E-cab luvin

[Gary Campbell]

Tim...
YES, if you need it

[chunkstyle]

Thanks Kenneth,

I will take you up on it. I can send you a cabinet that I just ran off on friday. Problem is that the dropped shoulder (pocket) cuts for the .25" long tennons will show up in the E-cab nest as well as the Link nest. The link is simply ignoring the operation and not writing it out to the SB.
I'm thinking of creating a small cabinet part, say a deck, where one side gets a .25" length blind dado tennon and the other side gets a .375" length tennon. Same thickness % for each side.

I'll run the part and see if the shoulder cut will get applied to the .375" side and dropped off the .25" side. If it does, then I will try and send the job file out to you to see if you get similar results. All my blind dado's tennons greater than .25" in length have been milled without any problems.

Thanks again for your offer, it's appreciated.

Tim

[kerry_fullington]

Hey Tim,

All software will have bugs. "Buggy" implies that it is not usable.

My point is that if eCabinet Systems is to be you cabinet design and manufacturing software you will be better off doing everything in that software. It will do what you want. (I would tell you the same thing if you were using Cabinet Vision, CabnetWare, KCD etc.) eCabinets may not be the best at every operation you want to do but it does "do them well". Take the time to learn , truly learn, each of the editors and the payback will be great. Trying to use multiple programs is time consuming and as you are finding with the imported .dxf files, problematic. You will know you have learned an editor well when you are able to use it for all your work.

What have you tried to do in the Part Editor or Hardware Hole Editor that couldn't be done? I have Intellicad, Delta Cad, Via Cad, Soft Cad, Just Cad, Alibre Design, and Sketchup and all I use any of them for is to convert 3D objects to use in eCabinets. They are all great for what they can do but for building cabinets eCabinet Systems is far superior.
I have also found that if there is something that eCabinets and in your case the SB Link simply will not do, it is far better to change your construction methods to something the software will do. You can lobby for a change in the software but until the feature is implemented it is better to change your construction and eliminate the frustration.

You still need to purchase The Nearly Complete Guide to eCabinet Systems if you are serious about using eCabinets. It is better than any manual eCabinets has ever produced and I have most of them.

Once again, if you want eCabinet Systems via the SB Link to be your design and manufacturing software then do it all in eCabinets.

[ken_rychlik]

Kerry,

To a large degree, I agree with your thoughts on doing everything in one program.... BUT

The part that these files cut correct on a thermwood and not within the link is very interesting.

If he can send a TWD to a thermwood shop and it cuts fine, the same TWD file should cut fine on a shopbot with the link shouldn't it?

[chunkstyle]

Whoops! What am i saying? Can't have different length tennons on the same part. Anyway, I created a tiny cabinet and had the deck construction for blind dado's on the left and right side. Tenon length was .375" long and the thickness % was 55.
Cabinet was then copied and the tenon length of the copied cabinet's deck was set for .25".
Cabinets were saved off as an assembly. Assembly was added to a batch. TWD file was created from batch. TWD file was sent to the SB computer where the link is installed. Loaded the TWD to the link program. All parts of the two cabinets were turned off in the link except the two decks.
Deck were nested and the results are shown in the attached photo.

[ken_rychlik]

Tim, do you think the thermwood shop you were using would run the same twd and nest those two parts for you?

That part on the left is what mine look like when I run 100% blind dado thickness.

I would be happy to give it a run on my machine as well, but I would be VERY interested to see what a thermwood does with it.

Of course you may be able to just change the depth to .26 and find a work around ??

Sometimes you have to do what works and not what makes sense.

[chunkstyle]

Good Morning Kenneth,

I have just recently picked up a load of parts from the Thermwood shop. I currently have a pile of dovetail drawer boxes with imported DXF geometry part editor cuts and .25" tenon lengths.
Cabinets are loaded with part editor cuts with imported DXF geometry. No problems.
I have shelves in that Thermwood run job where I set the front construction of the fixed shelves with a blind dado tenon. This aids in applying hardwood edging. Shelves were cut out by the Thermwood with the shoulder cut on the fixed shelves. Tenon length was .375" long. I have tried this same joint on the SB. The result was the shoulder cut being dropped on the front edge tenons but were cut on the left and right sides' tenons. This is NOT happening on the Thermwood. I'm baffled. It's a PITA when it happens, for sure. It's been reported.

Your spot on with workarounds. It gets expensive to find out that there is a problem with a job that gets run: discovering there's a problem, identifying the problem and reporting the problem to Thermwood and then fixing the parts or, if completely spoiled, throw them out and re-cut.
For us, Ecabs is like that psycho girlfriend (or boyfriend) you had. You love what it does for you but hate what it does to you.

Tim

[ken_rychlik]

An update on my flip opps running climb instead of conventional.

I sent the email to cabinets@thermwood.com and Scott did get back with me this time. It is a bug and he has reported it to the programmers.

Tim do you have the same TWD that you sent to the thermwood shop handy?

Run one of those same parts on the shopbot and then we can't blame ecabs if it goes wrong. It has to be a link/tooling issue.

[chunkstyle]

Kenneth,

I send the Thermwood job files and not TWD's, though I see what you're driving at. I will send the deck parts over as a TWD and see if they have time to run them.

Tim

[ken_rychlik]

I got the twd from Tim and ran the decks on my machine. All went well.