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Toolpath User Guide

Welcome to the Toolpath web interface. This powerful tool is designed to clean up and simplify your G-code paths by orchestrating Z-snapping, decimal rounding, and intelligent co-circular arc detection.

1. Workspace Sections

The interface uses a 3-panel layout, allowing you to seamlessly process code and visually audit the simplifications.

• SOURCE G-CODE (Left Panel): Paste or import your raw G-code here. You can manually edit any line and press Process & plot to instantly refresh the output.
• LAYERS (Middle Panel): Shows one card for each detected layer. It provides an interactive 2D side-by-side plot comparing the original toolpath to the newly simplified logic.
• CLEANED G-CODE (Right Panel): Contains the final processed G-code text. You can copy the code to your clipboard or export it directly to a file.

2. Top Toolbar Parameters

Use these settings to control how aggressively the simplifier optimizes your paths.

Parameter	Description
ARC TOL	The allowable distance (tolerance) a point may sit off an ideal circle and still be joined into the arc. Higher values result in fewer G-code lines (larger arcs) but slightly less strict geometry tracing.
ROUND	Rounds the X/Y/Z coordinate decimals prior to deduplication. Selecting off preserves the exact values from the source. Selecting a number (e.g. 2) will round points, often allowing more segments to naturally collapse.
Ignore 1st/last	Toggle to cleanly exclude the very first and very last layers from the plots and the final export. It is enabled by default to help isolate and test the primary inner structures of a toolpath.
Process & plot	Re-runs the entire pipeline on the current source text and draws the layers. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd + Enter.

3. Understanding the Layer Results

When you click Process & plot, the raw Z-heights are snapped to defined layers (e.g., Z-moves from 1.2 through 2.2 might snap to Z 1.2). The middle panel displays these results.

Plot Legend & Colors

The interactive plots use specific markers and colors so you can easily analyze the generated toolpath:

• Start: The green dot indicates the beginning point of the layer.
• End: The red square marks the final coordinate of the layer.
• Before Line (Blue): The original straight-line toolpath before simplification.
• Line Move (Teal): Straight line segments (G01) that remain after simplification.
• Arc Move (Violet): Co-circular movements grouped into G02/G03 arcs for efficiency.
• → Direction: Optional arrows plotted along paths indicating the tool's travel direction.

Linked Plots

If you have link zoom checked, zooming or panning in the BEFORE plot will automatically adjust the AFTER plot. This synchronized tracking is perfect for spotting exactly how a jagged line turns into a smooth violet arc!

4. Exporting

Once you are happy with the simplified paths, click the Export button in the top right. It will generate a .txt file utilizing standard Windows (`CRLF`) line endings. To help you organize multiple test exports, the filename is automatically generated with a sequential number and timestamp (e.g., exp12-08-14-22.txt).