ECabs and Shopbot

[itoolfred]

FYI
http://www.thermwood.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9101

[ken_rychlik]

wow. I run e-cabinets for design 3d renderings to show customers. I gotta give this a try. Thanks for sharing.

Kenneth

[henrik_o]

OH MY JEHOVA!

This is so exciting I am literally jittery.

Ken Susnjara (founder and CEO of Thermwood) is the man who opened my eyes to cnc way back then, his writings on how it fits into production models is in my opinion unparalleled. He is truly a visionary, and his company is state of the art.

Ted Hall and the good folks at Shopbot Inc are the ones who made it possible for me to get into it. Ted is also a true visionary, just coming from a slightly different direction than Ken, a less academic and more democratic one.

Yesterday when I looked at Shopbot's main site, I saw the blurb leading to a huge picture of Ted and Ken talking and the "announcement will come" copy and I almost fainted.

I have never ever owned a Thermwood product, but I can say that when it comes to fanboism my trinity is Shopbot, Apple and Thermwood, in that order.

Please please please please please let this be a sign of a true and serious business alliance: that would be a whole new order of awesome.

It's like NASA marrying Apple or something. You can't make stuff like this up.

*crosses fingers* pleaaaaaaase

[benchmark]

Henrik,

I could not agree more.

Ted Hall and Ken Susnjara are the true leaders and innovators in the CNC industry.

How do we output to the Shopbot from eCabinets ?.


Paul

[ken_rychlik]

I just asked the question on the thermood site. I'm sure there is a download update or something, but my ecabients does not show an update when I checked under communications.

[benchmark]

To output to the ShopBot requires a link - the cost for this link is $1,295.00.


This link will allow you to export your eCabinet Systems .twd files into a format that will run on a ShopBot - the cost for this link is $1,295.00.

Once you complete your purchase, you will be sent a link to download the eCabinet Systems ShopBot Link (you can also access this download link from the My Account/Order Status link at the top of the Thermwood Online Store Page).

A physical hasp key will also be mailed to you once your order is processed (order will be processed within two business days). You will need both the ShopBot Link and the hasp key to start exporting your eCabinet Systems files to a ShopBot



Paul

[ken_rychlik]

$1,295 for the service. Ecabs is a good program, but I'm going to have to chew on this one for a while. lol
Kenneth

[Gary Campbell]

Guys...
This is VERY exiting news. eCabinets has been one of the "tools of the trade" in the cabinet design world since its inception. This is a program that rivals, equals or exceeds the features of others that cost upwards of $20K. The fact that Thermwood has developed this and provided it, virtually free of charge to most anyone that would register, deserves a tremendous "hats off".

For a very reasonable fee, and in cooperation with the ShopBot development team, Thermwood is making available to us the ability to cut files from the eCabs software. If you follow their forum, they are also reducing or eliminating charges for many of the downloadable files for cutting.

A most sincere Thank You to Ted Hall and Ken Susnjara for being the visionaries that they are, for their combined generousity in this trying economy, and for overlooking the age old "Ford vs. Chevy" differences that brand loyalty can invoke.

Mine is on the way...
Gary

[henrik_o]

Thanks Gary, I was waiting for you (or one of the other production guys) to place a verdict before commenting further.

It does sound fantastic, does it not?

Economy be damned, look at all this candy coming our way (due to it or not)!

First vectric introduces Aspire, an artcampro rival (until delcam responds!) for hardly above a thousand bucks, down from what, $5000? $7000?

Now this, KCD(w) type cabinetmaking for around a thousand bucks, if I understand it correctly. That's revolutionary.

Ted and crew, get to work on democratizing a toolchanger and nirvana is but a door away...

[woodworx]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15941703@N06/sets/72157616088900539/


copy and paste the whole link.

Here ya go Henrik

[henrik_o]

Pure pornography. Look at the forms of that dust hood. So sweet. Come here, p0rné;, Praxitelos has an idea for immortalizing you.

Makers Faire?

[spam filter understandably catches conventional spelling of p0rné]

[Gary Campbell]

Henrik...
Any time you have an opportunity to take advantage of a software package as robust as eCabinets, you should. Add to that our now existing ability as a non Thermwood user to generate cutting files, makes this too good to turn down. And we can do this for 10% or less of the replacement value of equal software. Even tho its not exactly cheap or free, it is one heck of a bargain.

Some besides me must think so. Ken Susnjara reported this afternoon that for the first time, their server hit "the pipeline limit" and stayed there.
Gary

[thewoodcrafter]

Truly AMAZING.

About 5 years ago when I started using eCabinets I asking my local Thermwood salesman if it would be possible to use eCabinets on a ShopBot. He laughed and thought that was so funny, he even mentioned it to the people back at corporate and they really got a good laugh also.
Well now I'm laughing.
And for ONLY $1295.
What a deal.

Truly AMAZING.

[john_l]

I will research what eCabinets does through their site. But would someone here care to elaborate how you use it? I assume this is a way to design cabs and proof them with 3D renderings for the customer? Is the cab design somewhat automated?

[loriny]

Hi
I am new to computer designing but with about 3-4 hrs playing Ecabs worked wonderfully. It is extremely easy and fast to use once you get your building style entered. Now I also have Cabinet parts pro though??? Desision time I guess.

[Gary Campbell]

John...
eCabinets is a very high powered design software for building both production and custom cabinets. It is very similar to CabinetVision, KCDw and others in the $10Kto $25K range. Its main difference is that it was build by CNC people for CNC people rather than for the kitchen manufacturers. It has a very powerful graphics engine and some very powerful machining options.

As with all really good software, there will be both a steep learning curve, hundreds, possibly thousands of settings to get correct, and a few bugs. And there may also be a few bugs in the new ShopBot Link that have to be worked out.
Gary

[Gary Campbell]

Lorin...
The two dont have to be mutually exclusive. Each one has features or strong points that the other may not. For example... our computer at the shop has no where near the resources to run eCabs well. You can be sure that there is still going to be a copy of CPPro on it. There is still nothing that will put out a dozen cabinets to a ShopBot faster than CPPro.
Gary

[thewoodcrafter]

I don't know about that Gary.

I have been using eCabinets for about 5 years.
I design with it, I estimate with it, I give presentations with it and I print nests and labels with it.
I have just never been able to cut with it.
The material thickness correction just before post will be great.
Can't wait to get a copy of the link program.

[ken_rychlik]

The computer you use to run ecabinets will need to be a pretty expensive unit. Also it needs a good graphics card. Just the 3d presentations it does has sold quite a few kitchens for me. I normally take dimensions of the room and do a room layout, then add the windows and doors. After that I put the cabinets into the room one at a time along with appliances and counter tops. Add some lighting for a little shadow affect and then do a 3D rendering from whatever angle you wish. Save it as a j peg and email it to the customer. I willl probably purchase it soon, but would like to learn a little more first. I can't get the link to work, so I guess we killed it. lol

Kenneth

[thewoodcrafter]

The link to the user manual seems to work fine but you need to read and follow the 'unblock' explanation.

[thewoodcrafter]

Started reading the manual.
HOLLY SH** BATMAN!!!

It looks like this link program will give our machines the same intelligence as a Thermwood controller. If none of you know anything about a Thermwood controller here is an example -

Max Feed Size

The value entered in the “Max Feed Size” field is set to square inches. If a part has an area less than the “Max Feed Size”, then Control Nesting will adjust the feed rate for this part only. This will also help prevent part movement for the small parts that qualify.

It does tabbing, skinning, where to start, ramping, starting, stopping, spindle speed, waste material handling, lots and lots stuff.

I need to read some more...

[ken_rychlik]

I still can't get mine to unblock. looking under properties, I can't find a button that reads unblock anywhere.

[thewoodcrafter]

At the bottom of the general Tab under properties I had an "Unblock" button. After pressing it the file worked fine.
I went to look for it now and I don't have an
"Unblock" button anymore.

[kerry_fullington]

Hello All,

Ken Susnjara posted this morning that their web servers were maxed out yesterday after the ShopBot announcement. There is already a great deal of traffic this morning so you may have to be patient getting info from their site until things calm down.
Welcome to eCabinets.
Kerry Fullington (eCabinets user)

[ken_rychlik]

I had to download it, then go to the explore button off of the start menu on my pc, then I was able to get the unlock button. I'm going to have to play with ecabinets some more to maks sure I can fix the cabinets the way I build them. I always just used it for presentations and never worried about the construction settings that much, because I couldn't use that function anyway.

[kerry_fullington]

Kenneth,

eCabinets will build cabinets any way you want them to. Most anything you can dream up can be designed using eCabinets. If I can be of any help email me at kerry@kerryfullington.com (mailto:kerry@kerryfullington.com).

Kerry

[Gary Campbell]

Roger...
Since I havent spent the time with eCabinets that you have, I hope I am in for a very pleasant surprise. Nothing could be nicer than to have the expanded capabilities that will be available, and speed also.

Kerry...
Welcome to the ShopBot Forum
Gary

[ken_rychlik]

Thanks Kerry.

And for those that don't know it, Kerry is the GURU of ecabinets. When he designs a kitchen you have to look real hard to tell if it is real or one of his renderings.

Kenneth

[cookie]

I have been using e-Cabinets for a couple of years. I never thought I would be able to use them together. Who's going to be the first to try it? Bruce

[ken_rychlik]

I want it, but I don't want to be first. lol I can say that I am comfortable with both companies solving whatever issues arise, but I'm sure there will be some.

[Gary Campbell]

Bruce, Ken...
I know that myself and John Forney have a link being shipped as we speak, there may be others.
Gary

[itoolfred]

In a crazy sort of way I ran this this link a couple years ago :-). We have both the Thermwood and Shopbot routers which are both excellent machines. A couple years ago the THM was down for routine maintenance and they needed a part off an eCab job. We ran the nest on the THM, saved the mostly G-Code file to the bot. Ran the G-code converter and cut the part. Here is what I'll be very interested to see how it works that I did not see in documentation:
-how will it handle bit changes
-if a bit change is necessary, how will it handle the bit measure in the middle of the job file.

When I did the conversion manually, I went in and found all the bit change calls and manually inserted a pause and measure. Something I'm also interested in is the offsets. Thermwood has a concept of fence locations that Shopbot users may not be familiar with. It took me a while to get used to this, but now makes perfect sense (maybe they won't be in the link?).
I'm excited about this development and will be ordering the link myself very soon. The eCabs software has opened up a whole new world of business for me.
Fred

[dray]

WOOT...

Thats all I have to say

[ljdm]

Uninformed user asking possibly stupid question, but here goes anyway - if ecabs outputs g-code, and Sb converts them, what is the purpose of the 1200.00 unlock? Easy guys, with your answers, I already said I don't know squat about this subject. Just trying to learn.

[thewoodcrafter]

eCabinets generates a .TWD file that is NOT G code.
This file can only be read by a Thermwood controller. I think the controller will generate G code. But then you need a Thermwood CNC router to get the controller.
The ShopBot Link program will convert this .TWD file to ShopBot code and add a lot of intelligence to our machines.

[zeykr]

Lou,

Ecabs puts out a proprietary file that only the thermwoods could read up to now - not gcode.

[ljdm]

Got it........... reading a previous post, I assumed it meant it outputted g-code, now I understand.

[Gary Campbell]

Guys...
If you havnt looked at it yet, here is a link to the instruction manual for the ShopBot Link. http://www.ecabinetsystems.com/ecabinet_systems_shopbot_link.htm

This Link, in conjunction with the eCabinets Software, will add machining features and parametric toolpath strategies far more advanced than those that have been available in the majority of commonly used design software.

Also, the Link does NOT output ShopBot Code as we know it. The output is encrypted, and our SB3 software has been modified to accept this.

These features have been designed to enhance the CNC ability of the both the small shop and large, with full coverage in between.

If you cut cabinets for a living, download the manual and take a look.
Gary