Where do we go from here?

[Georgi Baltov]

Shelf pin holes in backs.

I'll 2nd that one Rick.

Another thing I asked about a long time ago was being able to make shoe cubbies so all your uprights are 1 piece and all your horizontals are one piece. They each have a full dado 1/2 the depth +bit radius and add maybe .030" to the thickness of the material so they slide together nice. This type of storage system can be used in many areas but especially in closets where Ecabinets is still weak, IMHO, compared to the Competitors. Doing it with shelves and partitions is just plain primitive. I think there is some sort of work around but it should be part of the system so when you change material or number of cubby holes you do not have to re engineer it manually.

So when does beta testing Start?????

Thanks

Michael,

I made some of these joint manually on a wine rack wall w/ about 1000 bottle capacity. I had to program everything on Mastercam and machining took forever. 90% of the parts had to be machined two sides. It took forever but the joints turned great. Flip cuts lined up perfectly. I don't know how hard it's going to be to make such joining implemented in the software but I am definitely for it.

[Dale Wills]

I'd like to put a few other suggestions forward for discussion.
I have used different nesting programs before and can see where Thermwoods super controller could make advancements. At the moment there is limited user options to manipulate a nest other than in the X or Y diretions and adding in collars and part clearance etc. I have a lot of problems where small parts are nested along an edge of a sheet and depending on where the entry/exit points are, these parts are highly succeptable to moving. Now I know we have the collar setting but what if I only require the collar feature for one or two sheets where those small parts might be located. I don't require a collar for the remaining 15 sheets. Therefore it would be great to be able to control the entry/exit points so that they can be located on the parts to the inside of the sheet. This means that the part would still connected to the adjacent part or offcut right up to the point where it is cut free.
I think the tab feature was a great addition but have not been convinced into using it yet as there is no area to set a tab thickness. I feel this is critical and should normally be set at your onion skin thickness.

Dale

[Will Williamson]

A problem I am having right now is in large open Casework I don't have the ability to divide the back up into standard sheet sizes or equal sizes Most of the posts are directed at these type of details for software improvement

But lets shift gears alittle, is this really what Kerry was asking for with Where do we go from here

For a lot of us maybe even most of us ECab has been an introduction to American made Cabinet and Furniture design software and CNC equiptment

On another note it appears that Thermwood is spending time and money on introducing us to imported Italian Machinery (edgebanders) I hope this doesn't backfire on them. I would have spent time and money on developing my own brand of edge bander
Will E CAB have the ability to produce labels and communicate with this equiptment ? This is one of the biggest hurdles I hear mentioned Ecabinet inability to interface with other brands of equiptment

As ECabinet members we are really just passengers on the Thermwood boat along for the ride .As Machine owners things become a lot more serious. Many of us have put at risk every thing we own to purchase this equiptment and are not passengers we have tied our oun little boat to the bigger Thermwood Boat .So in reallity the only control any of us have is the decision to stay on the boat or not or to cut our self loose and drift or tie up to another big boat.

How is that for rocking the boat

[Bill Madge]

Dale,

I agree with you on the Controll nesting, I have mentioned a couple of times now it would be nice to have controll of the nested sheets. Controll nesting typically cuts the traditional way, as if you had an operator at a table saw cutting parts from largest to smallest. In controll nesting the last two to three sheets tend to be heavily concentrated with drawer box and stretcher parts. What I would like to see is the ability to run the nest backwards to front. This would have two advantages in my opinion, 1 the smaller parts would be cut first before the spoil board gets cut up and eliminate some of the part movement and second the finished gables would be cut first and allow them to head into the finishing room.

[Glenn Warner]

How about making the feedback public, perhaps in a separate forum. There could be a public "known issues" (bug) list too. As individual users I think we must be cognizant of the many considerations that go into allocating resources and communicating future development. Compared to other software, (free and fee), eCabinets has done a pretty good job so far.

I posted this in the V6 thread and it got no response. However I do think that we need a central repository that is universally accessible to all stakeholders. Posting individual requests on separate threads, no matter how passionate, is an exercise in futility.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Shelf pin holes in backs.

I'll 2nd that one Rick.

Another thing I asked about a long time ago was being able to make shoe cubbies so all your uprights are 1 piece and all your horizontals are one piece. They each have a full dado 1/2 the depth +bit radius and add maybe .030" to the thickness of the material so they slide together nice. This type of storage system can be used in many areas but especially in closets where Ecabinets is still weak, IMHO, compared to the Competitors. Doing it with shelves and partitions is just plain primitive. I think there is some sort of work around but it should be part of the system so when you change material or number of cubby holes you do not have to re engineer it manually.

So when does beta testing Start?????

Thanks

Michael,

I made some of these joint manually on a wine rack wall w/ about 1000 bottle capacity. I had to program everything on Mastercam and machining took forever. 90% of the parts had to be machined two sides. It took forever but the joints turned great. Flip cuts lined up perfectly. I don't know how hard it's going to be to make such joining implemented in the software but I am definitely for it.

Georgi,
Wow 1000 bottle capacity. Were they on an angle or vertical? Why did you have to have flip ops?

I hope they can integrate it in with the shelf editor as another construction method with an option/settings page to tweak it.


Glenn Van Reason,
Control Nesting, to me, is a separate entity and should probably be discussed in the Thermwood forum so we don't confuse the non-CNC owners and i do agree that having CN at the controller makes a big difference when the operator is properly trained.


Wil,
I respectfully disagree that "we are just passengers" This is not a spectator sport! Everyone that uses Ecabinets can have valuable input and sometimes even the smallest request can lead to big added feature.

I definitely agree that those of us that have Thermwood CNC's have more at stake but that does not make someones input, that doesn't own a Thermwood CNC, any less valuable for Ecabinets. Obviously Thermwood CNC owners have 99.9% input towards improvements and added features for Control Nesting because we are the only ones using it. So I suggest we keep Control nesting where it belongs, in the Thermwood forum.

[DanEpps]

Dale,

I agree with you on the Controll nesting, I have mentioned a couple of times now it would be nice to have controll of the nested sheets. Controll nesting typically cuts the traditional way, as if you had an operator at a table saw cutting parts from largest to smallest. In controll nesting the last two to three sheets tend to be heavily concentrated with drawer box and stretcher parts. What I would like to see is the ability to run the nest backwards to front. This would have two advantages in my opinion, 1 the smaller parts would be cut first before the spoil board gets cut up and eliminate some of the part movement and second the finished gables would be cut first and allow them to head into the finishing room.

Bill

I don't mean to sound like a jerk or anything, but just where have you mentioned this before? Here is a list of all five posts you have made in the forum and none of them are related to Control nesting:

Bill Madge Posts.jpg (84.23 KiB) Viewed 10243 times

[Georgi Baltov]

Michael,

I wanted them to lock two sides so there's no movement. We are talking about lots of bottles here. The client was very happy and we learnt some valuable things from all that. I hope we get another one like this. It was all horizontal - no diagonals. The idea was to be able to use full shelves and partitions. One part was made in eCabinets and the rest in Masteecam.

Not that we haven't requested it before but in the next version one big thing for me will be drawer box part editor. Especially when you can easily make dovetails now, a part editor for the drawer boxes will probably finish that part of the program.

[Bill Madge]

Dan

What does it matter how many posts I have made, I have been working with E-Cab, Controll Nesting and our Thermwood router for the last two years, I don't make a lot of posts because I don't have the time. I use the forum as a resource because most issues that I have had with the program have been discussed and there is usually a work around already posted. When I say that I have mentioned issues before it is because I usually use the feedback tab in e-cabinets or I contact technical support Canada. If you wish I still have the e-mail of this request I can post it for you. I am sorry if I have offended you in my last post regarding E-Cabinets V6 but I feel as a user of E-cabinets, Controll Nesting and a Thermwood Router I am entitled to an opinion also. I can also see that in your eyes my I have not made enough posts for my opinion to count on, so from now on I will not post anymore.


Thank you

Bill Madge

[Will Williamson]

Kerry
Its time to jump back in and clarify your question. When some one ask me where we go from here it means they are lost and are looking for directions. That is the way I understood your post.

Bill
I hope you would reconsider and continue to participate there are not nearly enough experienced operators on this forum

To everyone else I did not intend to hurt anyones feelings or belittle them and I appreciate everyones contributions. And I particularly appreciate when someone takes the time to strongly disagree with me. Because they are bringing something to my attention that I have possibly over looked .

As far as ECabinets software I use this software for only one purpose to provide information to my machine. And I expect it to do so accurately and reliably

[DanEpps]

Bill

I have to echo what Will said...your opinions certainly do matter and are valued. I also did not intend to step on anyone's toes--that's why I said "I don't mean to sound like a jerk..." but I did anyway.

The only thing I was getting at was your post says you have suggested it a couple of times and, when something like that is posted in the forum, it implies (to me anyway) that the suggestions were in the forum as well.

The number of posts anyone makes is not important. What is important is that when you have questions, remember that you have a great resource available in this forum. There are many users (machine owners and not) here that are ready, willing and more than able to help in any way.

I certainly don't want you to think your opinion does not count. Every opinion counts with equal weight here and we want your input and insight!

Again, I'm sorry for my misunderstanding of what you meant in your post.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Joe,

The problem I see with that is the fact that the people who visit and participate in the forums is only a small percentage of the actual software users so a poll might not accurately represent the needs of the membership.
Kerry

Hey Kerry,
I think that an additional section was added to the forum that could have sub categories in that would reflect each section of the software ie...
Main category would be Improvements/fixes and New feature requests--
then under each of those would be part editor, shelf editor, assembly, nesting, LDE, etc...

My thought is if you have one post for all it will stretch out for pages and the stuff in the middle will be missed and or duplicated. With independent categories it should be easier to pinpoint the topic and where you should post your request. I think it would be much more organized for both us user's and the programmers. just thinking out loud.

I Think Ken should make a sticky note at the top and have a monthly "The State of the Ecabinets" so we can see what's going on in addition to the Ecabinets magazine. I think they were suppose to go completely digital but I have not seen it yet.

[Kerry Fullington]

Will,

My original motive for this thread was to goad the eCabinet guys into giving us a hint as to what was rolling down the Thermwood and eCabinets pipeline.
I like the turn that the thread has taken though, it has re-iterated many of the suggestions for software improvement that have been suggested before on this forum. Because the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" it never hurts to bring these wants up. Maybe we can provide some direction here.

Michael,

There is another forum for a competitor's software that I visit that has a section called Quality Control.
In this section there are forums to suggest new features and a forum to report features that have been implemented and bugs that have been fixed. This might be a great addition for the ecabinets forums.
(I know this forum addition has been suggested before but maybe it will take hold)
I miss Ken's reports here on the forum about the things going on at Thermwood. The Member Magazine does some of that but I enjoyed the visits to the forum. (If Ken has retired from this job maybe someone else might like to take over)

Thermwood did publish one digital edition of the Member magazine but as they did not post the release on the forum or via email I don't think many members know about it. HERE is a link to it. (I know publishing a paper magazine is terribly expensive but I sure miss it. eCabinets Member Magazine is one of the few trade magazines that I would read cover to cover. I tried the digital versions of a couple of the other trades and went back to paper. It isn't easy being green.)

[DanEpps]

...I know publishing a paper magazine is terribly expensive but I sure miss it. eCabinets Member Magazine is one of the few trade magazines that I would read cover to cover. I tried the digital versions of a couple of the other trades and went back to paper. It isn't easy being green...

Yeah, its difficult to read too, with a laptop burning your legs in the bathroom.

[Jason Susnjara]

Hi Members,

I actually came up with a post yesterday and submitted it, but for some reason it was not there so I am writing this again. I am hoping that this post will let everyone reading know how we try to operate and answer any questions that you had earlier. For the past year or two, we have been in a simplification mode. We recognize that the majority of new and existing members have a hard time learning the software. We also recognize that there are a few members out there that know the software better than our programmers We are still on a mission to simplify the software as we did with the room layout area for V5 but still keep the same functionality that the software still gives to you now. The room layout still has some more improvements and features that need to be added but areas like the LDE, labels, reports, drawer box editing, more MDF doors, etc.. are areas that we know need to be simplified and improved upon. We also added videos for certain areas and Dennis created a 600+ page book that should help new and exisiting members with learning the software.

New features, and improvements are generally dictated by the Feedback section, Forum, Training, and Time. Regardless of what happens to new updates, there will always be some members that are not happy because we didn't add what they wanted and there will be members that are jumping for joy because a certain item has been added or improved that they wanted. We can't add everything at once or you wouldn't see an update for a long time. The way we try to handle this is we take all of the feedback from the different areas and put them into a database. When the time comes to discuss what we are going to put into the next update, we go over this list. The programmers decide how long it would take to program these items. We also look at the # of members requesting the different features and improvements. Now during the programming process, the programmers might realize that a certain item will take longer to program. From there we decide if we want to add another big task to replace the original or add more smaller tasks for the next update. Sometimes the programmers will get an item done quicker than what we had thought and therefore smaller items will be added or improved which is a bonus. I also thought about adding a QC area to the forum, however, I believe that there are problems with this direction as well. Yes, all members get to see what everyone wants, but this leaves a mess of pages that we will need to filter through just to make sure that the items are not duplicated or skipped And no, Ken has not retired, just busy with our new furniture production line, new book and looking into the future for other possibilities to expand.

Now with V6, we plan on removing all of the hardware that is installed with the software and integrating the web store to the software. You are probably asking "What does this do for me" and "Why is this important"? Members will have an easier time ordering components and hardware through the software than before. Members will be able to download future updates. Downloading the software gives us the possibility of releasing more updates throughout the year. Before, we would release 1 major update a year and smaller, multiple ones in between. This is because we won't have to ship out thousands of cds to everyone. We are also working on getting eCabinets compatible with Windows Vista. Other than that, we plan on having a meeting in the next few weeks to decide what else is going to be added or improved.

Now for Control Nesting (CN). We do have plans on updating CN as we have in the past. Manually moving parts throughout the nest along with many other items are on our list of features to complete. We still receive a lot of ideas from our members/cnc owners as well as ideas that have been thrown around the past few months due to the fact that we are actually producing furniture now. This furniture line should give us a better understanding of what our members need to help them compete. For future CN improvements and features, please post on the Thermwood Forum as our programming dept. can track new feedback for CN updates.

Please feel free to give me a call or email me about this posting or anything else related to eCabinets. If you have ideas and don't want to put them on the forum then please let me know. Also, please continue the use of the feedback section in the software as well as this forum. This forum has been great for me, the programmers, and I am sure that it has helped many members get through some hurdles that they were facing. Also, the members that take their time in responding to other members problems and concerns, I cannot thank you enough.

Thanks,