NcFileCommand Panel (Program File)

The key model is NcFileCommand.

The command carries exactly two values: NcFile, the path of the program to play, and NcKind, the runner that plays it. The program text stays a file on disk — the project stores the path and nothing else, which is what separates this command from NC Code, whose text is serialized into the project itself.

NcFile is normally a path relative to the project folder — that is what the browse dialog yields — and an absolute path on the server is accepted just as well. No base directory is stored with the command: at play time RunNcFile hands the stored path together with the project's own base directory to the local project service, and that is where a relative path acquires its root. The WPF panel's BaseDirectory is the code-behind assistant property the Load Pattern asks a file-assigning GUI to carry, assigned to the panel by its parent — a panel member, not a model member.

The panel renders on the command's own node in the Mission branch of the Execution page's Control Tree, below the move / duplicate / delete control bar. This command has no title of its own, so the row and tree label read Program File [path], the path being the detail the label brackets.

Note

The GUI labels this command “Program File”: it plays NC, CL (CLSF) and CSV files — the runner is picked by NcKind, and Auto reads it off the extension (DetectByPath: .cl, .cls and .clsf play as CL, .csv as CSV, and every other extension as brand NC).

Layout

NcFileCommand Panel
- Head Line
  - Program File Path Field
    - The model is NcFile.
    - Its hint names both accepted forms: an absolute path on the server, or a path relative to the project folder.
    - Every keystroke saves the path. Leaving the field or pressing Enter additionally refreshes the file-info banner.
    - The web field flexes to fill the row beside the Browse button at any panel width; the WPF field is a fixed 200 px column carrying its own label.
  - Browse Button
    - Opens the shared file-explorer dialog — see Browsing for a Program.
- Play As Select
  - The model is NcKind.
  - Four choices: Auto (by extension), Brand NC, CL (CLSF) and CSV. The hint restates what Auto detects, so the runner can be pinned when the extension would route the file elsewhere.
  - This control is the web client's. The WPF panel ships no kind control, so a project edited there keeps the kind it already holds — Auto until something else sets it.
- File Info Banner
  - Appears once the path field is non-empty. Every fact in it is read on the server.
  - Found: a green banner stating the file size, its modified stamp and its line count, with a Preview button in the banner's action slot.
  - Missing: an orange banner saying the file is not found on the server, and no Preview button.
- Preview Dialog
  - Read-only. The server returns the file's first 100 lines and the dialog shows them in a monospace block that scrolls within 60% of the viewport height, inside a card capped at 80%. An empty file previews as "(empty)".

Browsing for a Program

Browse opens the shared server-side file explorer dialog. File reads happen on the server; the browser never uploads file bytes.

The Load Pattern's general web convention offers the Admin, Project and Resource roots. This picker narrows to one: it opens on the project directory and allows no other root, so a pick always yields a project-relative path. A file outside the project is reached by typing its absolute path into the path field, which the server accepts.

The dialog carries four filter groups rather than one catch-all:

NC Files — .nc, .anc, .tap, .eia, .mpf, .spf, .cnc, .ptp, .h. The open set: brand controller extensions, of which these are the common ones rather than all of them.
CL Files — .cl, .cls, .clsf.
CSV Files — .csv.
All Files — an empty extension list, which is the empty filter the Load Pattern asks every browser to preserve. It is the backstop for a brand extension the NC group does not name.

CL and CSV are split out because they are closed extension sets: those are exactly the extensions Auto routes to the CL and CSV runners, and everything else falls through to brand NC.

The WPF Browse button opens an OpenFileDialog with the panel's file-filter resource, starting at the project directory or at the current file's own directory. A pick under the project directory is stored as a relative path, and a pick outside it as an absolute one.

Multi-Pick Fan-Out

The dialog is multi-select, and this is the one command editor that grows the mission. The first picked file lands on this command. Each further pick becomes a new Program File command, added to the list this command sits in and moved into place directly after it, in pick order — the same list, so a command inside a nested list fans out inside that nested list. The panel then reports a structure change, which rebuilds the owning list's branch around the new rows and leaves the selection on this command.

Where the Program Text Is Edited

The two clients part company here, and the command is the same either way: it stores a path.

Web — the panel does not edit the file. It assigns the path, picks the runner, reports what the server knows about the file, and previews its first 100 lines read-only. Nothing in the browser writes NC bytes back; the two file endpoints this panel calls are both reads.
WPF — the panel opens the file. A non-text file, or one the panel cannot find, disables the editor and states why in the Head Message Place above it. A text file within 20000 lines opens for editing, with its line count in the group-box header; a longer one shows its first 20000 lines read-only and warns in the Head Message Place. Two seconds after the last keystroke the editor writes the file back, and reports the save in that same message place. The editor is AvalonEdit with line numbers where that assembly resolves, and a plain Consolas text box otherwise.

Source Code Path

See HiNC App Anatomy for git repository links.

Web Application

HiNC-2025-webservice (Quasar CLI SPA):

wwwroot-src/src/components/mission/NcFileCommandPanel.vue — this panel: the path field and Browse, the “Play As” kind select, the file-info banner and its Preview button, the read-only preview dialog, the four filter groups, and the multi-pick fan-out.
wwwroot-src/src/components/widgets/FileExplorerDialog.vue — the shared server-side browser Browse opens: the pickable / multi / filters / initial-root / allowed-roots props, and the pick event whose emitted strings pair a root name with a relative path — that relative half is what the command stores.
wwwroot-src/src/components/widgets/fileFilter.ts — the filter shape the four groups are built from; an empty extension list means all files.
wwwroot-src/src/components/controlTree/missionItemTypes.ts — maps the ncfile kind to this panel. A kind absent from that map is served by the generic field editor instead.
wwwroot-src/src/api/mission.ts — loadNcFile, setNcFilePath, setNcFileNcKind, getNcFileInfo and previewNcFile, plus the kind union and the file-info shape.
wwwroot-src/src/i18n/en/mission.ts — the panel's wording: the path hint, the Play As hint, the four filter labels, the banner's found and not-found lines, and the preview titles.
Missions/MissionController.cs — four endpoints serve this command: a PUT for the path, a PUT for the NC kind, and the two server-side reads behind the banner and the preview (both POSTs, both resolving a relative path against the project folder). The command-snapshot builder emits the file path and the NC kind for this kind of command.

HiAPI Engine

HiNc/SessionCommands/NcFileCommand.cs — the model: NcFile, NcKind defaulting to Auto, the “Program File” display name and its Program-category catalog registration, the XML round-trip that writes the path verbatim, the Program File [path] row label, and Run handing path and kind to the session shell.
HiMech/MachiningProcs/NcKind.cs — the kind enum (Auto / BrandNc / Cl / Csv) and the detect-by-path helper, the authority for what Auto does.
HiNc/MachiningProcs/SessionShell.cs — RunNcFile passes the stored path together with the project's base directory to the local project service.

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