Need to clear up confusion on programing for a dedicated stepper driver card

[DaveX]

Accelstepper or Mobatools should be able to handle it. Take a look at the motions Mobatools' Example 3:

@DaveX

MobaTools MobaStepper

• GitHub - MicroBahner/MobaTools: Arduino library for model railroaders

This library moves steppers with acceleration in the background, and supplies a lot of other functionality (Servos, Buttons, LEDs, timers)

Simulations

• Example 2 -- bounce a stepper back and forth between extremes with acceleration and a Finite State Machine
• Example 3 -- Stepper jog buttons and speed control
• Stepper Button Example -- Move stepper to five different absolute positions based 5 different buttons.
• Other Examples: MobaTools/examples/_Stepper at master · MicroBahner/MobaTools · GitHub

You'd need to work out how to do the "operator enters a precise distance" part, and then you could give it its own button.