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I’ve found that Easel is terribly inefficient when cutting lines. I have to create a rectangle that is just wider than my bit (this should be fixed - if a rectangle is the width of the bit it should allow it to cut, and should do it in one pass).
This causes it to cut every depth of the line twice, wasting a good deal of time. Seriously, I’ve started manually coding the lines because it’s faster to code it by hand and run it than to run a file that Easel prepares with “lines” in it.
One solution would be to allow lines. Either let us pick end points or treat it like a rectangle with no width.
Another option which is less elegant would be to allow cuts where the cut width equals the bit width. Currently it won’t cut unless the cut width is wider than the bit, so my 0.125" slot has to be 0.126", and takes twice as long to cut.
Lots of ventilation slots. Even one slot would make it worth it, as the 3 minutes it takes to manually code it is dwarfed by the time it takes to cut a 4" slot through 7/16" birch plywood (twice). Parallel lines are as easy as a copy/paste and search/replace.
Also, if I have two parts, each with one straight edge, and I’m butting those edges against each other, it’s much faster to only cut the common edge once.
My previous workaround has been functionally identical to your suggestion, though, I make a 0.126" rectangle with a 0.125" bit, and carve the inside of the rectangle.
Now, I use Easel for the irregular shapes or outlines, and paste in my manual coding for the straight lines.
Gotcha. I don’t think there’s going to be an easy fix in Easel. The idea of a line or pencil tool has been suggested, but I don’t think the programmers are ready to attack it yet.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one cleaning up common edges using the X-Carve.
One thing I do is make an SVG with a single line in it either vertical or horizontal and then I import it into Easel. In Easel I save it as a project and then copy and paste from that project for later uses. You can resize the line and change depth in Easel.
I also use said project just for cutting material down to size. I know it isn’t the solution that you are looking for, but it works for me.
I was just coming here to post the same request. I want to make a few ventilation slots in a box I am making, and it sure would be convenient to just be able to cut a single line at full depth for each.
That doesn’t really solve the problem, as it still takes twice as long as it should. Hand coding is still the best option. In this case, I don’t actually want a 1/8" slot, I want a 1 bit diameter slot.
Regardless of the actual bit diameter, I want to be able to cut a line rather than an area, a simple feature that I’m still surprised isn’t available.
