aspire

[hknisely]

can anyone help me out (does the program aspire work on the carvewright solfware)

[mtylerfl]

can anyone help me out (does the program aspire work on the carvewright solfware)

Hello,

I use Aspire for most of my pattern modeling as well as the Project of the Month creations. In a nutshell...

1) Create a model in Aspire

2) Export it as an STL (for STL, I use a tolerance setting of 0.0001" or even 0.00001" in very rare cases) or just a Greyscale BMP

3) Import the STL or greyscale version of the model into the CarveWright Designer software (the CarveWright STL Importer is required if you are importing an STL file...importing a greyscale BMP does not require any additional software add-ons, but is not quite as "clean" as an STL import)

4) After importing, simply save it as a PTN (NOTE: I also recommend saving as an MPW file via the CarveWright Pattern Editor software too, as a backup that has no copy-protection encoding - very handy if you change computers sometime in the future and want to edit the file for whatever reason)

[eelamb]

Michael, I have a question about item #4 last line "very handy if you change computers sometime in the future and want to edit the file for whatever reason". I save the MPW files as you mentioned, and I have changed computers. When I changed the computers I just brought the PTN into designer on the new computer and I could edit the files as before (PTN files I created).

The question is: Is there a possibility of not being able to edit the PTN in designer on a new computer?

[dbfletcher]

I am almost sure that gets tied to the machine serial number. I have two machines and the software loaded on 4 pcs. If I create a ptn under one serial number, it wont let me edit it if I use designer that was loaded with the other serial number. However, MPW can freely be transfer between pc, users etc with out the sillyness of the security layer.

[mtylerfl]

Michael, I have a question about item #4 last line "very handy if you change computers sometime in the future and want to edit the file for whatever reason". I save the MPW files as you mentioned, and I have changed computers. When I changed the computers I just brought the PTN into designer on the new computer and I could edit the files as before (PTN files I created).

The question is: Is there a possibility of not being able to edit the PTN in designer on a new computer?

Yes, you can certainly run the risk of not being able to edit your own PTN files sometime down the road. I have many early PTN's created with older versions of Designer that I cannot edit after the copy-protection was added. From that point on, I ALWAYS save my models as both a PTN and MPW. Prior to that time, I had no idea that the copy-protection could/would lock me out...so, it's very good insurance to save everything you create as PTN and MPW. Of course, make backups of everything on a safe drive or online backup service, too.

Doug may be right about the PTN's being tied to a particular serial number...I've not paid attention to that to verify. I had a couple hard drives fail sometime ago and restored all my PTN's to another computer while waiting for new drive replacements. Could not edit some of those PTN's...perhaps it was a combination of a different Designer serial and/or older PTN's created before the copy-protection feature. Whatever the case may be, you can ALWAYS open a MPW in the Pattern Editor and re-save it to a PTN, or perform edits or both. MPW is a "safe" backup, no matter what the circumstances.

I wrote something about that in one of the Tips & Tricks shortly after I made that discovery!

Ahh..found it. I mentioned this in the August 2008 Tips. Here's a pull-quote:

"By the way, you should always save your artwork as BOTH a mpw file and a
ptn file. PTN files are not editable on computers other than the one it was
originally created on, but your MPW files can be opened on any computer and
with any future versions of the Pattern Editor. Saving in both formats gives you
a safety net of sorts, so that you’ll be able
to revert back to the raw artwork for
further editing if it ever becomes
necessary."

[mwhatch]

I use Aspire, although I am no where close to Michael T's abilites. I do not have the STL importer, so I save my models as a grayscale and then import into CW Designer with very good results.

[eelamb]

Michael, I will be making sure I save the files as MPW from now on. Some times like others I get a little laxed. As for back up, yes everyone should be making some sort of backup. I myself save them automatically to my in house server 03 sbs, and then to external hard drives. Thus the files exist on each computer, the server and an external drive. Online backup is one choice too.