devSim Cnc Foam startup dialog

Main dialog

Main dialog

When you run devSim Cnc Foam, you can see the "Main dialog":

The dialog is divided in three logical frames and a menu:

The menu

The menu is placed as usually in the upper side of the dialog. It includes these commands:

File - Open Gcode. You are prompted for a valid GCode file to load. The same as the Load button of the Control panel (see below).
File - Import .cut file created by GMFC. You can open here a .cut file of GMFC and convert it to a new GCode file, already loaded as a new Job. You can create this file in GMFC checking the 'Cut to file' option in the dialog opened by the 'Cut - Panel cut' main menu of GMFC application.
Settings. The Settings dialog will appear. You can customize there the settings of the application
Help - Go to the Help file. This Help will be shown.

Left - the Control panel

The Control panel includes the main buttons to control the cutting job, and some display to show interesting values like axes position and speed.
In the top side you can see these buttons (some of them can be grayed, when the associated function is not available at the current state):

Load - This button promptes you for a valid GCode file. The file will be loaded and displayed in the edit box included in the middle of the dialog.
Rewind - Reset the cutting to the begin of the Gcode file
Start/Unpause back the job execution - Will start or unpause the cutting job in the back direction (From End to Begin)
Pause - The cutting job is paused, you must press then Start or again Pause to resume the cutting at the paused place.
Start/Unpause the job execution - Will start or unpause the cutting job in the normaldirection (From Begin to End)
Set the execution at the end of the Job - Set the cutting to the end of the Gcode file
Exit: devSim Cnc Foam close, if the cutting job is not running, or you will be prompted to stop it and press again the Exit button.

Among the tollbar buttons you can also the a text informing about the current On/Off state of the Hot Wire.

You can see here also a Slider, you can use it to control the speed factor of the Job. If you keep it at the most left position the Job will be performed at its original speed. The more you move the slider righwards, the faster the job will run.

Just below you can see 2 frames, with info about the Left and Right carriages:

XL/XR - you can read here the current position of the X (horizontal) axis. The value will be in millimeters or inches, depending on the option selected in the 'Settings - Units' dialog. Near the value you can see an edit button, see below.
YL/YR - you can read here the current position of the Y (vertical) axis. The value will be in millimeters or inches, depending on the option selected in the 'Settings - Units' dialog. Near the value you can see an edit button . Pressing this button a menu will appear, where you can
- Set the origin here: using this command the origin will be placed at the current position of the referred axis. The axis won't move and the value displayed will be then 0.0
- Go to 0.0: the referred axis will move to its origin = 0.0
- Go to (absolute move): you will be prompted for the value where the referred axis will move, as an absolute value referred to the origin = 0.0
- Go to (relative move): you will be prompted for the value where the referred axis will move, as a realtive value referred to current position
SC - you can read here the current Speed of the specified carriage. The value will be in millimeters/min or inches/min, depending on the option selected in the 'Settings - Units' dialog.
SF - you can read here the current Speed of the wire at the Left/Right side of the Foam block. If you are performing a tapered cut you can see differenet speeds at carriages and foam sides. The value will be in millimeters/min or inches/min, depending on the option selected in the 'Settings - Units' dialog.

Show parsed Pseudo code in listing: if unchecked you will see the loaded GCode, if checked you will see the commands displayed using the way the application did interpret the GCode. In the Move and Cut commands you can also see the applied Speed (S) and the time reserved to that command (T).

The GCode panel lets you to see the loaded Gcode or the Pseudo Code, see the above comment.
When you load the Gcode, it will be displayed in the big text control in the middle of the screen. When running the cutting job, the line in execution will be selected and marked with a red circle.
When the Execution is not running, you can also double click a line to set the current job position at the line.

Right - the 3D Preview panel

The 3D preview panel lets you to see a 3D view of the Cnc machine and foam block.
The main component displayed are:

The Foam block, yellow
The axes working areas, transparent gray
The hot wire, with two green cones at its ends
The coordinate axes of each carriage, red and blue
The cutting paths, both at carriage and foam block side. Red for the cutting path, green for the fast movement path
The cut surface of the foam block, orange

You can:

Zoom in/out the preview using the mouse wheel
Rotate the preview clicking a point with the left mouse button, and dragging it
Move the preview clicking a point with the right mouse button, and dragging it

In the upper side you can see a Toolbar, with these buttons:

- Show/hide the 3D preview. You can hide it if you own an old computer and this preview slow down too much the process. Press this button 2 times if the 3D preview freezes.
- Show the upper face of the 3D preview.
- Show the front face of the 3D preview.
- Show the lateral face of the 3D preview.
- Show an angled view of the 3D.
- Swicth on/off the Ortho mode. When the Orthogonal mode is switched off the perspective view will be applied. When you are in Ortho mode AND you selected to show a face, you can see the coordinates value pointed by the mouse and clicking a point and moving the mouse you can see the distance from the clicked point, You can use this to take measurements in the 3D preview.
- Show/hide the Foam block.
- Show/hide the axes working areas.
- Show/hide the Paths.
- Show/hide the cut surface of the Foam block.
- Show/hide the coordinate axes.
- Change the background color of the 3D preview.

Note: sometime may be the 3D preview will freeze, this can be caused by some hardware or software issue. Just prees 2 times the Show/hide 3D preview button to reset it.