So when you have finished building the mini-cnc and it's working, you have to generate gcode to use it.
When you've never done it before, it's very hard to :
- find tools that generate gcode
- find documentation that makes sense
- use them ( all of those I tried I gave up after an hour not understanding anything and not having generated any gcode, the interfaces and terms are very cryptic to me )
Google did not give me any simple tutorial on anything, just bribes, and all suppose I already know a lot ( but maybe I also don't know what to look for ).
Reprap has documentation on how to use the reprap for 3d printing, but that's not of big use for everything else.
Specifically what I'd like to learn how to do :
- Drawing text ( http://www.timeguy.com/cradek/truetype produces gcode, but I don't get how to get the GUI, I just have CLI, and the gcode is filled with variables that need interpolation )
- Drawing/Engraving circuit boards
- Previewing the Gcode's effect before actually sending it to the machine ( something a bit like http://replicat.org/ )
- Carving 3D objects ( from Sketchup files ? :) )
I'm sure there is a lot more to learn and a lot more to document also.
Only basic info on how to get from 0 to a complete run for very simple cases ( with screenshots ) would help get on the train to learn further.
Documentation on the contraptor site is very well done, but that part is missing ( in the Learn menu maybe ? ).
This page has links : http://www.contraptor.org/motion-control, I just saw cambam has video tutorials, going to look at them now.
Just throwing an idea, I can't do it myself as I don't have the knowledge, and I think writing this documentation would take lots of work.
Edit: spent a part of the day learning cambam, it' easier to get now that I have read the documentation, fills a lot of the gaps I'm asking here to fill, still, contraptor-centric documentation/introduction on it would be nice, maybe I can do it when I know more.