PointTrace from Pendant

Yeah, I think we can make that happen. I'll explore the options and get back with you. There's another feature I'm working on that sort of overlaps with this but more than likely I'll do this anyway. I'll tell you about the new feature soon, I think you will favor it but PointTrace will still have it's place

Sure, I'll take all the new features I can get.

Here's what we're going to do. While the PointTrace dialog is open, your pendant gets its own PointTrace key layer. You choose which keys do what: capture a point, pick Line / 3 Pt Arc / R Arc / 3 Pt Circle, Close Loop, New Contour, Remove Last, Undo, and so on. When the dialog is closed, every key goes back to its normal job, and Stop and Reset are locked so they always stay safe. Your WHB04B will come with a suggested set of keys, and you can remap any of them under Machine Config → Pendant. For holes, 3 Pt Circle is the way to go from the pendant: three captures on the edge give you an exact circle, and there's no diameter to type in.

You'll be able to tell what the pendant did from across the shop. The dialog shows a Pendant badge, a label on each button with the key it's mapped to, and a highlight on whichever capture type the pendant selected. A big status line reads something like "3 PT CIRCLE · point 2 of 3" or "Not ready: machine moving", and there's a quick tone for each capture so you don't have to look at the screen at all. The goal is to finish a whole trace from the pendant without walking back to the control once.

Now the other thing I mentioned. We're building a JC3 web app you open on your phone over your shop network. It's protected by a shop PIN and needs nothing to install. It works as a pendant for any JC3-powered machine on your network, so your phone becomes a wireless control.

The part I think you'll really like is SnapTrace. You take a picture with your phone and JC3 turns it into geometry. Drag the corner handles on the photo to the corners of the sheet, type in the sheet size, and JC3 squares up the perspective so everything in the picture is to scale. Lay a cardboard template on a sheet, snap a photo, and the outline comes into Design, Sketch or your CAM workspace, ready to clean up and cut. Snap your remnants the same way and nest parts onto the scrap you actually have.

PointTrace will still be the tool for tracing right on the table. SnapTrace is for when the template or the scrap is easier to photograph than to trace. More on both soon.

Check this out and let me know what you think https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfdeOUCiS87/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&mdxt=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

That looks great, how accurate will it be? I'm supposing the PointTrace will probably still be the best option for reverse engineering parts and working off templates.