Package Exports

saxi

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Readme

saxi

make plot good

saxi is a tool for interacting with the AxiDraw drawing machine by Evil Mad Scientist. It comes with an easy-to-use interface, and is exactingly precise.

automatically scales & centers your drawing to fit on the paper
minimizes pen-up travel time by reordering & reversing paths
uses a custom motion planning algorithm (inspired by axi) that's smooth & fast
automatically splits apart layers based on SVG colors
has a web-based UI, so there's no need to muck around with installing X11 and Inkscape
can run on a Raspberry Pi or similar, so you don't need to be tethered to your plotter while it plots

a screenshot of the saxi user interface

Usage

$ npm i -g saxi
$ saxi
Server listening on http://0.0.0.0:9080
Connecting to EBB on /dev/tty.usbmodem1461

Raspberry Pi

To install saxi on a Raspberry Pi, first install node.js if you haven't already:

$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_11.x | sudo -E bash -

and then proceed as above :) If you connect to the raspberry pi over ssh, you might want to run the saxi server inside a tmux or screen session to have it stay running even if your ssh session disconnects.

Info

saxi makes use of the low-level LM command introduced in EBB firmware version 2.5.3 to carry out highly accurate constant-acceleration motion plans. If your AxiDraw is running an older version of the firmware, saxi will fall back to the less-accurate (but still pretty accurate) XM command.

To check what version of the EBB firmware your AxiDraw is running, run saxi --firmware-version:

$ saxi --firmware-version
EBBv13_and_above EB Firmware Version 2.5.3

To upgrade your AxiDraw's firmware, see here.

TODO

Expose more tooling profile parameters as configuration options in the UI
- pen linger time
- max-vel, acceleration and cornering factor
Command-line usage
- plot
- info
- limp
- jogging
- set pen height

Developing

To work on saxi, you can clone this repo and then run npm start:

$ git clone https://github.com/nornagon/saxi
$ cd saxi
$ npm start

When you make a change, you'll need to re-run npm start

Credits

saxi's motion planning algorithm is heavily inspired by Michael Fogleman's axi project.

saxi's UI would be an ugly mess if it weren't for @kylestetz's discerning eye.

Thanks to Evil Mad Scientist for designing and building such a lovely machine!