A little Handbook of Useful Information

[RTChoke]

I have been learning the program and running my machine, and found a lot of useful info in various places in the forum and tutorials, and some other stuff on Gcodes.  I cut/pasted these into one doc I can print off to have at the machine and laptop so I can refer to it while I am "working." 

I hope this does not offend the authors/owner -- if so, delete as you wish.

I have not organized this too well, that is for the next pass.

Thanks to all for the wonderful program and support.

--R

[Mickster]

I'm sure there are quite a few of us who have wanted to do something like this and add it to the forum, but have not yet found enough spare time to do so, myself included.

R, thanks for collating some useful info.

[Arie kabaalstra]

Very nice document, especially the G- and M- code appendix.. think i'm going to print that out, and laminate it, to keep it in my workshop..

[RTChoke]

I got that Gcode stuff from the EMC web site docs and a link to the NIST docs (which was in there somewhere, they acknowledge somewhere cribbing a lot of it from there)

http://linuxcnc.org/docview/html/

http://www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html//gcode.html

http://www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html//gcode_main.html

I'll organize it when I get a bit more time -- it took less time to C/P this stuff this morning than I spend looking for it!

--R

[10bulls]

Thanks a million RTChoke, that's really neat.

There is another document I started to put together in this thread with some more general information.

http://www.forum.cambam.org/index.php?topic=28.msg86#msg86

There is a very very early work in progress new website for CamBam ( www.cambam.co.uk )
I was keeping this a bit quiet as I wanted to do a lot more work on the content and structure, but there may be some information on there of interest.  Please don't post links to this yet as urls will most likely be changing.

The new site is based on Joomla which will allow multiple contributors and editors.  I am waiting to move this to another web provider and then will continue development on it and setup user accounts for anyone careless enough to express an interest in creating or editing content.  It should be much easier to navigate and find reference information than the forum and will open up the ability to provide documentation in other languages.

There is a lot going on with CamBam this year both in the program and infrastructure, so thanks again for everyone's patience in getting by on such limited and dispersed documentation.

[EL34]

Lots of work RT!

Nice 10B!
The MOP documentaion is great, that's all I had time to look at right now.
Mums the word.

[RTChoke]

Another reference for G-codes, which I think is the "official" documentation

http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/personnel/kramer/pubs/RS274NGC_3.web/RS274NGC_33a.html#999262

--R

[maxbots]

Looks like good info. 10Bulls, have you ever considered starting a CamBam Wiki? Would make sharing, editing, and expanding this sort of information much easier.

Thanks

[10bulls]

An overhaul of the main website is long overdue, but it is planned soon.
A wiki system might be a good addition.

[netboss]

I'm sure this info is somewhere in the forum or website, but I sure can't find it.

"Zooming

Scrolling the mouse wheel will zoom in and out. The geometry under the mouse cursor will be use as a reference point when zooming."

What about those of us who don't have a mouse wheel, as in notebook computers?

This seems to be a really great program for the price, but the lack of organized, basic documentation and now all the broken links because of the new site, really makes it frustrating for the newcomer who is trying to decide where to spend his money.

[revwarguy]

As well as a third mouse button!

[blowlamp]

On a desktop computer you can use the + and - keys on the number pad to zoom in/out, along with the cursor keys to pan the screen, but I'm not sure how that equates on a laptop.

There's a fair amount of documentation under the Help > Contents menu.

Press and drag the mouse wheel, which is the third mouse button, to pan the screen.

[netboss]

OK, a bit of info regarding notebooks.

I'm using an HP Pavilion zv6000.  I'll try it on my dv9000 when I get a chance to install the program.

Cursor (arrow) keys DO pan the display, although it is agonizingly slow.  Could be due to this machine so I'll reserve final judgment until I've tested on the dv9000.

"Standard" plus and minus keys (upper case "-" and "=") DO NOT zoom.

Activating NumLock and using the + and - keys on the "virtual" keypad DO zoom, again agonizingly slow.  (I say "virtual" since it isn't a "real" keypad like on a "real" computer.)

This might be information to be added to "A little Handbook of Useful Information", which BTW, is a noble, and appreciated, effort at organizing information regarding this program.

A final comment to the author of the program.  Don't treat notebook users as "step children".  I am a serious engineer but I travel a lot.  It is totally impractical for me to have a desktop machine.  The only desktop machines I have are the CNC controllers in my shop and a Unix server at a server farm in Dallas, TX (it's not really a desktop, it's a rack mount).  I'm not designing skyscrapers so I don't need the computing power that a dual processor, high performance video card, dual display, loaded with memory desk top might provide.  I might have to wait an extra second for a redraw, but for 90% of my work, my AutoCad screens are almost instantaneous.  And waiting an extra second is sure better than not getting ANY work done while sitting in a motel room on the road.

I'm sure I'm not the only notebook user who is a potential (or maybe current) customer for CamBam.  Being treated as a step child doesn't endear me to an otherwise good program.

Regards,
Gary

[blowlamp]

Your post prompted me to install CamBam on an old laptop - an Ergo Ensis 1.6 ghz 512mb ram, just to satisfy my curiosity, and I found little difference in speed from my desktop system, although the display was inferior.

Scrolling the screen with the cursor keys was fine, as was zooming with the + and - keys.

I plugged in a wheel mouse and was able work without problem.

Perhaps you need to buy a mouse and get your computer tuned to use CamBam effectively.

Regards,
Martin.

[revwarguy]

I made up a keystroke reference.

It is at

http://www.liming.org/cnc/CAMBAMKeys.html

If there is anything missing there, I sure would like to know about it.