Axis

Axis is Grasshopper plugin for McNeel's Rhinoceros 3D that facilitates the intuitive programming and simulation of industrial robots. The library is written in C# and compiled against .NET 4.5.1. It's under constant development, and we welcome feature suggestions. We're currently busy with:

Component cleanup and simplification
Online control for IRC5 controllers
Creating a Windows installer file
Fast program checking
Full-feature support for KUKA robots

Installation

The latest release version of Axis can be installed using the MSI installer. This will copy Axis to your Grasshopper libraries folder along with a library of user objects and all necessary dependency files. To install Axis manually, start by downloading the library folder from here. Next, right-click the ZIP file and make sure the contents are not blocked. Finally, unzip the file, and copy the 'Axis' folders from the 'Libraries' folder to your Grasshopper 'Components' folder.

Building From Source

To build the solution from source, you need to first change the following project variables:

The build output path (Properties) needs to be changed to reflect the current system e.g ..\Grasshopper\Libraries\Axis\
To debug the solution you need to update the path to your Rhino installation directory (Debug) e.g C:\..\Rhino.exe

Dependencies

The core of library is dependent on the following libraries:

RhinoCommon.dll
Grasshopper.dll
GH_IO.dll

Online control functionality for ABB robots requires the latest version of the ABB Communication Runtime to be installed, which can be found here:

Creating Targets

Defining Speed

The target components can be supplied with default speed values (double) corresponding to the TCP speed from the following table:

Alternatively, custom speeds can be created using the Speed component from the Toolpath tab. The component accepts a non-standard TCP path speed and creates a custom speed object. Additional functionality can be accessed by right-clicking the component, such as specifying the specific speed components or outputting a declaration for the custom speed, which can be passed to the code generation component when creating the program files.

Defining Zone

The target components can similarly be supplied with default zone values (double) corresponding to the TCP Path Radius from the following table:

Alternatively, custom zones can be created using the Zone component from the toolpath tab. The component accepts a non-standard TCP path radius and creates a custom zone object. Additional functionality can be accessed by right-clicking the component, such as specifying the specific zone components or outputting a declaration for the custom zone, which can be passed to the code generation component when creating the program files.