Dan Hopper's TUBEFIT Program
About once a month someone asks me for a standalone version of my
Coping Calculator, so they can run it on their computer out in their garage where there are no
internets. Since the script relies heavily on the power of
PHP,
ImageMagick, and
GD, it's not really something that can be easily translated into a separate program. At least not one that I could create.
However,
Dan Hopper has written this little standalone program that's vaguely similar to the
Coping Calculator, but without all the bells and whistles. It runs in a terminal window and sends a postscript file directly to the printer via DOS. I really don't know how to set up a printer in DOS, so I had to find the spooled file (which went to LPT1, but that might just be my problem) and then drag it over to my USB printer. If anybody knows a better method, just
let me know and I'll post your tip.
Dan's coping method differs from mine in that he's designed it to cut the tube with two passes of a power hacksaw, and then grind off the excess. However, the pattern looks very close to mine. For all I know, his math is better. He certainly
explains it better anyway.
Unzip
this file and put the contents wherever you want. The OVL file needs to be in the same folder as the EXE for it to work. It seemed to work for me, but there are no guarantees or promises from either Dan or me that it won't blow something up. Obviously, that's not the intent, but consider yourself warned.
TUBEFIT.zip
(updated 5/19/06)
Derivation of Dan Hopper's TUBEFIT Algorithm
A brief bio of Dan
Posted by Hal Eckhart at May 7, 2006 11:05 AM
| TrackBack
