Suitable tablet for TouchDRO?

ycroosh said:
Well, DXF import has been on my radar for years. This: Virtual Layout Feature Preview started as a DXF import, but then I ran into all sorts of problems and decided to dumb it down to just a bitmap import. In the bowels of the app there is also a full-fledged G-Code parser. The main reason this feature is not released is because I can't figure out how to make it work well. Bitmaps are too crude, and the workflow is pain ugly. G-Code is an overkill (and the same issue with ugly workflow). Basically DXF import is the right answer, but parsing DXF files is a LOT of work, and then I still can't figure out what to do with the file once I parse it.

Regards
Yuriy
Click to expand...

@ycroosh you really have been reaching for interesting functionality! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and things that you have been working on.

The bitmap import would be a help since it could help address the data (entry etc.) verification that will come up with things like the project I had in mind. I have an instrument panel with numerous cutouts and fastener locations and the best way I have right now to verify the DRO data entry is printing a 1:1 and using it as an overlay. Being able to visualize the layout in TouchDRO would be a great feature!

I have more to learn about the .DXF format to understand how it would be useful. I'm theorizing about maybe putting different entities of the panel on different .DXF layers (overlayable datum work spaces?) so that the cutout lines wouldn't get confused with the coordinates of things like the corner points of the cutout (datum points that the milling cutter would use as vertices defining the cutout) and hole center (datum) points etc. You have probably thought this through already, I'll just have to be patient. ;)

Thanks for sharing!

D :cool:
 
mchasal said:
I saw the same issue the other day and hadn't yet done any research on it, but here's what I've noticed. First showing the problem, this got really bad when it went over 10" and I could only see tenths of inches:
View attachment 444718
When I ran into this initially, I found that if I hit the button on the top right to expand the workspace view, the digits were fine there. So I was able to complete the project doing that:
View attachment 444719
When I experimented a bit more just now, I see that it's only evident with the monospace or system fonts. The 7 segment font renders fine:
View attachment 444720
The other font looks better, but using the 7 segment seems to be an easy workaround for now.

I see that the negative sign seems to occupy a dedicated space in the 7 segment version where it seems to be sharing a digit's space in the other font. The decimal point also seems to be taking up a full width space as opposed to the narrow space on the 7 segment. Between these 2 differences, it looks like it's just chewing up the available space much more than the 7 segment display does. These 2 factors are not evident in the expanded workspace view even with the nicer font, however there does seem to be column alignment issue on that view. There's some extra space between the last digit and the units on the top axis, but not the bottom one.

As Inferno said, eliminating a button didn't help.

I don't know how TouchDRO is determining the font sizes, but maybe there's some difference there between the 2 font types. Happy to try any suggestions or test versions that may help figure this out.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the detailed write up. I can't reproduce this particular behavior on any of my tablets, but I think the moral of the story is that i need to add a setting for font scaling, so at least there would be a way to correct this. I suspect the inherent font sizes are different on different devices, so the scaling that works on mine doesn't work on yours the same way.
I need to finish a few things, but will try to have a build with the fix some time next week. For now an ugly workaround would be to enable more axis displays. It will force the font to scale down.
Regards
Yuriy
 
ycroosh said:
Thank you for the detailed write up. I can't reproduce this particular behavior on any of my tablets, but I think the moral of the story is that i need to add a setting for font scaling, so at least there would be a way to correct this.
Click to expand...
Thanks Yuriy.
It may be something that only smaller or older tablets show and I didn't think of adding another axis to force the scaling. I tried it on a newer Fire10 tablet and noticed that the negative sign seems to be pushed over farther to the left and the decimal point is not taking a full space:
Screenshot_20230415-235649.resized.png

However, the extra space in the expanded workspace view is still present:
Screenshot_20230415-235657.resized.png

Which may be an unrelated issue.

Honestly, if this is something that's constrained to older/smaller tablets I think it would be an acceptable limitation to say that only the 7 segment display is supported on that shrinking user base. I'm a bit curious why the 7 segment works when the others do not. Is that using a different method for rendering the fonts or is it actually not a font and a display generated differently? It's possible that the 7 segment will break with a larger value though, I don't have a big enough table to get a 3rd digit though ;)

Thanks!
Mike
 
Capo. said:
@ycroosh you really have been reaching for interesting functionality! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and things that you have been working on.

The bitmap import would be a help since it could help address the data (entry etc.) verification that will come up with things like the project I had in mind. I have an instrument panel with numerous cutouts and fastener locations and the best way I have right now to verify the DRO data entry is printing a 1:1 and using it as an overlay. Being able to visualize the layout in TouchDRO would be a great feature!

I have more to learn about the .DXF format to understand how it would be useful. I'm theorizing about maybe putting different entities of the panel on different .DXF layers (overlayable datum work spaces?) so that the cutout lines wouldn't get confused with the coordinates of things like the corner points of the cutout (datum points that the milling cutter would use as vertices defining the cutout) and hole center (datum) points etc. You have probably thought this through already, I'll just have to be patient. ;)

Thanks for sharing!

D :cool:
Click to expand...

mchasal said:
Thanks Yuriy.
It may be something that only smaller or older tablets show and I didn't think of adding another axis to force the scaling. I tried it on a newer Fire10 tablet and noticed that the negative sign seems to be pushed over farther to the left and the decimal point is not taking a full space:
View attachment 444726
However, the extra space in the expanded workspace view is still present:
View attachment 444727
Which may be an unrelated issue.

Honestly, if this is something that's constrained to older/smaller tablets I think it would be an acceptable limitation to say that only the 7 segment display is supported on that shrinking user base. I'm a bit curious why the 7 segment works when the others do not. Is that using a different method for rendering the fonts or is it actually not a font and a display generated differently? It's possible that the 7 segment will break with a larger value though, I don't have a big enough table to get a 3rd digit though ;)

Thanks!
Mike
Click to expand...
Mike,
I ended up redoing the whole font size calculations. Still need to figure out the misalignment issue in the graphical view.
I need to test the changes for a few days and will start pushing it through the pipeline.
Regards
Yuriy

Screenshot:
Screenshot_20230418_205423.png
 
ycroosh said:
Mike,
I ended up redoing the whole font size calculations. Still need to figure out the misalignment issue in the graphical view.
I need to test the changes for a few days and will start pushing it through the pipeline.
Regards
Yuriy
Click to expand...
Great thanks! Let us know when you push it and I'll be sure and take a look ASAP to verify. I think I'm still on the beta channel if you want to push it there first.

Um, what the heck is going on here? Did I miss some announcement or is this a leak?
Screenshot_20230418_205423.png
 
mchasal said:
Um, what the heck is going on here? Did I miss some announcement or is this a leak?
View attachment 445013
Click to expand...
Not a leak, and no announcement. I run the "Plus" version on my tablets, but until I implement some sort of activation/DRM thing for it, it won't be turned on for the general public. The features are mostly done (testing them right now), but there is a LOT of work for the DRM side of things.
 
ycroosh said:
Not a leak, and no announcement. I run the "Plus" version on my tablets, but until I implement some sort of activation/DRM thing for it, it won't be turned on for the general public. The features are mostly done (testing them right now), but there is a LOT of work for the DRM side of things.
Click to expand...
Ok, I guess I missed the talk about having a plus version before, but I found it in some old thread here. Good luck figuring it all out.
 
Sorry for the thread drift, but what are you guys using for a tablet holder?
 
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