S3D and custom GPX machine definitions

[dnewman]

I finally spent the time to figure out a S3D / GPX issue. Namely why custom gpx.ini files weren't being picked up on OS X. Turns out it's a logic error in GPX which I posted along with a fix to the GPX mailing list.

0. I did my testing with Simplify3D 2.0.1.

1. If you're on Windows, you're okay. On OS X or Linux, you have to remove any dots, ., from the directory path leading to where the gpx executable is stored. E.g., the following directory path will trigger the bug on OS X,

/Applications/Simplify3D-2.0.1/

Rename the dots away. Any of the following will work

/Applications/Simplify3D/
/Applications/Simplify3D-2-0-1/
/Applications/Simplify3D-2-0/

2. The custom machine defs go into a file named

gpx.ini

That file must be in the same directory as the gpx executable.

[ Too bad Wingcommand didn't have it be put in your login directory instead -- that supports multi-user systems bettter. ]

3. The machine defs are ignored when gpx is given the "-m MACHINE-TYPE" switch. Simplify3D supplies "-m MACHINE-TYPE" which should be no surprise. So, in the slicing profile (FFF file),

a. go to the Scripts tab
b. uncheck "Create x3g file for MakerBot printers using GPX plugin"
c. In the "Additional terminal commands for post processing" put in this command

/Applications/Simplify3D-2-0-1/gpx -p [output_filepath]

d. Replace "Applications/Simplify3D-2-0-1/" with the actual directory path to your gpx executable. "[output_filepath]" is literally that string.

4. You're good to go.

Dan

[dnewman]

Update to item #3. In Simplify3D 2.1.x, I've found that you now need to quote the output file path. Previously, S3D 2.0 was handling that and so when the directory path or file name had a space in it, things worked without quotes. In S3D 2.1, that is no longer the case and you must use

/Applications/Simplify3D-2-1-2/gpx -p "[output_filepath]"

in the section "Additional terminal commands for post processing". Note the double quotes around the output file path.