installing flute plus

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Kevin Jenness
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installing flute plus

Post by Kevin Jenness »

I downloaded Paul Rowntree's Flute Plus software, but it doesn't open in VCarve Pro 8.5. I extracted the file downloaded from Dropbox, and as instructed in the PDF on Paul's site located it in C:\User\Public\Public Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets\VCarve Pro V8.5. I restarted the computer, but Flute Plus does not appear in the Gadget list. What am I doing wrong here, or am I mistaken to think that it should be recognized by and appear within VCarve Pro?

PaulRowntree
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by PaulRowntree »

Kevin Jenness wrote: <snip> ... Paul's site located it in C:\User\Public\Public Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets\VCarve Pro V8.5. ... <snip>
Hi Kevin

It should find it automatically. It doesn't work in the trial versions though.

Does the path have 'User' or 'Users' ? My machine has 'Users'
Paul Rowntree
WarpDriver, StandingWave, Topo and gadgets available at PaulRowntree.weebly.com

Kevin Jenness
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Kevin Jenness »

Paul,

Thanks for responding and for making your gadgets available (I also downloaded Cookie Cutter and Green Squares). I am sure they will be highly useful once I figure out how to access them,

The path starts with "User", as it was originally set up in Windows 7, and I created the rest of the series of folders ending with "VCarve Pro V8.5". Is the spelling, format and location of the specified path the key to the process?

In "Libraries\Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets" there are three small readme.txt files labelled "VCarve PR V8.0", "VCarve Pro V8.5" and "VCarve Pro V8.5.bak". They all open in notepad to say "Place additional gadget files here". Is that what I should do?

Thanks again.

Kevin Jenness
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Kevin Jenness »

Paul,

I should note that when I placed your gadgets in the "User\...\VCarve Pro V8.5" location they are in the form of folders "FlutePlus", "Cookie Cutter" and "GreenSquares 20142015", that is I did not open the individual files within those folders. Does that matter? Please forgive my ignorance, I am green at this.

Kevin

PaulRowntree
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by PaulRowntree »

Kevin, I am away from my main machines right now, so I am poking in the dark here ...
1) The files cannot be in compressed drives; all files (html, lua, pdf) should be directly accessible from Windows.
2) I am not sure of the placements under the various OS by memory ... too many gray hairs. ANother approach would be to download an official Vectric gadget from their site, and then use the same folder structure, and just add one for my gadgets.
3) Windows libraries are (I think) aliases to real physical directories, and I have no idea where the contents of the librarys really are. You could try to put the gadgets there ... no harm no foul.

Let us know how this goes ...
pr
Paul Rowntree
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Adrian
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Adrian »

In Windows 7 the path should be "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets\VCarve Pro V8.5"

The full path should already exist as part of the VCarve installation as there are gadgets that come with the software already in that location. If you have to create part of the path then you have the wrong path.

The "Public Documents" part only appears in explorer as visual aid and isn't really part of the path. Also make sure that you restart VCarve after putting the gadget folder in that location for it to be picked up.

Kevin Jenness
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Kevin Jenness »

Adrian,

I pasted the path you suggested "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets\VCarve Pro V8.5" into the start button browser and moved the files there, at which point VCarve Pro recognized them. I am still confused about the file tree in Windows, but that is for another day. Thanks to you and Paul for the help.

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Adrian
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Adrian »

The Documents location is confusing in Windows 7 onwards as Microsoft introduced a new folder structure while keeping backwards compatibility with the older one. Part of that means that the documents library link is actually two separate folders (the actual user documents folder and the public documents folder) merged into one view.

Kevin Jenness
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Kevin Jenness »

Well, that was premature. The gadgets show up in the location "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets\VCarve Pro V8.5" and in the list of gadgets in VCarve Pro but when I try to open them I get a dialog box saying "no document loaded...exiting". Any thoughts?

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Adrian
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Adrian »

You need to have a job started or loaded. Click on Create a New File, set the job parameters and then try it.

PaulRowntree
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by PaulRowntree »

Kevin Jenness wrote:Well, that was premature. The gadgets show up in the location "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vectric Files\Gadgets\VCarve Pro V8.5" and in the list of gadgets in VCarve Pro but when I try to open them I get a dialog box saying "no document loaded...exiting". Any thoughts?
Thanks Adrian for explaining the file structure .. didn't know that.

Kevin, FlutePlus needs vectors to exist and to be selected prior to running the gadget ... it can't do anything without those vectors.
Paul Rowntree
WarpDriver, StandingWave, Topo and gadgets available at PaulRowntree.weebly.com

Kevin Jenness
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by Kevin Jenness »

Paul and Adrian,

I realized that soon after my last post (facepalm). Sorry to be so dense, and thanks so much for your patient help. Perhaps this will help someone else in the future. I really appreciate the assistance available here.

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Re: installing flute plus

Post by litzluth »

It did help someone in the future. Me. Although I'm really not in the future, I'm in the present (I think).

PaulRowntree
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Re: installing flute plus

Post by PaulRowntree »

The magic of the forum! Feel free to ask for help if needed, and post pics!
Cheers!
Paul Rowntree
WarpDriver, StandingWave, Topo and gadgets available at PaulRowntree.weebly.com

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