Dovetail - Toolpath Gadgets

[GEdward]

I am not disputing the value of Vectric products. My experience so far is the PhotoVCarve and VC Desktop do a very good job and are fairly intuitive to navigate. If at some point I am able to afford Aspire I most certainly will do that. In the meantime I will continue to turn out great work within the limitations of what I can afford.

By free for those that can afford it, I mean that if you can afford the premium programs in the first place then the gadgets will work for you; for the rest, not so much. While nesting, tool path templates and rotary machining can be useful for smaller machines, I do not have use for those features right now. The gadget that would be of greatest use to me is the drag knife app. It will just have to wait until I can upgrade.

G Edward

[ger21]

Here's a free alternative to the drag knife gadget.

http://donektools.com/free-cnc-router-software/links-2/

[GEdward]

Thanks much. I will have to see if it flies in Desktop. Would be great if it worked with PhotoVCarve as this would allow for some cool possibilities for work with edge lit acrylic.

G Edward

[MatMo]

Hi, I am trying out the dovetail gadget for the first time - to make some small drawers. But I'm having trouble with the pins - they are being drawn outside the rectangle rather than inside. The tails work fine.
As far as I can tell I have followed the instructions exactly as on the video - any suggestions what's going on?
I'm using Aspire V 8.517

Many thanks in anticipation!
Mat

[Adrian]

You need to swap the start point on the lines of the rectangle. If you break the rectangle in a clockwise order as show in the tutorial video it always works but if you do it in a different order or generate the lines some other way you can get that issue.

Go into node edit (press N) select the line in question by clicking on it and then note which end the green square is on, hover over the black square (node) at the opposite end and press the P key. That should move the start point to that end. Now exit node edit (press N or Esc) and then generate the pins again and it should be working now.

[Inchlaggan]

Nice gadget, just what I need- but- in 3D preview this is what the pins look like.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.

[Adrian]

Can you post your file? It's hard to tell exactly what you've done from a picture. I've tried a few variations but I can't produce a result like that.

[Inchlaggan]

Will do. Thanks for your help.

[Adrian]

Not sure what is you're trying to do. There's no outside profile cut etc. Have you been through the tutorial files and watched the video?

[Inchlaggan]

Thought I had done both as per instructions, but will try again. Thanks for your input.

[michaelmicksr]

I upgraded from aspire8.5 to 9.0 and won't install gadgets only did fluting and Celtic weave and keyhole rest of them won't install gives me error

[Adrian]

Are you installing them from the gadgets website or trying to copy them from the previous version?

Best to install them from the gadgets website as there are updates to most gadgets because of the 2 sided features.

The weave and keyhole gadgets are standard ones installed with the software so there's no need to copy or re-install them.