Thought Diarrhea :

So, I'm taking my sweet time building the CAD software that will generate the data that my, yet to be programmed, controller program will read and talk to the microcontroller to make the machine do what it needs. But, its coming along and almost done.

Inside the program, you get to pick between 4 different objects, a line, a rectangle, a circle, and a "drill point".

The line simply lets you designate 2 points that the dremel will mill out

The rectangle does the same, except it will route out a rectangle from those 2 points.

The circle, you designate an XY and radius, and just like everything else, it will do what you think.

The "drill point" lets you designate an XY.

My idea for the actual milling process will be, you feed in the data file from the CAD program, and then it will ask you to insert the specific end mill or bit for the current step. It will iterate through all the objects with the same end mill and then ask you again to install the next end mill for the next step. And the once all those steps are done, the board will be done being etched.

You are currently allowed to designate up to 10 'tools'. A 'tool' is simply a set of variables detailing the bit width, the depth is plunges into the board, and its end mill ID. The end mill ID is just a number saying what bit it is associated with. You can have the same end mill ID for all the 'tools', as each tool has a depth and width with it. So with that, I can have an end mill with a V profile provide for the different widths that need to be milled out.

When you create an object, or anytime after its creation, you associate that object with a 'tool'. And with that association, the controller will know to process all the objects with associated tools that match the current end mill at one time.

The picture above is a design that utilizes one rectangle, a bunch of lines, and a whole buncha drill points.

The listbox on the right side of the screen is where you can set the selected object's tool and modify the tools details. The lines and rectangles are associated with Tool #2, which is associated to the end mill with the ID of 2. The controller would ask you to install end mill 2, and then it would mill out those lines/rectangle.

Next, it would ask you to install end mill #1 (a drill bit) and then it would go through and drill each drill point.

The software is working, I just need to pretty up the GUI, create some settings dialogs, and create a routine that will export a data file for the yet to be created controller program to interpret.

But whatevs. #yolo2myboiz