Dan Sawatzky

If you read SignCraft magazine (and even if you aren't a sign person you should read SignCraft magazine) then you are probably familiar with the name Dan Sawatzky.  Dan has been doing magic with signs and theme parks for many years up in Yarrow, British Columbia.  He is also a regular contributor to SignCraft.  We first met Dan after he bought a router and EnRoute and started creating some cool stuff with them.  After he had worked with his new router for a few months he had created a series of amazing pieces using the alphabet for inspiration ("T" is for "Texture").  When we saw his article in SignCraft we knew we needed to get to know him.  Since then we have become good friends with Dan and have helped him with his Sign Magic Workshops that he presents twice a year.

Anyway, I invited Dan to participate in our upcoming EnRoute Workshop (October 23-24) and he agreed to come.  I am excited because I know that he will contribute great information about how he does what he does; and even when he isn't presenting he will contribute to the conversation.  I talked to Dan today and he said that he has already started working on a design or two that he will use to demonstrate his techniques at the workshop.

The date for the workshop is quickly approaching, so if you haven't yet made your reservations then time is running out.  We're planning for a big turnout and I'm sure we will all learn a lot.

Software Solutions Group

I am excited about all of the different EnRoute resources that are available these days.  One of these resources is the Software Solutions Group (SSG).  Their EnRoute specialist is John Albano.  John has several years of EnRoute experience and has worked with many of our end users and dealers to answer questions and to help communicate their needs and ideas for improving EnRoute.  John and Steve Moffitt created SSG as a way to offer their expertise at meeting the needs of their customers.  SSG offers many specialized services that are all targeted at helping customers become productive with EnRoute quickly.  They provide training either online or on-site; they can help with installation and setup of the software; and they can also help figure out special applications of the software.  If you are an existing EnRoute customer, you may want SSG to help you with an upcoming job that has you stumped.  If you are a new customer then these guys can get you up and running quickly.  If you have any questions, feel free to give John a call at 215-669-8410

EnRoute4.com

You should check out www.EnRoute4.com.  This is a site that is operated by Tom Penner - Mr.EnRoute.  Tom has been part of the EnRoute team for several years, first as an employee of a top dealer, then as an employee of SAI, and now as a dealer and a top EnRoute trainer and resource.

I have invited Tom to be part of our team for the upcoming EnRoute Workshop here in Denver.  He will teach some of the sessions in the workshop, but more importantly he will be around to answer questions, debate issues, brainstorm, and take part in the discussions.  If you know Tom, you know that the 'debate issues' part of that will be the part that he enjoys the most.

Tom has a library of EnRoute training videos available for purchase and he is available to provide one-on-one training if you need it.  His other web site is www.LearnEnRoute.com.  Both of these sites provide a good way to get information about EnRoute when you need it.

Backplot

Watch the Backplot Movie 

An issue came up this week that reminded of something I read recently.  I was doing some light reading in a CNC reference book and the author was making the case that any user of a CNC machine should be able to manually create their own output file without relying entirely on a CAM program.  He felt that by being able to do it manually, the user would have a better understanding of what the CAM software is doing, and would be better able to make small changes in the output file without having to re-create it when something wasn't quite right.

This week a customer had a problem cutting out a job, which raised a question about the cause of the problem.  Was there a problem with the design?  Was there a problem with the driver translating the design into the output file?  Was there a configuration problem on their machine, or was there a mechanical problem on the machine?  The machine guys usually point their fingers at the software, and the software guys are always sure that it is a machine problem.  So how do you solve the problem?

When the question gets to me, the first thing I want to do is check the design file to make sure the geometry is doing the right thing, and that the toolpaths have been created as the user intended.  Then I check the output file to make sure that it is correct.  If you aren't familiar wth G and M Codes or HPGL, looking at the output file can be a problem. To the untrained eye the output files look like a jumble of letters and numbers.

We have created a small utility called Backplot that lets you review a plot of an output file so you see essentially what the CNC machine is seeing in terms of instructions.  In Backplot you can step forward and backward through the file as a way of looking at specific locations.  This can make it much easier to home in on a problem area.  It won't necessarily tell you what to do to resolve the issue but it can sure help you visualize the problem.  By looking at an output file before you send it to your machine, it can also help you spot a problem before it goes to the machine.  Maybe you forgot to include the proper lead in, or maybe you defined one pass instead of the intended three passes.  These can become obvious in a hurry by looking at the output file in Backplot.

Backplot is distributed freely to our EnRoute users.  In version 4.1 it installs automatically in the EnRoute folder.  If you have a version of EnRoute prior to 4.1 the EnRoute Team will be happy to send you the latest version of Backplot.  I have created a short introductory Backplot Movie that is a good way to get started with it. 

As far as the customer's issue, we were able to confirm that EnRoute was creating the output file correctly.  The hardware guys still think it's a software issue, but in this case I was able to demonstrate (maybe only to myself) that EnRoute was creating the output file correctly.

EnRoute Workshop - October 23-24

We are looking forward to an EnRoute Workshop that we will be hosting in Denver in October.  We have wanted to do something like this for quite awhile, and we finally decided to just find the time to do it.  Follow this link to the EnRoute Workshop in order to get more information and to sign up.

We have two primary goals with the workshop.  First, we want to help whoever comes to be more productive with our software and with their router.  We are preparing sessions specifically dedicated to productivity.  We'll have many example designs and samples to illustrate the topics.  We are also preparing a set of sessions that are focused on helping you to better understand EnRoute's array of 3D tools and how you can make them pay.  The second goal is to help to facilitate an EnRoute community that can effectively share information about their applications, problems, and solutions.

I hope you'll seriously consider joining us in Denver in October.  You can even take an extra day or two to enjoy the fall colors along Colorado's front range.  We are working hard to prepare for the course, and we think that it will be a couple days of great fun.

Let's get started

Welcome to my new EnRoute blog.  I'm hoping that it will be a good way to share ideas and information about the software that has been our passion for the past 10 years.  My goal is to share information about what's going on with EnRoute and how we are working to keep moving forward.  Let's get the conversation started.