MACHINEKIT SPECIFIC AXIS GUI ENHANCEMENTS
The Axis GUI used in Machinekit, differs from that in the legacy Linuxcnc in some particular enhancements which were added after the fork
User Defined Command keys
An extra menu has been added to Axis, through which the user can acces 10 pre-defined commands
It can optionally be bound to the keyboard 0-9 keys
The menu items will execute commands to either halcmd, system or MDI.
The setting of the predefinitions is done in the .ini file
Prefixes
# precedes a halcmd
This will be sent and the return waited for before continuing
$ precedes a system command
This will be spawned to a new process and return immediately
No prefix before a gcode MDI instruction
Key Binding
To bind the user keys to the numeric 0-9 keys
set NUMKEYS = YES
Use this carefully, the main reason for its inclusion is to allow HID type pendant to operate commands from keystrokes
If using a keyboard probably best set to NO and just use Alt U + n (0-9).
Example
[USER_COMMANDS]
USER0 = #setp iocontrol.0.lube_level 1
USER1 = G0 X0 Y0 Z0
USER2 = G0 X5 Y5 Z5
USER3 = G0 X10 Y10 Z10
USER4 = G0 X15 Y15 Z15
USER5 = G0 X20 Y20 Z20
USER6 = G0 X25 Y25
USER7 = G0 X30 Y30
USER8 = $firefox "www.machinekit.io"
USER9 = $gedit
NUMBERKEYS = YESPreview Disable
Loading big files can crash Axis if the preview is enabled, because it consumes huge amounts of memory.
This option turns the preview off but the live plot will still be drawn
In the ini file
[USER_COMMANDS]
DISABLE_PREVIEW = YESThe run-disable pin
A pin called axisui.run-disable is created at startup of Axis
If this pin is TRUE (1) it will prevent any program being run
Use this pin in your hal file netted to signals from safety interlocks etc and you will prevent a program being started which safety screens etc are open, but still allow jogging for touch off etc.
It was originally conceived for use in an educational setting to completely prevent starting without all safety measures in place, whilst allowing setting up of the machine.
Open Last File
Unless Machinekit is launched with a file in the command line, or there is a file specified to be opened in the ini file or in the environment variable, the file that was open when machinekit was last closed, will be re-opened if the variable in the ini file is set.
[USER_COMMANDS]
LOAD_LASTFILE = YESWrite File Name
To overcome the inability to interogate Axis as to what file it has open, it is now written to
/tmp/emc.filename whenever a file is opened.
If no file is open it will contain "No File Loaded"
This info can then be used in scripts etc.
The original purpose was to use it for a job timestamp file, started and stopped with a M code script
Remote Run
axis-remote has been extended to include a 'run' switch ( -R or --run )
A corresponding command in Axis will run the currently loaded file
This gives the ability to not only run MDI commands remotely, but to load a file and run it remotely.