New Menus
Looking at the competition I’ve come to the realization that it’s changed in the last 3-4 years. When MeshCAM was started the existing programs were pretty ugly and didn’t work too well, or at least they weren’t actively in development. Now that others have joined the market it’s time to review the status of MeshCAM. For the money it’s probably the most full-featured product available but it doesn’t compare as well in the attractiveness category. I’ve started adding a new menu interface following the now common “left-panel interface.” I’ve got it working and I’ve already gotten used to having the commands available without using the menus.
Normally I would dislike this kind of upgrade because it doesn’t make the toolpaths any better. This time I’m enjoying it because I think the changes will make it much easier for new users to get up and running quickly.
Comments
14 Responses to “New Menus”
I like this. Getting away from the menus is a good thing. They can be a bit tedious.
Not to be an ingrate, but will the left-panel thingie be switchable, Robert? I really like the present wall-to-wall graphics window.
That said, the button window does look nice and clean.
Best regards,
Randy
I agree with Randy - can it be made switchable please? Cheers, Pete
I was thinking about making it a collapsible window. The only thing I don’t like about the new menus is that you need to enlarge the window with it enabled; not like the current version where you can run MeshCAM in a little window.
Fair warning though- the left pane is probably going to become more important over time.
-Robert
Just when I start to get half way competent you go and change all the rules
I agree with Randy about it looking really good, and it probably will make it easier to navigate for new folks. But please just one little button to toggle between left menu and full screen display for us old guys.
Jeff
You may have problems letting of of the past more than most. Weren’t you running Win 98 until a year ago?
I give up- the toggle will be in there.
-Robert
Thanks.
And it was two years ago. I do agree that serious design boxes have to be as fast as possible, and then some. Damn the $, full speed ahead.
For the record, I still depend on a dual boot (win95/ 6.2) 486 DX4 box on one mill, garage sale searching really messes up sat. mornings Besides my least favorite computer install tasks is operating systems.
Jeff, a relic from the last century still trying to tread water fast enough to keep my head up
Jeff, is there a reason for the dual boot? And is there a reason for Win95? I’m a Second Millenium kind of guy, but I run Win98SE on my lathe PC, set to boot to the command line by default. Just unhide MSDOS.SYS (a text file) and change BOOTGUI=1 to BOOTGUI=0. It will boot to the command line (DOS-only!) and when you want to start up Windows type WIN at the command line (sound familiar?)
You can do the same thing with Win95 if you want to be a Luddite
but 98SE is by far the most stable of the DOS-based Windows versions. TurboCNC is very happy running under its DOS (MS-DOS 7.10 to be pedantic…)
OK, Robert, now that I’m out of the spammer penalty box I can resume being a rabble-rouser (if you haven’t noticed by now!)
I realize that your screenshot is only a mock-up but I will still nitpick it.
For the “scale geometry” icon I’d keep the large outer box, but superimpose a small box at its bottom left, and a single arrow pointing from the upper right corner of the small box towards the upper right corner of the large box. The current icon looks like “fit to screen.”
I would put the retract height and max depth icons next to each other (in case you don’t move max depth to the stock definition) and place the generate toolpath icon on its own line (since the other functions are preparatory and generate toolpath is the “go button”.)
Best regards,
Randy
P.S. to Jeff: the other big advantage to 98SE is that it has USB support so you can use something I like to call a [insert Dr. Evil quoting gesture] “Thumb Drive”
to transfer gcode files. I don’t know about you, but for me the lifetime of floppy drives in my garage is not too great…
Randy,
It’s a 486-120 box with 48 k of memory, once was cutting edge but alas no longer. Long ago when I last re-built the disk I had 6.2 and win95. I prefer my control computers to at least be theoretically capable of serving as back-up systems, and while network capable in dos, for anything complex it is faster to boot win. On boot I can select win, default is dos. I ‘could’ upgrade it to 98se but I’m lazy and it works for now. Two other control boxes, 98se 6.2 and 98se 7.1, and an XP for design work…all net worked. I’m not really a Luddite, I just realize the limitations of old hardware.
Jeff
Oh yeah, I was just poking fun (obviously so at this point in time when a Win98SE guy suggests a Win95 guy might be a Luddite
) but I was mainly wondering why the dual boot instead of the non-GUI boot with a single OS…
I’m hoping this comment gets through. My last design suggestions (nitpicking) of Jeff’s UI mockup got deleted.
Best regards,
Randy
Oops, that’s ROBERT’s UI!
Blushingly,
Randy
OK, Robert, let’s try the nitpicking again.
My suggestion for the scale geometry icon would be the current large square with a smaller square superimposed on its lower left corner, with an arrow pointing from the smaller square’s upper right corner towards the larger square’s upper right corner. To me, the current icon looks like “fit to screen”.
In the toolpath group, I would put the clearance plane and max depth icons next to each other (if you don’t move the max depth to another part of the dialog) and put the generate toolpath icon on a line of its own, because all the other icons are preparatory tasks while the generate toolpath is the “go button”
Best regards,
Randy
Randy,
Poking fun is well understood and appreciated. Any time some one mentions Luddite in an email I recognize the oxymoron. I dual boot so that when I trash the main box I still have a hope of net and email access even if dial up.
I missed your oops, but Robert does do his UI pretty dam well. I only comment for bugs or to try to twist them to my personal preferences.
Jeff