graphics

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Auto Loading CNC Router Jig

After years of making the same part repeatedly on the CNC router, I finally decided it was time to make the router load it’s own material.

Friction is a valid way to hold a part for routing.  That is how most vices and clamps work.  The key here is to calculate an amount of friction that will resist the cutting forces while at the same time keeping it low enough for the router to be able to overcome it while loading and unloading.

I’ll post more on this when we have it working.  For now, here is a cool picture of the jig.

Fusion360_2018-08-24_00-41-19

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Installing VisPy on Windows 10

VisPy is a Python library for interactive scientific visualization that is designed to be fast, scalable, and easy to use.

Here is how I installed it:

First I installed the latest Python 3.6 on Windows 10 by following the directions on http://www.python.org.  Once this was installed, I opened up Windows PowerShell and ran this command:

py -m pip upgrade vispy PyQt5 --user

I found some sample code here, and using NotePad++, copied and pasted it, saving it to Desktop\Code\v1.py

https://github.com/vispy/vispy/blob/master/examples/basics/gloo/animate_shape.py

In PowerShell, I changed to the directory that I saved the python code to and ran it:

cd Desktop\Code
py .\v1.py

Here is the output:

zzzz

It’s a pretty smooth and clean looking UI.  It seems extremely powerful, but I’ll need to dig in and see what makes it tick…

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2D Sine Wave Example Using PyOpenGL

Here is an example of a moving 2D sine wave using Python 3, PyGame, and PyOpenGL.  See a https://blog.gahooa.com/2018/02/11/pygame-and-opengl-on-windows-10/  for how to install them.

sine

This sample program is designed to have a 100×60 unit working area with a 10 unit buffer around the edges.  You can see the axis in the lower-left (0,0) where Y+ is up, and X+ is to the right.

The structure of the program was created to make it super easy to work on the “guts” of the graphics without getting it confused with the “bookkeeping” end of OpenGL or PyGame.

Note: the glOrtho() command is how 2D “parallel perspective” is setup.  It defines the left, right, bottom, top, near plane, and far plane.  Because it is parallel, there is not the notion of a “camera” per-se, but rather section of the plane that should be viewed.  Documented here:

https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenGL-Refpages/gl2.1/xhtml/glOrtho.xml

Here is the code!


#!/usr/bin/env python
###############################################################################
# Action Happens Here 50 times per second
def tick(i):
#glRotatef(1, 0, 0, 1)
#glTranslatef(0, 0, 1)
# Draw Axis
axis(i)
# Draw sinewave
for x in range(200):
x = x/2.0
y = math.sin(math.radians(x+i) * 10) * 30 + 30
cquad((x,y,0), 1, (y/60.0,0,x/100.0)) #(center, diameter, color)
###############################################################################
# The rest of this is the bones that make it work
import time
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *
from OpenGL.GL import *
from OpenGL.GLU import *
from OpenGL.arrays import vbo
import math
FPS_TARGET = 50
def axis(i):
glBegin(GL_LINES)
#x = red
#y = green
#z = blue
glColor3f(1, 0, 0)
glVertex3fv((0, 0, 0))
glVertex3fv((1, 0, 0))
glColor3f(0, 1, 0)
glVertex3fv((0, 0, 0))
glVertex3fv((0, 1, 0))
glColor3f(0, 0, 1)
glVertex3fv((0, 0, 0))
glVertex3fv((0, 0, 1))
glEnd()
def quad(points, color):
glBegin(GL_QUADS)
glColor3f(*color)
for p in points:
glVertex3fv(p)
glEnd()
def cquad(point, size, color):
glBegin(GL_QUADS)
glColor3f(*color)
x,y,z = point
s = size/2.0
glVertex3fv((x-s,y-s,z))
glVertex3fv((x+s,y-s,z))
glVertex3fv((x+s,y+s,z))
glVertex3fv((x-s,y+s,z))
glEnd()
def main():
#initialize pygame and setup an opengl display
pygame.init()
pygame.display.set_mode((1200,800), OPENGL|DOUBLEBUF)
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST) #use our zbuffer
glEnable(GL_BLEND);
glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
#setup the camera
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION)
#gluPerspective(45.0,1000/1000,0.1,1000.0) #setup lens
#glOrtho(-10,10,-10,10,1,20)
glOrtho(-10,110,-10,70,-1,1)
#glTranslatef(0, 0, -100) #move back
#glRotatef(-20, 1, 0, 0) #orbit higher
nt = int(time.time() * 1000)
for i in range(2**63):
nt += 1000//FPS_TARGET
#check for quit'n events
event = pygame.event.poll()
if event.type == QUIT or (event.type == KEYDOWN and event.key == K_ESCAPE):
break
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT)
tick(i)
pygame.display.flip()
ct = int(time.time() * 1000)
pygame.time.wait(max(1,nt – ct))
if i % FPS_TARGET == 0:
print(nt-ct)
if __name__ == '__main__': main()

view raw

sinewave.py

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Playing with Turtle XYZ

3D Rendering has always interested me, but I’ve never taken the time to mess around with it much.

When I was a kid I used to do stuff like this in Basic.  But I didn’t know trig or other similar functions so I was left to basic math and the random functions.

Here is a little turtle program (python) that will make a wrinkled fabric type display.

2015-12-18 - B163539.png