Is the create tabs feature broken?

It seems that adding tabs in CAM mode is broken? I’m also very new at Kiri:Moto, so I may be doing something wrong. What I tried was importing a small model (3cm x 2 cm), then go to tabs, then click “+”, and then I get a transitory message on the screen (esc: cancel tab editing). Then when I move the mouse close to the model sometimes I get a tab “flicking” at me (shows and disappears in a fraction of a second). Sometimes if I click it will later show a tab there. Sometimes not. I tried this under Windows in both Edge and Chrome, both at grid.space and in OnShape: it does it in all combinations. So, I guess a couple of questions:

  • am I doing something wrong? I tried to read the documentation but, the full documentation is … not full :-).
  • is there some way to do an equivalent of a tab in the CAD software? It seems that if I add a regular rectangle to the model, the slicer will cut around it, so it defeats the purpose. Maybe I’m missing something?

Thanks for the help,
Mihai

Hi @Mihail_Sichitiu and welcome. Do you mind sharing your workspace (right click export) so I can diagnose this? I just tested tabs with 3.0 and 3.1 and it’s working with my models. So it’s either something in your workspace or the geometry of the part. It could very well be a bug that I am not seeing with my parts.

You’re right that you can’t add tabs in CAD. They’re special features that the slicer knows to go over and not around.

You probably can’t drop your workspace here, so use a file sharing service or email to sa@grid.space

Thanks for checking Stewart. Here is a link. In the mean time I tested a much larger piece (also equally round all around) as well as Firefox on Linux with similar results. I must be doing something wrong. Either way, here is the workspace export:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lOCu0LTlYcgrJ4hYqFbrMniy3cZw_l09/view?usp=sharing

Thanks!
Mihai

The cause is this code

Screen Shot 2022-01-17 at 12.27.57 PM

meaning tabs only show up if the mouse is over a near vertical surface (overlaid line in this picture)

and your part is highly curved. so getting the tab to show is challenging.

btw, this is the new dark mode in 3.1

OK, that explains it. However, I’m not sure how to fix it. The faces close to the middle line you showed there are vertical (curving away up and down), so they are all good places for tabs. I guess that I could download/fork the repository and change the code, but it’s an … inelegant solution :-). I’m wondering why that condition is there in the first place, as any tabs are better than no tabs. If you think it’s crucial, you can make a variable in the … “Tabs” tab to control how permissive tab placement is.

Thanks for looking it up!
Mihai

I will ease the constraint in the next release. This makes it easier to place tabs on this part. When relaxed, it is more likely to result in a tab that overlaps the part. This isn’t really a big issue. But you’re the first to ask.

Thanks! I suspect that if somebody is worried about placement, they’ll mind their placement :slight_smile:
I’ll try to download the current version and increase it a bit (double or triple I guess) and see what happens.

Thanks!
Mihai

I set the value to 0.3 for the next release. Seems to work well with your model.

Thanks. I can’t wait to try it. I turns out that running it locally is more … invasive than I expected. One version wants me to run docker, and the other one wants root access to /usr/lib (or so). However, I have the impression that releases are quite frequent at this stage, so I can hold my horses for a little more.

Best,
Mihai

It will be in the version pushed this evening

Looking forward to it.
Thanks!
Mihai