A couple of things that would make LaserCAD even better

[Greolt]

LaserCAD is a good laser control program for the money. Some small features, if they were added would make it even better.


A check box to disable soft limits on the Z axis. This would be a very popular feature with those who have a powered Z axis.

As it is, after powering up the controller, the Z axis can not be lowered as it will already be at zero.

Work arounds can be used, such as utilising U axis for the table, but this should be an easy fix.


And while we are at it, a check box to disable Y axis soft limits would also be a real boon for when working with a rotary axis. Soft limits on the rotary are just a nuisance.


Here's hoping.

Greolt

[Greolt]

The field for entering Scan Gap in Engraving Parameters is limited to two decimal places.

The programmer probably thought "no one would want more than two decimal places so I will make the field round any given entry to two places"

However if you want to engrave a 300dpi photo, this would require a Scan Gap of 0.0847. 150dpi would need 0.1694

Yes I know you can resample the photo to a dpi that will match a two decimal entry. For example, 0.16 scan gap would work with a 159dpi photo.

But this is very likely a small programming alteration to allow for four decimal places.

You never know your luck.

Greolt

[Telrad]

Why not just relabel the scan gap to DPI and automatically calculate scan gap for a certain DPI? It would make it a lot easier and more strait forward.

While I'm at it, how about a feature in laserCAD to move an object faster when hitting the shift key and an arrow at the same time.

[Telrad]

Also: Change the DATUM button to read Home.

[Greolt]

Why not just relabel the scan gap to DPI and automatically calculate scan gap for a certain DPI? It would make it a lot easier and more strait forward.

Yes that would be good. RetinaEngrave has that setup.

However my feeling is that small requests are more likely to be implemented than ones requiring more programming work.

I believe adding two more decimal places would be a relatively simple change.

Greolt

[chakata]

I'm interested to see you guys debating a scan gap issue......but most of us mere mortals lol don't know the why relationship between dpi and scan is important and how the dpi/scan gap is worked out. Could you please elaborate on this, thank you

Charlie

[bluewave65]

What about a gradeengrave applied to bitmaps ?
So we can use that feature to make a proffesional stamps with ramps ?!

Dave

[Greolt]

I'm interested to see you guys debating a scan gap issue......but most of us mere mortals lol don't know the why relationship between dpi and scan is important and how the dpi/scan gap is worked out. Could you please elaborate on this,

Take a look at Tim Wehr's site for a fairly good explanation;

http://diylaser.midwestlaserarts.com/20 ... n-gap.html

[Greolt]

A "Move Relative" button would be a handy addition.

Greolt

[Greolt]

A "Slow Jog" check box would be good too.

This could enable a 10% jog speed.

[Telrad]

English measurements would be nice. I think this would be my #1 request.

[Greolt]

English measurements would be nice. I think this would be my #1 request.

I can understand that. If it were only in old medieval measurements it would frustrate me too.

[Telrad]

English measurements would be nice. I think this would be my #1 request.

I can understand that. If it were only in old medieval measurements it would frustrate me too.

Sorry, the United States uses feet, inches and miles. Try and find a metric piece of plywood here or go to a job site and ask how many meters a wall is in length then you can tell me how any kilometers it is to NYC. At least we can get away with using decimals after inches.

I would take this easier for the joke that it is, but, it is very difficult And frustrating to teach kids two different systems of measurement in the same class, they can't keep them strait! Just a frustrated tech teacher.....

[baccus61]

That's interesting Telrad,
We changed over to metric way back in the 70's (74 I think) but the biggest problem was America wasn't going to change their system due to cost to industry. We have had a dual measurement system in Aus ever since although the base system is metric. All the heavy industrial equipment like Caterpillar earth moving equip is still inch but they are now slowly changing to metric on some of their parts that are made in other countries.
I grew up during the change and am quite comfortable with both systems.
I find that I seem to make more mistakes with metric because I misread the tens on the tape measure and I end up 100mm short on a few occasions. It is frustrating.
One thing the inch system has over the metric is that you can get an exact third or sixth etc. You can't in Metric.
We had to adapt and we still are after 30 years.
I feel your pain.
Rich.

[Greolt]

I started it. That was my fault. But lets not get this thread off topic with metric/imperial discussion.

It is enough to say, it would be good for those in the USA for LaserCAD to be bilingual.


One thing I have always wished for is more immediate access to the inching feature at the keypad.

As it is now you must drill down several layers in the menu to access inching at the keypad. As a consequence of this, I never use it.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to use a modifier key (say ESC) which when held, would make each press of the jog keys, inch the pre set distance.

Greolt