Packaging of Scorchworks F-Engrave as an OSX Application
F-Engrave generates 'GCODE' for Computer Numerical Control (CNC) systems from text and bitmaps. It "Suppoprts Engraving and V-Carving, Uses CXF and TTF fonts, Imports DXF and Bitmap images".
The official F-Engrave and instructions are at Scorchworks:
This fork is merely to add packaging for OSX systems, creating a clickable 'Applicaion' that can be installed on any OSX system. This eliminates having to run F-Engrave from a Terminal prompt.
In the main directory run build.sh. This will create a clickable OSX Application
named f-engrave.app that can then be distributed or moved to your Applications folder.
There are a few complications with compilation that are addressed in the build.sh script.
I've been able to compile everything on a freshly installed macOS 10.11.6 system after
installing the dependencies listed below.
Specifically:
- There are dependencies (see below)
py2appneeds to be run with system restrictions changed (seebuild.sh)py2appdoes not copy file permissions for resources (seebuild.sh)
Xcode Command Line Tools(forg++)XQuartz(forlibfreetype2)
Includes ttf2cxf modified makefile for OS X with X11 in /usr/X11 to
allow engraving of TrueType (ttf) fonts. This adds the requirement for
XQuartz and it's provided library libfreetype2 installed to compile.
Does not include potrace. If potrace is installed in the system path or
in /usr/local/bin (e.g. Homebrew) then bitmap (PBM) files can be read and
utilized.
The following is from Scorchworks F-Engrave Site:
F-Engrave is a text to g-code program that is written in python and is based on the text engraving software (engrave-11) available in the LinuxCNCKnowledgeBase. The name F-Engrave is simply the predecessor programs name "engrave" with an "F" slapped on to indicate that the program can perform more formating functions like justification (left, right and center) and text on a circle. When I first released the program I had no idea I was going to add v-carving or DXF features so the name does not reflect any of those features. F-Engrave is a free open source program released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 3. There is not much left of the original engrave-11 script but I needed a jumping off point. One of the things that remained intact for the most part is the CXF font reading. (although I tweaked it to accept a second variation of the CXF font format.)
- V-carve for outline fonts and images (images and fonts should be composed of closed section loops when v-carving)
- Imports DXF files
- Imports PBM images (with potrace helper program)
- Uses TTF font files (with the help of ttf2cxf_stream, not all formats are supported)
- Capable of exporting Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file
- Opens previously saved G-Code file and retrieve the settings and text
- Supports multiple lines of text with justification (Left, Right and Centered)
- Mirroring text (vertical) and flipping text (horizontal)
- Create text that follows an arc
- Origin selection allows user to select the location of g-code zero position
- Display line thickness to be used during engraving allows visualization of end result
- Use inches or mm as export units
- Customizable G-Code preamble and postamble
- Usable as an LinuxCNC Axis filter program (open the f-engrave.py file from within LinuxCNC Axis File-Open-f-engrave.py. when you are finished with your text select File-Write To Axis and Exit, This option only existed when executed from within Axis)
Please see the official Scorchworks F-Engrave website for the full details.