I’m looking to begin customizing the CNC12 interface for our users, but I’d like to move this development work off our production machines. Currently, all our documentation and the CNC12 installation are tied to the Avid control PCs, and I want to avoid interfering with active machine time.
Does anyone have resources or a workflow for the following:
Offline Documentation: Is there a centralized place to download the full documentation set for CNC12/Avid configurations to a secondary workstation?
Interface Customization: Best practices for editing the UI (Skin/Menu) on a separate PC.
Simulation Mode: How can I best simulate the CNC12 interface without being connected to the machine controller? I need to verify UI changes and logic without needing a live connection to the Avid.
Any links to manuals, specific software versions for simulation, or community guides would be greatly appreciated!
There’s no way to run CNC12 offline. Because it’s so tied to the hardware there’s no way you can run it not connected to a control board. Here at Avid when I do development in my office I actually have a spare board sitting on my desk that I fire up to test things. That would be my recommended setup.
Good news: Centroid as an API available that will let you bypass the CNC12 UI and make your own. We’re actually using that API here to make our ATC settings and configuration app. You can go a lot farther than that however.. You can actually pretty much fully replace the UI if you want. I’ve been experimenting with that internally here to see what a future “AVID” UI could look like.
Centroid has some information on their API (And some examples) here.
Hey only offer a C API right now, so if you want to make any web apps, or ones that run Electron/Tauri you’ll have to “wrap” the API in something else.
The Centroid CNC control is a hybrid PC based CNC control.
Hybrid = The Centroid CNC12 software runs on a Windows 10/11 PC with Ethernet communication to the dedicated Centroid CNC Hardware. All the critical Machine Tool motion and control is performed by the Centroid hardware on board Motion Processing Unit (MPU) and the Centroid PLC.
This Centroid hybrid architecture combines the best of both worlds using a CNC computer that’s non-proprietary, widely compatible, reliable, affordable, and user serviceable in combination with dedicated CNC hardware while avoiding the drawbacks of either a fully PC-based CNC control or a fully proprietary architecture at the same time.
With Centroid, the Windows PC is being used for the user interface, while all the essential high speed machine tool motion and functions are being handled by the Centroid dedicated made in usa on-board Motion Control processor and the on-board Centroid Programmable Logic Controller.
so, a pure PC based simulator is not supported since the PLC and Motion engine exist on the hardware. simple solution is to put an Acorn on your desk!