All this expensive software, what to do...?

[minigoogoo]

I recently bought a used Shopbot, which came with a bunch of different software packages. It came with Enroute (for sale now in the classifieds section...), AutoCabinets (by RouterCAD), Cabinet Solutions, and VCarve Pro... among others. It seems that current versions of Enroute, AutoCabinets, and Cabinet Solutions all retail in the $5K range each (not that I have the current version of all of these). It also seems that most of these are geared toward the production shop.

I am a hobbyist user, planning to produce one-off 2D shapes for millwork, as well as occasional runs of simple 32mm cabinetry. I'm not into sign making or 2.5D or 3D work, although I could see growing into this area down the road.

I'm fairly certain I don't need the Enroute software (which is why I am selling), but I'm not sure about the others. Any thoughts on the best software for straightforward cabinet production and general use? For many of my parts, I will likely import my cut files from CAD software-- would the standard Shopbot software be adequate to manage this work?

For the software I don't need, does anyone have any advice on how to sell? I'm not expecting anywhere close to full retail, but I would think the software definitely has value for a person looking to buy. I'd love to recoup some value through selling unwanted software-- this, so I can buy a vacuum pump and/or other upgrades to the Bot.

Apologies for asking so many questions in advance of actually powering up my machine. I'm planning to have a few of the blue metal parts refinished (they were scratched in shipping), then I will proceed with the assembly and set-up. Right now, all I can do is planning type work...

Any advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[paul_z]

I used V Carve to cut all of the cabinets for a new kitchen. The cabinets were designed in a CAD program and imported as dxf files. Not a single glitch.

I think you will find the preview capability of V Carve to be very helpful and the learning curve is an easy one.

Paul Z

[mims]

Do you have Enroute Wood or Wood Pro? Or if you have Wood, can you go to Wood Pro for that upgrade price you listed on your ad? Because if so, I'd say that is your best bet. The newest version of Wood Pro does alot more than Aspire, and obviously a ton more than VCarvePro. Most people here will recommend to you Aspire/VCarvePro however.

[dana_swift]

Nathan- I must concur with Eric, at least enough to suggest that if you have some software on hand, give it a good workout and see what best meets your needs.

Although I use Vectric products, they do some things very well and yet others are left out completely.

An example of the oversights: There is no way to select all the circles and make them a new diameter/radius. They have to be selected individually and changed. Why? Aspire cannot save a file in VCarvePro format, yet it can import it. Why? It does not recognize fractions such as give a rectangle width as "3 1/2". Why? It makes no sense to be working on a computer that cost a lot of money, running a program that cost even more money, and still need to pick up a pocket calculator to convert values.

Why not enter in a numeric input field:
12"
12.564"
1' 3 3/16"
17.2mm
4.1cm
1.234m

That way each entry can be in the format of the documentation that number came from.

Yes Vectric does a lot of things nicely, and they understandably dominate this corner of the market.

So.. my question is: Do the other programs handle such "common sense" things? If so- go with them.

Try them all before spending big bucks.

I am a big fan of parametric design, and there are programs that allow a change to one field to be reflected immediately through the entire design. So a shape is not located at a fixed point in space, it is fixed to and edge, center of the part, or some reference. It can still be fixed in space.

Its a little more complicated to learn parametric design, but it saves huge amounts of time if you have a series of related designs to produce.

As to selling software, I have no suggestions. My experience with "used" software is it so often is pirated that it has no value. Even if your offer is entirely above board, the 95% of used software sellers are giving the rest a bad name.

Hope that helps!

D

[tmerrill]

Dana,

The latest versions of Aspire/V-Carve Pro/Partworks will evaluate math expressions in numerical input fields.

All your examples can be done now with the exception of the metric - imperial conversions with are easily accomplished by letting the software multiply or divide by 25.4.

It also recognizes special characters that represent the material dimensions - height, width and thickness - and Pi, saving you from needing to re-enter information.

You should give it a try.

Tim

[knight_toolworks]

[QUOTE=dana_swift;114816
An example of the oversights: There is no way to select all the circles and make them a new diameter/radius.
D[/QUOTE]

I found the solution to this just use the offset to get them and delete the originals. it works pretty well.

[steve_g]

Since we're talking Vectric "oversights/irritants" ... why is a graceful Bezier curve converted to a zillion points when using offsets?

Steve

[dana_swift]

Steve Glassel- your question has a simple answer, a line offset from a bezier (with a few special exceptions) cannot be represented by a bezier. Feel free to dig into the math behind.

What is amazing is how well Aspire does this task, one of the reasons I like using it in spite of my occasional irritation.

Steve Knight- good solution, but it should be available for any shape, for instance change the width of all the currently selected rectangles, but not the height.

Tim- I just went and tried to put a simple expression 4*3 as a rectangle width, it does not work. It is truncated to 4. Is there something I am missing? I searched the help, the word "expression" does not occur anywhere. Are you referring to upcoming versions? I am using Aspire version 3.08.

D

[srwtlc]

Dana,

You have to hit the "=" key when finished entering any values (4*3=).

[tmerrill]

All the info is in the What's New document that is available on the Vectric website and installed on your hard drive in the C:\Program Files\Aspire 3.0\Help\WhatsNew folder.


For your example you would need to type '=' following the expression, at which time Aspire/VCP/PW will evaluate the expression.


The section from the What's New document is copied below.


Tim

[tmerrill]

Dana,

You should be using the latest version, 3.09. Select Help>Check for Updates and follow the steps.

Ask if you need help.

Tim

PS I don't release information about upcoming versions, that is Vectric's responsibility.

[srwtlc]

On the bezier issue, while not as nice as CorelDraw, you can choose to "Fit curves to selected vectors" and choose arcs or beziers and play with the tolerance to reduce the number of nodes without deforming the offset shape.

As an example, a shape I'm working on today in Aspire has 15 nodes and once offset, it has 548 nodes (many little segments). I wish it would just offset as beziers and then if you wanted to reduce the node count further, use the dialog with a slider or value like CorelDraw does. CorelDraw offsets that same 15 node shape to 26 nodes and can be further reduced to 14 without changing it significantly.

Sorry for taking this thread even further off track, just wanted to point out the "Fit Curve" tool.

[davidp]

Steve

It is not just beziers it is also arc. I wish V Carve had a spline vectors such as artcam has.

David