What's the history of AXIS?

AXIS started as a replacement for emcplot3d, but became a complete front-end for EMC

The most ironic thing about AXIS is that one of the items on the "TODO for 1.0 release" is to rip out the final bits of the project that AXIS started as: rs274py, a standalone parser for the rs274ngc language.

I wrote rs274py because I was doing steadily more sophisticated processing of g-code for my other projects. One day I learned that emcplot3d was covered by a restrictive "free for noncommercial use" license, and turned rs274py into a .ngc-file viewer called gplot.

Adding the backplot meant linking in libemc and librcs to get position updates, and it was a small step from there to commanding emc instead of just listening.

Then Chris Radek and I sketched out and began implementing a new front-end. The goals were primarily to integrate the preview and backplot into an emc display program, and second to have the look and feel of a modern GUI application with icons and menubar.

I think we've succeeded at this, and so the remaining tasks are to fill in the remaining gaps in functionality. This means near-perfect compatibility with xemc and mini keystroke commands, and also full compatiblity with rs274ngc in the preview. Which is more easily done with closer integration with emc, rather than improvement of my standalone parser. Which brings me back to the task at hand, ripping out the first code I ever wrote for this project.

(originally posted on the AXIS blog)

Entry first conceived on 25 November 2004, 19:43 UTC, last modified on 15 January 2012, 3:46 UTC
Website Copyright © 2004-2024 Jeff Epler