Alterx - an interface for controlling milling, lathe, plasma, laser or etc. machines with a LinuxCNC (EMC2) CNC system. Alterx is written in Python and some componets for LinuxCNC in C.
See the quick start tutorial for a simple example on how to use AlterX. In recovery mode AlterX can be run on any desktop PC. No special hardware is required.
If you don't know where to start, you can find an example project in the examples directory. You can easily run this example in simulation mode without the need for special hardware.
cd path/to/alterx ./examples/linuxcnc-demo_2.8/run-linuxcnc-demo.sh
The latest development version of AlterX can be fetched with git:
git clone https://github.com/uncle-yura/alterx.git cd alterx
The AlterX Git repository contain lots of files and directories. Here is an overview of the main files and directories and their purpose:
User interface executables. The main user executable is alterx-gui.
. alterx-gui : Graphical user interface. This is the main user frontend. . ascope-gui : Standalone ascope component.
These files and directories contain useful information about AlterX.
. examples/ : Various example projects and feature demonstrations. . LICENCE : Main license. . QUICK-START.md : Quick start tutorial. . README.md : Main README document. . TODO.md : TODO list.
The main modules implement most of AlterX's functionality.
. alterx/ : Main AlterX Python-module directory. . alterx/common : Common libraries, modules and helper functions. . alterx/core : AlterX core. This is where the LinuxCNC data is processing. . alterx/docs : AlterX and LinuxCNC documentation. . alterx/gui : Graphical user interface implementation (Qt). . alterx/configs : Configs for create default files (INI, HAL or etc.). . alterx/images : Main menu images. . alterx/locales : Translation files. . alterx/stylesheets : AlterX css stylesheets. . linuxcnc/ : LinuxCNC componets directory. . menus/ : AlterX bottom menu widgets directory. . tabs/ : AlterX addons directory.
Installing AlterX on Debian based systems:
cd path/to/alterx sudo ./maintenance/deb-dependencies-install.sh
To install alterx on windows you need to execute win-install-dependencies.cmd file. Note that on windows system alterx can work only in recovery mode.
Setup script build translated files and linuxcnc components.
cd path/to/alterx sudo ./setup.py
Awlsim project by Michael Büsch
QtPyVCP project by KCJ Engineering
Copyright (C) uncle-yura / et al.
AlterX is Open Source Free Software licensed under the GNU General Public License v2+. That means it's available in full source code and you are encouraged to improve it and contribute your changes back to the community. Alterx is free of charge, too.