Tab cutting.. don't pull the tool all the way out!

Why does Easel pull the tool all the way out of the material when cutting tabs? Not only does this have the possibility of putting small marks/lines on the material, its SLOW…

Maybe i’m spoiled by VCarve… The way it handles tab cutting is way more elegant.

But my feature request would be to improve how tabs are cut

PS. I don’t think anybody on the Easel Dev team reads these requests… so this post is more of a rant :wink:

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When the dev team was discussing the release of the adjustable Tab features, they asked the user base if we would rather have the new tab features sooner if that meant the spindle would retract to the z safety height at each tab or if we wanted to wait for the release till it did not need to retract.

The majority of users ask to have the new feature released sooner even with the safety height retraction.

I wonder why they have to go to the Z safety height (other then it was a cheap-and-easy fix rather then doing a little math on each pass of the tab).

I don’t expect it to do the smooth-3d-dance vcarve does… but “up a little, over a little, down a little” shouldn’t be that hard to code.

Sometimes i think about applying for the ‘Senior Software Engineer’ job inventables has listed on the carrier page… just so i can make Easel to do what i want :smile:

I understand what you are saying, but as a old software developer myself I leaned a long time ago that everything looks easy until you have to do it.

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Unfortunately i’m the other way around… after 20+ years of software development If things don’t work the way i think they should work it sets off my OCD (It doesn’t help that i currently manage a development team and they have to do what i say :smile: )

I’m changing my request…

Open Source Easel!!!

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I definitely like the 3d tabs that most programs have. Fusion has it as well, sure does a lot to prevent the marks on the side of the part you get with a 2d tab.

That is very true Dan, I was amazed the first time I cut my tabs off and sanded the sides smooth and then found I could still see the tab marks after the stain was applied.

Yup, ran into the same thing. It’s like there is just enough grain disruption there to show, even when it’s sanded smooth. You need to either sand deeper or use a 3D tab to eliminate the problem, as far as I can tell, I haven’t found a good way to make a 2D tab not do it.

I know this post is a bit old now, but I thought it may be worth adding a note here for any future searchers.

I believe (could be wrong) the reason for going to the safety heigh is because once it gets to the tab depth, instead of having the path go up, follow along, then go back down, they just “jump” from the start of the tab to the end of the tab. This is best demonstrated via a tab that is at the tip of something, imagine cutting out the shape of a hand, if there is a large tab at the tip of each finger, once it starts cutting tabs, it will stop at the beginning of the tab, then move across the finger to the next point on the outline where the tab isn’t present. Then it will go back down and resume following the outline of the hand. In this other scenario, the bit would raise up slightly, follow along the outline of the finger, then lower again. While that would be possible, I would expect that it’s easier to “jump” between xy positions than it is to alter how outlines are traced to account for the raising and lowering of the bit throughout the outline. (currently only goes down, unless it’s returning to safety height, then goes back down to the depth it was)

Hope that mess is somewhat followable.