Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: Prices for one-on-one phone tech support.

« on: February 19, 2008, 03:09:43 PM »

Brett I'll make one more comment then hush! I promise!

Had the fact that this was something that you or some other individual wanted to do as a sideline business, or fulltime business for that matter, been point out at the first post, my original response would have been different. I assumed (my fault) that this was an official Artsoft poll and as such I again assumed it was a new direction Artsoft was headed. Brian posted a reply over on the Yahoo group that finally address my question there. Had my email alerts been working, I would have seen your reply sooner. Sorry about that.

I'm gonna be brutally honest here. I felt this poll was precursor to larger changes coming and for me it indicated a drift from what Art told me personlly back in 2002 what his vision for the software was......"he was tired of the little guy being shafted".

Sorry if I offended anyone.

Mike

42

General Mach Discussion / Re: Prices for one-on-one phone tech support.

« on: February 18, 2008, 08:41:39 AM »

I'm curious about something. Is this an official ArtSoft feature or a sideline business set up to run along side Artsoft, much like NFW that Brian set up?

The reason I ask? Well, it seems to me that all those that came before benefited from free support both phone and internet. Would it not seem reasonable to ask those to give of some of their time to do a little "giving" in return? Now don't get me wrong, as I understand there comes a time when the "giving" has to end because I am in a situation right now where I do support for a cam software company and I find that not only am I answering questions about the software I represent, but about cad, how to set up a machine, what feedrates to use for different materials, etc. But, with that said, I fully expect some free support calls when a piece of software is purchased, the one I represent, or Artsoft.

It was the phone call to Art way back in 2002 that allowed me to get my machine running again after a forced upgrade! Had it been policy to pay for that phone call after having just purchased the software, I would not have bought Artsoft and would have continued to use the piece of trash controller I was using!

So......what I'm saying is there needs to be some free telephone support included with the purchase of the software. It doesn't have to be much either, because there is so much free information available on both support sites.

Mike

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: January 02, 2008, 03:45:33 PM »

Ian as for me, I still haven't been able to test due to other "things" getting in the way. Mostly work, but I gotta do that! I hope to get to it soon. In fact I have to get to it soon as the guitar customer wants to get started as soon as I can get ready.

Mike

44

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: December 14, 2007, 01:09:55 AM »

........or dancing Stirling!


Ian I am off on a 30 hr round trip drive to deliver some parts I machined and am taking next week off to get some personal stuff done. I will do my best to probe the guitar next week and send you a screen shot!

From the looks of the # of posts, I have some catching up to do!

Mike

45

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: December 03, 2007, 01:24:35 PM »

Hi Ian,

No not yet.  I had a good size job I was cutting Sat using mdf and I don't know if it was the dust or just my router motor being old but I blew the router motor up. I have it off the machine now ready to take it to the shop to get a bearing taken out and am hoping it is just bearings.

Have you ever met Mr. Murphy personally? I know him all too well.

Speaking of Terry, I haven't seen him here, Yahoo or the Zone in several days. I hope everything is ok with him.

Mike

46

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: December 03, 2007, 08:15:37 AM »

Hi looker1

I'm assuming you've installed everything as per the readme and noted the bit about this error in the hints n tips bit at the end of the readme. If you aknowlege the error and just carry on as directed in the readme, does it still not work then? Regarding the regen of the toolpath, this is not really neccessary or particularly meaningful as there isn't really a toolpath to regenerate. The toolpath is calculated on the fly as probe25D.tap is running.

In short just acknowlege (or ignore) the error and run probe25D.tap anyway. Also I'm assuming you've run the probe utilities application on your start menu first to set up the parameters of your choice for probe25D.tap?

Incidentally please be aware that this is not an Artsoft application - the only "guru" involved is me 

Get back to me and we'll get it going step by step if you need me - but like I say - please read the whole readme first if you haven't already.

Cheers

Ian (Stirling)

Ian, you are still a guru regardless!

Mike

47

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: November 30, 2007, 11:43:31 PM »

Ian just a note about Open Office which is an open source project. I used it to open your doc just fine. Have you added all the goodies that go with the software where it probes the inside of the profile?

That video was so cool. I had to take a break from my testing to get some actual work done but I hope to take at least one day next week to test everything. I will let you know how it goes.

Mike

48

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: November 23, 2007, 08:34:08 PM »

Wow.....stirling,

This is what I've been waiting for, and the neat thing is, I think Terry is nearly there as well using a completely different method. Do you have any idea how many hours this will save me when I digitize a rifle stock that is 34 inches long, with all the different contours looking at the side profile? Do you? Thank you so much for your work on this.

Sorry I haven't been able to test the last two day. Yesterday was a US holiday and today my daughters needed me to baby sit! What a dad!


Mike

49

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: November 21, 2007, 10:31:10 AM »

Ahhhhh........I had not installed the exe file correctly. It will be a little while before I can get to the shop to test, but I will run a test sometime today and get back with you. Thanks for your help, and I will get this to Terry. He will be able to wring it out better and quicker than I!

Mike

50

General Mach Discussion / Re: edge finding/2.5D probing

« on: November 21, 2007, 09:42:57 AM »

Hi stirling,

No problem sending the file to TP. I will do that in a few minutes.  Ok I know I'm going to look stupid, but I have before and will again! How do I run the app from the start menu? How do I load it in Mach or rather call it so that it appears?

Mike