AL8 vs AL7

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joeaverage
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:55 am

AL8 vs AL7

Post by joeaverage »

Hi All,
have just started using AutoLeveller and am delighted with the results.
I cut a board which has a Thin Shrink SOIC in it and it has worked really well.
In the past I could only cut such small outlines on very small boards where the
Z variance was very small anyway. This board is still only 50 x 80mm but Autoleveller
corrected sufficiently well that I cut 0.05mm (50 micron) and still achieved perfect
isolation across the whole board. This board has 35 micron copper layer.

I have a couple of questions that more experienced users might clear up.
I enrolled as a member and downloaded AL8. On my laptop it runs fine. On my
CNC machine while the app appeared to start, a log file is created but no window
opens. I didn't have a complete browser on the CNC machine, the less interference
it gets the better I like it. I did however install IE11 as I really wanted to level
code at my machine. So my CNC machine (Mach3 on an ATOM based PC) now has
latest Java and IE11 but still no window opens with AL8.
I then downloaded AL7.something and it works fine, except the visualisation of the
board. I suspect this quirk is because I deliberately excluded a lot of graphics features
out of Windows 7 install.
My question is why is it that AL8 won't run normally when an earlier version does?
I must say I like the visualisation feature, I have picked up a few probing errors which
I had missed with AL8. Is there any plan to include that feature in AL8?

Craig
daedelus
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Posts: 387
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 1:41 pm
Location: London, UK
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Re: AL8 vs AL7

Post by daedelus »

Welcome Craig,

Just to clear things up... when you say AL8, I presume you mean ALAE (latest version 0.7.6) as AL8 was renamed to ALAE (or just AE) a while ago. When you say AL7 you are referring to the original Autoleveller (or just AL). Is this correct?

Now, the board visualisation requires a 3D card which I presume your Atom doesnt have. This could be the reason the window doesnt show. In the code, it does check to see if you have a 3D card and only renders the board visualiser if your machine is capable, therefore the AE window should open regardless.

I do not have a windows based machine without a 3D card to double check this but I will dig out some older hardware to test on and provide any fixes necessary.
http://www.autoleveller.co.uk/. Software to probe and adjust a GCode file for PCB's or any probe-able surface.

http://www.autoleveller.co.uk/cnc-probe-guide/. A short guide to setting up the probe.

-James
joeaverage
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:55 am

Re: AL8 vs AL7

Post by joeaverage »

Hi Daedelus,
thanks for your reply, you must keep funny hours in the UK...

I just checked the two versions I have, the first I tried is autoleveller-0.8.7.exe, which
I have referred to as AL8 and the second one I tried is autolevellerAE.0.7.6.jar which I
referred to as AL7.

I assumed the second version I tried was an earlier release but perhaps I'm mistaken.

You are certainly correct with the autolevellerAE as installed on my CNC machine when I
attempt to view the visualisation it tells me that it is not available for this platform. While
it is a nice feature its not the end of the world either. I have transferred the RPF back to
my laptop and can see it there. I have learnt the hard way (see some of my replies to other
threads) that it pays to closely inspect the RPF before levelling code with it.

Whatever confusion I suffer detracts not at all from the praise of AutoLeveller. The board I made
over the weekend is by far the best result I have achieved by isolation routing. On the basis
of that more of my projects are going to be SMD rather than thru hole as I have stuck to
to-date.

Craig
daedelus
Site Admin
Posts: 387
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 1:41 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: AL8 vs AL7

Post by daedelus »

Ah I see :D No, autolevellerAE.0.7.6.jar is the latest version (and what I refer to as AE) despite having an earlier version number than the other one. Its kind of confusing I know but I try not to make any changes to the original AL unless I have a very good reason. AE should be one everyone uses primarily where AL is a kind of backup. Both versions use the same levelling algorithms though so they should both give you similar gcode output.

I plan to replace the message about the unsupported platform with a 2D coloured height map, so you can at least see something useful whether a 3D card is present or not.

I agree, CNC can be a fiddly hobby (I dont mind admitting that I make plenty of mistakes myself) so it always good to hear AL / AE helps in some way :)
http://www.autoleveller.co.uk/. Software to probe and adjust a GCode file for PCB's or any probe-able surface.

http://www.autoleveller.co.uk/cnc-probe-guide/. A short guide to setting up the probe.

-James
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