What's New in Easel

2021 Easel Updates: Year in Review

Ben here from the Easel team! 2021 has been a really big year for Inventables, especially for - Easel. Take a look at some of the updates you might've already seen this year, or one's you might not know about! You can read the long list below, or just check out the video instead. Most of these features are linked here in the Features and Tools Menu, so you can check them out directly. If you have feedback for us, please use the form at the bottom of this post.

Video Link

We can't wait to show you what we have coming, and to see what you'll be making and selling in 2022. 

Updates we've launched in 2021 for Easel Pro

• Launched the Pro Design Library

• Toolpath Optimizations for V-Carving

• Launched Machine Profiles for saved machines

• Tiling for large materials with custom tile sizes

• Ramping of Plunge Moves

• Project Labels in Beta

• Recommended cut settings for XCP in Easel

• A new planing project for the X Carve Pro

• Improvements to the Intro Project for better onboarding

• Custom defaults for new projects in early access

• Additional carve below the material

Updates we've launched in 2021 for Easel Free

• 3rd Party Machines Catalog launched: Easier setup process with many 3rd party machines profile defaults. 

• Re-ordering of Workpieces: Click and drag workpieces to re-arrange

• Rapid Retracts: Decrease overall carve time to make you more productive

• Improved Safety Heights: Greatly reduces the risk of running into a clamp

• The Features and tools menu : Get more information about Easel features plus see new ones added and provide feedback about the features which is sent directly to the Easel Developers!

• Toolpath improvements for pockets, and profiles: Speed up carving time with optimized tool paths specifically for pockets and profiles

• Easel Security Updates for all users

• 3rd Party Connections Improved

• Better control of simulations: Show and hide materials/wasteboard and uncut areas which is helpful for sending renders to clients for project proofing.

• New Machine Control interface in Beta

• Easier GCode download: Direct links added in the project menu with an improved interface.

• Better tabs placement - Tabs are not placed in spots which are hard to remove

Smart Tabs

Introducing new smart tabs. When you change the number of tabs on a shape Easel will now attempt to keep as many of your edited tabs in place as possible. If you want to reset all tabs to their default locations simply click the refresh button next to the Use Tabs checkbox.

Additional Cut Depth

Easel comes with a very useful feature where you can have some shapes be cut deeper than others. This is helpful if your wasteboard is not perfectly parallel to gantry and you want shapes on one side cut deeper than other. It can also be used to make sure certain cuts go through. Another great use case is when you didn't cut all the way through - instead of running the entire carve again you can duplicate the workpiece and add additional depth just to the shapes that didn't cut, deleting or covering up other ones.

To use this feature change your Shape/Cut panel to Cut. For outline cuts that go as deep as your material the Add Depth will show right below the depth slider.

This feature respects tabs so you don't need to adjust tabs - tabs are omitted from additional depth cuts.

Project Templates

Ever feel like you are out of inspiration for you next project in Easel?

With Project Templates you can easily browse, clone and modify pre-made projects from our community! Upon logging in to Easel you will see a row of projects to choose from, and a "More" button letting you browse further ideas. Clicking a template will clone it to you account, at which point you can start modifying or carve the project right away!

Improved 3rd party machine setup

Introducing a new streamlined process for adding 3rd party machines. You can now chose from an ever growing list of 3rd party makes and models. If your machine isn't listed please let us know in the feedback below.

New machine setup workflow:

Step 1: Select "Other (3rd party machine)"

Step 2: Chose your machine's manufacturer.

Step 3: Chose your machine model, your machine's work area will automatically be set.

Step 4: Select "Confirm Settings"

Step 5: Test and configure any accessories.

Need to setup a machine that we don't currently list? Choose other and enter your machine's work area.

Machine Profiles

For those of us with more than one CNC and / or computer, setting up CNCs can eat a lot of time.

We'd like to fix that. We hope this system makes Easel Pro more helpful by letting you store your CNC configuration(s) on Inventables' servers and retrieve them as needed. Free users have access to one machine profile and can uninstall it to use a different machine. Adding multiple profiles is only available to pro users.

How it Works

1. Open the Machine tab in Easel
2. Click set up new machine and complete the setup steps.
3. Once set up, you can edit the name or other properties as well as uninstall it by clicking Edit your Machine.
4. Upon logging in from a different computer or new session, you can load your settings from the dropdown and skip the setup.
5. Easel Pro users will be able to set up multiple machine profiles and toggle loading between them by selecting it from the dropdown.

Note: if you have two machines of the same type (i.e. two x-carves) you may want to Edit their names to differentiate between them.

Included Settings

• Name
• Work area
• Spindle type
• Spindle control
• Spindle RPM
• Accessories
• Machine Type

Your saved cut settings will now be tied to specific machine profiles along with bit/material. That way you can differentiate different feeds and speeds for different machines.

Easier g-code downloading

The ability to download g-code has been moved from "Machine"->"General Settings" to the "Project" menu.

It will remain on the General Settings window for now but we hope its new location will be easier to find and use. In addition, multistage carves can now download as a zip file containing both g-code files. Users who wish to download the passes separately can also chose to do so. For assistance opening zip files see the following:

Windows / Mac

Adding points to a shape

Adjust and edit your designs in Easel with more options. Add a point to an existing shape without having to re-create it with the pen tool.

How it works

1. Select your volume on the 2d editor.
2. Enter edit mode (e on the keyboard, double-clicking the volume or clicking the edit button).
3. Drag your cursor along the path of the shape and observe a potential point appear.
4. Click on the location you would like to add the point.
5. Drag/edit the new point as needed.

Issues

Working with extremely large or complicated shapes with a lot of points will degrade performance in Easel.

• Volumes with less than 1k points should receive no noticeable impact on performance.
• Volumes with 8k+ points will have up to a few seconds delay in the edit actions.