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F-Engrave

Packaging of Scorchworks F-Engrave as an OSX Application

F-Engrave generates 'GCODE' for Computer Numerical Control (CNC) systems from text and bitmaps. It "Suppoprts Engraving and V-Carving, Uses CXF and TTF fonts, Imports DXF and Bitmap images".

The official F-Engrave and instructions are at Scorchworks:

http://www.scorchworks.com/Fengrave/fengrave.html

This fork is merely to add packaging for OSX systems, creating a clickable 'Applicaion' that can be installed on any OSX system. This eliminates having to run F-Engrave from a Terminal prompt.

This version has been built with:

  • Python v3.12.1
  • potrace v1.16
  • PyInstaller v3.4

NOTE: Dark mode does not work! You will get white text on white background in the input boxes. Details are in issue #14.

What's Different With this macOS version from Scorch's Code?

To make f-engrave look and work well on macOS there are a few minor changes to Scorch's code that I've done here.

  • Adds two new functions ttf2cxf_stream() and potrace() that locate their related executable files either in the application bundle or the local file system depending on the application bundle type. This allows these two binary files to be bundled within the macOS .app bundle.

  • To get the font files from subdirectories loaded on macOS, I added a little hack to walk the font directory looking for likely font files:

-            font_files=os.listdir(self.fontdir.get())
-            font_files.sort()
+            font_files = []
+            import fnmatch
+            for r, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(self.fontdir.get()):
+                for filename in fnmatch.filter(filenames, '*.[Cc][Xx][Ff]'):
+                    font_files.append(os.path.join(r.replace(self.fontdir.get(), ""), filename))
+                for filename in fnmatch.filter(filenames, '*.[Tt][Tt][Ff]'):
+                    font_files.append(os.path.join(r.replace(self.fontdir.get(), ""), filename))
+                font_files.sort()

  • To align some of the user interface elements better on macOS systems. There are some small number adjustments sprinkled throughout the user interface creation code. Check the .patch file if you want the gory details.

  • TTF2CXF_STREAM/Makefile has a target added to compile it on macOS/darwin.

Compiling and Updating Versions

There are two macOS build related scripts:

  • update_macOS.sh - downloads, updates, and builds from new version of F-Engrave
  • build_macOS.sh - builds the checked out F-Engrave to a macOS Application

To simply build the checked out version of f-engrave, in the repository directory run build-macOS.sh. This will create a clickable OS X/macOS Application in the ./dist directory named f-engrave.app that can then be run or moved to your Applications folder.

To update the code to a new version of f-engrave from http://www.scorchworks.com/Fengrave/fengrave.html, which is my typical workflow. NOTE I do this on OSX 10.10 Yosemite machine to make sure the compiled application can run on versions >= 10.10.

  1. Get the latest source link from http://www.scorchworks.com/Fengrave/fengrave.html
  2. brew update and brew upgrade to make sure my Homebrew is as up-to-date as it can be on an old OS.
  3. ./update-macOS.sh -u "SOURCE-LINK". This creates a .dmg image file tagged with the version number.
  4. Check everything seems to work, launch from the disk image, check that fonts are loaded, then check .bmp loading of the JellyBean file (tests potrace).
  5. Check source diffs, and move macOS-VERSION.patch to macOS.patch
  6. git commit -a -m"Update to version 1.XX"
  7. git tag v1.XX
  8. git push & git push --tags
  9. Create a release from the tag on GitHub and upload the .dmg file to it.

The following process Make mac binaries with pyinstaller that are backwards-compatible on Mac OS X looks appealing to resolving having to have a 10.10 box kicking around.

Compilation Dependencies

  • Xcode Command Line Tools (for g++)
  • XQuartz for libfreetype2 install via homebrew)
  • potrace for bitmap engraving, install via homebrew)
  • pillow installed as part of build script in virtual Python environment
  • pyinstaller installed as part of build script in virtual Python environment

The application builds and includes ttf2cxf (modified makefile for a macOS system with X11 in /usr/X11) to allow engraving of TrueType (ttf) fonts. This adds the requirement for XQuartz and it's provided library libfreetype2 installed to compile.

This will bundle the currently installed potrace with the application if potrace is installed in the system path or in /usr/local/bin (e.g. Homebrew) then bitmap (PBM, BMP) files can be read and utilized.

macOS Package Development Notes

To create a new patch file, when needed, which should be rarely as this code is contained in the update-macOS.sh script and done automatically when we run it in the normal update process.

diff -Naur f-engrave.py f-engrave-163.py > macOS.patch
diff -Naur TTF2CXF_STREAM/Makefile TTF2CXF_STREAM-163/Makefile >> macOS.patch

There's something funny with line feeds in that .patch file so be careful if you edit it.

PyInstaller Packaging Notes and the .spec file

In general the following pyinstaller command line sets up a good initial f-engrave.spec file that pyinstaller can use to build the app bundle.

pyinstaller f-engrave.py --clean -y --windowed --onefile --add-binary='TTF2CXF_STREAM/ttf2cxf_stream:.' --add-binary='/usr/local/bin/potrace:.' --add-binary='/usr/local/lib/libpotrace*.dylib':.' --icon=fengrave.icns --osx-bundle-identifier='com.scorchworks.f-engrave'

This does not make a very nice looking application for macOS though! To do that we need to add entries to the macOS specific Info.plist file. These are added to the BUNDLE section of the .spec file.

NOTE: The absolute paths to potrace and it's .dylib might change over time! These are the installed locations on my development machine, which were installed with Homebrew. (This is a warning to my future self)

NOTE: that I update these in my build and update scripts, in particular the version number to match the version number pulled from f-engrave.py, so you should be careful when updating things here.

info_plist={
    'NSPrincipleClass': 'NSApplication',
	'NSAppleScriptEnabled': False,
    'NSHighResolutionCapable': 'True',
	'CFBundleIdentifier': 'com.scorchworks.f-engrave',
	'CFBundleName': 'F-Engrave',
	'CFBundleDisplayName': 'F-Engrave',
	'CFBundleShortVersionString': '1.71'
}

Then we can build using one of the following command lines to build the app bundle.

pyinstaller -y --clean f-engrave.spec
# OR
python -OO -m PyInstaller -y --clean f-engrave.spec

The following is from Scorchworks F-Engrave Site:

Background

F-Engrave is a text to g-code program that is written in python and is based on the text engraving software (engrave-11) available in the LinuxCNCKnowledgeBase. The name F-Engrave is simply the predecessor programs name "engrave" with an "F" slapped on to indicate that the program can perform more formating functions like justification (left, right and center) and text on a circle. When I first released the program I had no idea I was going to add v-carving or DXF features so the name does not reflect any of those features. F-Engrave is a free open source program released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 3. There is not much left of the original engrave-11 script but I needed a jumping off point. One of the things that remained intact for the most part is the CXF font reading. (although I tweaked it to accept a second variation of the CXF font format.)

F-Engrave Features

  • V-carve for outline fonts and images (images and fonts should be composed of closed section loops when v-carving)
  • Imports DXF files
  • Imports PBM images (with potrace helper program)
  • Uses TTF font files (with the help of ttf2cxf_stream, not all formats are supported)
  • Capable of exporting Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file
  • Opens previously saved G-Code file and retrieve the settings and text
  • Supports multiple lines of text with justification (Left, Right and Centered)
  • Mirroring text (vertical) and flipping text (horizontal)
  • Create text that follows an arc
  • Origin selection allows user to select the location of g-code zero position
  • Display line thickness to be used during engraving allows visualization of end result
  • Use inches or mm as export units
  • Customizable G-Code preamble and postamble
  • Usable as an LinuxCNC Axis filter program (open the f-engrave.py file from within LinuxCNC Axis File-Open-f-engrave.py.when you are finished with your text select File-Write To Axis and Exit, This option only existed when executed from within Axis)

Please see the official Scorchworks F-Engrave website for the full details.