A battle to save CPU cycles...

So I finally found some time this weekend to work on an update to the Hydra software. The biggest changes are the fact that the file previewer has been heavily optimized to reduce the CPU usage even with very large builds. Originally, the previewer was redrawing every line on the entire build each time the frame refreshed (quite a lot with a framerate of 15 frames per second!). After a lot of reading and tweaking I was able to get the software to only redraw all the lines of a build when the view was changed. This greatly reduces CPU usage and makes playback a WHOLE lot faster. I tried loading in some huge files that I have and once the software read the file into memory, the rest smooth as butta! Moving and scaling a large build will still be somewhat intensive though as the program has the render the image in real-time as you are moving it. But, in general, the performance has improved by about 3x and users should notice a significant improvement especially in the playback of large files.

I had another request to modify the preview window to be more like traditional CAD software packages with the ability to scale and move the part using mouse operations. This has also been added in v1.2 so moving the build table around in the preview window as well as scaling the view can all be accomplished with the left and right mouse buttons.

Finally, the other big change is that the software now automatically checks and determines the correct COM port that is connected to an Arduino compatible microcontroller running the Hydra firmware. This saves a few keystrokes and is more convenient that having to manually enter what port to use (I am pretty sure the Reprap host still uses this method).

The complete release notes are below and the files can be downloaded from: https://sourceforge.net/projects/hydra-mmm/

v1.2

- Added automated port selection and authentication sequence, now there is no need to manually select what COM port to use, it will find the correct one automatically!

- Added mouse manipulation support for gcode preview window, L mouse moves offset, R mouse up/down changes zoom

- Significantly reduced CPU intensity for file preview window. Scaling and moving parts after >5000 lines have been drawn is still somewhat slow on my old computer though so it would probably be a good idea to position the screen at the beginning of a large build and then leave it. Playback with large builds is very fast, it is just the scaling and moving that takes CPU cycles

- File preview window for sending gcode files has dynamic color updating to give maximum 3D representation on a 2D plane

- Changed G92 command to accept desired set position instead of just set current position as 0,0,0

- Bug fix for how preview window deals with negative coordinates

- G4 delay time was changed to use milliseconds (Reprap standard) as opposed to seconds (CNC standard) by request. If you want it to be seconds just add a *1000 in the delay command