PixelCNC v1.81b/v1.82b - 30% Off Summer Sale!

v1.82b Hotfix: Decoupling the machine origin from generated toolpaths broke alignment of the canvas system's snap-to-grid functionality with v1.81b which was released on July 8th. The v1.82b hotfix restores the original intended behavior of the snap-to-grid option. The remainder of this news post details the changes/fixes made for v1.81b.

We had an email system issue that prevented a number of support emails from users making it to us. We've been scrambling to catchup with everyone's issues and questions, and implementing fixes and changes into PixelCNC for v1.81b which has gone live! The email system issue is resolved now so users should be receiving replies in a timely manner again (it's usually less than a day for us to get back to users).

This update ended up being more of a bugfix release once we were able to resolve the email situation and became privy to the various things users had been running into. It's a bit of an emergency bugfix update, so there's not much in the way of new features/capabilities this time around - but we do have some things that we've been working on that just weren't ready in time for v1.81b. We'll be resuming work on those features and capabilities, now that this update has gone live to resolve the issues that some users were seeing.

We're also putting a 30% off sale into effect until the end of August, which means PixelCNC can be had, for life, for a hundred bucks! Get it while it's hot (outside)!!!

Below details some of the more prominent and important changes that come with v1.81b.

Decoupled Machine Origin

We've fully decoupled the machine origin from the toolpath generation with this update. The machine origin's position can be freely moved and changed without having to regenerate toolpaths afterward. The machine origin, as shown in the 3D view, is now only used to calculate machine space coordinates for CNC move commands when exporting G-code.

2.5D Offset Milling Confine Cuts

The Confine Cuts option is now no longer forced to be on for the 2.5D Offset Milling operation, allowing cuts to be generated right up to the edge of the canvas where needed.

Link Cuts Behavior

Link Cuts now works properly in metric projects which should remove excessive retractions to the Safe Z height between cuts when used. When exporting G-code the moves are now also performed at the operation's Engage feed rate, instead of the cutpath feed rate. This should improve the quality of cuts for things like 2D/2.5D milling as the cutter won't be slammed over into the next cut.

Simulation Colors

The new Wood Grain simulation rendering mode now has its colors separate from the Color Gradient rendering mode. The default wood colors are no longer the same as the Color Gradient's default colors. We've also included a number of color presets for different wood types that are common. These presets only affect the color, however, and users will still need to find the wood grain parameters that better resemble the wood they're going for.

Adjust Levels Interpolation

The raster-editing mode's Adjust Levels function now performs a more desirable interpolation of the user's XY graph points when using the Quadratic and Cubic interpolation functions. This should make it easier to control the profile of 3D shapes and forms to achieve a desired result.

Loading SVG/DXF as Paths

We've fixed an issue that caused paths to be omitted when loading an SVG as a paths-layer if the paths have zero area - such as horizontal or vertical lines. This has been remedied by instead making sure shapes from the loaded SVG include at least one non-zero dimension, rather than requiring both dimensions to be non-zero.

We've also fixed a crash that could occur when loading a DXF file that has more than 32 layers. We've increased the limit to 64 and PixelCNC will now show an error instead of crashing. Currently, PixelCNC creates individual paths-layers for each layer in a DXF, but we will be adding an option for users to have PixelCNC automatically combine DXF layers into a single paths-layer in a future release. 

Windows 7 Compatibility

When we previously fixed Windows 7 compatibility, which has been broken since v1.78b, we inadvertently also introduced another bug that would cause PixelCNC to eventually crash on Windows 7 systems. We've finally brought Windows 7 compatibility back to where it once was! We've only tested on Service Pack 1 systems thus far, however, and will need to hear from users if there are issues on other versions of Windows 7.

Other Fixes

We've fixed an issue that caused the Link Cuts option to not work properly in metric projects with tiny cut Stepover values. Metric projects should see a huge toolpath runtime speedup! We've fixed several issues around the 2D Profile Milling operation when a non-zero Cut Width is used in combination with other features, such as generating tabs. We've also fixed some miscellaneous anti-piracy mechanisms that are in place to deter hackers from reverse engineering and stealing PixelCNC - which are very tricky things to implement and integrate into software in an effective fashion without diminishing the experience of those who've paid to own the software. It's a fine line!

What's Next?

Same as with v1.80b! This update was meant only to fix some bugs that were discovered as we weren't able to finish the planned features and improvements that we've been working on.

Stay tuned and happy CNCing!