MonoKrom - QtPyVCP GUI for PlasmaC and Mill

Looking really good JoCo
Great to see some big picture thinking around materials/process parameters.
We'd need a way to lock or hide  the machine selection (by an ini file variable?) so it can't be changed accidentally.
Can the parameters tab be accessed while running a job? The ability to change probing parameter and some other settings while running is really needed.

We also need room for more buttons. Things that spring to mind are park, framing, laser control etc. Possibly there is another tab in the control section to make room for them. This might also include sheet alignment settings.
 

Re locking settings: yes a good point. I would expect the distance/pressure systems and machine to be locked and taken from the tables ini file.

Nothing stopping this tab being accessed during a run.  Although if there are specific values that we would want quickly available to dynamically tweak during a running program then I think putting them on the main screen might be ideal.

Space is always at a premium.  I have gone for size and spacing to better support old eyes and big fingers.  The screen size on this is not large. That layout is running at 1283 x 946.   If you have a 1080p monitor then there is masses more space to do things with.  However I have been trying to keep things reasonably tight. This is a little over WXGA res. Any advice on a minim res that would be reasonable without creating a silly squish that would be great.  Then at least we can all understand the limitations driving any design compromises.

On the extra buttons, we can add in extra tabs to provide more screen space.  We just need to decide what sensible groups of activity would be. Some groupings will be workflow related where that stage of the process is done then not touched again until the next job is setup.  Others might have aspects that we want to be easily tweaked during a cut.

Not yet having a running table I will take all the advice on what needs to be grouped how. 

Cheers - James.
 

Re: Locking settings.
I would like to add user login levels that lock out certain settings depending on the user.

On *day job* machine control we have levels 1-10, with 1 being the level that a temp laborer would have. This would allow programs to be selected and ran, but not edited or the machine jogged or settings changed. Level 5 would be a standard high level operator, level 7 would be maintenance/manager level with most things opened up, and level 10 would be OEM specific settings like drive types, plasma machine selection etc.

I think user levels should be pretty easy to add into the setting framework, and disable widgets when the current user level is too low.

Cheers,
Kurt

KCJ wrote:

Re: Locking settings.
I would like to add user login levels that lock out certain settings depending on the user.
 

Security is a bit topical here right now as I just stopped shipping against a fraudulent transaction today!
In a perfect world, linking the security model to the Linux account would probably be the best and most secure option.
Set some user groups for your 10 levels....

JoCo yes, some features are necessary to access sometimes (like park for loading), others need to be at your fingertips. QTPlasmac's buttons are mostly user defined. Then the user can group them.

I'll start thinking about a security model.  I assume it doesn't need to be too clever.  It's not look we are trying to stop elite hackers here is it.

On the buttons front, if we can identify key functions (like park) then we can probably put them in a place that makes sense for the vast bulk of workflows.  Custome buttons are nice but placement in a useful place gets challenging with limited screen realestate.

If we can agree to a 1080p size then we can do a lot and get a lot on a single pane of glass.  However if the UI needs to work on 1280 x 720 it's gonna mean a lot of stuff is going to get "hidden" in tabs or outright dropped.
I just did a quick scan down newegg on toouchscreens and 80-90% of them from large down to 11" were all 1080p res.  Starting to think I am over constraining this UI.

Anyone got a voew on a lower common screen res size to target?  Maybe we build for 1080p, get all the bits we want then do a second UI that is essentailly a reorgnasition of those master elements into a smaller resolution space and/or vertical orientation?

Cheers - James.

 

I had a look at asus and all their touch monitors were 1080p.
I had a look at an industrial monitor supplier and you had to get down to a 10" monitor to go below 1080p
Asus have a nice little  15" monitor I have a couple of.
I'd go for 1080p