Machine Emulator
The ParametrIQ Machine Emulator plays the files ParametrIQ CAD writes as the machine would run them: it draws the
tool's path in real time, with the machine's acceleration and jerk limits (S-curve motion), so you see the order of the
cuts, where the tool changes and how long the job takes before it reaches the machine. It is a separate program
(PiQ.Emulator.App), and ParametrIQ CAD sends it jobs with a machine profile.
Getting the emulator
The emulator is free: it needs a ParametrIQ account and its own licence, which costs nothing.
- Sign up or sign in at parametriq.co.uk and open Account › Licenses.
- Click Get my free licence. The ParametrIQ Machine Emulator licence is listed with its Product key, which is emailed to you too. The licence covers every version.
- Click its Download button, and install the emulator.
- Start the emulator. The Emulator licence window opens: enter your account's E-mail and Password (or tick I sign in with Google or Facebook) and the Product key, and click Activate.
As with ParametrIQ CAD, the licence can be activated on two computers at once. With both taken, the window lists them so you can remove one; you can also remove one on your Licenses page. The emulator checks the licence each time it starts and runs for up to seven days without reaching the licence server. Until it is activated, jobs still arrive and show, but none plays. The licence button at the top right (your e-mail, or Not signed in) or Help › Licence… shows the licence, or deactivates this computer. The title bar and menus are the free apps' (see What they share).
What it plays
| File | Played as |
|---|---|
G-code (.nc, .tap, .gcode …) |
A CNC router, plasma or laser table: rapids, feeds, arcs and helices, tool changes, drilling cycles, dwells, M0 and M1 stops |
HP-GL and HP-GL/2 (.plt, .hpgl) |
A pen plotter or cutter: everything ParametrIQ writes, pens and their speeds, line types, labels |
GP-GL (.gpgl) |
A Graphtec cutter, with the speed, force and blade offset the file sets |
| CF2 and DDES3 | A flatbed sample-maker: creases first, then partial cuts, perforations and cuts, bridges left uncut |
| DXF | A mat cutter (pen, V-groove, bevel then straight cuts), or any die as a flatbed's layers |
LightBurn (.lbrn2) and laser SVG |
A laser: engraving line by line, then scoring, then cutting |
DSTV NC (.nc1) |
A drill and saw line: marks, holes smallest first, inner then outer contours |
Its messages say what it couldn't run as written (a command it doesn't know, a pen with no tool, a move off the bed or the sheet).
Sending a job from ParametrIQ
File › Send Using Machine Profile lists profiles named Emulator: … for each trade's format. They write the file, then send it to the emulator with the drawing's tools: each layer's and element's tool settings with a tool number. The messages give the job's machine time.
- When the emulator is running, the job goes to it over HTTP and plays after any job already queued.
- When it isn't, the job and the tools wait in its inbox folder (
Documents/ParametrIQ/EmulatorInbox), and play when it starts.
Any profile can send to the emulator: add "emulator": "local" to it in its file, or the emulator's address
("emulator": "http://cutter-pc:5199") for one on another computer (Profiles in files).
Without a folder of its own, a profile that sends to the emulator writes its file in a temporary folder.
Tools
The emulator draws each cut with its tool's colour and width, and runs it at the tool's feed. Tools come from ParametrIQ (sent with each job, or a tool table dropped in the inbox or loaded with Load tools…), from the file itself (HP-GL/2 pen colours, G-code tool comments), or, for work no tool in the table does (a sample-maker's creasing wheel, a mat cutter's bevel head), one the emulator makes up and lists. Blade tip traces where a drag knife's tip cuts as it trails behind the tool's axis, for tools with a blade offset.
Playing
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Play | Plays the job, or carries on after a hold or a program stop |
| Hold | Slows to a stop along the path, as a controller's feed hold does, then waits for Play |
| Stop | Goes back to the start of the job |
| Next job | Plays the next job in the queue |
| Speed | Plays faster or slower than the machine (×0.1 to ×100) |
| Follow tool, Rapids, Tool width, Blade tip | What the view shows |
Double-click a line of the program to go to it. The Motion profile window plots speed, acceleration and jerk over the last seconds of machine time, and the Machine window shows the position, feed, tool and the settings the plot's commands gave it.
Plotter commands and extensions
Commands a plotter file uses that aren't HP-GL or GP-GL, a cutter's own commands for its knife pressure or speed, are
read by hpglCommands and gpglCommands extensions, the same ones ParametrIQ uses (Extensions): what
they set shows in the Machine window and changes the motion from the next move. Reload extensions reads them
again; they also reload when an extension file changes.
Other programs
Any program can send the emulator work: post a file to http://localhost:5199/api/jobs, a tool table to /api/tools,
or ask /api/estimate how long a file would take without playing it. Or drop files in its inbox folder: machine files
are played, *.tools.json and tool lines are read as tool tables, and status.json beside them says what it is doing.