Author: herongw

This week I continued to work with SpirePDF. I was having trouble with the parsing and the conversion of the uploaded PDFs. After testing it to see how well it could handle different diagrams and texts, some files resulted in giving inconsistent SVG outputs. I have been exploring other possible workarounds and alternative tools that we can maybe use in the future. The challenge this coming week would be to get the pipeline fully working from the web upload to the G-code generation.

The goal next week would be starting to connecting everything from upload to sending commands. I’ll also work on improving the website feedback so users can see upload and conversion status in real time. Once that’s working, we can start doing full integration tests with the hardware.

I’m a little behind schedule due to some parser troubleshooting, but with the design work settled, I should be able to catch up next week.

This week, I implemented the file upload functionality for our Flask web interface, which is currently hosted locally on the Raspberry Pi. The site can now accept PDF uploads for processing. I also began experimenting with SpirePDF for parsing and converting PDFs into vector formats that will later feed into our toolpath generation pipeline.

By the end of next week, I plan to integrate the PDF parsing results with the SVG-to-G-code conversion flow. I’ll also work on improving the front-end feedback (status messages after upload) and maybe even look up some deployment options such as Gunicorn for non-local hosting.

I realized SpirePDF has some limitations with complex image PDFs, so I will need to do additional testing. This might set me a little behind schedule.

At the beginning of the week, I focused on the project website. I worked on setting it up and started developing the upload functionality so that files can be submitted through the site. I got the upload feature to work so it should be ready to connect to the Raspberry Pi once testing for image to vectors begins.

I will be presenting for the team on Monday, so later in the week, I shifted towards preparing for our upcoming presentation. I worked on refining the slides and practicing my talking points. I also reviewed the overall presentation to make sure it flows smoothly.

I am currently on schedule with my tasks. Next week, I plan to test the upload feature with the Raspberry Pi and continue expanding the website with project content. I also plan to incorporate feedback from the presentation into our design work. When the motors arrive, I plan on also helping out with the integration.