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We are excited to share with you some improvements we’ve just released for Easel!
Depth-first carving for text: In our earlier depth-first implementation text object was carved using “layer by layer” approach. With our new changes, each letter is completed before moving to the next letter. As some members of our community pointed out, this change should reduce the time taken to complete a job.
Shapes inside an outline: Earlier, an outline and any shape inside that outline carved using the same “layer by layer” approach. Now these outlines are carved independently.
We’d love to hear what you think about these changes.
This is great!! I just cut 2 projects…a hold down clamp and dust shoe from the Easel Projects page…love the way it works. Thanks to the team for the improvements.
This really did make a significant difference! There’s still a bunch of random z-moves for no apparent reason, but they’re WITHIN the letter now, instead of all over. As a rough guess, this probably improved spindle engagement time by ~25%. I like it!
I really like this new carve pattern you have initiated. I make desk name plates and before easel was all over the place carving a name. Now it starts at the left and works it’s way across to the right one letter at a time. I really like that! Thanks Inventables.
As I have said I am still learning my way around this cnc/easel thing and it seems each day I learn something else. That’s good, right? Today I learned that you have to set your computer (desk top and laptop) to not time out on you and go into sleep mode, it will really mess up your carving. I just set mine to never and that should take care of that. Also for you guys having trouble with easel being slow, believe me it’s not easel, it’s your computer. Especially if it is a 32 bit machine. I broke down and purchased a new 64 bit pc with the i5 processor and my easel literally flies now. Things that took forever to function previously now are almost instantaneous. Next I learned what the ‘lock motor/unlock motor’ tabs are for when you are doing a dual carve it is to lock your router to allow you to make your collet/bit change without moving the router zero. Now I still have a problem with dual carve that I haven’t figured out as yet, but things are looking up and I am enjoying my x-carve more everyday.
I’ve been experiencing some carving problems of late. Words not cutting correctly, letters uneven, ect., so I figure the gears must be rotating on the stepper motor shafts. So I pull my ‘z’ & ‘x’ stepper motors off today and attempted to file a flat spot on the motor shaft, I say attempted as this is some very hard metal. Wasn’t to successful to say the least. Previously I had used red lock tight on the ‘z’ stepper motor gear set screws and I cannot remove the set screws and I can’t physically turn or move the gear on the motor shaft. All the other stepper motor set screws did seem to be very loose when I removed them. So I just added more lock tight to these set screws and re-tighten them as best I could. (the set screw allen wrench will just rotate in the set screw after just so much force) Hopefully this will correct my problem after I have allowed sufficient time for the lock tight to fully cure. If not, then I am at a loss!
That’s great, but on closed letters like an O, it still makes one pass on the ID then one pass on the OD. then back to the ID then OD, On and on. Also is there any way to adjust the Tab height and width? with small letters, they are almost all tabs. Cutting 1/4" deep, the tabs are at .170 deep with .050 cuts. I think that .080" tabs are too thick.
Ok guys, here’s the deal. Has anyone had easel cut tabs for you when you are doing a thru cut? I was last cutting some 1/2" ply tonight and I had set easel up to cut .51" to be sure it cut clear thru. I noticed it was cutting a tab but the tab was below the ply in th .1 extra depth I had set up, so I redone the cut with a total depth of .50" and it did not cut any tabs. So, where am I going wrong here???
I noticed earlier today that the tabs option was missing in Easel. Didn’t notice until the job was done (lucky there was some double sided tape under there and nothing went flying). Might be a glitch, hopefully it’s fixed soon.
If you look in the ‘help’ section and type in ‘tabs’ it will come up with an item discussing depth of cut and if you read the second item it tells you that if you cut thru a piece, easel will automatically add tabs. So on my first cut it was adding tabs, but they were below the 1/2" piece and I thought this was because I had told it to cut .51" deep. I then changed the depth of cut to .50" and it did not cut any tabs.
Rusty, talked with John at inventables today and he told me to see the tabs you need to 1.) run your tool path, & 2.) click on ‘hide material’ and the tabs will be visible on your tool path. Also on the depth of cut slider you should click on tabs if you haven’t been. I tried it and it worked for me. You may need to move your tool path rendition around to see the tabs, but they are there. Hope this helps.
I just set mine to never and that should take care of that. Also for you guys having trouble with easel being slow, believe me it’s not easel, it’s your computer. Especially if it is a 32 bit machine. I broke down and purchased a new 64 bit pc with the i5 processor and my easel literally flies now. Things that took forever to function previously now are almost instantaneous. Next I learned what the ‘lock motor/unlock motor’ tabs are for when you are doing a dual carve it is to lock your router to allow you to make your collet/bit change without moving the router zero. Now I still have a problem with dual carve that I haven’t figured out as yet, but things are looking up and I am enjoying my x-carve more everyday.