Tailoring LinuxCNC for mechatronic painting table

Hey all; I'm working on my senior design project (mechanical engineering), and am in much need of some aid.

Let me preface this with the fact that I'm new to Linux and LinuxCNC, most of the programming I've done is geared toward calculation (with some experience linking microprocessors to mechanical systems, i.e. arduino boards), and in general I'm in way over my head. My project involves creating a table to read g-code that's been rendered from a dxf file; it needs to pick up brushes and dip in multiple colors of ink depending on the layers in the original dxf, controlled by linuxcnc. Because the environment and the implementation is very new to me, I'm basically swimming in information and I don't really know where to start. The basic problems (that I see with my limited understanding) come from using the "tool change" function in g-code to change brushes, but also having a separate function that will dip the brush in ink after it picks it up (and between layers/colors), then can interrupt a line its painting (based on a time or distance delay) to go redip in more ink (if necessary the brush is running low), and resume painting. First of all, does this sound plausible to you guys? If this sort of functionality were to be inserted, is it something that needs to be put in at a source code level, or are there options/configuration settings that have this sort of thing? Like I said, I'm way over my head here, so my apologies for any stupid questions - and while specific help is obviously very much welcome, even someone helping narrow down the material I should look at would be awesome.

Thanks in advance all.

That sounds like the right idea, but I'm having trouble with where/how to implement these subroutines. To answer your question, it would theoretically all be done automatically - that is, at the start, the g-code is uploaded; the tool moves to the first brush, grabs it (action is controlled by an output pinned out from our breakout board), moves to the first ink color and dips, then proceeds with the line it needs to draw; while it's drawing, every 10 inches/4 seconds of movement require a redip, so it would automatically move to the correct ink pot and dip, and continue drawing. At the end of all the lines that particular brush needs to draw with that particular ink, it moves to the next color ink and draws all of those lines, etc. It then moves to drop off the first brush, picks up the second brush, and goes through the inking/drawing process, through 6 different brushes and 4 different inks. Each ink/brush combo (Brush 1, ink 1; Brush 2, ink 3, etc.) is separated into a different layer when drawing, as I've seen some machines (mainly lasercams) use this as a way to separate different "cuts." So it should all be done automatically when the g-code is uploaded; is this type of interrupt/subroutine feasible (and would it take place at the source code level)? Or is it something we'll need to program into our g-code manually?

JB

Thanks andy; that still leaves the tool change function (to switch brushes), is this able to be configured in the program after the installation? And do you think I can tack on the initial dipping in this routine?