Default Values

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kstrauss
Vectric Craftsman
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Default Values

Post by kstrauss »

Ia there any way to have VCarve use custom default values? For example, I would like it to default to "Material surface" rather than "Table bed"; "Spiral ramp" rather than "Plunge"; "Shortest path" rather than "Selection order"; etc. I realize that Edit > Options allow some, relatively inconsequential options such as colours, to be saved. However, none of the important ones are listed.

tomgardiner
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Re: Default Values

Post by tomgardiner »

Once you sae a file with these selections most of them will become the default setting. I say most because I think you will always have to select ramps but the spiral option will stick.
An alternative is to save blank files with preselected options such material thickness, toolpaths set up that are associated with preset layers, etc. You can get as specific as you want. You just have to open the file and create your vectors and recalculate the toolpaths.

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Adrian
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Re: Default Values

Post by Adrian »

For toolpath options the best way is to use toolpath templates so you can load them with exactly the settings you would like. I have a library of templates for different toolpath strategy and material combinations. I never create a toolpath from scratch these days.

With the material settings (surface, bed etc) they will default to the last used settings so unless you're changing them yourself for some reason they will stay to what they were last time which is true of the majority of settings in the software.

kstrauss
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Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:37 am
Model of CNC Machine: Tormach PCNC770
Location: Cobourg, ON, Canada

Re: Default Values

Post by kstrauss »

Thanks for the suggestions but...
Toolpath templates sound great but appear to be a VCarve Pro only option (I can't afford the Pro version!)

Material surface versus machine bed appears to always start as machine bed for any new project

Ramp versus leads versus plunge always starts as plunge. If you use leads then the default for future ramped toolpaths is zigzag rather than spiral.

These problems are all easily overcome but cause frequent grief when I forget to carefully verify everything. It just seems strange that Vectric would bother with settable defaults for things such as render colour but not for these things.

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Adrian
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Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Default Values

Post by Adrian »

kstrauss wrote: Material surface versus machine bed appears to always start as machine bed for any new project
That shouldn't be the case if you've changed it.

Try the following:

Start VCarve
Click Create a New File
Change the Z-Zero position from what it comes up with so if it's Machine Bed change it to Material Surface
Click OK
Close VCarve and don't save the file.

Now if you restart VCarve and choose Create a New File the setting for Z-Zero should be what you set it to.

The ramps settings should behave the same. Whatever was used before and calculated will be what they are set to next time.

Bear in mind that if you load other peoples files (tutorials, sample projects, forum files etc) then that can change the defaults for the next job depending on what you do with those files.

To ensure that everything is the way you want it you can use template files. Just create a new job in VCarve, set everything the way you want and save it. Then when you want to start a new job you can load that file and go from there. If you make it read only then you won't overwrite it.

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