README file for AXIS, a front-end for emc 
Copyright 2004 Jeff Epler <jepler@unpythonic.net>

AXIS's home page is
    http://axis.unpythonic.net/
The current CVS tree can be viewed at
    http://unpy.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/axis/
though it may be integrated into the emc2 tree at some future time.

axis is a front-end for emc with file display and live preview.  Use it by
making a symlink from your plat/XXX/bin directory to /usr/bin/axis, and
specifing "DISPLAY = axis" in your inifile.

gplot is a rs274ngc viewer and live plot viewer.
Usage: "gplot [-d nmlfile] ngcfile"
Navigation:
    Left click              Select g-code under pointer
    Left drag               Translate
    Middle drag             Free rotate
    Right drag              Zoom
    Mouse wheel             Zoom

    C                       Clear live plot list
    X, Y, Z                 Orthographic projection looking along axis
    Shift-Z                 Orthographic projection looking along Z, "landscape"
    Space                   Default perspective projection
    O                       Toggle perspective/orthographic

    Up/Down                 Select next/previous line of g-code

Python 2.2 or newer with Tkinter, BLT, and PyOpenGL are required.  Hardware
accelerated OpenGL is nice, but not required.  BLT is not required for gplot,
and only Python 2.2 is required for mdi.

Installation on RedHat or Fedora should be something like:
    $ env PLAT=xxx EMCSOURCEDIR=yyy python setup.py bdist_rpm
    $ sudo rpm -ivh dist/axis*.i386.rpm
    $ gplot examples/joy.out
and installation on non-RPM systems should use "python setup.py install"
EMCSOURCEDIR is the directory where the "emc" and "rcslib" reside, and PLAT is
the same as you use to build the non-realtime portion of emc.

If you want to view a live plot but don't want to use axis, first start emc,
then start gplot.  It should guess the path to emc.nml, but if not, give the
path as the -d argument
    $ gplot -d /usr/src/emc/emc.nml file.ngc
The path of the machine will be plotted in red over file.ngc, with a cone
showing the controlled point.





This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA


Portions of the program, located in the "thirdparty" subdirectory of the
source distribution, are covered by other licenses.  Please see those
files for details.
