Comments for MeshCAM Development http://www.grzsoftware.com/news Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:56:24 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 Comment on March Update by Randy http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/03/02/march-update/comment-page-1/#comment-7940 Randy Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:56:24 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/03/02/march-update/#comment-7940 "As you can imagine, errors are frustrating when they mean I have to wait another 20 minutes to rebuild." Ah, kids these days. :) I learned Fortran while a senior in high school--I was alpha-tester for a self-paced book written by a friend of my calculus teacher. I punched cards on a surplus IBM cardpunch and on Friday my teacher took the card deck for that week down to the mainframe at the state capitol to run. Frustration is waiting a week for the printout of the program, which on bad weeks read "Syntax error in line 240"... Randy “As you can imagine, errors are frustrating when they mean I have to wait another 20 minutes to rebuild.”

Ah, kids these days. :) I learned Fortran while a senior in high school–I was alpha-tester for a self-paced book written by a friend of my calculus teacher. I punched cards on a surplus IBM cardpunch and on Friday my teacher took the card deck for that week down to the mainframe at the state capitol to run. Frustration is waiting a week for the printout of the program, which on bad weeks read “Syntax error in line 240″…

Randy

]]> Comment on Build 13 by Jeff Demand http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/comment-page-1/#comment-7939 Jeff Demand Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:41:46 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/#comment-7939 Robert, Randy is dead right about the current quality of MC. It is getting damned near impossible to find bugs, little changes to the UI are about all I can suggest and most of them are just to better fit my strange work habits. Very good work. jeffD Robert,

Randy is dead right about the current quality of MC.

It is getting damned near impossible to find bugs, little changes to the UI are about all I can suggest and most of them are just to better fit my strange work habits. Very good work.

jeffD

]]> Comment on Build 13 by Randy http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/comment-page-1/#comment-7938 Randy Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:18:37 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/#comment-7938 Robert, accepted as described. (Yeah, I know where to find the reg code...) Would it be hard to display "Registered Copy" for those of us with extremely short memories? ;P Please consider it a compliment that this is the worst current shortcoming of MC that I can think of... :D Randy Robert, accepted as described. (Yeah, I know where to find the reg code…) Would it be hard to display “Registered Copy” for those of us with extremely short memories? ;P Please consider it a compliment that this is the worst current shortcoming of MC that I can think of… :D

Randy

]]> Comment on Build 13 by Robert http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/comment-page-1/#comment-7937 Robert Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:24:33 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/#comment-7937 Jeff- You're right, I caught myself with that problem recently. I've been meaning to update my build system to add the build number to the filename. I'll try to do it in the near future. (Yes Randy, I have to program the computer to rename the file for me- engineers are too lazy for anything as mundane as manual file renaming. That and I'll probably do it wrong if it isn't done for me.) Randy- The hiding of the reg code after acceptance was meant to make sure it wouldn't be trivially easy to grab a reg code from a lab or shop computer running MeshCAM and distribute it. Admittedly it isn't impossible to find the code in the PC now- I just want to avoid handing it out with a smile. -Robert Jeff- You’re right, I caught myself with that problem recently. I’ve been meaning to update my build system to add the build number to the filename. I’ll try to do it in the near future. (Yes Randy, I have to program the computer to rename the file for me- engineers are too lazy for anything as mundane as manual file renaming. That and I’ll probably do it wrong if it isn’t done for me.)

Randy- The hiding of the reg code after acceptance was meant to make sure it wouldn’t be trivially easy to grab a reg code from a lab or shop computer running MeshCAM and distribute it. Admittedly it isn’t impossible to find the code in the PC now- I just want to avoid handing it out with a smile.

-Robert

]]> Comment on Build 13 by Randy http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/comment-page-1/#comment-7936 Randy Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:52:59 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/#comment-7936 Oh, BTW Jeff, ;) in case it wasn't obvious. Robert, as long as we're on the subject of things you should do differently :) , after I've already entered my reg code in the registration dialog, the next time I look at it the reg code box is still blank. I know that I've re-entered my reg code several times because I think "uh-oh, I forgot to register it". Of course, if I think to look up in the title bar it shows MC is licensed, but shouldn't the reg code stay in the box? Randy Oh, BTW Jeff, ;) in case it wasn’t obvious.

Robert, as long as we’re on the subject of things you should do differently :) , after I’ve already entered my reg code in the registration dialog, the next time I look at it the reg code box is still blank. I know that I’ve re-entered my reg code several times because I think “uh-oh, I forgot to register it”. Of course, if I think to look up in the title bar it shows MC is licensed, but shouldn’t the reg code stay in the box?

Randy

]]> Comment on Build 13 by Randy http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/comment-page-1/#comment-7935 Randy Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:51:10 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/#comment-7935 Jeff, my computer has an attachment which I like to call a "keyboard". It sits in front of the rectangular glowy thing on my desk. I use it to modify Robert's filenames to read "MeshCAM-6926-Setup.exe", "MeshCAM-7151-Setup.exe", "MeshCAM-7283-Setup.exe", ..., "MeshCAM3r12-Setup.exe", "MeshCAM3r13-Setup.exe", etc. after downloading (sometimes during). Hope this helps. Randy Jeff, my computer has an attachment which I like to call a “keyboard”. It sits in front of the rectangular glowy thing on my desk. I use it to modify Robert’s filenames to read “MeshCAM-6926-Setup.exe”, “MeshCAM-7151-Setup.exe”, “MeshCAM-7283-Setup.exe”, …, “MeshCAM3r12-Setup.exe”, “MeshCAM3r13-Setup.exe”, etc. after downloading (sometimes during). Hope this helps.

Randy

]]> Comment on Build 13 by Jeff Demand http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/comment-page-1/#comment-7934 Jeff Demand Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:44:41 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/15/build-13/#comment-7934 Robert, PLEASE put the version number on the install file. Something like Meshcam3-setup-13.exe Some of your freaks tend to keep old files and it is a real pain to find the latest build by date. Not that I would admit to using such a practice :-) jeffD Robert,

PLEASE put the version number on the install file.
Something like Meshcam3-setup-13.exe
Some of your freaks tend to keep old files and it is a real pain to find the latest build by date.
Not that I would admit to using such a practice :-)

jeffD

]]> Comment on Build 10 Released by Gerry http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/04/build-10-released/comment-page-1/#comment-7929 Gerry Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:14:25 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/04/build-10-released/#comment-7929 You're right, the window size does work. Had a hdd failure, so it was a new install. I guess it needed a reboot to start working, but it's working now. You’re right, the window size does work. Had a hdd failure, so it was a new install. I guess it needed a reboot to start working, but it’s working now.

]]> Comment on I Need 2D DXF Files by Gerry http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/05/i-need-2d-dxf-files/comment-page-1/#comment-7928 Gerry Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:33:37 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/05/i-need-2d-dxf-files/#comment-7928 3) I don't think that most 2D CAD programs give you that option. AutoCAD allows you to convert entities to polylines, but not during the export. I'd recommend supporting polylines, lines, arcs, and circles only. But you should plan on having to join entities on import, because, as I said, I don't think a lot of CAD packages give the option to join. But, I could be wrong. One thing you should do is recommend v12 dxf or older. The v12 .dxf format does NOT support splines and elliptical arcs, so they are automatically converted to polylines. 3) I don’t think that most 2D CAD programs give you that option. AutoCAD allows you to convert entities to polylines, but not during the export.

I’d recommend supporting polylines, lines, arcs, and circles only. But you should plan on having to join entities on import, because, as I said, I don’t think a lot of CAD packages give the option to join. But, I could be wrong.

One thing you should do is recommend v12 dxf or older. The v12 .dxf format does NOT support splines and elliptical arcs, so they are automatically converted to polylines.

]]> Comment on Build 10 Released by Robert http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/04/build-10-released/comment-page-1/#comment-7925 Robert Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:35:45 +0000 http://www.grzsoftware.com/news/2010/02/04/build-10-released/#comment-7925 The window size seems to be remembered for me. The one thing to note is that the last positions are deleted on each install. This was done as a backup in case garbage was written to the registry that caused MeshCAM to be placed off-screen. I try to detect this on program startup but the installer will still clear it so users have a last-resort to fix the potential problem. I'll go look for the roughing bug now. -Robert The window size seems to be remembered for me. The one thing to note is that the last positions are deleted on each install. This was done as a backup in case garbage was written to the registry that caused MeshCAM to be placed off-screen. I try to detect this on program startup but the installer will still clear it so users have a last-resort to fix the potential problem.

I’ll go look for the roughing bug now.

-Robert

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