Online training

[BEN HOLM]

So I have been using Ecabs for about a year. I just bought the online videos. Have not goten my login info yet. Has anyone used these? what did you think? I can do basic things with the program and it has helped a lot in my shop. Instead of having to think out the cabinet and cut all my pieces now I can print a cut list and give it to my helper with out even telling him what he is cutting. I use it just for the bid and cut list I would like to learn more about making it presentable to the client and looking good. And one day buy a CNC machine. So I will keep you up to date on how these videos work for me.

[BEN HOLM]

Ok so its been about a month since I got the Online training Videos. They are Great! Like I said before I have been using eCabs for about a year and do ok, but so far I have watched almost half the videos. There is a lot! A lot of things are things that I knew already but I have learned a lot of things that make things so much easier. It sounds like the guys uses a mic but the volume is so low I can not hear it with out head phones or hooking up to amplified speakers. And its not my computer, I tried on my mac and my new dell also on 3 other computers. But over all the videos are great! I dont have a ton of time to just sit and watch videos and its perfect cuz they are all some what short. some 1.5 mins others 30-40 mins but most about 5-10 mins. One thing that would be so nice is that if they were not flash video or what ever they are cuz they dont play on my Iphone.

[Dennis Englert]

Hi, Ben,

Thanks for your comments.

I'm working on new videos for Version 6 and hopefully have resolved the sound issues that you encountered. I usually edit the clips with a headset so did not note that problem. Also, I viewed a few of the videos on my iMac and PC at home and did not have any audio issues. That being said, I have received emails from a couple of users that indicated that the sound levels were low. So I've experimented with the sound levels and the microphone and hopefully came up with an acceptable sound level that you would have to turn down and not be distorted.

I'm making an effort to reduce the time on any future video clips, so hopefully 15 minutes will be about the longest. Of course with that, the number of videos will increase, but the benefits of being able to reference a particular video clip quickly should be worth it.

A table of contents, index or markers can be included with a flash file. This is a pretty important feature so that you can restart the clip from a different mark. Screencast.com recently updated their software, so that the markers are more useful. You should be able to select the video then go directly to a marker without waiting for the entire clip to load. I've found that to be partially successful. Sometimes I can do that and other times not. Possibly, I've overloaded my computer's resources, the internet or something, but when it does work it is nice. To upload a clip for iPhone or other applications would require a separate upload without the flash feature. Generally, that process is very lengthy; at least a time and a half of the original clips length and usually closer to double. Then there's times it just fails and I have to reattempt the upload. So it is doubtful, that the clips will be uploaded for the iPhone application. At least, not at this time.

Thanks again, it's good to hear that the video clips have been informative for you. We'll get the sound straightened on the new clips as they are added.


Dennis L. Englert
Manager of Product Training
Thermwood Corporation