[treyjugson]

It's not piracy if you are modifying open source software. That's the whole idea behind open source.

If Path Pilot is open source then why is it only provided to Tormach customers and why is this thread here to try to obtain a copy without paying for it?

" I would never buy a tormach machine to get the software, but there is a tiny chance that the path pilot software experience, may lead to a tormach machine in my future."


So a man spends a few days hitting and kicking his refrigerator, trying to make it work again.

finally, he gives up and called a repairman.

The repairman arrives, looks at the fridge, places his hands at ttwo different locations and kicks the refrigerator. It begins working perfectly.

"That will be $100.00, sir!" the repairman proclaims.

"$100.00 !!? For kicking the fridge?! I did that for several days myself! You just got lucky. that's all. I want an itemized bill!"

"Fine." said the repairman, and he wrote out an itemized bill:

"Kicking the refrigerator. - $5.00
Knowing WHERE to kick the refrigerator - $25.00
Knowing HOW HARD to kick the refrigerator - $70.00"

I know nothing about "Tormach" but I DO know that if they have put in the time and effort to develop a product and/or software that "everyone wants," it is probably worth the price.

Very well said sir.

[CNC-Dude]

I see some enthusiasm here in the Forum with regards to this project and I feel confident it is something we can get started. I have contacted Tormach and explained them my vision. I will let you guys know whether my idea represents a breach or not. I don't think it is, but I am halfway in reading the GPL V2 license so there might be a definitive clause I am missing.

Some of you guys have expressed an interest in playing with the code (Wizards, drivers, UI customization, etc). I am positive this is something we can eventually reach.

My first step, however, is to be able to take pretty much any viable computer and install the SW, install a MESA card and then run my PCNC1100 as I would with the Tormach TMC. It is still possible that there are some hardware dependencies which will render this endeavor close to fruitless. And although I am positive any hiccup can be overcome, that is precisely the point. We need to be able to get PP to run on most computers before we can start writing code and customizing the environment.

It is possible that this will just work and there will be little effort on this front. But let's not forget there is a trillion computer configurations out there and some of them will be a pain to work with. This is precisely why Tormach only wants to support one variant. Because they are not in the PC business. They are in the CNC machine business and dealing with mother board, CPU, chipsets, Hard Disks, BIOS' and all those idiosyncrasies has nothing to do with CNC.

Again, we can let the community take care of all of those issues and let Tormach do what they do best: create awesome CNC pieces of equipment!