Would be nice to save and name your own material and spindle setup, for instance, name your material, choose travel speed, choose depth and save.
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I agree.
20 characters…
Was just thinking about this today.
We are revamping the materials selection process. Any further thoughts or ideas?
Could the Material and Machine tabs be combined into one tab labeled ‘Set Up’? Each have to be accessed before a carving can be completed and could save a click or two.
Set Up > Material, Size, Bit, Work Area, Machine (Default)
Once the Machine Settings were completed they could be displayed in the upper right of the Easel header, for example:
(Change Settings) X-Carve, 1000x1000, ACME
Upon launching Easel, there would be no reason to confirm which settings you have already chosen, or if another user is accessing it, they would know the basic selections immediately.
For us greenhorns milling bits, speeds, stepping, and depth of cut as almost as daunting to learn as learning a complex Cad/Cam workflow. I would include some resources to help people make the right decisions on these, which matter as much or more than the material.
All the Vetric software has an excellent platform for this including a great milling bit database that you can edit to your bits, and great ways to save work and name it.
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This was the idea I was trying to articulate in the MDF material thread; I agree with this idea. And It would be good to have your changes to materials save globally e.g. change your settings for MDF in one project it would be there in the next (unless this is already a functionality).
bit selection, Flat mill, ball, lolly pop, v-cut, if its not already there.
not materials but related… maybe
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Yea this is in the works. We are redesigning the way it works to be a lot smarter and object oriented so to speak.
One thing we have been thinking about is a way to work with the community on the testing of different combinations. What do you think about that. It seems like we should offer ranges of tested values rather than a specific setting so you can adjust to your preference.
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Since there seems to be a tendency for each person to choose the spindle they put on the machine, it might be a good idea to include the spindle information along with the other parameters set for a material.
For example, the DeWalt spindle may be able to plow through oak at one rate which would be too fast for the stock 300watt spindle.
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I agree. I work in the theater, and one use I have for the machine is to carve custom paint stamps out of Styrofoam. It would be great to create a new material and define the depth of pass and speed for that material.
I’m a newb but I already know I would like the option to have an empty library that I add to myself that includes the but size and spindle speed.
I.e. I’d like to setup a Material / Machine combo in the library that’s renamed to something that combines them both (Combos?)
For example, I’ll rough cut birch plywood with a 1/8" bit, full spindle speed, big depth and fast feed simply to cut out a shape that I’ll roughly finish by hand. But I’ll also cut the same material with a smaller straight bit, slightly slower spindle speed, lower depth and feed rate and long running intricate pocketing. Both require all settings to be changed except the material.
It is also the cause of all my errors having materials separate from machine settings.
If it’s not too much trouble, I’d also like to see the library materials that are already there to be able to be renamed. Material names are different in different parts of the world.
I would say this though. Feeds and speeds seem to stress a lot of people out. I’ve tried recommended numbers and had equally good and disastrous cuts based on these. Best advice with a new material? Try all your different bits with different depths and feeds by just cutting a curve or two. Once you find a good combo, write it down and reuse it. 
Cheers
Ian
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