Now that the dust has settled, How do you like V6?

[Kerry Fullington]

I have noticed that there is very little activity on the forum so that usually means the software is working well for everyone. Now that you have had some time with V6, How do you like it?
I am curious how the folks like it that held out till V5 expired. I found during Beta testing that I didn't like to go back to V5 for anything after working in V6.

Is eCabinets headed in the right direction. Are you happy about their focus on speeding up the software?

I have had some issues with V6 which were specific to my computer it seems but after several driver updates things are working pretty good. It is probably time for a new computer and operating system for me but I am going to hold out for a while.

Just consider this a blatant attempt to generate some activity on the forum

Kerry

[Bryan J Tanner]

Well Kerry like you I jumped onto V6 during Beta testing and almost stopped using V5 straight away.

A Big Well Done to the boys/girls? at thermwood for a fantastic improvement in the user interface.

Speed was an issue, though my system was underpowered(to put it politely) for V5 to begin with.

So an upgrade to the system you see in my signature put pay to that problem, V6 fly's now.

I look forward to the future as Thermwood continue to add features and remove bugs.

And the day when I can add another CNC to New Zealand.

[Gary Puckett]

Kerry,

Seems I am having issues with a slow down when pulling cabinets from the room layout to add hardware ( hinges, slides, hinge plates and so on) it gets worse as I move from cabinet to cabinet. I have talked with Scott about it and he to was seeing this at his end with my job.

He has yet to reply on the problem.

Are there other drivers that should be looked at other than video card drivers?

Gary

[Rick Palechuk]

Kerry,

I held out on my shop rig till the end in fear that I was going to have an issue with an ongoing job that we have. I think the Big T has done a great job with this version of the software. I love the hardware area. I noticed you have every screw and crumb of sawdust itemized , I am getting there, time permitting. I don't do much in Custom Layout, mostly CE, Batch, and LDE. Overall, a great job done by a circle of good people, programmers and users combined.

[Neville Bastian]

Hi Kerry, For us down under I think the removal of the Thermwood shop and the ability to use your own hardware was a welcomed thing. Having our local suppliers and part numbers is great for ordering items. The only concern I have is the inability to change profit margins on the additional tabs we make up. I think it uses one default percentage for mark-up on new tabs.
There other changes that V6 bought but that is the one that is a highlight. I lie, the side tab for picking cabinets is neat too.
I wouldn't hang onto V5 even if it is a little faster.
Still a little disappointed in its proposal workings and I think most users are as according to one of the surveys in the forum a few months back hardly anyone was using that feature. Sorry I am getting off topic.

Great to get V6
Regards

Neville

[JohnLashuay]

Hi Kerry!

I am very pleased with V6. I find the side tab for picking cabinets is very helpful and it speeds up the process.

-John

[Kerry Fullington]

Gary,

Other than the graphic card drivers I I updated my mouse. I use Logitech smart mice and I was having trouble selecting nodes and rotating when I used the mouse for the shift key. Updating the mouse control software cured some of this. I realized it was the mouse when I started having trouble closing windows and selecting links on another computer with the same mouse. Updating fixed this one also.

Rick,

Including the screws and shelf pins etc. started out as an experiment but it is nice to see what all this stuff costs on a job so I left it. Who knows, I might even include glue and sandpaper.

Kerry

[Donald Thomson]

Hi Kerry,

Overall I'm pretty fond of V6. Great improvement over V5. The one area that could use some extensive optimization is in the LDE. It is really SLOOOOW and cumbersome, at least on my computer. I've done nothing for hardware updates or driver updates but I have noticed in the last week or so, somehow V6 is actually getting faster. I don't know if it was a Windows 7 auto-update that did it or what. But it is very usable and waiting is not the pain that it used to be.

I use layout editor a lot because my customers really like being able to "see" their ideas in 3D. This editor could use some close attention in the efficiency tweaking department in the next release.

I think if the folks at Thermwood focus there efforts on performance improvement in the next release that would be great. Get what they have working now, working really fast and rock solid, then look at feature additions in a later release.

Fast and rock solid are on the top of my vote list for the next release.

As always, THANK YOU to Thermwood for a great design and marketing tool. It has gotten me some business I wouldn't have gotten otherwise!!!

[Joe Dusel]

Well, I think V6 is an improvement over Version 5, but of course I always want more. I would like to get rid of the excess baggage, like the Proposal Writer.

So, what else do I want now? Here are a few things from my wish list...

1) Get rid of the colored cabinets and stuff. I liked having everything placed in the rendered mode. It was better to see what was there, and you could actually texture match stuff after it was place in the room. To me this is just an unnecessary mode for the Custom Layout Editor.

2) Setup the LDE to have some sort of auto-dimensioning. I would be happy to have the software just put the cabinet widths in, but I'm open for better ideas.

3) Setup the LDE to use some sort of "View Port" to the objects that you place in the LDE. So, it would not be a copy of a room, wall or a cabinet; it would be a view of these objects. That way if the object(s) are updated the LDE "View" of these objects would also be changed. If a measurement is made between a set of nodes that happen to go away then that measurement would go away. Having this sort of arrangement should require less file storage space. If this can not be easily done, it would be nice to be able to save the LDE information into separate files. So, if the main project name is kitchen1.esj, page 1 of the LDE associated with this would be kitchen1.p1.lde, page 2 would be kitchen1.p2.lde. The LDE pages would be opened only if the LDE is accessed, and only the pages selected would be opened.

4) Setup the Presentation View so that the lights can be hidden or shown. Of course it would also be nice to be able to move them in the Presentation View.

5) Setup a transparency option for sheet materials so that we can place glass shelves and doors.

6) Update the door editor so that we can custom design doors with muntins and different materials for the panels and the frame. It would also be nice to set the material to any wood species that we choose and not just the Conestoga choices.

7) Allow the window and door frame width to be changed.

Joe

[Gary Campbell]

Looks like I am with the majority here as I think V6 is an improvement over V5.

My wishlist leans on the side of machining especially as it applies to hole patterns and where and how they can be placed and or modified. All in all, I think the programming crew is doing a good job improving the softwares function with each version. I am with Don in saying that eCabs has created places in my market that wouldnt have existed without it.

Good Job Guys!

[Scott G Vaal]

Seems I am having issues with a slow down when pulling cabinets from the room layout to add hardware ( hinges, slides, hinge plates and so on) it gets worse as I move from cabinet to cabinet. I have talked with Scott about it and he to was seeing this at his end with my job.

He has yet to reply on the problem.

Gary Puckett,

I have not forgotten you on this Gary, I just do not have an answer for you yet. We are looking into many aspects of performance including the situation presented in your job. Thanks for your patience.

[Leo Graywacz]

I was one of the holdouts and since I was forced to do the upgrade I have found the speed of the new version on par with v6.4

Still a few things that I can't believe are hanging around, one of them is after you save the job and try to exit it asks you if you want to save the job. Should be a flag that says it was recently saved and no changes have been made yet.

[Tim Massa]

It would be nice and IMHO best ROI if Thermwood would redesign the GUI so that it would look more cohesive between all the various windows and panels and make more visual sense. Right now it looks like a bunch of different groups designed it and Thermwood smushed em all together in one package. It would really pay to have the GUI layout gone over by some good graphic designers that understood visual language and information feed back when it comes to design and layout. Best of all worlds would be if the graphic designers did some cabinetmaking and woodworking on the side so they knew something of the process. It might result in less operator fatigue, less chance for error, etc... Sadly, the software world is full of poorly designed GUI's. E-cab is not an exception.
Why is the tenon thickness still a percentage value? I still don't understand why we have to calculate back from a material thickness average of, say, .723" to get to a cutter bit diameter of .375" that will mill the actual mortises. I'm probably missing something here. Anyone know why we work in percentages in this one input area?

[Kerry Fullington]

Tim,

I think the reason for working in percentages is because of the great variation in actual material thickness. You may design your cabinets using 3/4" thick material but the actual thickness will be 23/32 or 25/32. When the actual material thickness is entered at the machine control joints are self correcting when they are entered as a percentage of material thickness. There would be fit problems it the joints were saved as actual values.

Kerry

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Kerry,

The tenon thickness is measured from the table of the machine up, not from the top of the material down. Therefore material thickness has no bearing on the thickness of a tenon, other than the fact that the tenon is specified (for whatever reason) as a percentage of the (never-the-same-twice) material. That being the case, I really don't see a good reason for tenon thickness to be a percentage, either. It causes tenons to vary in thickness unnecessarily. It'd be nice if they were just a set dimension, nice and predictable.

Then again, I could be missing something, too. Can anyone give an end-all-be-all reason why tenon thickness MUST be a percentage of material thickness, instead of a given, known value? If not, I sure would like to have the ability to specify a set tenon thickness.