Messages

221

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hall of shame

« on: April 23, 2013, 12:23:15 PM »

I agree pirate copies hurt everyone. But a rep company falsely accused on a public forum of selling illegal copies probably has grounds for a law suit against the person accusing. As long as countries like china and russia ignore selling priate software and hosting site on the Torrents... good luck.   

222

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 20, 2013, 02:00:51 PM »

I'm not complaining about the $50 cost... actually the program is pretty nice for $50. The only sure way to minimize illegal copying is use a usb dongle but even that can be beat. As long a China and Russia has teams of programmers reverse engineering software illegal copying will continue. I'm not a software hacker but it only took me 20 minutes to figure out the LAN disabled... is the reason the mac address was blocked.... is why mill wizard license wouldn't load.

NFS sends a license number when you purchase the product. Have it setup so the license number is disabled, deleted, erased after one install. Garmin used this scheme with its laptop GPS software.

223

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 17, 2013, 07:37:31 AM »

I did some checking and found out NetGear enables the LAN connection. Without the LAN enabled it blocks the pc MAC address. So as cncalex discovered the LAN has to be on for Mill Wizard license to work.

There is definitely a problem with the license scheme being tied to the pc network MAC address. I would be willing to bet most pc's used for cnc machines aren't being used for networking. So i don't think Ron has heard the last of this problem. Software doesn't do any good if you need to spend days figure out how to load it.  

224

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 15, 2013, 12:21:59 PM »

You might want to re-install Netgear and make sure it's enabled to see it that's your problem. I leave mine on and it doesn't affect Mach 3's operation. My Dell xp pro is only used for the cnc machine.... not web surfing so I really don't care. I have mill wizard on the same machine for convienance.

I normally run Aspire 4.0 but do that on a Windows 7 pro machine. Mill Wizard is a great concept for quick parts where you don't want to spend two hours fool around with cad/cam software.  Now if Ron can just get it to work....

225

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 15, 2013, 10:22:46 AM »

TDAY: Does the machine have antivirus software running? It could be a registry error too... many times deleting software doesn't remove it from the registry.  

I experienced a program crash for the first time yesterday. Not sure what happend but it seems to be related to changing the plunge rate in the tool select menu. I did notice that if you select a new tool from the drop down menu, the plunge rate changed to 0.006 and the tool path dosen't work. If change the plunge rate to a whole number (say 10 for example) the tool path display works.

226

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 14, 2013, 10:21:22 AM »

TDAY:

Make sure to completely remove the Netgear software and driver and do a pc restart.

227

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 14, 2013, 10:09:26 AM »

Are the people that paid for the product going to get a free upgrade? My licensed copy is two weeks old.

No... it isn't a custom tool table. When Mill Wizard starts the default is "No Selection" and tool #4 (1/4" mill) shows up menu. As long as you don't monkey with the settings in the "Select a New Tool" box the tool path display works. If a new tool is selected (any tool) from the drop down menu the tool path display doesn't work, and a zero feed rate shows up in the gcode. If the gcode is loaded in into Mach 3... it will show up as a feed rate error.

As far as using the MAC address for the pc ID# license scheme goes... its a clunky and problematic way to prevent coping which users are finding out trying to install the product.  

228

Newfangled Mill Wizard / Re: PC ID not showing

« on: April 14, 2013, 12:06:32 AM »

This happened to me on my Dell XP pro .... no PC ID# license field. In my case I traced it to the NetGear network wireless adapter in the USB port causing the problem. If the NetGear network wireless is disabled it blocks the pc MAC address. I think it has something to do with NetGear's networks ecurity function. Mill Wizard uses the MAC address to get the pc ID# for the license. If I enabled the wireless adapter Mill Wizard license works fine. Check to see if your pc's MAC function is enabled.

The other bug with Mill Wizard is if you select any of the tools from the Select a New Tool Table, the tool path display doesn't work. It will generate the Gcode... just can't see the tool path. Also If there isn't a tool path display... you will also find Mill Wizard sets the feed rate to zero in the Gcode. To fix it you have to manually enter new values (actually any value will work) in the feed rate and plunge boxes.

Mill Wizard is buggy to say the least and needs to be fixed.

229

General Mach Discussion / Re: Enabling Mach3 wizard

« on: March 21, 2013, 12:28:05 PM »

sorry... sent to the wrong thread!

230

General Mach Discussion / Re: Enabling Mach3 wizard

« on: March 21, 2013, 12:25:48 PM »

I had a problem with the license with NFS Mill Wizard not installing on my Dell 8400 XP pro. Sometimes it would recognize the license and sometimes not. Turned out to be the Netgear 150 wireless adapter plugged into the USB port that was causing the problem. NSF wizard uses the ethernet MAC address to determine the pc ID# for the license. If the Netgear wireless adapter is disabled it locks out the MAC ethernet address. It might be part of the Netgear security scheme. Enabling the wireless adapter NFS wizard license would load without issue. I forward this info to Scott at NFS and they are checking why this happens. I'm not familar with Windows 7 but would check  the ethernet setup MAC address to see if there is a conflict. I left the wireless adapter enabled... it doesn't seem to cause problems with Mach 3 or Mill Wizard.