TouchDRO 3.32 Release Notes

CAD Drawing Import

TouchDRO can now show your CAD drawing at true scale under the crosshairs, so you can work straight from the print instead of transcribing coordinates off it. The graphical view draws the part where the part actually is, and the drawing needs no scaling or calibration step on import because the coordinates are true scale to begin with.

TouchDRO also extracts hole centers, arc centers, and corners as sub-datums, tagged by group, so every important location is a tap away and a pattern with several hole sizes can be worked one drill size at a time.

You can import a DXF file from Fusion, FreeCAD, AutoCAD, or any other CAD program that exports one. TouchDRO converts the file on the tablet, with no internet connection needed. For a file with features the tablet can't handle, TouchDRO will offer to send it to TouchDRO's online converter, and it asks first, every time. If you draw in SnapCAD, its "Export to TouchDRO" command writes TouchDRO's own format directly, so the drawing needs no conversion at all. A new "Privacy" section in Settings holds one switch, "Never send anything to TouchDRO's servers", for a tablet that should never contact TouchDRO's servers.

See "CAD Drawing Import" and the "Machining to a CAD Drawing" guide.

Lathe Thread Cutting

Single-point threading is one of the more stressful operations on a manual lathe, especially inside a bore, where you can't see the tool. The new "Thread Cutting" function provides a way to set the thread up ahead of time, so that during the cut the readout and the graphical view show where the tool is in relation to the thread. You pick the thread from a list: ISO metric coarse or fine, UNC, UNF, or UNEF, internal or external, along with the class of fit. TouchDRO calculates the diameter to turn or bore the blank to and the diameter to cut to, and lays the thread out in the workspace as guides and sub-datums. A custom 60-degree thread can be entered by pitch and diameters.

To cut the thread, you arm it from the graphical view. The X readout then counts down to the finished depth, and the Z readout counts down to the end of the thread, so the near-zero warning can be used as a cue to disengage the half nuts. In addition, the thread cutting card shows a status light ("Clear of the crests", "In the cut", or "Past the root"), the depth of the last pass, the infeed for the next one, and a "Cut load" ratio that compares the chip you are about to take with the last one. TouchDRO tracks the passes from the scales alone, so there is nothing to press between passes. Note that it doesn't count passes or suggest a depth of cut, since that depends on your machine, material, and tool.

See "Thread Cutting on a Lathe".

Lathe Cutter Geometry

A lathe tool in the tool library can now carry an outline of the cutter, drawn in your CAD program and imported from a DXF file. TouchDRO draws the applied tool to scale in the graphical view, positioned on the tool tip. This is useful when you need to check the clearance of the rest of the tool. For example, you can see whether the back of a boring bar clears the far wall of a small bore, or how much room a threading tool has left before the shoulder. The "Tool Shape" row of the "Display" panel has a new half-opacity button, so a large cutter doesn't hide the guides and sub-datums under it. See "Lathe Cutter Geometry".

Live Camera Feed

TouchDRO can now show live video from a USB camera or microscope behind the crosshairs in the graphical view. This provides a way to line up on features that an edge finder or a probe can't pick up, such as a scribed line, a center-punch mark, or a hole smaller than the probe tip. The video is a sighting aid, and the position still comes from the scales. The "Camera Setup" dialog tests a video mode before it lets you save it, since many cameras advertise modes they can't deliver.

Most USB cameras need more power than a tablet port can supply, so plan on a powered USB hub. See "Live Camera Feed".

Rotary Table Support

When you machine a part mounted to a rotary table, the moment you index the table the coordinates on the readout stop matching the print. The features are still where the drawing says they are on the part, but the part has turned under the spindle.

The new Rotate Part function turns the stored geometry with the table, so you keep driving to the numbers the print gives. TouchDRO reads the table angle live from an encoder on the rotary axis, so the workspace follows the table as you index, or takes a typed angle when the part is fixed at a known one: a casting sitting at an angle to the vise jaws, a job on an angle plate, or a second operation whose datum edge runs off square to the first. See "Rotate Part".

Measurement Mode

A mill and its readout are a measuring machine as much as a cutting machine, and 3.32 adds a mode that treats them as one. Measurement mode lets you check the part you just made without unclamping it and carrying it to a surface plate, and lets you pick up the dimensions of a part you didn't make, one feature at a time, finishing with a set of coordinates you can draw from.

You indicate features with a touch probe, a camera, or an inexpensive digital microscope, and store what you find in sub-datum memory as you go. The probing functions cover the features you can't put crosshairs on directly: the center of a partial bore, the point where two lines would have met before the corner was rounded off, and the angle between two sides. See "Measurement Mode".

Probe Profiles

Most shops own more than one instrument. A 4 mm edge finder, a touch probe, and a microscope measure differently and sit differently in the spindle, and until now switching between them meant re-entering numbers. The Probe Library holds a profile for each, with its tip diameter, its offsets, and the port it is wired to.

Three functions draw on the library, and each remembers the profile it was last used with, so the Indicate Workpiece function, the Set Z Reference function, and measurement mode can all stay on different instruments at the same time.

TouchDRO can also measure a probe's effective tip diameter for you. The number marked on a probe is a starting point rather than a measurement, since probing forces deflect the stylus before the probe triggers, and depending on the probe that difference ranges from negligible to tens of microns. The new calibration wizard takes touches at four clock positions inside a ring gauge, or any accurate bore of known size, reports the effective diameter along with how repeatable the touches were, and writes the measured figure into the profile.

See "Probe Profiles" for the library, and the touch probe setup and calibration guide for mounting, centering, and calibrating a probe end to end.

DXF Export

Measuring a part on the mill gives you a set of coordinates, and the next thing most people want is to draw from them. TouchDRO can now export a workspace as a DXF drawing rather than a column of numbers: sub-datums arrive as points you can snap to, circles you fitted arrive as circles, and an imported drawing comes back out with its layers intact. Every CAD package reads DXF, so the file opens in Fusion, FreeCAD, QCAD, or whatever you already use. See "Exporting a Workspace to DXF".

Error Correction Maps

Almost every linear DRO scale reads slightly differently in different parts of its travel, and on inexpensive magnetic scales the error can run to a few thousandths of an inch over a few inches of travel. Most of that error is repeatable, which means it can be measured and subtracted. Version 3.32 adds the tooling to do exactly that, without an interferometer and without taking the scales off the machine.

The Record Scale Error wizard walks you through the recording. You clamp a reference scale alongside the axis you want to correct, wire it into a spare input, and crank the axis from one end to the other while TouchDRO compares the two. Scale Error Review then shows the recorded data and the fitted map together, along with the error you should expect once the map is applied, how well the passes agreed with each other, and a verification figure calculated from a pass the app held back from the fit, so the estimate is measured rather than self-graded.

On our test lathe, a cross slide carrying 43 microns of error end to end came down to single digits, a 6.4× improvement measured against held-out data.

You can also enter a map by hand if you already have measurements. The editor takes typed values, pasted values, and imported CSV files, and exports what you've entered for backup or for copying to another machine. Maps travel with the adapter profile, so a shop can record one centrally and hand it out. When a recording does not come out clean, Error Map Diagnostics reports what the app found, which is usually a mounting or a cranking problem rather than a scale problem.

Recording a map requires a spare input for the reference scale. For the procedure, see "Creating an Error Map"; for what a map is and how the editor works, see "Error Correction and Backlash Maps"; and for how to find out whether your scales need one at all, read the magnetic scale accuracy guide.

Backlash Compensation

Where a rotary encoder measures a leadscrew rather than the table itself, the reading runs ahead of the real motion when you reverse direction, until the slack is taken up. TouchDRO now models that and takes it out of the reading. Backlash can be a single value where it is consistent, or a map where it varies along the travel, which is what a worn screw usually does.

Backlash maps are entered in the same editor as error correction maps, and changes take effect immediately with no restart. See "Backlash Maps".

Angle Vectoring

A scale doesn't always move along the axis you want to read. When it's mounted at an angle, its travel contributes to two axes at once, which until now meant doing trigonometry in your head or not using the scale at all. TouchDRO can now do that math for you, live, from an angle you enter.

On a lathe, set the compound over and TouchDRO folds its travel into the X and Z readouts as you crank. Enter the angle, choose which readouts it should contribute to, and turn it on from the function bar. This is what makes an angled compound genuinely useful: cutting a taper or a chamfer, you feed the compound and watch the diameter and the length move on the readout instead of tracking the compound's own travel and converting. Turn it off and the readouts go back to reading their own scales, while the angle stays saved for next time.

On a mill, a tilted head has the same problem in two directions. Enter the head's tilt and nod angles and TouchDRO projects the quill's travel into X and Y alongside Z, so plunging with a tilted head reads as the real movement of the tool rather than the movement of the quill. Tilt and nod are entered separately, each with its own switch for whether it contributes to X or Y, and TouchDRO checks that the pair is physically possible before accepting it.

See "Compound Slide Angle Compensation" and "Head Angle Compensation".

Calibration Belongs to the Adapter

This is the biggest change under the hood, and it removes a limitation many of you have run into. Calibration used to be tied to the machine profile, which meant one profile per setup: a second profile for the same machine meant calibrating all over again.

Calibration now lives with the adapter. The machine profile handles the display side, meaning axis layout, units, tools, datums, and what you see on screen, while the adapter remembers resolutions, direction, and encoder setup. The two are independent, and that opens up two things.

Multiple profiles for one machine, calibrated once. Set up different profiles for different kinds of work, one for roughing, one for finishing, one per operator, and switch between them freely. They all share the adapter's calibration, and nothing needs recalibrating when you switch.

One profile across multiple machines. Take a job set up on one machine and continue it on another. Connect to the second machine's adapter and your profile comes across intact, tools and datums and offsets included, while the readout picks up that machine's calibration automatically. An adapter is the same adapter whether you reach it over Bluetooth, USB, or WiFi, so its calibration follows it across all three.

Connecting is quieter too. TouchDRO recognizes your adapter, loads the right calibration without asking, and the readout goes live immediately instead of holding while it works things out. You will only see a question when the situation is genuinely ambiguous. See "Machine Profiles" and "Adapter Details Dialog", and the upgrading section below for what happens to your existing setup.

Live Data Streaming

TouchDRO can now publish live machine data to your network, so other tools can watch what your machine is doing. Turn on Live Data Streaming from the menu, point it at your network, and TouchDRO broadcasts axis positions, feed rates, spindle speed, and probe state as they change. Typical uses are a shop dashboard on a second screen, logging a job for later review, or feeding a monitoring system that tracks how much a machine is used.

There are two ways to receive the data. Over TCP, TouchDRO listens on a port on your tablet (5800 by default) and anything on your network can connect and start reading, several clients at once. Over MQTT, TouchDRO publishes to a broker you already run, under a topic you choose, which suits an existing home-automation or shop-monitoring setup.

You choose what gets sent and how it looks: JSON or delimited text, which fields to include, units and decimal places independent of what's on screen, timestamps on or off, and how often data goes out, on a fixed interval, only when something changes, or both.

Two more things worth knowing before you wire it into something. Streaming runs while TouchDRO is open and in the foreground, so it stops if you leave the app or the screen sleeps. The TCP listener is unauthenticated, which is reasonable for read-only position data but does mean anyone on the same network can read it. See "Live Data Streaming".

Settings Backup

Setting up a machine profile takes a while, and none of that work is worth doing twice. TouchDRO can now write a profile's settings out to a file and read them back later, which puts a profile back after a tablet is replaced or the application is reinstalled, carries a working setup across to a second tablet, or gives a similar machine a head start.

"Export settings" sits under "Backup" at the bottom of the Application Settings screen, and it doesn't depend on the profile having Plus. Importing shows you what the file holds before any of it is applied, listing the settings it will change and the count, and nothing is written until you press "Apply". Note that a settings file is a backup of how a profile is configured rather than of the work stored in it: workspaces, sub-datums, the tool library, and probe profiles are exported separately. See "Backing Up and Restoring Settings".

Also in This Release

TouchDRO can now connect to an adapter over WiFi, by IP address and port, alongside Bluetooth and USB. This is intended for custom and network-connected adapters; select WiFi as the connection type in settings. See "Connecting to a Scale Adapter".

TouchDRO 3.32.01

TouchDRO 3.32.01 fixes a problem where the readouts could stop updating after you switched machine profiles, and combines the two tool compensation functions on the mill into one. A new tool indicator in the toolbar shows which tool or compensation is in force, and the tool dialogs on the mill and lathe now work the same way. It also includes several smaller fixes.

Fixes

• Readouts stuck after a machine profile switch. After switching to another machine profile, the readouts could stay blank, waiting for data, even though the connection icon showed the adapter as connected, until you disconnected and reconnected by hand. They now come back on their own.
• Scale resolution changed while disconnected. If you changed an input's resolution in its encoder profile while TouchDRO was not connected to the adapter, the readouts kept using the old resolution after you reconnected. The new value now takes effect when you reconnect.
• Live Data Streaming over MQTT. Connecting to an MQTT broker always failed in the 3.32.00 release. It now connects. Streaming over TCP was not affected.
• "Take a Reference Photo". On a tablet where the camera had never been set up, the button did nothing. TouchDRO now asks for permission to use the camera when you tap it, and if the permission was turned off, it offers to open the app's settings so you can turn it back on.

Tool Compensation on the Mill

The "Tool Radius Compensation" and "Tool Height Compensation" functions are now one function, "Tool Compensation", with one button and one dialog. Choosing a tool in the dialog changes tools in one step: its Z offset goes on the Z readout, and its diameter and flute count become current for radius compensation, chip load, and the cutter shown in the graphical view. Pick the side of the cut with "Tool Position" and tap "Apply". See "Tool Compensation".

• The Z offset comes from the tool library. The "Tool Height Compensation" dialog and its custom Z offset field are gone. To use a tool's length, save the tool in the tool library with its Z offset (the sync button in the "Edit Tool" dialog measures it), then pick it.
• Use a tool without its Z offset. A switch on the "Z Offset" row applies only the tool's diameter. TouchDRO remembers the setting for each machine profile, along with the applied tool.
• A custom cutter is a diameter only. Choosing "--Custom--" and tapping "Apply" sets the diameter for radius compensation and clears any Z offset in force. To keep a custom cutter, tap the save icon next to the tool list and save it as a library tool.
• Changing tools keeps the side of the cut. Tapping a tool in the "Tool Offsets" list, or picking one in the dialog, keeps the current radius compensation side and recalculates it for the new diameter. Previously a tap in the list turned radius compensation off.
• "Clear Compensation" clears everything: the Z offset, radius compensation, and the applied tool. Long-pressing the "Tool Compensation" button asks first and does the same.
• Editing the active tool updates the readouts. When you open the tool that is in use, the "Edit Tool" dialog says so at the top, and saving applies the change right away.
• A tool's diameter must be greater than zero. A CSV import with a negative diameter is rejected in the import preview.

Which Tool Is in Force

A cutter icon is now in the toolbar at all times. It is white when nothing is applied and amber when a tool or compensation is in force. While something is in force, an amber label beside it shows what: the tool's name, or for a custom cutter or custom offsets a short summary.

• Mill, custom cutter: the diameter, the cut direction arrow, and the Z offset if one is in force.
• Lathe, custom offsets: the X and Z offsets.
• Tap the icon or the label to open the dialog that changes what is in force: "Tool Compensation" on a vertical mill, "Tool Offset" on a lathe, "Saved Tools" on a horizontal mill. In measurement mode the slot shows the measuring instrument instead, and tapping it opens the instrument picker.
• The machine profile name now has an icon beside it (lathe, vertical mill, or horizontal mill), in the same green as the name. While a tool is shown, the profile name is tucked away; tap the machine icon to bring it back, and tap the name to open the "Machine Profiles" list. The tool label returns the next time you apply or clear a tool.
• The toolbar never overlaps. The items are right-aligned. On a narrow screen or with a large font size the label shortens first, then hides, instead of running into the other icons.

One Set of Buttons, and "Keep Current Readings"

The mill "Tool Compensation" dialog and the lathe "Tool Offset" dialog now share their buttons and behavior.

• Buttons: "Apply", "Clear Compensation" (mill) or "Clear Tool Offsets" (lathe), and "Cancel". The clear button only appears when something is in force.
• "Keep Current Readings" switch (replaces the lathe's old "Select Tool" button, and is new on the mill). Turn it on and the readout does not move when you apply the tool: TouchDRO takes the tool as the one at the current position and moves the zero to match. The lathe holds X and Z; the mill holds Z only (radius compensation still applies to X and Y). While it is on, "Apply" reads "Apply, Keep Readings" and a banner explains what will happen. The switch is off every time the dialog opens and is not available for "--Custom--". It is the quick fix for a Z zero that was set with the wrong tool loaded.
• Lathe "Tool Offset" now matches the mill's dialog. A saved tool's offsets show as plain values with their units. The "Units" choice only appears for "--Custom--". The tool column is wider, so long tool names fit. Switching from a saved tool to "--Custom--" starts from zero.

Tool Library

• The applied tool belongs to the machine, not the workspace. Switching workspaces no longer changes which tool is compensated: the tool in force, or your custom offsets, comes with you to the next workspace. Each machine profile keeps its own.
• "Saved Tools" marks the applied tool the way "Workspaces" and "Machine Profiles" mark the one in use: highlighted in italics, with no delete button, so it can't be deleted while it is in the spindle.
• Deleting a tool names it: "Delete T3 1in Shell Mill?", with "Delete" and "Cancel" buttons.
• The mill and lathe tool editors match. Both are titled "Add Tool" / "Edit Tool". The lathe editor now has a "Units" choice like the mill's, so a tool keeps its own units instead of taking the machine profile's every time it is saved. On both, "Units" can be changed when editing a saved tool, and the numbers convert exactly. The Z offset fields accept the same calculator input as the other fields (for example "1/2").
• Mill "Z Offset" sync: the sync button works even while the "Z Offset" switch is off. Tapping it turns the switch on and fills in the value.
• Sync needs a live reading. The sync buttons in the "Edit Tool" and "Add Tool" dialogs now show a message instead of filling in a number when TouchDRO is not connected, when a sub-datum is selected (the readout is showing the distance to it), or in measurement mode.
• Sync is relative to the reference tool. Sync subtracts the offset of the tool that is currently applied, so a tool synced while another library tool is applied is still measured from your reference tool. Touch the new tool to the surface where the axis reads 0.
• Switching between Imperial and Metric no longer changes the numbers. Switching back and forth in the mill editor used to round the diameter and Z offset a little more each time. Saving a tool without changing it also no longer rounds its values.
• Horizontal mills. A tool added on a horizontal mill machine profile disappeared from the tool library the next time TouchDRO started. It now stays.
• If a tool cannot be saved, the editor stays open with a message instead of closing and losing the changes.

Lathe

• Editing the tool in use applies the change right away, with the same notice at the top of the "Edit Tool" dialog as on the mill.
• Entering custom X and Z offsets in the "Tool Offset" dialog no longer leaves a library tool marked as in use.
• Custom offsets that add up to zero (for example X 0.5 and Z -0.5) are accepted. Only X and Z both zero is refused.
• A tool that was removed no longer comes back as applied after TouchDRO restarts. A reference tool with zero offsets stays applied.

Thread Cutting Setup

• Sync the thread length. "Thread Length (L)" now has a sync button. Touch off at the start of the thread and sync "Start (Z)", move to the end of the thread and sync "Thread Length (L)": the length is calculated for you. Works with every thread form.
• Custom threads: touch one diameter, get the other. With "Custom Metric" or "Custom Imperial", the diameter you can actually touch has a sync button: "Major Diameter (D)" (the outside diameter) for an external thread, "Minor Diameter (D₁)" (the bore) for an internal one. Touch the tool to the work, tap sync, and the other diameter is filled in from the pitch and the selected thread cutter. It is the same number a standard thread with that diameter and pitch would show.
• The calculated diameter keeps up with changes to the pitch, the cutter, or the diameter you touched, until you type in it yourself. Syncing again recalculates it.
• If the tool is not past the start toward the chuck, or there is no live position, the dialog says so and nothing changes.

Also in 3.32.01

• New readout font. The seven-segment readout font ("7-Segment font" under "Readout Display Font") is now DSEG7, sized and centered on the digits themselves. "Open Source Licenses" credits it.
• Encoder profiles say how the resolution was set: "Not calibrated", "Calibrated" with the date, or "Entered manually". Typing a resolution by hand changes "Calibrated" to "Entered manually".
• If the screen was rotated while a drawing import was being applied and the points could not be extracted, the warning now appears instead of being lost.
• Accessibility labels for the sync buttons in the thread cutting setup dialog.
• Drop-down lists in all dialogs: a long selection no longer runs under the drop-down arrow.
• Thread Cutting dialog: the illustration no longer turns dim and gray after switching between Internal and External.
• Lathe tool offset illustration redrawn (in the "Tool Offset" and "Edit Tool" dialogs) so the arrows match how offsets work (X positive toward the operator).

Upgrading From an Earlier Version

Because calibration moved from the machine profile to the adapter, your existing setup is migrated automatically the first time you open a machine profile after updating. Your readings will not change. Every resolution, direction, and filter setting moves across exactly as it was, and there's nothing to recalibrate.

TouchDRO creates an adapter profile for each of your machine profiles, and each one keeps exactly the numbers it had. There are no questions to answer during the upgrade. If TouchDRO had to resolve something on its own, it will list it afterwards in the "Version Upgrade Notes" report, which you can read at your convenience. See "Version Upgrade Notes".

Upgrading to 3.32.01 changes four things for mill users:

• Settings. "Show Height Compensation" is gone from "Function Strip Preferences", and "Show Radius Compensation" is now "Show Tool Compensation". If you had turned "Show Radius Compensation" off, the "Tool Compensation" button is hidden after the upgrade: turn on "Show Tool Compensation" in Settings, "User Interface Settings", "Function Strip Preferences".
• A tool applied before the upgrade stays applied if its numbers still match the tool library. If they don't, the tool is no longer shown as applied and the offsets in force stay as they were. "Clear Compensation" removes them.
• A Z offset typed into the old "Tool Height Compensation" dialog stays on the Z readout after the upgrade. "Clear Compensation" removes it.
• The applied tool now follows the machine profile instead of the workspace. After the update, the first workspace switch takes the current workspace's tool along, and a different tool that another workspace had applied before the update is replaced by it.