In most labs, there are at least one or two machines that are unnetworked and can only accept jobs from a computer hooked directly up to it. You can use scp to send a properly formatted toolpath file directly to the appropriate port of the computer that is hooked up to the machine.
/usr/local/bin. Don't forget to chmod a+x filename. Details are below the links.
to_epi
to_camm
to_modela
The command looks like this:
scp filename.ext fab@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/dev/ttyS0 for serial port
scp filename.ext fab@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/dev/lp0 for parallel port
Replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the IP address of the computer that is hooked up directly to the machine.
Which machines are on what kind of port? Well, you should just lean over and look. But from my memory:
SERIAL:
Finally, you can put the long scp command in a script so that users only remember one command per machine no matter what computer they are using. Here is an example from the South African lab where the vinyl cutter is hooked up to the serial port:
FILENAME: to_camm
#!/bin/bash
# send file to vinyl cutter on serial port
scp $1 fab@10.50.72.203:/dev/ttyS0
When you create your file, the line with the #!/bin/bash is the very first line and you replace the IP address with the one on your computer. And most everyone else will use lp0 to talk to their vinyl cutters. You can use kwrite to copy the above code and save as a good filename.
Save the file in /usr/local/bin. If you have problems writing the file to that directory because you don't have permissions, then just write it to any directory and move it later:
On the computer hook up directly to the machine, I use instead the following:
#!/bin/bash
# send to vinyl cutter local to this machine
cat $1 > /dev/ttyS0
That's it!
To use the scripts, a user would create a .camm file using cam as usual, then:
to_camm myfile.camm