orx/orx-jvm/orx-axidraw/README.md

orx-axidraw

GUI for configuring and plotting with an Axidraw pen-plotter.

Uses the AxiCLI command line tool to communicate with the pen plotter.

Requires: Python 3.8 or higher.

This orx create a Python virtual environment and downloads AxiCLI automatically.

Usage

fun main() = application {
    program {
        val axi = Axidraw(this, PaperSize.A5)
        axi.resizeWindow()

        val gui = WindowedGUI()
        gui.add(axi)

        axi.draw {
            fill = null
            axi.bounds.grid(4, 6).flatten().forEach { 
                circle(it.center, Double.uniform(20.0, 50.0))
            }
        }
        
        extend(gui)
        extend {
            drawer.clear(ColorRGBa.WHITE)
            axi.display(drawer)
        }
    }
}

Study the inputs available in the GUI. Most are explained in the AxiCLI documentation page.

Important

• Choose the correct pen-plotter model and servo type in the GUI before plotting.
• Always make sure the pen is at the home position before starting to plot. If it's not, unpower the steppers, drag the carriage home (near the Axidraw's CPU), then power the steppers back on.

Tips

• One can repeatedly click on toggle up/down and adjust pen pos down and pen pos up to find the ideal heights for the pen.
• Enable fills occlude strokes and increase margin value to hide elements near the borders of the paper.
• Click save to save your SVG file.
• Click plot to plot the visible design using the current settings.
• A 2D camera is enabled by default to place your design on the paper.
• Click resume plotting after pressing the hardware pause button (or including a pause command on a layer) to continue.
• To get a plotting time estimate, enable preview and click plot. Nothing will be plotted, but the estimate will be shown in the IDE console.

The Load and Save buttons at the top of the GUI can be used to load and save the plotting settings. In a future version we may embed the plotting settings into the SVG file.

Multi color plots

orx-axidraw makes it easy to create multi-pen plots. To do that, use two or more stroke colors in your design. The order of the lines does not matter. Then, before plotting, call axi.groupStrokeColors(). This will group curves into layers based on their stroke colors and insert a pause between layers, allowing you to change the pen.

When the plotter pauses during plotting, change the pen and click resume plotting to continue.