Pygdk Python G-code Development Kit

WillAdams · January 4, 2023, 2:10am

This:

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trevorflowers · January 4, 2023, 7:02am

Wow, I didn’t expect it to include simulation as part of the workflow. That’s neat.

WillAdams · January 4, 2023, 12:08pm

CAMotics is used for the simulation, but you could use any other G-code simulator you might wish.

cilynx · January 6, 2023, 10:59pm

Hey folks – let me know if you have thoughts or improvements for pygdk. My machines are sadly in storage at the moment, so I’m not driving a lot of my own features, but I’m happy to poke at it if others find it useful.

trevorflowers · January 7, 2023, 12:02am

Thanks, @cilynx! At work I have access to a couple of Haas VF2 machines, each with a 4th axis, a TL1, and a couple of Okuma mills from the 80s. They each have their own quirks about how they interpret g-code and the pygdk’s README mentions eventually having machine profiles. Is that something that’s high on the to-do list or a maybe, someday feature?

cilynx · January 7, 2023, 12:56am

Machine profiles and controller flavors are implemented to some extent today. Right now machine profiles support mainly safety limits and accessory info and are documented here:

Controller flavors are a bit messier and are currently hard coded near the bottom of:

github.com

cilynx/pygdk/blob/main/pygdk/machine.py

import json
import sys
import math

from .tool import Tool
from .turtle import Turtle
from .controller import Controller
from .accessory import Accessory

BLACK  = '\033[30m'
RED    = '\033[31m'
GREEN  = '\033[32m'
BROWN  = '\033[33m'
BLUE   = '\033[34m'
PURPLE = '\033[35m'
CYAN   = '\033[36m'
WHITE  = '\033[37m'
GREY   = '\033[90m'
ORANGE = '\033[91m'
LT_GREEN    = '\033[92m'

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I have support for Buildbotics and OctoPrint today. In my world, controller flavor is mostly about how to send the g-code over the network – API endpoints, auth, etc. To add a new controller flavor, I’ll need to know how to talk to it over the network.

If you cut an issue on GitHub with a link to some relevant docs, I’m happy to put together a branch you can test on your machines.

I don’t currently support multiple g-code dialects, but it shouldn’t be too hard to implement and it should be a core feature. I’ve run into it a couple times myself as my mill and lathe expect GRBL while my printers expect RepRap.

I may poke at this this weekend for my limited use case as it’s easy to verify success looking at the g-code output. If you cut an issue with your machines’ dialects / quirks, I can look into getting them added as well. There are a few different ways this could be implemented, but I’ll push as much out to the config files as possible as I really don’t like having this sort of stuff hard coded.

Ralph_Schaffner · January 7, 2023, 1:41am

I don’t know how long you’ve been using the name but you may want to prevent some confusion with GDK (The Gnome Developers Kit). I don’t know if it is still around but I used pygdk (python bindings to GDK) back in the day to write a simple video player.

cilynx · January 7, 2023, 4:57am

I had the same thought when I was originally pondering names, but so far as I can tell, folks are leaning much more towards “gtk” and “gobject” branding these days for widely used libraries with gdk itself being relegated to a low-level middleware that very few devs interact with.

That said, if my pygdk project ever gets popular enough that its name matters, I’ll happily hold a branding competition to come up with something more unique.

cilynx · April 28, 2023, 2:35pm

I got one of my printers unpacked this week and am back to working on pygdk for my own devices. I’m posting shorts as I figure things out if anyone wants to follow along: https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/pygdk/shorts

Upcoming tests/demos on my list include general non-planar operation, dynamic extrusion, stringing, pins & pillars, and “impossible” overhangs. Let me know if folks are interested in any features in particular, already planned or not.