Provide clarity and cleanup on what is the correct + current source code for FlatCam

[Howard Price]

I tried to resolve an issue I am experiencing, (trying to change the Origin of an imported gerber - but FlatCam 8.994 crashes) on Windows 10 but instead spent many hours in the maze of what code to look at + wading through instructions that are out of date or wrong or even the ‘wrong’ repository.

1st - https://bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam takes one to the “master” branch of code that has not been updated since 2018.

(Can anyone update this branch to redirect people to the right branch or is there some history to this? e.g. the instructions for this branch say it supports Python 2.7 and PyQt4 which are archaic and do not show that other branches are more recent). I am happy to help update it but wanted to check first.

2nd - Beta branch. Thank you Marius Stanciu for this - this looks to be the one to use but I see you also update https://bitbucket.org/marius_stanciu/flatcam_beta (I have checked out SO many repositories + branches today and seen different issues with each that I do not know if I have found an old version or a consistency issue on my machine).

Marius - or any one else, could you describe the best source code to use and also describe any issue that would stop the instructions being updated (or should I just stop whinging and do it myself?)

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[Marius Stanciu]

Hello Howard,
Afaik, my repository holds the latest meaningful development for FlatCAM, in what I hope will become FlatCAM Evo 1.0. The Evo suffix will help differentiate in this maze that I am partially responsible.
I am currently in a break in developing FlatCAM Evo as I have some other issues to solve first, but I will restart the work in a month or two.
My latest code can be found in my repository:
https://bitbucket.org/marius_stanciu/flatcam_beta/src/gerber_editor_upgrade/
specifically in the gerber_editor_upgrade branch.

Currently my fork has the following issues:
- units changing is not working (I am thinking to drop the Imperial units work since the Metric system is the one that most of world is using so this could be solved rather easily, in this way)
- Tools Database needs to be upgraded, most likely reworked, currently is not working
- it has been suggested that the last move at the end of the job should have more parameters in regards of Z positioning and those new parameters will have to be incorporated in the Tools Database
- The Editors are in the work so there may be bugs there but also the upgrade process that I’ve started needs to be finished
- Some functionality (auto levelling) needs to be finished.

As you know, the one that started this software is JP Caram, admin of this repo and of www.flatcam.org. In regards of updating instructions he is the one that could do it, but I think that he is not backing this fork of mine (called first FlatCAM nightly, then FlatCAM beta and soon to be FlatCAM Evo) so the instructions of usage might need some other media.
In any case, any instructions that may be offered will have to be granted after the release of FlatCAM Evo 1.0.

Best regards,
Marius

[geoff]

Yes - I agree, definitely remove imperial units and use metric.

BTW, thanks for the tutorial, it took till midnight, but I can now run FlatCAM from python source on Windows.

I’ve got my 3D printed PCB mill working OK now, but I had to write a post processing program, as I use Marlin and a standard R/C Brushless motor & Speed Controller, using a Servo Port - it converts GRBL “(“ comments to Marlin Compatible “;”, and adds G28 and G29 auto levelling by replacing M3 command. I also only probe the PCB area being used with G29 F0 B47.5400 L0 R45.0000 - the limit being taken from X-range & Y-range shown in the Cu combined .nc file