Does anyone have a no-nonsense tutorial/write-up on RDWorks that they might be able to share? I’ve taken the 101 class, and I’ve watched several YouTube videos - but this program just keeps flummoxing me.
Some problems I’ve had:
Drawing/importing stuff has been easy-ish. But I can’t get the preview function to work… ever. Now, I’m sure that I’m overthinking it, but my “lawful good” side freaks me out and I don’t want to take up time and a machine and find out I’ve done everything wrong.
I will be hosting Laser 105 Office Hours tonight from 7-9.
I can help you then.
I saw that on the calendar, and I desperately wish I could come - but I’m in rehearsal for a show at 7. Maybe I can try for the Wednesday one that Tom is doing; I honestly hadn’t even thought of that! Thank you so much!
Do you have RDWorks on a personal computer? I like to do what I can at home before either bringing a saved RDWorks file or doing it at the space. Makes it a bit less stressful to play with the settings and not feel like you are “on the clock.”
When you say the preview doesn’t work do you mean it will not show anything or just not look the way you want it to?
I am one of those “Mac people”, so I can remote in and use the version on the jump server which has been working ok for me so far. I assume it’s good with the space specs.
Preview won’t show anything. No visuals, no nothing - all the values on the right side are at zero.
Are these files you print despite not having the preview? If layers are marked as ‘no’ output they won’t show up.
I haven’t tried printing them because I’m not sure if I’m just using the program wrong or if there’s problems with my designs.
I just check my file - and output is set to “yes”.
I’m sure this is just PEBKAC on my part - need to learn better. 
Check to see if “Output Selected Graphics” bos is selected. It’s right below “Path Optimize” in the lower right section of the screen. IF it is checked, AND you don’t have any part of your image highlighted, you’ll get nothing in the preview screen.
Well, first of all - my deep thanks go to @tomthm for a really useful and fantastic Laser Lab today. I don’t feel like a total doofus and actually managed to cut my first test project ever, and followed it up by cutting one of my own designs after the class.
Here’s where I think my experience was off - and I’m not sure that there’s anything to be “done” as I don’t know that anything is “wrong”.
As mentioned upthread, I am a heathen Mac user, so I am limited to using the jump server for my RDWorks - I’m not sure if it’s because there’s no actual laser connected, but the preview function just does not work on the jump server. I recreated the test pieces we did in class exactly, and there was no way to get it to work. But when I loaded my own personal file on to a laser-connected version, it was fine. So, I was ultimately being unnecessarily gun shy.
Something I additionally noticed - when I loaded my file, all of my values as far as power and speed was changed. I was cutting 3mm birch ply, which I had set for 65/65/25, but when I loaded it on to the laser computer, it was changed to something like 30/30/5000 (no joke - if I wasn’t sure it would break the machine, I’d test it to see what the 5000 value would look like).
So, I fixed all my settings and fired up the laser - it works (yay!) - and I save my file so that it’s reusable in the future. Now I’m sitting back in the common room so I can reopen the file and do some cosmetic tweaks based off of my first session… but I can’t open the file anymore. If I do, it gives me a “file format error! please check file version.” error message.
What’s all this mean? Probably that I need to learn more (definitely), that there’s a limit to a Macbook’s awesomeness (questionable), and that the jump server and the laser computers are probably running different versions of the software.
Thoughts? Ideas? Am I on the right track? Do I need to stay away for my safety and the safety of others? Is Lamont Cranston REALLY the Shadow?
What evil lurks in the hearts of men?