It seems very nice, but I can’t seem to convince myself to pay for software that’s only available with an internet connection and won’t allow to save your projects to your own personal computer. That’s so crazy to me. I know that once your project is loaded you can use the software offline, but you still need the net to load it in the first place. Seeing that all my projects are automatically saved to their cloud, this basically means they own all of my stuff. I’m to pay for this too? Why? Why do so many people use Easel?
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Simplicity which can often be the deciding factor for a new user with zero experience.
Easel is Free if you don’t require the Pro features.
Probably to cover costs plus some profits, this is commerce after all.
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I understand they need to make their money, but they literally own everyones custom work. You literally own nothing and your paying them to own it. Yes i know its free too, but doesnt make it better. Anyways, im going to follow a different path for my CAM needs.
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the terms and conditions use the statement:
“…[Inventables] have all rights necessary to use [the users Easel projects] for purposes of operating the Platform”
Based on this statement and the lack of any other such statement in the T&C, the designer isn’t signing away their copyrights to the design when it is placed into an Easel project, I’m not sure what gave you this idea.
Ok
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Because no company has ever broken any rules/ policies before. Theres nothing stopping them from changing their policies as well. Your stuff is in their databases and theres nothing you can do about. Im just going to seek the best offline alternative possible. Have a good day.
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@CharlesVRemsonIv I am not sure you came here with the hopes of becoming an Easel Pro user. It looks more like you came to make a statement. While you are entitled to your opinion (as this is mine) you just bucked at the positives and then slammed the door.
There is a lot of work that the team has put into making Easel an awesome product for those people who needed a little helping hand getting going, or might not require the bells and whistles of other Cam/Cad vendors.
What you should be doing is putting in a request to the team to offer a way to download and save your projects locally as well as the online copy. I think this would be useful too as sometimes an internet connection isn’t available and it would be nice to work on designs during those times.
I hope you find that particular program that checks all the boxes for your needs… but that doesn’t mean Easel/Easel Pro aren’t equally useful for the masses. Your always welcome here, just lets find constructive ways to work things out.
Have a wonderful weekend and as a friend of mine says. Lets make some dust.
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@KacperMarcisz I have used this myself but had forgotten at the time of my post. I think what would enhance this feature would be the ability for syncing local and online therefore offline changes would automatically keep the online copies in sync.
Let it be known, I love the online saving of Easel and Pro, it gives me peace of mind knowing system failure at home wont lose my projects. And with the ability to download the zip, that is good insurance (although sometimes forgotten) incase there were some unforeseen issues on Inventables end.
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Software companies are still bound by the laws of the country, so taking ownership of your work is not that simple and easy. If you make your work public (which is an option you must choose), then you are saying that your work is free for the world to use. If you have not made it public, then Inventables does not have the right to just take ownership of your work. As mentioned, you can download your project or create a g-code file that stays on your local machine.
I am also a bit frustrated that I am paying $25us/mo for a program that I only use for creating a file that I then use with different software to carve. But it IS the easiest program that I have found to do that and simple editing (there are several neat apps as well), and I simply justify it as a necessary cost. You CAN use Easel without the Pro features for free.
Good luck in your endeavors, and just give it a chance. It’s not evil. 
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Well then they should offer and offline verison where i can save my work to my computer. Doesnt understand why that would be a problem if there not doing anything with our project files. Im not really looking for simple program. Im looking for a program that looks/ is professional and has man many features. If im going to invest my time with a piece of aoftware it ahould be a piece of software that will last me. I dont want to switch around because a software isnt updated etc.
Licensing, Hacking and Pirating.
This theft problem exists for Vectric. Theft of offline software is a lot more prevalent than theft of online software where the user has to login to the company’s servers for access… So as to why that might be a problem, they would end up with less volume of paying customers once someone pirates the offline version and then illegally disseminates it online. With less volume of paying customers, they’d probably have to raise the price and/or reduce support and forward progress with new development.
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For Example, this is a Pirated copy of Vectric Aspire a $2,000 software for the offline, perpetual license… on Ebay for $55. Oh and the pirated copy’s of Aspire have been known to contain additional viruses, so I’d avoid this BTW.
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Well, if you think people work for free putting together g-code and producing it and are there to help you when you have problems, i suggest you take up a hobby like knitting.
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I am a Fablab and I have to answer that question periodically: what is the benefit of using Easel. We use Easel as well as Mach4. As stated in the comment so far, Easel is oriented toward new an unexperienced user. For that purpose it is doing a good job with its macros and outside storage. In comparaison Mach4 empower the user but leave the unexperience user unsecured. This is why we used both approach. So far we have used the pro-version to demonstrate the power of the CNC but I must admit that the cost of the pro version versus the utilisation of Vectric is somewhat problematic for us since we also use Vectric. It seems to me that there sould be a midle solution between the free and the pro version with the price increase that we have experienced overs last two years.
I think it’s just a personal preference as to what software fits your needs. In my business I prefer it because I make nothing but signs that I sell at the local farmers market. I know my area clientele and make special orders, but never anything extravagant. I only use easel because it’s easy and has all the bells and whistles I need.
I hope this helps.
well other than federal copyright laws?
It depends on a lot of things if it is a good value or not. I am not worried they are going to steal my work (I mean if they really want to see the sign I made for my buddy’s farm, feel free). If you are doing extremely complex 3D carving then no easel might not be worth the price (I’d say Fusion 360 might be a better choice as you have very powerful CAM features but beginners are not going to want to deal with adaptive clearing and selecting a finish strategy., if you want easier sign making and a huge clip-art feature for 3D signs then V-carve Pro might be worth the price. The bigger risk of Inventables having an online only CAD, is if they were to go out of business those servers go away and your work could be lost if you don’t archive the files locally and Easel could rapidly become non-functional even in the offline mode since it does partly assume it is able to contact the cloud in my experience.
I’m 70 yrs old and found Easel easy to understand. I haven’t wasted wood cutting a project that went south after 3 hours of cut time. Easel is updated when I log on, in my shop.I pay the monthly fee as it’s easy to stop my plan for a few months to travel and restart when I return. Try it for 1 month… stop it if it’s not for you.
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Next month will be 3 years with Easel free and I am happy with it. The program serves all my needs.
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