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Frequently Asked Questions
General
Using D2nc
Other
General
What is Describe to numerical control?
Describe to numerical control or D2nc, is used for generating tool paths from a shape. Shapes are either described with a Shape Description Language (SDL) or imported from a DXF file.
What is the license usage policy?
As a hobbyist or noncommercial user, you can install and use D2nc on as many systems as you own. For commercial use, the license is per system.
What is the upgrade policy for D2nc?
I believe you should never pay for the same code twice. If there is a new release which sells for more than the release you purchased, you would only pay the difference between the two releases. So unless there is a price increase on a new release to cover new features, that upgrade would be free for licensed users.
For a separate program like D2nc lathe, owners of the D2nc mill would only pay the delta between the D2nc mill price and the D2nc mill/lathe bundle price.
Using D2nc
Error on line 11 when launching from Mach3.
When you try to load D2nc from the button on the Mach3 screen, you get a Mach3Scripts error message, saying "Error on line:11 Type mismatch". This is caused by a change Art made in the VB interface around version 2.83. When you installed D2nc, there were two screens installed in the C:\Mach3 directory, namely 1024d2nc_300.set and 1024d2nc_200.set. If this error occurs, normally after you upgrade Mach3, switch from the 200 to 300 screen .set file.
Installing under Vista.
There have been several reports of errors installing under Vista. The errors are concerned with accessing the OLE registry. D2nc is written in Visual Basic and Vista already has the runtime distributable installed. When the installer tries to replace these files, Vista security steps in and prevents it. In most cases it should be fine to ignore this error. If you would like to resolve the error, there is a procedure that has been reported to work at
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/09/04/739820.aspx
This involves downloading and installing a security tool from Microsoft, an then creating and running a script which uses the installed tool to reset Vista Access Control Lists.
What are the hardware requirements?
The only requirement is that the graphics card supports the OpenGL V2 spec. This is required for the ability to click on chains or elements to select them after import from a DXF. It is not required for shapes created from SDL. Some older machines relegated to the machine shop may not have this ability. An alternate method for selection was added to D2nc in V2.0.2 to allow use of these older spec machines. To use the alternate selection method, first click anywhere in the plot area then use the left and right arrows to select items, and then use the ‘del’ key to remove the selected item.
Other
What features are you still planning to add to D2nc?
I have quite a long list but I don’t promise to add anything. My development of D2nc is very feedback and request driven. This is balanced along with how much time I have available to work on it. D2nc is a hobby project for me, created initially for my own use in my home shop.
One feature I would really like to add is internal offsetting instead of relying of G41 and G42. That would also allow me introduce pocketing of any closed shape.
What about D2nc for lathe work?
D2nc lathe is in the early planning stages but there are several features that need to be introduced into the mill module first. A lathe version will only be possible once I’ve added native offsetting to Mill as that code base will be required to offset lathe tool paths. For lathe I plan to restrict SDL to either the 2nd or 3rd quadrants and from there a profiling tool path generated. It may be possible to define the lathe tool bit with its own shape description. The lathe module would be a separate program.
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