Sorry, been very busy and just read this post. Can you post details about which software options cause this issue and which don’t? It’ll help me troubleshoot. I’ll try to look at this later tonight and post a patched version for you to test ok?
@Didier I found quite a few lines of code where float values were being parsed without setting to “InvariantCulture”. This is probably causing the errors in countries where commas are used to separate decimal values. Please test the attached file and see if it will generate Gcode without crashing. Hopefully others can download and help us test as well. I can’t test because I’m in the USA so please help us out!!
Thanks
3dpBurner-Image2Gcode-MPCNC.zip (176 KB)
@Leo69 Hi, you solved the problem !! I can export Gcode without crashing but if I check or not “Enable Decimal Values” it seems to work in both case, the files generated or exactly the same. There is just a mistake in gcode generated at the beginning :
G0 Y56,25; Move to top left corner and begin box <-------- There is a comma and not a decimal value like this 56.25 (i’m in France and for many application don’t use comma for that, for sure not in gcode files)
G92 X0 Y56,25 <-------- Here to
But after all gcode seems to be ok.
And what about “Optimized raster”, can you tell me more about the threshold option 
(i understand that values under the treshold are ignored but why).
Thanks again for your modification, now i’m waiting for my laser which seems to be in a plane at this moment, really want to try this now !!
@Didier Thanks for the details, that was a big help. Please try the attached file to see if the “Move to top left corner” code is correct now. I didn’t spend any time debugging the “enable decimal values” function and decided to disable it instead. It was experimental and was found to make no difference as Marlin/Arduino use 8-bit PWM (0-255 integer) to control the laser so decimals would be useless and just add extra gcode bloat.
The optimized laser function was added by Bryan and he hasn’t been active on the forum for a while now. I’ll explain what it does but I didn’t code it so I may be mistaken. The laser power values range from 0 for all white, to 255,or whatever your max value is set to , for all black. This program does raster engraving which moves over the entire image, line by line, one pixel at a time. Optimizing is meant to speed up laser engraving by combining moves with power values of zero to save time. The ‘threshold’ value allows you to skip values further above zero to speed up and ignore very light colors. It works well but I think the overall quality of the image is slightly better without this function because the laser head will be at a fixed speed throughout the engraving.
If you have a vector image that’s just a line drawing then the fastest engraving will be from a tool like dxf2gcode which is posted in another thread. Image2Gcode’s strength is grayscale engraving like photographs and things like that. Let me know if the attached file works and if it does, I’ll post it up top. I probably won’t bother with GitHub since active development is just me at this point and I don’t plan on adding any new features, just debugging as needed.
3dpBurner-Image2Gcode-MPCNCv1.1.zip (176 KB)
@Leo69 First of all thanks for your answers about the optimized fonction, i’ll do some tries but i’m lookink for the best quality as possible so i think i’ll not use it.
I didn’t knew dxf2gcode, but when i load a “complexe” dxf -see attached- (generated with illustrator -which has also some bug sometimes with estlcam- or generated with rhino - no bug usually-, windows 10), it freezes but doesn’t return any error, just freezing (the dxf are allright because i can open them with other softs). No problem for simple shapes so i can try a little the software, i like isometric view to see depth, but it will be better if we can also see path width (nono i don’t want to add you some work eheh).
Also I tried to load your dxf2gcode-configuration.zip (with DXF2GCODE_Win32_2016-04-17_with_translations) but when i do this, i can’t open the software (error message), i need to modify config_version = 9.7 to config_version = 9.9 in config.cfg and config_version = 5 to config_version = 6 in postpro_config, i don’t know why but it works (note: the freeze still the same for complexe dxf).
So now, about Image2gcode it is better without option decimal (confusing), but when i generate the gcode with v1.1, it is the same for “move to top left corner” !! There is a comma and not a dot. Same for G92 command just after (and for the rest it is ok, i have dots as decimal separators).
I understand you have no time to add new features, i think Image2gcode works fine like that (I need to really validate with the laser), there is just this “little” bug for no US people, i have to lost 10 seconds to edit two commas in the gcode file, damn eheh
I hope those informations will help you and your software users with mpcnc.
Thanks again !!
Can anyone attach the working software Image2GCODE mpcnc?
I saw that there are various posts with attachments in this discussion …però not clear to me which one is working.
Thanks so much
ManuCNC
@ManuCNC Hello, Leo69 just post the last release modified for vicious mpcnc, see its post from June 18 2016 in this thread (v1.1).
Hi everybody, so for now i have my laser and i engrave pictures :). @leo69 this work well, just need to modify the two comma at the beginning, but i don’t know why, in some “dark” part of my picture, the gcode generated put M106 S0, so it is… not engraved. maybe I missed something ??
@Didier post pic and describe settings used. I’d try etching without doing any adjustments like brightness, contrast, or gamma , and also without any experimental features. I seem to remember another post about that issue where this was the solution.
I’ve been meaning to fix that comma bug but haven’t had time.I’ll get to it though:)
@Leo69 Eheh thanks for the comma So i tried with profile “wood”, on wood, at various speeds (1000mm/min is the maximum for me, 600mm/min is acceptable) without adjustment, so i join you pictures but with a blur because this is my girlfriend on the beach so For the engraving picture forget about horizontal lines that was an other thing.
And thanks again !!
@leo69 Hi leo, if it could help your 0.1 version works perfectly, I just need to put G1 before FXXXXX, but no comma, “grey” are good, no S0 for that.
Using version 1.1 it seems Dithering FS 1 bit doesn’t seem to work. I have some line art (black lines on a white background), and I figured there was no need for greyscale in such a situation. It does a M106 S5 at the beginning, does the box, then never turns the laser on for the actual picture (it does a M106 S0 right before it starts going back and forth in the image area).
Thanks Didler
you can run it on mac os?
@ManuCNC Hi, i don’t know if you can on mac OS, maybe you could try with wine (emulation for windows apps on mac osx)
@Didier
for now I will create the gcode files on another PC because it trying to emulate it seems to not work with Wine.
- power controls I like firmware using a modified version of Marlin, but retains power on M3 and M5 power off.
Since it is so 'that you just insert them and then the gcode is aposto? There are other elements linked to the employed firmware?
thank you
@ManuCNC Not sure to understand everything you said. I’m using marlin firmware B16_32-LCD-112515 (so i work with m106 and m107), and Image2gcode 0.1 (others versions don’t work correctly for me). Maybe wine’ll work with this one. I just need to put G1 before Fxxx at the beginning of the gcode generated by Image2gcode (otherwise speed isn’t set, but no comma in this version) and it works perfectly And if you can engrave with diagonal it is longer but better. One last thing, it is not fun to do but you can create a dualboot on your mac with a Windows system just to do that.
@Didier , It’s been a while but I took some time to look at this code again. I like the 0.4 version because Bryan had added some cool features like user profiles for different materials and also the origin setting so I took that version and patched the decimal bugs and the missing G1 in front of the feed rate setting. This version doesn’t have any of the experimental features from the later versions and I’m hoping it’ll work well for the international audience:) Please run a quick test when you get time and report back. I guess that request goes to any regions that use commas as decimal seperators.
Leo
@Leo69 Hi Leo, thanks for taking time to modify your software. I was happy with the first version, i checked this one and the gcode seems to be ok. And thanks for the G1 Decimal also are good now. For the moment i’m working on classic glass engraving, but look at the picture, i used Image2gcode to engrave aluminium (not anodised, engraving the picture in paint on my aluminium and after classic engraving with “Edimburg” method). I’ll try later engraving with the patched version and now i can play with the added features. Thanks again for your work, have a nice day !!
And the quality on the picture is not really good, sorry for that, but the engraving is really accurate. The size of the “tooth” is 65mm x35mm
Wow. Very cool.I’ve engraved anodized aluminum but never attempted anything with glass. I’ve seen some pictures of mirrors that get engraved from the back side and they turn out pretty nice. Thanks for taking time to test the patches. I’ll go ahead and attach this version to the original post to save people time In looking for it.