Beta Version 3.00

[ArtF]

Hi Guys:

  Beta Version 3.0 is online as a test. As features go, it has only one new one, a button to copy a designed gear from the project screen back to the design screen so you can see how it was made.

  The GUI has TOTALLY changed in many ways. While it runs great on my XP machine, my vista machien seems jerky as hell..but that may be my graphics card at the moment and the way its set up..

   If you have time, give it a go, let me know if its jerky when sliding the pane away when not required. If only one gear is selected the new "copy to design" button will light up..

   All the edit boxes in the new ribbon have a gneral rule of "press enter after changing. ." though they try to be smart about it when you dont.

   The screens as a result are larger and let you see more data more cleanly. Changes still are ongoing, but Id like to track down this jerky panel in Win7, XP seems fine.. let me know your results and Ill get rid of any errors that exist..

   Some Icons still need redesign, but other than that the 3.0 is about ready to go, just need to clear up items like the above..

Thx
Art

[danmauch]

 Seems to operate smoothly on my win7 pc.

nice
Dan
dmauch@camtronics-cnc.com

[Chuck]

Art,

Looks really good!

All the screens work well in Windows 2000.

While I haven't tested everythin g the only problems I found was:
1)clicking on output crashes the program after the screen is opened.

2)It looks like you reversed the buttons for "Create Pinions" and wheels.

More rotate controls in gear design screens would be nice.

The reverse gear design feature is nice, but how do I do it.

Chuck

[ArtF]

Ooops..ye s, looks like output is hosed.. fixing it now..

TO use Copy to design, just select only one gear on the project screen, then hit the button,..if its an elliptica l or involute gear it will be sent to design..a s will you.

Art

[Mooselake]

This is on a slow Atom nettop with XP, in demo mode.

On elliptica l gears the only spokes are very narrow.  Leg ratio doesn't work, rim ratio doesn't initially . After switching from straight to curved to straight rim ratio started working, leg ratio didn't.  They work in curved.  When restartin g the program spokes defaulted to curved, when switching to straight rim and leg ratios worked.  Interesti ngly, after the restart Spur gears defaulted to curved, elliptica l's to straight, the leg ratio problem still existed.  Spur gears spoking options seem to work OK both straight and curved.

IMHO, the separate spoke panel (not part of the gear design screen) seems awkward.  It disappear s after turning spokes on or off and when switching from straight to curved, and the tab has to be selected again.  Hitting enter does the same.  Ratios higher than 100 work, but only after pressing enter and losing the tab.

Kirk

[John S]

Xp pro, generate the default gear, go to create wheel.

then select project manage without selecting wheel, you get error message saying no wheel selected then program hangs.

Same again but select the gear, go to program manager and click OK without doing anything, again program hangs.

[ArtF]

Hi Guys:

  3.001 was just uploaded to fix the output manager.. sorry about that ..a hung variable was left exposed. I was really just worried about speed of the panel so I had to see if the not-quite-complete changeove r was going to work. ( It was a ton of work to do everythin g and I was worried as to compatabi lity.)

   The spoke panel is still being worked on a bit.. Id like to switch it over to proper spoking as per clockmake rs desires. Where to place it was always an open question. .seems it belongs everywher e, but having one shared tab seemed the most oportune and ituitive. . but it needs soem work on making it different for all gear types that use it.

   I havent seen anyone with my problem of the panel being slow yet.. so Ill wait some more on that one. The output manager is fixed though, so the new version is workng well, just different ly and the spoking is a bit annoying at present.

  On the bright side, you have more room now on those smaller monitors, and things seem to work better overall.. .

Thx
Art

[ArtF]

Kirk:

  Straneg that you lose the tab..some of the numbers do act strange till a regen is done, but I never seem to lose the panel, it stays selected till I switch back to spur again..or elliptica l..

  Still checking, but thx for the GUI warning.. Its the problem with GUI's..they dont always work the same for everyone. .

   Any comments on the ribbon philosoph y..rather than having all those dialogs having tabs seems to be much cleaner to me..

Thx
Art

[John S]

   Any comments on the ribbon philosoph y..

Thx
Art

crap

[ArtF]

lol...

[Mike F]

Hi Art,

Just downloade d the new version and had a very quick play. One very frustrati ng problem I found was that every time I select a new gear type, the project manager window collapses to a thin band at the left of the screen. I can drag it wider but it collapses again when a new gear is chosen. I seem to be spending more time re-stretching the project manager than designing gears I tried right clicking in the window and de-selecting 'Docking' but this had no effect.

I am using Windows XP.

Mike

[John S]

3.001 has cured the project manager hanging here.

Mike, you mean project database window ? works OK here, minimises when selecting other gear but opens up again when needed or am I not understan ding you ?

[John S]

Art,
3.001, Getting no on screen informati on about the gears in spur, helical or bevel

[ArtF]

John:

 On the project screen or the design screens? ( And is this Win7? )

Mike:  Does the >> button on the project screen not open up the tab
permanent ly?

  The tab shoudl be persistan t open if the << button isnt pressed on the project screen. The spur tab stays closed unless Helical or bevel is selected. The settings on the tab arent required unless those are needed.

  Hitting the >> button should then open it..

( This is a derived class of my own though, Windows doesnt offer that capabilit y in that type of window.. so it may be screwing up.. I just havent seen that screwup yet..)

 I do expect some bugs on all this, cleaning it up was a much larger job than youd think..bu t it frees up valuable realestat e for future work..

Art

[ArtF]

Kirk:

  On "losing the tab" ..it just occured to me, there are two modes of button menu's.. Double clicking a tab will make it autohide. .that may be what your on..doubl e click and tab and the button menu will stay on screen. If the monitor for a user is small, then double clicking a tab will make the buttons autohide thus giving more screen space.. I have found though that you can accidenta lly double click a tab and the menu "seems" to go away.. if fact its just hidden upwards waiting to be called..

Art