What's New in Easel

Easy Volume Rotation

A quick rotate feature has been implemented for all Easel users. With a shape (or shapes) selected in the design view of Easel, the Shape window of the Cut/Shape modal now includes a button under “Rotation” that will rotate the selected shape(s) counter-clockwise with each press. No need to type in your degree measurements for simple 90-degree rotations!

Here's a support article to help you learn more about shape position and size: Shape Position and Size

Please leave us feedback so we can continue simplifying workflows in Easel

Editing Tabs in 3D Projects

Easel Pro users are now able to edit the tab placement for their 3D Carves! When utilizing a full-depth cutout as their cut style, users can select the edit button next to “Use Tabs” to adjust the positioning of their tabs. This allows users to keep tabs away from hard to reach areas like corners or delicate areas of the relief. The tab quantity and dimensions for 3D projects will continue to be calculated by Easel.

This animated GIF shows how to edit tabs for 3D projects

Here are some support articles to help you learn more about tabs:

Glossary - 3D in Easel Pro

3D Carving Instructions

How to Use Tabs

Please leave us feedback about tabs so we can keep improving Easel!

3D In Easel Pro

With 3D in Easel Pro you can easily carve beautifully detailed 3D relief carvings with a simple-to-use interface.

You can visit our 3D Support Section to Learn more about 3D in Easel Pro, or visit the Inventables Forum to see what others are carving.

First time ever using Easel? We recommend having a quick look at how Easel works before attempting your first 3D carve: Designing in Easel.

You could also try the Intro to Easel Project.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR 3D CARVING 3D in Easel Pro will only work with STL files. If you have a 3D file in another format, you will need to convert it to .STL. Here is a guide: https://all3dp.com/2/best-stl-converter-file-tool/

You may also find the GLOSSARY helpful.

1. Open up a new Easel Project and select "Import 3D STL File" to load your model.

1. Once your model is loaded, enter the size of the stock material you will use for carving your 3D model. Make sure the stock size will be enough to completely carve the model (especially the height).

1. Orient and position your model where you want it to be carved on the material, making sure that the model is within its boundaries. The green box represents the size of the material. The purple box represents the overall dimensions of your model.

You can use "Center to material" to quickly position the object to the middle of the material.

1. Select the Cut Style you want for your model (see below for the Cut Style options). You can also select the direction of the finishing toolpath (e.g. to go with the grain of wood stock)

1. Select the bits you will use for the roughing pass and finishing pass. In general, any end mill bit ¼” or ⅛” diameter will work well as a roughing bit; for the finishing pass, we strongly recommend using a ⅛” ballnose bit.

1. Easel can recommend general, safe cut settings for both passes, but you might need a bit of experimentation to find what works best for your combination of bit and material.

Recommended Cut Settings for X-Carve Pro (shown below) Birch Plywood with 1/4" Downcut and 1/8" Ballnose:

Recommended Cut Settings for current X-Carve 1000mm (shown below) on Birch Plywood with 1/4" Downcut and 1/8" Ballnose:

NOTE: If you are using a different type of material, your settings will be different or unlisted. We recommend using Easel's default settings as a starting point. For more information on calculating your cut settings, see this guide: Calculating Your Cut Settings: Basic Feeds and Speeds Information

1. Easel will display the Carve Time Estimator with approximate carving times. Generate toolpaths to see the carving path and the approximate time it will take (the image below is sped up for instructions.)

1. After you have generated the toolpaths, you may see how the finished piece will look after clicking the "Show Preview" button.

Quick Repeat Carving

This is a workflow improvement that can have a major impact on repeated carvings. Now by enabling repeat carving under General Settings you can skip the zeroing and material positioning for any carve you plan to do multiple times in a row using the same position and bit.

How to use Repeat Carving:

• Go to Machine menu, and general settings.
• Click the checkbox to enable repeat carving
• Do your first carve with the normal walk through and setup
• When your first carve is finished, any subsequent carves will offer you the option to repeat carve
• You can re-probe your Z axis if needed, or just skip right to the carve.

Machine Parking combined with Repeat Carve makes for much improved production of multiples of the same product.

Overview Animation

Repeat Carve in the Walk Through

XY Center of Material Carving

Easel Pro is now easier to align your designs to your material! You are now able to set your X/Y zero location in either the front left corner of the material or the center of the material.

Until now, to make sure your design would carve in the center of the material and to set the carve to the center, you had to use a complex workaround by moving your design into negative space. Now it is as easy as clicking a button in the material menu.

For easy centered carves: - Make sure your design is centered to the material - Change the X/Y from Front Left Corner to Center in the Material Menu dropdown - Notice that the grid changes values - Notice that toolpaths start and stop in the center of the material - Machine Parking is compatible with X/Y center carves - Tiling must be done with X/Y center in the Front Left Corner

Overview Animation for Carving from center

Animation which shows the grid change in the design pane

Animation which shows how to change from Front Left Corner to Center in Material Pane

Digital Read Out (DRO)

Digital Readout for relative machine position is now available to Pro Users. Open the jog menu, carve walkthrough or machine inspector to view the machine position.

In order for the position to be read, you will need to have homed your machine!

How it works

1. Home your machine (You can home in the machine setup, carve walkthrough or machine inspector)
2. Observe the position coordinates populate when jogging or carving

New Machine Controls

New Machine Jog Controls are now available to all users. The new controls have an improved layout and easy homing built in for compatible machines. Don’t worry we made sure you can keep using the old layout if you still love it with a simple toggle.

Changes Include

• An improved layout with more easy to use axis configuration
• Digital Readout (DRO) of the machine position within the controls (requires homing)
• Preset Work Home: Ability to set your work home location and return to it with the click of a button (requires homing)
• A toggle to switch to the old controls (you will lose access to DRO and work home preset)

Overview of New Controls

Keyboard Shortcuts

Machine Controls in the Carve Walk though

Grouping and Ungrouping

New controls for grouping and ungrouping of shapes in Easel. This allows you to group multiple shapes together so that they move, resize, and rotate together letting you get the desired design quicker and easier in Easel.

You can access the grouping and ungrouping tools in the Edit menu, or with keyboard shortcuts:

Animation Overview:

Improved Project Labels

Easel Pro users now have more control over their project labels than ever, right from the Projects Modal.

Create and delete labels from the dropdown.

Select one or more projects to assign and unassign labels in bulk.

Click a label to unassign it from a project.

New text effects

Easel Pro now includes several new text effects to choose from, including Perspective Up & Down, Slant Left & Right, and Barrel:

The new Arc Up & Down effects stretch text around an elliptical arc:

We're excited to see how you use these in your projects. Got something you're proud of? Share it on the forum!