Bug reporting - designer 2.001

[lynnfrwd]

Drill hole is also unscalable.

[carrothers]

That is not a bug. By the way, when you get the message "artwork could not be scaled" this indicates you have some centerline elements on the board layout...again, not a bug...centerline cannot be scaled. But, remember, you never want to allow scaling anyway.

Please read the following Tips & Tricks and you can say "goodbye" to scaling problems forever...

ISSUE 18 March 2009 – Scaling and How to Avoid It!

Michael...forget the scaling ...the real issue is the board settings. I found that in uploading to a 2.0 card and inserting that card into my machine I got the message that it had measured it just slightly different (less and a couple hundrenths of an inch) and kept prompting me to put in another board. I couldn't get pass that prompt on the machine so I came back to the computer and uploaded the same mpc file onto another 1.187 card and it loaded just fine and carved just fine. The only difference was the first error was on the 2.0 card. A bug is a bug...no other name I can call it.

I emailed LRC last night with another continuing problem with downloading patterns or upgrades. I constantly have issues that even the Level 1 techs can resolve...there has to be a better way to buy on line without having the hassles of their server not being able to read the 16 digit codes that they send out. The last time I had to turn off my firewall in order for the server to communicate...in spite of the fact that I told McAfee to allow .gui or whatever they go by to come in....frustrating when you're working late at night and the LRC office is closed. More frustrating is they didn't call back to fix the problem today.

[mtylerfl]

Drill hole is also unscalable.

Forgot about the drill holes not being able to scale. Say - have you gone fishing yet?

Carrothers...Scaling is so easily avoided, it's funny. Just cut your board a tad bigger than your layout (perhaps about 1/8" is all). Any minor measurement discrepencies won't matter and you can proceed with your project, no problem. As long as your board is slightly oversize, you will have the option "Keep Original Size" (option 1). If your board is measured even the slightest bit smaller than the layout, you will NOT have the choice of keeping the original size - that's where folks goof up. Had a call just yesterday from a new CW owner in New York..."My carvings are coming out smaller than they should. Why?" I wish I had a nickel for every call I've had on this topic. That's why I wrote the article - to cut down on my tech calls. Didn't work as well as I hoped.

[brdad]

It is easily avoided, but how easy would it be to have an option to never allow scaling to begin with? We all use these machines differently, but there is probably 1% of users that even have a need for a scaling function. An option to not allow scaling (and maybe even have that the default setting!) would cure those problems. Users might occasionally have to load a new board, but at least they're not wasting a board carving something to scale.

For such extensive software the user options are still minimal. You'd think after all this time we could set scaling options as well as the default bits for cutouts, centerline and drilled holes, as well as default texture and other menu settings.


As far as bugs, I am still having 2.01 demo problems with the select tool as I did in 1.187. If I open a new project, click on the pattern list, select a pattern and place it on the board, and then click on the rotate tool, I get the rotate tool, but instead of the rotate tool showing as down, the select tool shows as down. From that point, there is no way to select the select tool without clicking another tool first (including the rotate tool).

[carrothers]

Forgot about the drill holes not being able to scale. Say - have you gone fishing yet?

Carrothers...Scaling is so easily avoided, it's funny. Just cut your board a tad bigger than your layout (perhaps about 1/8" is all). Any minor measurement discrepencies won't matter and you can proceed with your project, no problem. As long as your board is slightly oversize, you will have the option "Keep Original Size" (option 1). If your board is measured even the slightest bit smaller than the layout, you will NOT have the choice of keeping the original size - that's where folks goof up. Had a call just yesterday from a new CW owner in New York..."My carvings are coming out smaller than they should. Why?" I wish I had a nickel for every call I've had on this topic. That's why I wrote the article - to cut down on my tech calls. Didn't work as well as I hoped.

I printed this off and have pasted it next to my computer so I will be sure to remember it. I always cut my boards 7 inches longer than the layout and when it asks if I want to stay under the rollers I always say no...another technique you taught us. Thanks as always.

[mtylerfl]

It is easily avoided, but how easy would it be to have an option to never allow scaling to begin with? We all use these machines differently, but there is probably 1% of users that even have a need for a scaling function. An option to not allow scaling (and maybe even have that the default setting!) would cure those problems. Users might occasionally have to load a new board, but at least they're not wasting a board carving something to scale.

Well, that might be a possible "wishlist" item but might cause more problems than it would solve. The scaling warning alerts the user that there is a discrepency between the size of the material and the project being run. In that context, the warning can be very valuable. The user just needs to realize what particular scaling messages mean and what to do about them (the scaling article referenced above explains all this).

I endeavor to work within the parameters of a given software program as it is currently equipped. If additional options/features are provided later, I'll shift gears and make use of those. I don't spend a particularly great amount of time "wishing" (although I do compile wishlists to share with various software companies maybe once or twice a year for ideas in future upgrade developments)...rather I spend the bulk of my time "working" with what I have.

[DickB]

Designer is crashing when I try to extract a pattern. This is a customer project that I don't want to post, but I would email it if need be.

[brdad]

Well, that might be a possible "wishlist" item but might cause more problems than it would solve. The scaling warning alerts the user that there is a discrepency between the size of the material and the project being run. In that context, the warning can be very valuable. The user just needs to realize what particular scaling messages mean and what to do about them (the scaling article referenced above explains all this).

Disabling scaling need not remove the warning, If the board is too small, you'd have to reload a new board or adjust and reload the project to fit. If the board was too big, you'd be asked to choose where to place it on the board as you do now. Simple enough.

Much of the work I do involves improvising or working with the tools provided to me. That doesn't mean I don't do everything I can to improve the situation. When it comes to Designer there are no alternatives, we cannot adjust the code or write macros, our only alternative is to voice some ideas and hope it gets added at some point.

Anyway, back to the original topic...

I am getting the same crashes as DickB while trying to extract patterns. It appears the patterns are saved, however. The projects causing problems may be ones I don't have the fonts installed for?

Another strange behavior I found while playing around with extract patterns. I loaded a file with no text on it, just patterns - I extracted the patterns (and Designer did not crash on this file). When I click on the pattern list button, I get an error that a font used in the project is not on the computer. I think I am getting this error because I extracted patterns from a file for which I did not have the fonts, because I deleted the saved patterns and tried it again and did not get the error message.

While not a bug but rather a inconvenience, when you load a file that includes a font you don't have, there is an error message for each text box that has that font. It seems once you get the message once for a given font, the others should be suppressed. Annoying on a project with 30 or so separate text boxes, and if I click "ok" too fast it often crashes. I don't recall if this happened in 1.187 or if it's new to 2.01. EDIT: It appears this was an issue in 1.187 as well.

[DickB]

I was having Designer 2 crashes this morning and decided to download it again from here http://store.carvewright.com/product...cat=252&page=1. When I try to install it, I get this error:


Also for QtCore4.dll and QtGui4.dll if I click "Ignore".

[fwharris]

I was having Designer 2 crashes this morning and decided to download it again from here http://store.carvewright.com/product...cat=252&page=1. When I try to install it, I get this error:


Also for QtCore4.dll and QtGui4.dll if I click "Ignore".

I had the same or similar errors on an install and reported this to Joe. He had me do a re install..