Install with a .dmg file instead of an .air file.

 

2/24/13: Release 1.012

Release 1.012 is a minor release that includes the following:

–  A File Close command.  One user was going through an iterative cycle as they tried to tweak their CAM package’s output and so was switching back and forth between GWE and the CAM package.  They wanted an easy way to close the file in GWE when they went back to the CAM package. So we added File Close.

–  Keyboard shortcuts for Revisions.  Many of the Revisions get used a lot and so it’s handy if they can be triggered by a quick keystroke.  Not only did we set that up with some default keyboard shortcuts, we also made it possible for you to remap the Revision keystrokes to any of the function keys you want.  This is in preparation for our longer term vision where you’ll see quite a lot of new Revision functionality added, including User-defined Revisions, which will let you hook collections of Revisions together to create your own custom combinations.  

– Fixed a bug that crept in as part of 1.008 that caused division “/” to be handled incorrectly in macro expressions. Thanks JT for bringing that to my attention!

– Fixed a bug that caused Revisions to always revert to their default settings.

 

2/21/13: Release 1.010

Release 1.010 is a minor release that includes the following:

– Added #4xxx system variables for modal information:

#4001: G00 G01 G02 G03

#4002: G17 G18 G19

#4006: G20 G21

#4007: G40 G41 G42

#4109: F

#4119: S

#4120: T”

– Add a “SaveModes” default code snippet per the mode saving chapter in Smid’s macro programming book.

– Fixed a crash bug that would cause GWE to hang if you ran the Simulator repeatedly.

– Fixed a bug that caused the Backplot Option to hide the tool holder to be ignored.

– Listed the “F9” menu accelerator for regenerating the backplot on the menu.

 

2/20/13: Release 1.009

Release 1.009 is a minor release focused on fixing customer reported issues with canned cycles.

 

2/19/13: Release 1.008

Release 1.008 is a minor release focused on macros and subprograms:

– Fixed a problem where we were not passing the “H” word properly in G65 macros.

– Fixed problems with comments in macro expressions.

– G-, M-, and T- words can now use expression addresses. So, for example G#1 will work.

– Implemented proper Fanuc behavior for <vacant> variable values, which show up as NaN (Not a Number) in GWE. These are now treated as zeros except when used with EQ and NE.

– Fixed a problem where XYZ coordinates on the macro simulator display below the backplot were being shown as Imperial in Metric mode. They should be displayed in the same units as the g-code program uses.

 

2/17/13: Release 1.007

Release 1.007 is a minor bug fix release focused on macros and subprograms:

– Built a new test suite to more thoroughly test macro expressions (#100 = 10, etc.). Fixed several bugs uncovered by the new test suite as well as a couple reported by customers.

– Fixed a bug where G65 to an undefinded “P” destination just took it to the top of program to start again. People were seeing either no or limited backplot and a warning about the nesting level. Now you’ll see a warning that the “P” value is nonexistant or bad.

 

2/14/13: Release 1.006

Release 1.006 is a minor release focused on improving GWE usability on lower resolution screens:

– Tested improved usability functions down to 1024 x 600 (some netbooks use that resolution). To work at these resolutions requires reducing font sizes and the elimination of some of the Tool Bar buttons. All the eliminated buttons are still accessible via the menus.

– There is an option under the Tools Options menu to allow you to change the Font Size for g-code. This will help you to adjust readability.

– Fixed a problem where sometimes the GWE window would open up bigger than the screen, making it hard to get it back under control.

 

2/12/13: Release 1.005

Release 1.005 is a minor release:

– Added ISO Mill and Lathe posts in Inch and Metric.

– Implemented the ability to use “,” and other characters for the decimal point in g-code for International users. Just change the Post variable “Other.DecimalChar”.

– Fixed problems with the JMP buttons on the toolbar.

– Fixed a bug where SQRT[] wasn’t being recognized correctly.

– Fixed some drill cycle issues having to do with calculating the Hole Bottom on the very first hole of a series.

 

1/30/13: Release 1.002

Release 1.002 is a release candidate. It contains minor bug fixes including an update to fix a problem with the GW Calculator integration.

 

1/25/13: Release 0.742

Release 0.742 is a minor bug fix release focused on the Edit Find and Edit Jump commands.

 

1/24/13: Release 0.741

Release 0.741 is a minor release:

– Added panning to Perspective view. To access it, use Shift+Right Button and move the mouse. Probably some gotchas if you work it too hard.

– Mouse wheel zoom now moves 5% closer or further instead of zooming a fixed distance per click. This makes it better behaved and friendlier to use.

– Fixed problem that caused Revisions to quit saving their previous settings.

– Added more popups that warn of operations that require you to be a registered user to access. Before they would just fail silently and this was confusing.

– Fixed Error window scrolling.

– Updated the digital security certificate.

– Made 0.740 a mandatory upgrade, so that is the oldest release that will work.

 

1/17/13: Release 0.740 (Mandatory Upgrade)

Release 0.740 is a minor stability release:

– Brought our 3D graphics library up to the latest release version available. This should fix a number of reports that the backplot would just hang or “white out”, especially if the machine went to sleep or the user switched to another window for a while.

– Fixed a login bug affecting certain trial accounts.

 

1/15/13: Release 0.731

Release 0.731 is a minor feature and usabilityrelease:

– Did a serious overhaul on Zoom Extents and it works much better now.

– Lots of people were reporting that GWE was hanging when they saved Setup. It was very slow, but it wasn’t hanging. Unfortunately, it was hiding the message that would’ve made what was happening a lot clearer. That message now shows up properly.

– Did a bunch of tuning on the simulator playback speed because it was still going way too fast at the slowest settings. It now runs pretty slowly at the lowest settings and will smoothly accelerate to the fastest settings.

 

 

1/8/13: Release 0.730

Release 0.730 is a minor feature and usabilityrelease:

– Implemented a history list for Revisions. Now the Tools menu will list your most recently used Revisions at the bottom. What this means is fewer keystrokes or mouse clicks are needed for your most commonly used Revisions, such as renumbering.

– Revisions now save their settings each time they’re used and come up with the same settings they had last time.

– The “Jmp” buttons now automatically switch the Simulator to Single Block mode if you use one. Before, if Single Block was not on, the Simulator was just run the whole program.

– Changed all use of “OK” or “Yes” in popups to be a specific verb reflecting what the popup will do. This is part of the Apple UI guidelines and makes software easier to use.

– Fixed a lot of minor bugs in various places but especially in the Revisions.

 

 

12/26/12: Release 0.729

Release 0.729 is a bug fix and usability release:

– Fixed a bug where M99 without an M98 or G65 would hang the program. (Face Palm)

– Added rounding to a whole bunch of the Hints so they will be cleaner to read with no more than 4 decimal places.

– Added more tune up to what happens when you change the setup to try to make it more clear it hasn’t frozen.

 

12/20/12: Release 0.727

Release 0.727 is a bug fix and usability release:

– All the revisions now remember the last parameters used from session to session. So for example, once you have your favorite block numbering set up, it will remember those parameters.

– Add M31 and M33 chip auger commands to the Haas canned posts.

– Added a progress popup when saving Setup options. People were thinking it had frozen.

– Increased the infinite loop detection to require 1000 repeats instead of 500 for fewer false alarms.

– Miscellaneous other minor bugs were fixed.

– Started work on Surfacing Wizard, but it isn’t ready to do much yet.

 

12/13/12: Release 0.726

Release 0.726 is a bug fix and usability release:

– Mouse scroll wheel now zooms towards center of view instead of tip of pointer–much easier to use.

– Fixed a bug where you could reach a point on mouse wheel zooming where it just locks up and won’t get either larger or smaller. Now you can back out by going to lower magnifications.

– Fixed problems associated with loading a new file in the middle of a simulator session.

– Fixed a bug where line gutter wouldn’t always show errors right after a file was loaded.

– Usability improvement: Tool load errors are ignored if the machine has 0 or 1 toolchanger slots.

– Removed a lot of overhead associated with opening the Setup app while a large file was loaded and closing it without making changes.

– Parser is about 10% faster on g-code.

 

 

12/10/12: Release 0.725

Release 0.725 is a bug fix release:

– Improved the simulator playback speed control so it works more smoothly and there is a wider range of available speeds.

– Fixed a problem where Feed Hold and Single Block were not reset when a new file was loaded. This would cause many users to conclude the Simulator didn’t run for their program.

– Fixed several problems with the Hole Wizard. Also improved the commenting of the Hole Wizard.

– Lots of problems were fixed involving resizing the window too small ranging from crashes to weird scrolling behavior.

– Fixed a bug that could cause arcs to interpolate a helix when it should’ve stayed on the plane if there was just the right combination of Z movements preceeding the arc.

 

12/7/12: Release 0.723

Release 0.723 is a bug fix release that fixes a problem with the GW Calculator and GW Editor integration that was incorrectly locking some folks out of access.

 

12/6/12: Release 0.722

Release 0.722 is a bug fix release focused on the Tools Revisions commands such as Renumber and Comments. A number of customer-reported problems were fixed and the overall performance of the Revisions should be quite a lot better.

 

12/5/12: Release 0.721

Release 0.721 is a minor usability and bug fix release:

– The focus was on a major overhaul of the scrolling code, which had many reported bugs. It should be working much better now. Please let me know if you encounter a scrolling problem so I can close out this area ASAP.

– Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End go to the beginning and end of the g-code program.

 

12/2/12: Release 0.720

Release 0.720 is a minor usability and bug fix release:

– Changes to make the simulator/debugger playback more smoothly without the odd random pauses and wildly fluctuating zoom levels.

– Fixed a problem with the canned Haas post that made it handle subprograms incorrectly. If you’re using the post, you’ll need to download and reselect the new one.

– Added changes to identify when you’re running the simulator or backplotter without having configured the post. If you do, it’ll warn you once per session to go to the Setup page and configure the post. You will see the controller reads “Undefined” until the post is configured. See our Setup page for details on how to configure. Link is to the left.

– Forced latest posts to download the first time you open Setup with a new install.

 

11/18/12: Release 0.717

Release 0.717 is a minor bug fix release:

– Fixed a bug that could lock out File Save and File Exit under certain odd circumstances.

– Added Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End keyboard shortcuts to go to beginning and end of file.

 

11/14/12: Release 0.716

Release 0.716 is a minor bug fix and usability release that addresses:

– Did some usability work on Find/Replace based on customer feedback (thanks for the great suggestions and bug reports!). This has to do with a more sensible tab order, automatically moving the cursor to the Find box when you press “Ctrl+F”, and fixing a nasty crash bug for find/replace on large files.

– Fixed a bug where clicking the mouse on g-code to run to a line in the simulator would sometimes cause it to get stuck and only backplot to that line.

– A little more tuning on pan/tilt for lathe views.

 

11/13/12: Release 0.715

Release 0.715 is a bug fix release that is focused on fixing some backplot manipulation problems for lathe users.

 

11/12/12: Release 0.714

Release 0.713 is a bug fix release that includes:

– Fixed a bug in G12/G13 circular pocket where it was ignoring relative addressing and the repeat to do multiple passes in Z.

– Fixed a bug causing line numbers to get offset from the g-code under some situations.

– Fixed a bug where zooming during simulator playback could crash GWE.

– Did a lot of work to improve the right mouse button pan/tilt of the backplot.

Note: Things a still pretty funky for lathe views. More work coming for that. If you primarily use GWE for lathes, you may want to skip this upgrade.

 

11/11/12: Release 0.713

Release 0.713 is a bug fix release that includes:

– Fixed some crash bugs on the backplot and simulator.

– Fixed a the problem where pressing “Save” on the machine profile always selected the first machine on the list. A lot of people thought their changes were lost. They’re there, and the machine just needed to be selected again. With this fix, it stays selected.

– Fixed a problem where it didn’t seem to be possible to delete a machine profile under certain conditions.

– Fixed some scrolling problems.

A couple of minor g-code features were also added:

– M41/M42 gear change

– G79 “Update Canned Cycle”, which is common to Fagor and other posts.

 

11/3/12: Release 0.710

Release 0.710 is a minor feature release that adds:

– Added rotation to the Translate Revision. This allows you to rotate all the coordinates about a defined center a particular number of degrees. Useful for reorienting parts in a different direction.

– Fixed a number of customer-reported bugs. Keep those cards and letters coming!

 

10/20/12: Release 0.700

Release 0.700 is a minor feature release that adds:

– New Translate Revision. Translate allows you to shift or scale all the coordinates in a program or a selection and soon it will also do rotation. The scale function can also convert between metric and inch coordinates.

– New Beta Survey. Periodically, a survey will popup asking how well GWE is working for you and what we can do to improve it.

– A marker is applied to the backplot to show which area is being affected by the current g-code line.

– Various bug fixes, particularly in the areas of scaling and rotation g-codes and arcs.

 

10/20/12: Release 0.690

Release 0.690 is a minor release:

– Redesigned the Tool Revisions menu for better usability.

– Improved the integration between GW Editor and GW Calculator.

– Fixed bugs in the areas of some Revision commands as well as in G51 which had a problem with arcs using IJK.

I’m starting to do more frequent releases as the prioritization is driven increasingly by users who are trying to do things. This allows me to clear away their problems and keep things moving. It’s a logical sign that we’re starting to get close to having GWE ready to leave Beta test. I suspect about 4-6 weeks or so.

 

10/18/12: Release 0.689

Release 0.689 is a minor feature release:

– You can click the backplot and the g-code will scroll to the line that ends closest to where you clicked.

– You can now cause the debugger to run to the cursor. With the debugger/simulator paused, just simply click the line you want it to run to. It will popup a message asking you to confirm and then it’ll run to there.

– Canned drilling cycles now tell the coordinates of hole bottom in the Hints.

– There is now an option to enable you to turn on or off the grid components individually: axes, major lines, or minor lines. Minor lines are now left off by default.

– Fixed a bug that would cause the simulator to sometimes ignore the playback speed.

– Fixed a bug where G59 wasn’t on the available work offsets you can insert into the g-code.

– Fixed a bug where the line gutter didn’t always accurately reflect the error status of lines after a change.

 

10/16/12: Release 0.687

Release 0.686 is a minor bug fix release focused on some customer reported issues with canned drilling cycles and G12/13 circular pocketing cycles.

 

10/12/12: Release 0.686

Release 0.686 is a minor bug fix release:

– Fixed a bug where larger backplots (either many inches or many mm) would just blank out on the backplot display and show gray.

– The backplot grid now scales to be at least as large as the travels of the machine. This is especially helpful to the CNC Router audience.

– Increased the infinite loop checking to ignore loops that go less than 500 times.

– Improved various other backplot behaviours.

– Fixed the jitter and disappearing reappearing scrollbars that happens on low res screens as the mouse affects the status bar coordinate display.

 

10/11/12: Release 0.682

Release 0.681 is a minor release focused on bug fixes and improvements to the “Insert” buttons on the toolbar. Most important bug fixed was that there were no g-codes showing when you clicked the G-Code or M-Code buttons.

 

10/9/12: Release 0.681 (Signalled for Feathered Upgrade)

Release 0.681 is a minor feature release prompted by a need to fix an urgent bug for a customer:

– The urgent bug involves an update to the Centroid posts, so be sure to reset your post to the latest if you use Centroid.

– GWE now automatically downloads the latest controller posts once each new version to try to help you stay up to date. You’ll still need to go onto the setup page and browse to the new post if you want to use the updated posts.

– Added a “Print Code” command to the File menu that prints the g-code.

 

10/6/12: Release 0.680 (Signalled for Feathered Upgrade)

Release 0.680 is a major feature release:

– Added support for Fanuc SETVN, which allows you to name variables and refer to them by name instead of using numbers. “#1” could be named “#HOLEDIA”, for example. There is a new post variable, “Macro.SetSN”, which should be set to “true” if your controller supports SETVN. Many do not, including many Fanuc controls. It is on by default for the Fanuc canned profiles though.

– Added a special “Soft” SETVN feature. This allows you to place SETVN statements in comments that begin with “*GWE*”. For example, suppose we have the following program:

%
( SETVN Test )
( *GWE* SETVN 500 [PROBEDIA, HOLEDIA, XPOS, YPOS] )
#500 = 0.010
#501 = 3.000
#502 = 0.0
#503 = 1.0
#600 = #500
#601 = #501
#602 = #502
#603 = #503
M30
%

It’s legal for most controls that support #variables at all, because the SETVN is in a comment. Now go to the Tools Revise menu and choose the “GWE Directives” choice. Make sure the “SETVN Do” radio button is selected and press “Apply”. The program is now transformed as though your controller supports SETVN:

%
( SETVN Test )
( *GWE* SETVN 500 [PROBEDIA, HOLEDIA, XPOS, YPOS] )
#PROBEDIA = 0.010
#HOLEDIA = 3.000
#XPOS = 0.0
#YPOS = 1.0
#600 = #PROBEDIA
#601 = #HOLEDIA
#602 = #XPOS
#603 = #YPOS
M30
%

You can work on it and debug the macros with variable names that are actually understandable. When you get ready to save, just run the “Undo” form of the same revision and it strips all the SETVN names back out and restores the correct numbers as defined in your *WE* comments.

We’ll use this choice to provide a way to store more information in *GWE* comments in the future, but for now, it just has SETVN.

I’ve marked this feature “Experimental”, as it is pretty radical. I’ll be looking forward to hearing your feedback on it, but for me, it makes macro programming a lot easier.

– In an effort to make things easier for newcomers, or anyone who needs help, there are two new buttons on the Login Bar:

    * Getting Started: This button takes you to our Getting Started page on the web site (https://www.cnccookbook.com/g-wizard-editor-getting-started/). This page has a list of resources available to help, a video tour of the product, and a written tour as well.

    * Support: This button takes you to our Customer Portal where you can search our Knowledge Base, file support tickets to get help, make suggestions for new features, and vote on all the open suggestions so the ones you like move closer to the top of the priorities.

As we go forward, I’ll be making more videos and revising the online documentation to be more complete and up to date. GW Editor is finally reaching a point where the UI is stable enough to be worth documenting better as we get closer to shipment.

– The last feature-related activity was to put a bunch of fine tuning in to accomodate lower screen resolutions. The resolution limits are largely a function of the width of the toolbars, so they automatically tune themselves to be narrower as resolution drops. It’s still not happy at 1024 x 768, but it is much better down to 1200 x 800 or so.

– Further tuning on mouse smoothness while running the debugger/simulator.

 

9/29/12: Release 0.656 (Signalled for Feathered Upgrade)

Release 0.656 is a quick bug fix release with a minor feature:

– Fixed the bug that could cause the Backplot to do a wild corkscrewing run during debugger playback. It is much more stable now.

– Added the “Replace Addresses” revision that makes it easy to replace one address with another.

– I’ll be turning on the “Bat Signal” for this one so people will be signalled to upgrade in groups over the course of a week.

 

9/28/12: Release 0.655

Release 0.655 is a minor feature release.  Lots of neat stuff in this release, but my favorite is “instant registration”.  It’s not quite instant, but it beats the heck out of the hours long delays our current registration system has.  I was able to get registered as fast as I could type and confirm the email link.  We need to thoroughly test it, so we started it out on GW Editor.  Assuming all goes well, we’ll add it for GW Calculator when we do our next release there.

Last release we switched on the new 3D graphics library, which made the backplot dramatically faster.  This release includes a number of fixes and tweaks to that new code as well as other areas:

–  I broke out Errors onto its own tab rather than making it part of Hints.  That makes it simpler, easier, and more obvious to get to.

–  Down Arrow advances the debugger as does the space bar, so you don’t have to keep clicking with the mouse.

–  The mouse felt like you were dragging through some 80 weight gear oil whenever the debugger was running, even when it was in Feed Hold and not doing anything.  I think I got that tuned up and fixed.

–  Fixed a slew of problems with the run-time estimation over on the Info Tab.  It’s much better now!

–  Fixed a weird bug that made it comingle values across multiple Post files.

–  Fixed a unit conversion problem with Hints.  They were not respecting the current unit setting from the Setup tab.

It’s a nice collection of goodies.  More to come, but I wanted to get the faster registration out in people’s hands so we can shake it out and deploy for GW Calc too.

 

9/21/12: Release 0.650

Release 0.650 is a major release, so I really cranked up the version number from the last release (0.570).

The biggest highlight is the release is now taking advantage of your graphics card, whereas before it was doing all the heavy lifting for the backplotter with the cpu. That means this release is dramatically faster, especially on larger 3D files. You must be runnin g Flash Player 11 or later, and the newer the Flash Player you have, the more graphics cards are supported. Some very old cards may not be supported.

This is a major change to the code base, so be on the look out for new bugs and irregularities. Please let me know if you find anything via email. Just in case, I have moved the last release over to the Prior Release Install Page. If things get too crazy, just fall back to the prior release, but make sure to send me an email so I know what to fix.

There are a number of other useful changes as well:

– Lots of work was done to fix bugs and make the scrolling behavior smoother for hints and the g-code tabs.

– Fixed a bug in G12/G13 (circular pocketing) where it was requiring Z to be set on each use. Z should be modal.

– Fixed a bug where Browsing newly downloaded controllers was showing the wrong directory.

– Fixed some bugs around Imperial vs Metric in the G-Wizard Calculator integration and the GWCC Conversational CNC wizards.

– Fixed some nasty bugs that would hang the program if you pressed <Escape> and other control keys.

– A variety of other fit and finish issues were addressed.

 

9/13/12: Release 0.570

Release 0.570 is a feature release:

– The Post tab under Settings has a new tab called “Mapper”. Basically, “Mapper” does a search and replace at the last minute before the code is executed. This makes it easy to remap g-codes since different controls have them under different numbers as well as many other things, such as Fanuc A/B/C style lathe g-codes (coming soon!). Here is the Mapper in action changing G90/92/94 to G290/292/294:

G-Code Mapper

– Added G290, G292, and G294 lathe cycles. Normally, these would be G90/92/94, but these codes need to be mapped since their normal slots are used for other things on mills, for example. So, the canned profiles use the Mapper to remap them appropriately so that programs can just refer to G90/92/94. G90 is an OD/ID turning cycle, G92 is a threading cycle, and G94 is a facing cycle.

– Macro variable #3402 tells the current active plane: G17 = 0, G18 = 1, G19 = 2.

Fixed a number of bugs including:

– M-code hints weren’t showing

 

 

9/9/12: Release 0.560

Release 0.560 is a feature release:

– Supports Haas-style G12 and G13 circular pocketing.

– Supports M41/42/43 lathe transmission gear change codes.

– Added G08: Advanced Preview Control.

– Added canned profiles for Haas mill and lathe.

 

9/2/12: Release 0.550

Release 0.550 is a feature release:

– Added canned profiles for Centroid controls. They’re very similar to Fanuc with the addition of the M25 command and Centroid’s ‘:’ for rest of line comments.

– The Centroid M25 command is programmed with a new facility that allows g- and m-codes to be mapped to macros. We simulate Centroid M25 using G28 in this way. The macro files appear in your Posts subdirectory off the GWE preferences directory. You can find that directory using the Settings Files page.

– Tweaked BridgeportDX32 post. This post is a stopgap at best as we’re still missing a lot of features needed to do full DX32 simulation.

– Made the simulator a lot faster to start and run continuously. Fixed a number of problems related to running very large programs through the simulator.

– Took out the popups when simulating code containing operator stops. The debugger will simply stop and can be restarted again.

– Fixed lots of problems relating to the definition custom g- and m-codes and a number of other user-reported bugs.

– There are important changes under the covers for several future releases.

 

8/23/12: Release 0.515

Release 0.515 is largely a bug fix release.

There is one minor feature enhancement in that the “Monitor” Revision can now add code both before and after the words you specify. The Monitor Revision searches through code for particular word/address combinations and then adds the string you specify either before or after the word/address pair.

We also mocked up the GWCC (GW Conversational CNC) Turning Wizard for lathes, although it is not yet capable of generating any code.

Bug fixes were in the following areas:

– Fixed several reported issues in the GWCC Hole Wizard.

– Fixed several bugs in the canned drilling cycles.

– Added some additional hints, for example they now tell the hole bottom coordinate for canned drilling cycles.

– The hint line below the backplot used to be too small and wouldn’t stay resized if you changed it. Fixed.

– Fixed a number of problems associated with defining and saving custom g- and m-codes. The typical use for this function is to ignore some code that GWE doesn’t support and that doesn’t really affect the backplot.

 

8/19/12: Release 0.511

Release 0.511 is a minor feature release. It consists of finishing up the automatic corner chamfer and corner rounding for lathes. Here is a typical example with both a chamfer and a corner round:

chamfer corner round

There are two new Post variables that can be used to enable or disable chamfer and corner round: Lathe.AllowLatheChamfer and Lathe.AllowLatheCornerRounding.

 

8/13/12: Release 0.505

Release 0.505 is largely about updating the GW Conversational CNC add-in module. GWCC gets interpolated holes and a new option to do arcs of holes.

 

8/1/12: Release 0.500

Release 0.500 is a major update. It involves a complete rewrite of the Post functionality that’s used to configure the Editor/Simulator to the particular g-code dialect each control uses. There is overall documentation for it on the GWE Setup page, but most of it should be self-documenting due to the way the new UI works. You can find it under Setup on the Posts tab. There are sub-tabs there and the biggest change is for the “Settings” tab. It provides a scrolling list of all the options needed to customize the behavior. For each entry you get the ability to see the current value, edit the value, as well as a brief description of what it does.

In addition to the new UI, we’ve changed how you go about downloading pre-defined posts. They’re accessed from the Machine Profile page:

Start by clicking “Download Latest Controllers”. This causes GWE to bring down all the latest controllers from your Internet connection to our “Cloud”. Once that’s done, you can click “Browse” to select the particular controller you’d like to use. We now have a number of new profiles that cover Fanuc and Mach3, Mill and Lathe, for both Inch and Metric. More control profiles will follow.

Lastly, the syntax of these files has been changed to make them simpler to edit and understand. Look for “.pst” files in your Preferences directory. You can find that directory under the Files tab. Just edit the “.pst” file with any text editor. They’re much simpler to understand than the old xml file format.

These changes should make it easier for users to customize their post as well as for CNCCookbook to produce canned profiles and keep them up to date.

Given how much of a rewrite has gone on with this release, I’m going to wait a week for it to shake out any new problems before I turn on the update signal.

 

7/11/12: Release 0.441

Release 0.441 is a minor feature release. It adds:

– More system variables:

#3011 & 3012 are current date and current time
Timer vars #3001, #3002
Current position vars (#5041-5044)

– G15/G16 polar coordinates. For more information, see the Polar Coordinate G-Code page from our G-Code Tutorial or our Polar Coordinates Calculator page.

– A variety of bug fixes were made per customer reports.

 

5/5/12: Release 0.440

Release 0.440 is a minor feature release. It adds:

– G01 Chamfer and Corner Rounding for lathes. Note that corner rounding will look like a chamfer on the backplot and there are no post options yet. Also, we need your help debugging, as I didn’t have very many test examples to try it on.

– The Hint and Info tabs are grayed out until a backplot is completed. The information on them is not accurate until a complete backplot has run.

– The options on Backplot Options are now saved from one session to the next.

 

4/30/12: Release 0.437

Release 0.437 is a bug fix release. It fixes a crash bug that could very commonly cause GWE to freeze up if you were editing code. There is also code in this really for chamfering on G01 lathe commands, but it is untested and incomplete. Play with it at your own risk!

 

4/19/12: Release 0.436

Release 0.436 is a minor feature release. It adds the Fanuc lathe style T#’s that combine the tool and offset numbers as described in our G-Code Course chapter on Tool Changes and Tool Offsets.

 

4/16/12: Release 0.435

Release 0.435 is a performance and bug fix update.

– Reworked playback and single step to make it faster and smoother.

– Quite a bit of work on memory management to make it faster and less likely to hang.

– More behind the scenes preparation for Flash Player 11.

– Added proper computation of time for G96 CSS mode moves.

– Made the lines plotted in the backplot skinnier.

– Fixed some hang bugs that occur during playback. For instance, it would hang if you pressed <escape>.

 

4/13/12: Release 0.431

Release 0.431 is a bug fix and mandatory upgrade release to get everyone up to the same version level.

– More under the covers work to get ready for Flash Player 11.

– Fixes a bug in Hints view where the option to show only errors wasn’t working properly.

– Minimum screen resolution for this release is 1260 x 720. I may try to make it run properly on a 1024 x 768 screen at a later date, but for now, we’re not supporting lower resolutions.

 

4/8/12: Release 0.430

Release 0.430 is a bug fix and preparatory release.

Most of the work on 0.430 is not visible and involves preparation to take advantage of native GPU support starting with Flash Player 11. There has also been some minor bug fix work done such as fixing some problems reported with saving some of the Post options.

Given how extensive the behind the scenes restructuring has been, be on the look out for any graphics problems and please report them if you see any.

2/5/12: Release 0.426

Release 0.426 is a minor feature release:

– Added Haas-style G68/69 coordinate rotation to the Post options. Haas uses A and B for the two coordinates identifying the rotation center and R for the angle.

– Added a message to confirm before deleting a custom cycle.

– Fixed an error when using negative “R” on arcs.

– Added M13/M14 to start the spindle and coolant. This m-code is common on many CNC lathes.

– Added options to the Settings Errors page that control the spindle, feedrate, and toolchange checks. These checks are made to ensure the spindle is spinning, feedrate is set, and a tool is selected when feed motion is entered (G01 or arcs). Also, there is an option on the toolchange check to just check for T and ignore M06 since many lathes don’t use M06.

1/30/12: Release 0.425

Release 0.425 is a bug fix release. It fixes bugs in these areas:

– Some that were hanging the simulator.

– Problems with simulator apparently not running.

– Problems with synchronizing the line gutter scrolling with program text scrolling on very short programs.

1/8/12: Release 0.422

Release 0.422 is a bug fix release:

– Fixed some major memory leaks. This should make GWE more stable, able to handle larger files, able to run longer, and perhaps faster.

– Fixed a bug when running in metric with G21 where Feedrate was left Imperial.

– Fixed several bugs to do with scrolling in the Hints view.

 

12/31/11: Release 0.420

Release 0.420 is a minor feature release:

– Added G68/69 coordinate rotation processing.

– Extended Internet connection timeout for a session to reduce likelihood of a false “No Connection” status.

– Fixed bugs around Post formats for “F” word. Added ability to specify Post format for “R” word.

– Changed default starting position for machine from X0Y0Z1 to Z0Y0Z0.

– Fixed a bug where if saving and you typed a name with no extension, 2 dots were added: “filename..ncc”.

– Fixed a bug in how variables were being mapped to words for a G65 call. Thanks Andrew for pointing that one out!

11/20/11: Release 0.412

Release 0.411 is a bug fix release to get G65 working again.

11/19/11: Release 0.411

Release 0.411 is a bug fix release:

– Fixed a bug that caused changes to the Post to be lost under some circumstances.

– When you get the popup telling you that you are not a registered user, the button will now take you to the GWE registration instead of the GWC registration.

11/13/11: Release 0.410

Release 0.410 is a feature release:

Note: This release requires Flash Player 11, which is the latest player. While we don’t really use its features yet, we’re trying to get everyone on the same page with us before we introduce features that will only work on FP 11.

– Lots of work to bring all the work offset options to life so you can now use the extended ones (Fanuc with 48 or 300 offets, for example) and the correct system variables will be saved between sessions to capture these.

– Added “Custom” Cycles. These are little code snippets accessed via the “Custom” button for your program. By default you get a Safe Start, End Program, and Park Mill cycle. They’re customizable and you can add as many of your own as you like. This is a good way to create and build up your macro libraries, for example.

– Added some checking to Machine Profile in setup so you can’t do things like set max feedrate to 0.

10/15/11: Release 0.400

Release 0.400 is a major feature release:

– Added markers to the backplot. There are now markers at the g-code start, g-code end, and for the g-code line the cursor is currently on:

Backplot markers

– Subprogram tab now shows the comment on the line of the “O” word for the subprogram. Makes it easier to spot what the subprogram does if you comment it. You can also double click on the subprogram tab to navigate to that spot on the program.

– Added “Time in Cut” and “Distance in Cut” data to the Tool Table. This is useful for calculating tool wear information so you can keep up with when you might want to replace the cutter or how long they last for particular jobs.

– There are new visibility and color controls on the tool table. You can individually control visibility of each tool in the backplot by turning the little light bulb on or off–just click it. You can also change the feed speed color of each tool independently. Just click the color box to popup a color chooser. The rapids color remains the same for all tools. Colors and visibility status will be remembered by tool number across sessions and for all programs. You can reset the colors under the Backplot Options menu choice.

Individual tool visibility and color options for the backplot

– Radically improved the variable editing screen for work offsets. Go to Setup Post Variables and select the work offset buttons to see it. If you set up a work offset, it is saved across sessions and applies to all programs.

Setting up work offsets

– Added Post option for Okuma-style work offsets. Okuma uses G15 Hx, where x is a number from 0..50.

– Re-arranged some of the Toolbar buttons to prepare for the future and make it more space efficient. The “Custom” button is not hooked up yet.

– There is now a post option for the tolerance on how much the radius of an arc can differ when measured from each endpoint.

– Fixed a bunch of bugs in areas like relative coordinates, work offsets, the revisions, bunch of backplot bugs, and several other areas.

9/2/11: Release 0.330

Release 0.330 is a fit and finish release:

– There is a new Delete Words revision that can be used to delete words. Use it to delete all occurences of a particular word (such as an axis), or just those that have a particular address (such as a particular g-code).

– There is a new “Monitor” revision. It’s purpose is to search for a particular word and then add code right after the word. For example, you can use it to add a “DPRNT” to monitor tool life.

– Major overhaul of the UI for the “5Step” button on the simulator. You now get buttons for all the step modes right under the regular simulator control cluster. This makes it easier to access them and switch back and forth between the modes.

– GWE now has an “Auto” mode for Incremental versus Absolute Arc IJK. This is the most common thing you’d have to fix to see a backplot of code from a new machine. You can also force it to select either incremental or absolute IJK. Hoping to get beginners up and running sooner with a decent backplot this way.

– Fixed a collection of clipboard bugs that were leaving garbage characters and sometimes truncating text in the clipboard.

– Took a run at the window sizing bug that affects a few people. The symptom is it comes up and there is white space along the right and/or bottom edges between the UI and the edge of the window. If you’ve been seeing this, and it goes away, please let me know. If you’ve been seeing it and it hasn’t gone away, let me know that two. There are two attempted fixes. One is triggered automatically. If that isn’t working for you, try using the backplot refresh icon on the toolbar, which will trigger the second fix. Again, let me know your status on this problem. I can’t reproduce it on my own machine, so it’s going to take some trial and error to track it down and fix it. I appreciate the help!

– Updates to the Monotonicity checking for G71. Partial progress on Type 2 for G71. Feel free to play with it, but expect problems.

– The default format for the Adjust Addresses revision was changed from “O” to “X”.

– Hints were not always refreshed properly, so added code to force a refresh when the background backplot processing finishes.

– Macro variables (#variables) were only getting cleared at startup. They’re now cleared whenever the simulator or backplot starts over from the beginning.

– Fixed a whole flock of little bugs to do with #vars and parameterized programming. A lot of programs that wouldn’t work right now do.

– Fixed some bugs on the Tools tab. Also set it up so the Tool List is the default view and the Tool Changes are available by switching the control at the top.

– Added a bunch of new statistics to the Info Tab including: Total time in cut, total distance in cut, time and distance in rapids, average feedrate in cut, total number of tool changes, and time spent changing tools.

8/17/11: Release 0.320

Release 0.320 is all about getting G71 working at long last. It’s still only Type 1, but we have both the 1 line and 2 line formats available. Setup is via Post.

Other changes include:

– Implemented repeat (L) word for M98.

– Added a post option that determines whether helical interpolation is allowed by the controller.

– We display the DOS (8.3) short file name on the status bar in a field that you can right click to copy from. Some controllers only have the DOS short file names so it is handy to be able to see what such a file name would be for a file with a long name.

– Made the trident letters face the user so you can see what the axes are.

8/11/11: Release 0.310

Release 0.310 is all about getting a customer’s program to backplot. I wanted him to be able to try it so he could give me further feedback, otherwise I would probably have added more before releasing it. With that said, 0.310 has some useful things:

– We now detect and backplot helical interpolation.

– When performing helical interpolation, the Hints will tell you the pitch of the helix (useful for checking whether your thread milling is correct) and the depth of the helix.

– The simulator information below the backplot has been reformatted for clarity by putting some white space between the mode information and the trace of #variables.

– A new subprogram call list (stack trace) has been added to the simulator info below the backplot. It lists the M97/M98/G65 calls by line number. If there is a repeat factor on the call, it will be reflected by an “L” after the caller line # plus the number of repeats left to execute:

subprogram stack trace

– Implemented repeat factors on M97. I’ll get them for M98 in the next release.

– Fixed a number of bugs relating to M97/M99 and a few other things along the way.

8/9/11: Release 0.300

Release 0.300 is another performance enhancement release, and pretty big progress at that. 0.300 is capable of loading and backplotting a large file up to 7x faster than 0.260, hence we’ve bumped up to the next 0.100. It’s the biggest performance increment we’ve had yet and several breakthroughs are responsible. All told the software is probably 10x faster than it was 2 weeks ago about backplotting and processing the Hints and Error Messages. There’s still a lot more performance enhancements to come since we haven’t gotten the new Flash Player 11 with hardware graphics card acceleration yet, but even without we’re finally getting into the performance neighborhood we should be in, though we’re still far from finished with performance.

In addition to the big performance boost, there are a couple of other goodies:

– There is a new full width cursor when running the simulator to make it easier to see exactly where you are in the g-code.

– Fixed some issues with the Line Number gutter getting out of sync with the lines.

– Fixed some bugs in Haas-style M97/M99.

– Miscellaneous other tweeks.

8/6/11: Release 0.260

Release 0.260 is focused on editing commands:

– The Adjust Addresses revision can now be used to change the formatting of numbers to match the post.

– There is a new Arc Adjust revision that can change IJK center to R format and vice versa, and it can change IJK from relative to absolute and vice versa.

– There is a new Feeds and Speeds override that can be used to adjust feeds and speeds either for all tools or for a particular tool number.

– Some of the revisions require the backplot to be up to date so they can use it’s information. They will pop up a message saying the backplot needs to be up to date if it isn’t. Just close the popups and wait for the backplot to finish updating.

– There is a new revision that can convert coordinates back and forth between relative and absolute.

– Did some slight rearranging of the toolbar to make room for some features coming in future releases.

– New “Jump to closest endpoint in backplot” feature. Click the new icon on the toolbar (magnifier with a “Play” arrow) to turn it on. Now when you click the mouse on the backplot, it moves the g-code cursor to the next line that refers to the nearest endpoint to where you clicked.

– A preferred file extension for use when saving files without extensions may be selected under the Tools Options menu.

– Two buttons on the Adjust Address revision allow switching to and from lathe diameter or radius mode.

– A few more performance enhancements: backplot is another 20% faster.

8/3/11: Release 0.251 & 0.252

When lots changes (0.250), we get Bug Fix Releases:

– Fixed an annoying bug that caused carriage returns to be dropped when typing in under some conditions.

– Turned on release feathering. Before, every GWE release was mandatory. Now, by default, some are mandatory, and some are notified over the course of 7 days.

– Fixed a bug where the revisions and some other commands would mysteriously delete a line.

8/2/11: Release 0.250

Release 0.250 is primarily focused on performance and usability. Quite a lot of tuning was done to speed up basic editing (making typing feel less “slushy”) as well as to speed up the parsing and backplotting. Some new things you’ll notice:

– There is a new set of Refresh options on the Backplot Options menu. These control how often a background update to hints (error messages) and the backplot is done. “Auto-Refresh” is the old default. What’s new is a file size entry that will turn off “Auto-Refresh” on files larger than the specified size. The default threshold is 256 K bytes.

– When Auto-Refresh is off, refreshing the backplot and hints is deferred until the g-code type-in pane loses focus (due to a popup or switching to another view), or until the user has stopped doing anything in that pane for a time (1.5 seconds is the current setting).

– Once a non-auto refresh starts, it tends to go much faster (up to 2x as fast), but the system will be less responsive until it finishes that auto-refresh.

– When you load a file, a popup will appear for larger files that says “Hang on, processing a big file.” While that popup is visible, the system is totally focused on getting through the refresh as fast as possible (again, up to 2x faster than prior releases). If you press “Cancel”, it will pause where it is and wait for the next opportunity to refresh (i.e. during another popup or if you initiate the refresh).

– You can tell if you are in manual- or auto-refresh via a message on the status bar at the bottom.

– If in manual, and you want the system to refresh, either press F9 (same as “recalc” in Excel), click the replot icon on the Tool Bar, or select “Backplot Refresh” from the menus.

– Did some fit and finish work on the Hints to make them more readable.

– Fixed a bug that was causing m-codes to never show any hints.

– There is a new option to Edit in CAPS except in comments. By default it is turned on, but may be turned off under Tools Options.

Lots more performance updates yet to come, but this release should help.

7/25/11: Release 0.200

This has been a massive release nearly a month in the making, so I’m going to bump up a full 0.1 number to 0.200.

Here’s what we did in 0.200:

– Added an Axis Switch revision to make it easy to switch axes when programming right angle heads and such.

– Added an Adjust Words revision to make it easy to do simple math on the addresses associated with words. You can see how to use it in our g-code tutorial on making an engraving font.

– Renumber blocks will now proactively adjust references to numbers that change from GOTO, G71, and other sources.

– The remainder of Fanuc Macro B was added, largely consisting of GOTO, IF, and WHILE. See also our mini-tutorial on g-code macros.

– You now have the ability under Post Numbers to choose a default word format that is used for words that have no defined format.

– M99 was really getting confused about where to return to if there were no N numbers and sometimes even when there were. Fixed that bug.

– Top View and the other non-perspective views were acting strange. I fixed several bugs that should help a lot there. There was also some funny business when zooming these views with the scroll wheel that has been fixed.

– There’s now a warning for particularly large files that they’re likely to be slow. Performance is a priority, but we have a lot of work left to do there yet.

– After learning that large multinational companies dropped 2.9 million jobs from the US and hired 2.4 million overseas during the 2000’s, I added a made in America to our logo. Help out the small companies, they’re the ones creating jobs here.

– Fixed a bug where GWE would erroneously decide various G and M-codes were unavailable and flag them as errors.

– Lots more sniggly little details of fit, finish, and stability.

6/30/11: Release 0.138

The big news for 0.139 are some macro debugging capabilities partially inspired by the need to help a GWE user. For full details, read the article about debugging infinite loops which details the various new features.

Still a lot of work going on under the covers with G71 and the other lathe cycles. I decided to rewrite them from scratch given what I had learned the first go-round. They’ll be a lot more robust and it’ll be easier for me to cover all the different crazy options different controls bring.

6/9/11: Release 0.138

0.138 continues the work on the G71 rough turning cycle, which now handles arcs. It’s still not finished, but is considerably more useful.

In addition, we’ve improved the Revisions user interface quite a bit:

– There is now a “Revision:” button on the tool bar that triggers the last revision you ran during the session. If none have been run, it just brings up the menu listing the various revisions. You can see the name of the revision that would be called to the right of the “Revision” button, and if you press the down arrow it will bring up the revision list.

– The revision list now allows selection of whether to run the revision against the entire program (default) or the currently selected blocks.

– The initial version of the line renumbering Revision has been added. There are a couple of options not implemented in the UI that are grayed out. In addition, this version doesn’t adjust references in macros or canned cycles, but a later one will.

5/31/11: Release 0.137

Some good stuff in 0.137:

– Coolest new feature is the 5-Step button for the Simulator got a whole lot more powerful. By default, clicking it advances the simulator 5 blocks when in Single Block mode. However, you can either right click it or use the Simulator Options menu choice to bring up more modes for this button:

o You can set it to almost any number of blocks to be executed instead of just 5.

o You can set it to run to the next tool change (M06).

o You can set it to run to the next rapids (G00).

o You can set it to run to the next dwell (G04). Since G04 doesn’t affect the behavior most times, use it as a convenient marker you can drop into your code to make it easier to run to that point.

– There is a new Simulator menu. Most of the functions were available in the Simulator Toolbar buttons, but they’re also on menu now too. The Simulator menu is documented on the menu commands docs page.

– Menus display all their keyboard shortcuts and the shortcuts are implemented.

– Added information about the angle subtended by arcs to the Hints. It now tells the start angle, end angle, and total angle.

– Thanks to a program submitted by a user (thanks Terry!), a number of subtle problems with arcs in lathe programs were fixed.

– Fixed a number of things relating to lathe diameter mode. For example, the X coordinate of the status bar mouse position display is now consistent with diameter mode.

– Backplot Options now allows G28-style moves to be turned off from the backplot and this is the default.

– Another round of fixing and tuning for Zoom Extents. It focuses on zooming to fit all the feedrate moves without necessarily fitting all rapids. Got rid of a few more cases that drove it crazy.

5/24/11: Release 0.135

The big news for 0.135 is keyboard shortcuts plus a new “Simulator” pull down menu. The shortcuts are documented on the menus and on the Keyboard page.

Zoom In/Zoom Out shortcuts (Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-) are not yet working but the rest should be good to go.

I also made a run at fixing a bug where GWE would come up as just a black window and hang. Those of you that encountered that problem, let me know if you are continuing to see it.

5/20/11: Release 0.134

0.134 is a medium duty release–more than minor and less than major. The bulk of the work continues behind the scenes on Lathe Canned Cycles. While I have not disabled the G71 work in progress, it is buggy enough that it isn’t useful at the moment so no need to report G71 problems.

Here’s what’s in the release:

– Minor performance enhancements, probably not measurable without a stopwatch, but some work was done.

– Added Fanuc style UVW. These provide relative addressing for XYZ so you can easily mix the two without going in and out of incremental versus absolute modes.

– G32 lathe threading cycle

– We now have separate g-code lists for lathe and mill. This area still needs some refinement but is essentially working.

– The Setup window is now resizable. Some users with lower resolution screens will find this helpful.

– Many bug fixes.

4/5/11: Release 0.133

0.133 has some good usability upgrades:

– Backplot is about 2x faster than prior releases. Lots more to come.

– Rewrote zoom extents yet again. Seems like it is doing a lot better job zooming to fit the backplot to the window.

– Add a Backplot Option to show the bounding box for feed moves as a blue outline. This box is not a bad proxy for your workpiece.

– Large programs use the bounding box to rotate or pan the backplot so it doesn’t bog down.

– There is a new Post option to allow “:” instead of (or in addition to) “O”. Fanuc and some other controls allow this.

– Following a customer suggestion, there is now email contact info on the About box.

– There is a new “simple post” option that simply checks whether numbers are valid numbers or not without all the checking for number of decimal places and so on. This option is on by default to make it easier to get to a backplot when you first start using GWE. Later on, you can turn it off and customize the exact error checking on numbers just like always. The parsing stage runs faster with this simple number parser enabled.

– While zooming in with the mouse wheel continues to zoom towards wherever the mouse is pointing, zooming out doesn’t zoom out “towards” anything. This is much more intuitive.

– Fixed a bug where screen was getting blurred at startup.

– Fixed a number of scrolling-related bugs.

3/28/11: Release 0.132

0.132 is another substantial release:

– New Options choice on the Backplot menu lets you change a few things on the backplot:

o Show or Hide Grid and Simulated Toolholder.

o Show or Hide Trident. Place Trident in lower left corner or at Work Coordinate 0, 0, 0

o Show Endpoints: This option places a marker on the backplot at the beginning and end of each g-code move. Makes it easier to see how the moves are stacked up in various places.

o Show or Hide Rapids and Feedrate Moves

o Set Feedrate line thickness. This can be useful for making things more legible or even to create a thickness equal to your cutter diameter so you can see better what is happening. Warning: The scaling is not quite right yet if you want a precise dimension on the line thickness!

– I spent a couple of days improving backplot performance. Every so often I will do this, moreso towards the end of the Beta. It has a long ways to go, but it is better than it was.

– The status line and Info tab now tell not only how many lines are in a program but how many bytes.

– Insert menu now has Insert File (inserts at the cursor) and Append File (adds the file to the end of the current file) commands.

– There is a new Tools Options popup that provides Editor Options:

o G-Code file extensions for File Open

o Default File Save extension when no extension is given.

– Quite a few bug fixes including one where if you had really long names and folder paths you could make the File menu inoperable.

3/21/11: Release 0.131

0.131 is a big release:

– Revisions are back to working again after a long time. They’re under Tool menu. Currently we have Revisors for CAPitalization, Spaces, Control Characters, Comments, and Block Skip.

– I’ve started a Commands documentation page here: https://www.cnccookbook.com/g-wizard-editor-menu-commands/

Lots more to fill in there.

– You can now edit the parameters comment on g-codes. You can also delete codes that you’ve added, but not the stock codes. Set the stock codes to ignore or make them unavailable.

– M99 in the main program (not a subprogram) with no args returns to top of main program. You can give it args to make it return to a specific block (N) # in the main program.

– M98 now has an L-word repeat factor (Mach3)

– M98 can also do the Fanuc style repeat factor.

– M47 is same as M99 in the main program but cannot be executed in subprograms.

– Fixed a bug where M30 and other codes that were supposed to rewind weren’t rewinding.

– Added G65 macros with arguments passed in via local variables. Calls can be nested up to 5 levels deep.

– Added some new arc-related post functions. modal-R lets you make the radius modal. You can also set IJK vs R precedence to decide what happens if both are present. These were added to support Centurion controls on machines like Milltronics.

– Further tuning on Zoom Extents. It’s even closer, but still is off sometimes.

Phew! Lots going on in this release. Check it out carefully as I’m sure there are some new bugs.

3/15/11: Release 0.130

0.130 focuses on usability:

– Got rid of the popup “No Internet” box. Instead, the notice appears on the login bar at the right. If G-Wizard absolutely needs to connect due to the 2 week limit, it will do a popup.

– Currently installed version number is displayed on the Login Bar.

– Several bugs to do with arcs are fixed based on customer feedback–thanks James and Brian!

– The Posts now include a comment, visible at the top of Setup Post, so you can write in a little more detail what’s in them.

– Lots of tweaks with Zooming and Zoom Extents. For example, Zoom now attempts to zoom towards wherever the mouse tip is pointing. Also, I finally fixed the bug where if the mouse tip was on a backplot line or grid line, all zooming and panning was ignored.

3/10/11: Release 0.129

Minor release. A couple of bug fixes plus the ability to manage your CNC Controller Profiles (aka “Posts”) better. The Controller Browse button not only allows you to download profiles, but also to pick from profiles you have on your local hard disk.

3/7/11: Release 0.128

This is a very big release:

– Complete overhaul of Find/Replace and the Jump editing commands. These can be accessed either via the Edit menu or the toolbar buttons. They each use a very slick toolbar presentation instead of popping up dialog boxes that get in the way. Try them out. I particularly like the Jump menu which will skip from tool change to tool change or error to error forwards and backwards. The major remaining editing functionality is in Revisions and Auto-Revisions.

– #parameters and [expressions] are essentially 95% done. There are some niggling details that will be worked out before shipping, but they’re no longer a high-priority emphasis. Therefore, I have taken this entry off of the “What doesn’t work” list above. Some of the new features in this area include ATAN, OR, XOR, AND, MOD, and the “**” power operator for Mach3.

– Tried to speed the opening of the setup tab. It’s a lot faster, but switching to the Post sub-tab is now slow. DOH!

– Fixed lots of little fit and finish issues that come up as you try to use GWE to “etch-a-sketch” g-code by creating a program from start to finish.

– Several bugs associated with error reporting on arcs.

3/3/11: Release 0.127

– Feature-wise, the big news is Find/Replace is now up and running. I used a ribbon UI rather than popups because it’s easier on real estate and doesn’t cover up what you’re searching for. Next release will see a similar UI for the Jump command.

– The simulator backplotter now accesses system variables #5161..5164 to determine the machine’s starting and tool change positions. This is the same as Fanuc and other controllers. The default for these variables is X0Y0Z1. You can change them in Setup Post.

– New Tip button in top right next to the help button so you can bring up the tips manually.

– New G-Codes control diameter versus radius mode programming for the X-axis. This is a lathe feature. G190 = OFF (Radius). G191 = (ON Diameter). A number of controllers use these codes, but some you will have to remap to different g-code #’s. Hurco and Allen Bradley use G07 and G08, Omniturn uses G72/73, etc.

– G96 and G97 (the Constant Surface Speed commands) are now implemented. These are mostly lathe g-codes. You will see the system accept SFM or M/Min instead of RPM when this option is invoked.

– Added a “Replot” button to the toolbar that forces a full rebuild and repaint of the backplot. Comes in handy if things get screwed up, but otherwise, not so much I suspect.

– Added the ability to define one or more full line comment characters. Anything after a full line comment is treated as comment. EMC allows “;”, Anilam allows “*”, etc. Currently, “%” is used as an EOL comment too, but that will go away when we start processing %’s true meaning.

– Fixed a bunch of bugs in the Edit Jump function. It should be working properly now. Expect a UI overhaul to make it match Find/Replace in the next release.

– Fixed a host of user reported bugs of various kinds. For example, TABs were screwing things up in some cases. Have fixed some but not all the TAB bugs. Also fixed a bug where File Exit was not exiting.

2/28/11: Release 0.126

– Bug fixes to the #parameter and [expression] handling plus it covers a few more words.

– Added an error check for the distance of an arc’s center to each endpoint. That distance needs to be the same to within 0.001″ or an error message is issued. It will still plot those arcs, but many controllers alarm out on such cases.

2/27/11: Release 0.125

– 0.125 changes the splash screen and About box to suppress the animated G-Wizard logo when you login as a guest. Some graphics driver combinations don’t like the logo and those users were unable to get the product to even load.

– UI for Edit Find/Replace done. No guts so it doesn’t do anything but look pretty though.

2/24/11: Release 0.124

0.124 has the first installment of #parameters and [expressions]. Consider it to be alpha quality in those areas. We don’t yet have all of the expression functions, for example non of the logicals are there (AND, OR, etc.). There are no control structures like IF. What is working is assignment to variables and the ability to use variables and expressions to derive a value for words. Not all words covered yet, but the biggies from the sample code I had on hand.

The simulator state information (below the backplot when the simulator is running) now displays the values of the last 10 or so #variables that were touched. In addition, the hint as to what the variable is will be displayed in parenthesis. These hints may be found on Setup Post Variables in the “Description” column.

I’m looking for folks to try it on their sample code and forward problems to me via email. Please attach your sample code.

Let me know how this release is doing for you if you practice parameterized programming in g-code.

2/21/11: Release 0.123

This is mostly a bug fix and “keeping current with G-Wizard Calculator” release:

– GWE now has the same “Tips” popups as GWC, with the content customized for the Editor, of course.

– Added Block Delete handling. There’s a new button up by the simulator controls that turns Block Delete on or off. If it’s “ON”, blocks preceeded by “/” are ignored. If it’s “ON”, they treated just like normal blocks.

– Lots of foundational work done towards #parameters and [expressions], but it’s not really visible. Should be ready to roll out before too much longer. I’m now starting to test it.

2/10/11: Release 0.122

Big news is the ability to download predefined CNC Controller (e.g. “Post” parameters) from the CNCCookbook servers. Hopefully this will simplify startup for new users.

– There is a new CNC Controller entry on the Setup Basics machine profile. The browse button next to it allows you to download pre-defined controllers from the CNCCookbook servers (an Internet connection is required). At this stage we have Mach3 and Fanuc, with Lathe and Mill in inch or metric for both controls. Note that for metric users if you want to read everything in metric you will also need to set the metric units above the machine profile. To create a custom controller, either start with one of the pre-defined or the one that comes up when you install and make changes. If you don’t download a controller, you custom controller will receive the same name as your machine profile.

– Added the ability to control your upgrade notifications. There are three choices:

        o Immediate: Notify immediately of any new release availability.

        o Feathered: You will be notified from 1 to 7 days after a new release is available. This has been the default. It gives time for any obvious bugs to be discovered before everyone upgrades. Disabled for now in GWE because it is changing so rapidly. Therefore Immediate and Feathered both inform as soon as a release is available. When GWE is further along, I will enable the Feathered option to slow down the pace of updating.

        o Severe: Only mandatory upgrades are flagged. You’ll miss a lot of upgrades this way as I don’t mark very many as mandatory.

– Move macro variables and G/M-Code setup under the Setup Post tab because everything under that tab is associated with configuring a CNC controller.

– By default, the debugger speed is relatively slow–35%. The idea is to make it a little more obvious what is happening for newcomers.

– There are now “Tortoise” and “Hare” buttons to immediately go to very fast (100%) or very slow (15%) debugger playback speed. They also serve as labels / reminders for what the % control does. The playback also remembers whatever execution speed it had the last time GWE was run.

– Fixed a bug to issue a warning if there is more than one decimal point in a number.

– Got rid of the “Save” button for Startup G-Code. Every other Post parameter is automatically saved.

– Reviewed and changed a number of the error messages so they can be selectively disabled at finer granularity.

– Fixed a bug that prevented a number of the error messages from being ignored.

– Optional “+” no longer produces an error message if you use a “+” with a number.

– Did a major overhaul on the preferences save and load code. Be on the lookout for any issues there.

– Fixed a lot of other bugs!

1/28/11: Release 0.121

0.121 was focused on usability problems and bugs:

– Adding popup messages to tell you why your program stopped (e.g. M00, M01, M02, etc.). These only appear when running the simulator, not for simple backplot.

– Did a doc page for the simulator / debugger.

– Added the ability to disable any error either permanently, or until a new file is loaded. This will make it easier to get spurious errors out of the way or checks you just don’t want to be making such as whether a tool is loaded when you start making non-rapids moves. This is accessed via the Hints tab. Select a line with errors and press the “Errors” button to see the options. To re-enable an error, go to the Setup Errors tab.

– Fixed some finicky bugs in the simulator’s run time estimates. They were not updating properly as the machine profile and various other parameters were being changed.

– Simulated CAT40 toolholder is no longer shown on Lathes or on Top View where it was hiding the action too much.

– Fixed a problem that was causing all the post parameters for numbers to get cleared sometimes.

– Line gutter now displays “Error:” for lines with an error. This happened by accident. We’ll have to see if we like it.

– Fixed a number of problems to do with scrolling or switching views while the debugger is running. Not yet ready to declare victory, but it’s a lot better.

– Spent time trying to make Zoom Extents more accurate. It too is better, but not best.

1/17/11: Release 0.120

0.120 is a bug fix release for the most part with no new features. It does, however, clean up a lot of problems with the debugger and scrolling behavior.

1/2/11: Release 0.119

– G20/21 Units: Grid is rescaled to fit the units as are the various coordinate indicators. The default is Imperial, but you can use this g-code in the Post setup g-code to change that.

– Toolholder appears miniaturized along with the yellow highlighting to show where in the backplot the currently selected g-code line is. In Debugger mode, the Toolholder is scaled fullsize to the backplot.

– The line numbers now have a “reverse out” color to make it easier to find the line the cursor is on at all times.

– Lathe diameter vs radius modes are now available for Lathe profiles. Select the option from Setup Post. When in diameter mode a “dia” will appear by the X’s to remind you.

– M98/M99 Subprogams. Style is determined in post. By default, you will be reminded that you haven’t selected a style by an error message. Repeats are not yet implemented–each call is one shot.

– Subprogram tab. There is a new subprogram tab that tells all the “O” subprogram definitions in the current file. In a future release it will also identify “N” numbers accessed via M97. You can double click an entry on this view to go to the line where the “O” is defined.

– M97 for Haas-style subroutine calls. M97 uses the “N” (block) number instead of an “O” number.

– Tweaked the editor performance a bit.

– Changed the UI of NumPost to autosave so there is no more Save button. It is saved when you exit Setup. The tab is also now called “Numbers” under the Setup Post tab.

– Quite a bit of tuning to make the auto-zooming more friendly. For example, it autozooms during debug playback and there is also a minimum zoom so it doesn’t blow things up too much when a program starts out with a few small lines or arcs.

– Broke out the options under Setup Post as tabs so you won’t have to scroll to see them.

– Did quite a lot of tweaking to improve the scroll experience, especially for the hints view.

– Fixed bugs involving the saving of number options, error messages on arc radii being too small, and many other areas.

1/2/11: Release 0.118

This release has quite a bit of new functionality:

G17/G18/G19 are now implemented for arcs and canned cycles.

There is now a startup g-code line under Setup Post. You can give it a line of g-code to set the initial state of your controller. For example, most lathes default to “G18”, so you could put a G18 into that line. See the Setup page to see what the initial state looks like before executing the startup g-code.

A number of bug fixes and small usability tweaks. Probably the biggest one is you can change the playback speed when simulating again–it had been stuck at 100%.

12/23/10: Release 0.117

First version with some lathe views. The view types are automatically switched when you change machine profiles under “Setup”. They’re very likely pretty buggy, but at least we now have Z on the horizontal axis so they look right.

12/2/10: Release 0.116

Fun addition: 3D rendering of toolholder and tool. A customer complained it was hard to tell what was going on in the simulation because they couldn’t see where the tool was. So, I got to thinking and added a 3D rendering of the toolholder and tool. What a difference–so much nicer to work with! The holder is only shown during simulation (debugger mode). It is not shown in the Top View, because it hides the action directly underneath.

Because its so much nicer, I made the Perspective View the default leftmost view.

Fixed a lot of funny business that happens if you switch Views (Perspective, Top, etc.) in the middle of the simulation. It’s still not right, but it’s better.

GWE now scales itself for lower resolution screens. I tried it and found it usable (though not pretty) down to 800×600.

Added support for 4th axis in 1 position. LOL, you can set A0, but that’s about it so far. Still, I had to put a bunch of framework in place that will eventually lead to full 4th axis support.

Fixed a bug that was hanging the parser on some files.

Fixed a whole raft of bugs in how canned cycles were being simulated. Thanks to Mike for working through this one with me!

11/28/10: Release 0.115

Added machine label to Setup Variables and Setup G/M-Codes tabs.

Fixed a bug that caused machine profile to be uninitialized when it first comes up on the Setup tab.

G09 Fanuc one shot exact stop

G64 P tolerance parameter

G04 w/ no args is an exact stop for Fanuc

G10 for fixture (work) offsets

G-Code Support: Check Tool Loaded

G-Code Support: Check Feed Defined

G-Code Support: Check Spindle Off

Dwell Address setting options on post.

Post options on arcs: I, j, k relative to current position or absolute for circle center.

Parse and process extended work offsets: G54.1 + P, G54 + P

Modal IJK option for absolute IJK posts.

Fixed a number of errors in how canned cycles were being processed.

Made the hint area under the backplot format exactly the same as Hints View. You now can see errors there, for example.

There’s quite a lot more behind the scenes in prep for future releases, but I wanted to get those fixes out as they help several customer’s g-code files.

11/20/10: Release 0.114

  • Did almost a total rewrite on the Setup tab so everything (except for Metric / Imperial) now tracks the currently selected Machine.
  • Numerous tweaks to the time estimator. For example, there are new settings on the Machine Profile that are used for things like spindle acceleration time.
  • G- and M-Codes can now be disabled, ignored, or remapped to other codes. Just double click them on the Setup G-/M-Code tab.
  • The File tab under setup now facilitates backing up and restoring settings. Buttons are provided to copy settings en masse to a backup directory of your choosing or back again.
  • Several new materials were added by customer request, mostly aluminums such as 2219.
  • The Tools tab now shows elapsed time information. If you’re viewing the tool changes, you see the time when the change occurs. If you’re viewing the Tool List, you see the total cutting time for each tool. This should help when estimating wear by job.
  • Minor cosmetic: Tools and Info tabs now hide the scroll bar when selected since there is nothing there to scroll and it is sometimes confusing.
  • G61, G62, G63, and G64 cutting modes are now implemented.

11/13/10: Release 0.113

  • The backplotter/simulator now generates time estimates. You can find them in 3 places. Each hint tells you the elapsed time from beginning of program to get to complete that line. The Info tab tells the overall elapsed time for the program. And, if you are running the debugger, the debug info below the backplot will provide the elapsed time to the point you’re at in the program. Some details and limitations:

    – A block is assumed to take a minimum of 10 milliseconds. Some controllers may be a little slower or faster, but I’ve no idea how you could tell. I may add a tuning parameter later if need be.

    – Motion timing is based on the rapids rate specified in the machine profile and the feedrate.

    – I still need to simulate the time required to change spindle speed. It is currently instantaneous!

  • From hints view you can now single or double click a hint. Single clicking moves the cursor in the G-Code tab to that hint’s line, but does not switch to the G-Code tab. Double clicking takes you to the G-Code tab with the hint’s line selected.

11/6/10: Release 0.112

  • The big news with 0.112 is a whole bunch of the new Tool Data Management functionality is here. For details, see the TDM doc page.
  • Added G4 Dwell to simulator as well as Post options for Fanuc and Mach3 style syntax.
  • Added G10 for Tool Length Offsets and Tool Diameter Wear Offsets. This is part of the TDM package.
  • As always, more bug fixes.

11/2/10: Release 0.110

  • Changed colors on the playback buttons to match what most CNC controls use: Cycle Start is green, Feedhold is yellow, and Stop is red.
  • There is an LED indicator that looks like an underline below the Rewind button. It lights to remind you to press rewind if you want to get into playback mode and start simulating your program.
  • Fixed some bugs with NumPost around the divisor when there is a decimal vs no decimal point.
  • Added a NumPost category for “T” words so you can specify how many digits are allowed for your tool changes. The default is 4 digits.
  • Modified all the Wizards to format any numeric parameters (registers for words) according to the NumPost settings.
  • Added 3 new fields to the Tool Crib entries:

                 – Serial #: Provides a spot to enter an arbitrary serial # associated with the tool. This is useful if your tool management system or process uses serial numbers.

               – X Comp: Compensation measurement for cutter comp on CNC machines.

               – Z Comp: Compensation measurement for tool length on CNC machines.

These three fields are all part of some upcoming Tool Data Management features. Basically, they contain the info you’d track if you’re using a Tool Presetter. Stay tuned for more on this area as it develops!

10/31/10: Release 0.109

  • Added support for reference return to home G-codes: G27/G28/G30. G30 only supports a second home, and some controllers will handle more.
  • Added a moving highlight on the backplot during toolpath debugging (e.g. when all the info is available below the backplot. It’s also visible when you click on a line of g-code. It shows in yellow the part of the toolpath associated with that g-code line.
  • Fixed a bug in Select All (available from the Edit menu or via Ctrl+A).
  • Reduced the transparency on popup windows. Many were complaining they couldn’t see the close box as it is black on a black background.
  • Fixed more bugs having to do with hints building up extra copies of the same text as you run the program over and over.
  • Modified the NumPost defaults for “S” to go from 4 to 5 decimal places left of the decimal to accomodate 10K rpm spindles. If you want this default you’ll need to reset the S to the defaults, you don’t get it automatically.

10/23/10: Release 0.108

  • 0.108 clears out the remaining bugs testers have reported that are truly bugs, and not features I haven’t gotten to implementing yet.
  • Spent a lot of time trying to make the playback speed as smooth as possible. It feels pretty good to me at this stage.
  • Added a bunch more tool tips for various buttons to help people understand what they do.

10/19/10: Release 0.107

Some of the NumPost settings were a little too restrictive, especially for Mach3 programs. I tweaked them so fewer errors show. You may want to reset to defaults from that page to pick up these tweaks as otherwise you won’t see them.

– Added G70/71 for inch metric programming. These are identical to G20/21, but some controllers use G70. There are other controllers that use G70 for a canned cycle. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

– GWE no longer sees blank lines as an error. Also, if it finds a character it doesn’t expect, it now gives the ASCII code for the character.

– Did a lot of work on the scroll bar for hints view. You should be able to scroll and see every line in hints view now.

– Hints view now has a combo box that will let you just see the lines with errors. This provides a fast way to look at all the errors in a file.

– Fixed the Setup G/M-Code tab so you can now turn G-Codes and M-Codes on, off, or set them to “ignore”. If you turn them “off” they’re disallowed with an error. If you turn them “on”, GWE tries to run them. If it doesn’t have that code yet, you still get an error. If you set it to “ignore”, it just ignores them and doesn’t output an error for them.

– Fixed a bunch of bugs that would mess up the cursor showing where you were executing in simulator mode. This was very confusing and should be better now.

Overall, this version feels a lot smoother to me when I run the simulator. I still have a fair number of tester-reported bugs I’m working on. Next release, hopefully!

10/18/10: Release 0.106

Tools Tab:

– Changes vs List view. List is the list of tools, and Changes is every tool change.

– Comment capture. If there is a comment above the tool change, it is captured. Many CAM programs will tell you what the tool is in that comment, so it’s helpful.

– Tool List can be mapped to the Tool Crib (under setup) using either slot or comment. We don’t do anything yet with the matchup, but we will soon.

Bug Fixes and Other Changes:

– Sometimes when running the simulator you would get a lot of copies of the hints. That bug is fixed.

Been getting a lot of feedback as we have now tripled the number of testers. I’ll be doing pretty frequent releases, so I have disabled the release feathering. What that means is everyone sees the “New Version” notice at once so you know when one is available.

10/15/10: Release 0.105

  • Lots of tweaks and fixes surrounding scrolling. Hopefully this area is now much more stable.
  • A new Tool Change tab that shows you where all the tool changes occur. Eventually we’ll be able to map to tools defined in the Tool Crib so that there is a lot more information about what’s going on in the program. You’ll also be able to double click to navigate to a change, and so on. For now, it just shows where the changes are.

10/13/10: Release 0.104

  • Version 0.104 is available. It includes a whole raft of bug fixes aimed at making GWE more stable and smoother to operate. Thanks to all the testers who gave me help by finding problems.
  • The major new functionality in 104 is the finished “NumPost” tab that can be found under Setup / Post. This tab lets you heavily customize how G-Wizard handles the numbers associated with each word to match your controller’s requirements. It is modeled after the same capabilities found in many CAM program post processors and in generic post utilities like Posthaste.By default, number processing is set up to be fairly lenient. But if you controller requires a decimal point at all times, or perhaps leading zeroes (G02 instead of G2), this is the place to make that happen. Docs on the various post options including NumPost may be found here:https://www.cnccookbook.com/g-wizard-editor-setup/

10/11/10: Release 0.103

  • Lots of usability tweaks to the debugger. That’s the cluster of buttons that looks like video playback used to control the backplot simulator. Now when you press the buttons, they do more, there are tool tips, and there is feedback. Go ahead and have a play with them, as our friends across the pond like to say.
  • Hints view now applies a pink background to lines having an error so it is instantly obvious which ones do.
  • Lots more work done with the word number parsing. Still not fully wired in, but the defaults are now being used when parsing and will show up with errors. Still remaining is to let you edit and save those defaults to fit the needs of your controller.
  • Fixed a bug in the tool loaded checking. When you do a feed speed move (G01, 02, or 03), GWE assumes you mean to make some chips and verifies a tool is loaded, the spindle is spinning, and the feedrate has been set.
  • In addition to code changes, there is now some simple documentation online. Try the Getting Started page for starters (sorry!):https://www.cnccookbook.com/g-wizard-editor-getting-started/Look for more doc links either inline or in the navigation gutter on the left. There is also a page talking about the wizards for creating g-code. I will try to get some more pages done this week that document the debugger, menu commands, and Setup Tool.

10/10/10: Release 0.102

  • Lots of controllers hate a file that ends with a carriage return, so GWE now forces one at the end. In fact, the NIST standard calls for it too.

10/9/10: Release 0.101

  • Got a real icon.
  • Tuning page off setup for CNCCookbook use only–not for testers.

Recently updated on March 20th, 2024 at 08:11 am