General bugs

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Alex Bowler
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon, Mar 26 2012, 10:40PM
Company Name: cutshop
Country: NEW ZEALAND

General bugs

Post by Alex Bowler »

Hi

I am trying to build a business based on product sharing where we are a machine shop for cabinet makers. We have decided to go
with Thermwood as we like the machine and overall e cabinets meets our needs. But i am struggling with some aspects of e cabinets
that seem unfinished. Below are some problems I encounter daily:

-After i have imported a few cabinets into cabinet editor it comes up with a message saying i need to add hardware then a message saying a critical internal
error comes up
-After editing a few different draw box it looses the material or construction setting for draw box
-In constant editor some constants will not apply or crashes when testing them
-When using custom layout windows and sinks often disappear
-Sometimes will not let me select multiple shelves to equalize
-When editing shelves and partitions parts sometimes fly out side of the cabinets
-Struggles to nest jobs over 40 sheets

I understand there will always be things that you need to work around with CAD programs and the best program sometimes crash but i feel that
there I alot of these problems with e cabinets. Are other users finding these same problems? I am in New Zealand and there is only 1 other Thermwood in the
whole country that is consistently cutting cabinetry. Could some problems be down to using it in metric mode?
Rick Deskins
Thermwood Team
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Joined: Tue, May 17 2005, 12:47PM
Company Name: Thermwood
Country: UNITED STATES
Location: Thermwood

Re: General bugs

Post by Rick Deskins »

Often, when users are experience crashes in different area of the software it is related to the video card driver. Have you tried updating you video card drivers to the latest from nVidia's or ATI's website?

-In constant editor some constants will not apply or crashes when testing them
-When editing shelves and partitions parts sometimes fly out side of the cabinets
Do you have a Cabinet and a few steps to reproduce this?

-Struggles to nest jobs over 40 sheets
What is specs of your PC? CPU, RAM, Video Card

-After i have imported a few cabinets into cabinet editor it comes up with a message saying i need to add hardware then a message saying a critical internal
error comes up
After you get this error, could you go to the event viewer and post the details of the error you are getting. See this post for an example: http://www.thermwood.com/forums/viewtop ... =3&t=11047
Rick Deskins
eCabinet Systems Programmer
Dell Precision / Xeon E3-1240 / 8GB RAM/ AMD FirePro V4900
jason galbraith
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Re: General bugs

Post by jason galbraith »

Hi, I've got various issues with the software that others have reported previously, but none of the ones that you are experiencing. Yes metric and constantly nest over 40 sheeets. What are your computer specs. The specs in my sig run the programme exceptionally well and at this point in time is not that expensive to buy with the same configuration.
Core i7-2600 @ 3.70Ghz - 8 GB ram - Win 7 Ultimate 64bit - 2 x 24" ASUS monitors - Nvidia 600 Quadro 1GB graphics
www.eastcoastultimate.com.au
Alex Bowler
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon, Mar 26 2012, 10:40PM
Company Name: cutshop
Country: NEW ZEALAND

Re: General bugs

Post by Alex Bowler »

Hi

Attached is a wardrobe that i am creating that i have had a could of problems with the draw box is randomly in middle of unit before this the
partition was 1000mm to the left of the cabinet.
Attachments
wardrobe 45454.esa
(1.37 MiB) Downloaded 352 times
wardrobe 45454.jpg
wardrobe 45454.jpg (13.34 KiB) Viewed 10243 times
jan draw.esa
(1.9 MiB) Downloaded 334 times
jan draw.jpg
jan draw.jpg (15.76 KiB) Viewed 10243 times
Alex Bowler
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon, Mar 26 2012, 10:40PM
Company Name: cutshop
Country: NEW ZEALAND

Re: General bugs

Post by Alex Bowler »

Hi

It crashed again today so attached is the event log. I was bringing a cabinet into line editor. My laptop is a HP pavilion I5 2nd generation 4 GB ram CPU 2.30 GHz that i bought about October last year so i would of thought it would be okay?

Will download Nvidas latest driver though.
Attachments
e cab log.jpg
Kerry Fullington
Wizard Member
Posts: 4718
Joined: Mon, May 09 2005, 7:33PM
Company Name: Double E Cabinets
Country: UNITED STATES
Location: Amarillo, TX

Re: General bugs

Post by Kerry Fullington »

Alex,

Your computer has integrated graphics which is probably the cause of your problems. There are minimum computer specifications listed on the eCabinets web site.
Josh Rayburn
eCabinets Beta Tester
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Company Name: Halls Edge Inc
Country: UNITED STATES
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Contact:

Re: General bugs

Post by Josh Rayburn »

Hi guys,
For whatever it's worth, I've seen ALL the problems that Alex has described with the exception of the critical internal error.
I have grown to accept that it's just part of the deal.
I don't think I'd last a day at programming even if I pretended that I knew how to do it, so I'm grateful for Thermwood's hard work - and I have to remind myself about that from time to time when I get frustrated at the error of the day.
I wish we could get a tight leash on those part bodies, it would be really nice if they would quit running away and getting lost. Aside from that, it's usually a matter of restarting and closing other programs to try and give ecabinets exclusivity when possible, more often than not that will help minimize the strange errors.
Updating video drivers as often as possible can help too!
All the best,
jnr
Josh Rayburn
Hall's Edge, Inc.
CNC Machining Service


Dell Precision T3400
Win7 Professional 64 Bit/Core2Duo E8400 3ghz/4 GB Ram/NVIDIA Quadro FX570
Alex Bowler
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon, Mar 26 2012, 10:40PM
Company Name: cutshop
Country: NEW ZEALAND

Re: General bugs

Post by Alex Bowler »

Hi

I understand what your saying and I don't want to just complain about the software and i think what Thermwood have done so far overall is great. Reality is
though we have bought a new machine and i need it to be working at its optimum.

I can see that having an up to date video driver and a computer that has the right specs is important i will address this. I also think that if there is common
problems with E cabinets that people are just accepting Thermwood needs to resolve them.We have 2 programmers and myself using E cabinets
daily and if you add up the time spent restarting or re-drawing items for the 3 of us over the year it adds up to a significant cost.

I know it is a free software but Thermwood markets is heavily when selling there CNC's and we bought this machine based on E cabinets
being part of our business.
jason galbraith
Senior Member
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Company Name: Eastcoast Ultimate
Country: AUSTRALIA
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Re: General bugs

Post by jason galbraith »

It could well be the integrated graphics that is causing some of your problems, but for what it's worth now seeing your cabinets, yeah I've had ecabs throw up some random issues when adding draw boxes that manage to shift up above the unit and does some really weird stuff, that when I try to replicate often doesn't happen again. Frustrating, yes.
With the units that you are doing i notice that you have one long unit and another one butting into it are you doing this for display purposes? Have you tried making both items separately in a batch, save them into a library, open a new job bring one item in and then adding the other item and butting it into it that way? Don't think I explained myself very well there, but I often do units more complex than that without issues -generally :)
Also, with labour costs being so high, you might want to consider moving to another software if you are finding that you are wasting a lot of hours. The initial (mostly outrageous) prices of some other software products might be offset by your redrawing time?
Core i7-2600 @ 3.70Ghz - 8 GB ram - Win 7 Ultimate 64bit - 2 x 24" ASUS monitors - Nvidia 600 Quadro 1GB graphics
www.eastcoastultimate.com.au
Alex Bowler
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon, Mar 26 2012, 10:40PM
Company Name: cutshop
Country: NEW ZEALAND

Re: General bugs

Post by Alex Bowler »

Hi

I was drawing them together for display and to ensure shelves line up but understand what you are saying.
I do actually think that e cabinets can meet our needs and we are already cutting 50+ sheets a day using it
but i just want to overcome as many of these problems as i can. The ideas behind e cabinets such as assembly
marks and the flexibility of the program is awesome and is beyond allot of the programs that you can buy.
For me this makes it more frustrating dealing with these somewhat trivial problems.

I know that allot of Thermwoods time has be tied up with U build but have they released a plan for future development/refinement
of e cabinets?

Jason,I had a look at what you guys do seem quite similar to what we do in general are you using e cabinet
constantly?
jason galbraith
Senior Member
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed, Dec 10 2008, 3:29PM
Company Name: Eastcoast Ultimate
Country: AUSTRALIA
Contact:

Re: General bugs

Post by jason galbraith »

Yeah I use Ecabs pretty much all day, every day. Most days :)
And I know what you mean, I've worked for a couple of cabinet software companies and Ecabs can surprisingly hold its head up high in regard to what it can do for free compared to other programs worth in the $50K area. It does how ever fall short in other areas. I've yet to come across a program that can do everything that everyone wants.
Core i7-2600 @ 3.70Ghz - 8 GB ram - Win 7 Ultimate 64bit - 2 x 24" ASUS monitors - Nvidia 600 Quadro 1GB graphics
www.eastcoastultimate.com.au
Alex Bowler
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon, Mar 26 2012, 10:40PM
Company Name: cutshop
Country: NEW ZEALAND

Re: General bugs

Post by Alex Bowler »

Hi Jason

I just noticed that you have a I7 would that have integrated graphics card? One reason for these problems is that I have
an integrated graphic card on my I5 has this been a problem for you? have you changed any settings?
jason galbraith
Senior Member
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed, Dec 10 2008, 3:29PM
Company Name: Eastcoast Ultimate
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Contact:

Re: General bugs

Post by jason galbraith »

Hi Alex, the i7 is just a bigger CPU (motor for want of a better word)than the i5 and plays a smaller part in running ecabs. The Nvidia 600 Quadro 1GB graphics card is what pushes my display for ecabs. My computer is a tower unit custom built by myself specificly to do CAD stuff. If the link i got was correct when googling your laptop it has Intel HD graphics, which are integrated - which basically means it uses a built in chip on the motherboard rather than a stand alone graphics card and the integrated graphics steal memory from your RAM to achieve their output, which for most uses, even lower spec games is OK, but for CAD purposes it really pushes system resources and quite possibly is contributing to some of your issues.
Now to make it a little more confusing, most graphics cards tha you buy will either be from two suppliers Nvidia or ATI and 99% of the cards these two produce are for running games, which will work better than integrated graphics. If you want a card specificly for CAD purposes then the Quadro card is the one you are after.
If you are after a laptop or a tower PC, then get one with a dedicated grapics card such as Nvidia or ATI or even better Nvidia Quadro. Dell I think still sell laptops with the Quadro - they are pretty rare as the market is not huge for them.
If you are after a new PC or laptop check the specs page here or just ask and we'll put you on the right track.
By the way, if your laptop does indeed have integrated graphics, no you cannot upgrade it to a better graphics option. Some store bought tower PC's do give you this flexibilty.
Core i7-2600 @ 3.70Ghz - 8 GB ram - Win 7 Ultimate 64bit - 2 x 24" ASUS monitors - Nvidia 600 Quadro 1GB graphics
www.eastcoastultimate.com.au
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