• Are you looking for a coupon code to buy my software? You can get one from lots of 3rd party sites but they won't work. My software never goes on sale and has never been discounted. The only coupon codes that are given is when I give a club presentation and I offer a discount to the attendees. Other than that, everyone pays the same price.

Steve Ruff

S

Steven Ruffin

Guest
Hi,
I am new to the forum. I've been turning for about 15 years off and on. Do a lot of segmented lamps, some hollow forms and segmented bowls. Nothing overly fancy. Been thinking about the woodturner pro software. Is this software user friendly for a guy with little trigonometry, only basic math skills. I've been doing segmented work for several years the hard way. Youknow, ruler, compass, draw the whole thing, time consuming. I could use some help deciding whether to purchase the software. Any help given will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Steve Ruff
 
Hi Steve. The short answer is yes the software is user friendly. Like any software you need to play around with it to find how it works but don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out something if it's now working the way you want. Ask your question here and someone will be able to help. I use usually start off with Design Pro and then over to WP to tweak the final. You can easily create custom wood using a .jpg. I do normally export the print to .cvs and save it as an Open Office spread sheet that can be sorted and color coded but that isn't necessary.

Down load the free trial copies and play with them for a bit. I find 3D Design Pro to be the hardest but with all the sample designs it's rare that any changes need to be made. Lloyd has some very good tutorials listed on the front page so be sure and check them out.

Stuart
 
Hi Steve, and welcome to the Woodturner PRO community!

If you like making segmented lamps, you should take a look at the lamps that one of our users from Finland makes. Here is a link to his member gallery:
http://woodturnerpro.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1331&page=2

With regards to the software, I wrote the software exactly for people like you (and me) - good at basic math but not strong on trigonometry. Fortunately, you need no math skills whatsoever to use the software as it has all been done for you. All you need to do is concentrate on the design and the software will do all the rest for you and I guarantee the results to be 100% accurate, regardless if you're doing open or closed segments, staves, compound segments, etc.

I certainly encourage you to do what Stuart has recommended, download the software and use it for 30 days and by all means, watch the software tutorials.

Oh, and ask questions here. You'll get quick answers.

Lloyd
 
Thanks for all the help. I'm going to be using an Apple Mini Mac. Is there any software I would need in order to install the Woodturner Pro and Design Pro on an Apple computer?
Thanks,
Steve Ruff
 
Steve,


All of my software is PC software but it runs great on a Mac (that's how I use it myself, btw), but you do need to install a PC emulation software such as Parallels (about $70, I believe - http://parallels.com). You install Parallels as you would any macintosh software and then it allows you to create a virtual disk drive and onto that disk drive you can install any version of Windows. I recommend Windows 7 as that has a relatively small footprint and you can usually find a copy laying around or buy it off Craigslist or eBay - usually around $40. Once you have installed it, you can install any PC software you like and it will simply run in a window without having to reboot your macintosh.


The other option is to use a utility that comes with the Mac called Bootcamp. This lets you create a real disk partition onto which you can install Windows. This is a very good option which saves you from having to install a PC emulator. Since your Mac has an Intel processor, it would work just like any PC made by Dell, HP, etc. With this approach, though, you do have to decide at boot time whether you want to access the Mac or the PC partition. Since these computers boot so quickly, though, it takes very little time to switch.


The reality is that PC software and Mac software are wildly different and writing software for both means starting from absolute zero and for the foreseeable future, there would be no way to make back an investment of doing this. And as much as I like the Mac platform, there isn't any segmenting software currently available for it.


Either of the solutions I've mentioned work very well, though, and are fairly easy to setup.


Please let me know if you have additional questions.


Lloyd
 
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