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Lamination PRO v3.2 BETA now online

Lloyd Johnson

Administrator
Staff member
I have finished a fairly major release of Lamination PRO which is the first of the new Version 3.2 of the software. This will still be a free upgrade to existing customers who have purchased Version 3.0 or 3.1. My intent of this release of Lamination PRO was to make it easier to use. It is undeniably an extremely powerful program and perhaps has even too many features. I have not taken any of those features away, though, and have even added a few more. What has been removed is complexity of the User Interface.

I started by removing buttons that were redundant. The toolbar buttons flip, flop, decline and incline were removed since they are also part of the Actions Panel (the left column). I also removed the Details button because now the details button is always pushed. It is now an overlay that takes up just part of the screen, not the whole screen as before. It only displays when the context is right. Also removed was the Clipping Region button which was confusing as to when it should or should not be checked. Now it is checked all the time and simply displays when the software deems it necessary.

There's a new section is in the Actions Panel which only displays the panel that is appropriate for the Laminations, Radial/Disc, Southwest and Frame views. The Laminations panel is completely new and it now contains data that was on the Details page. It has a new entry that shows the width of the board that is currently being displayed. This a calculated number that takes into consideration the current generation and the angles that were used to cut prior generations. This will be very helpful for the Southwest view as you will see. The Actions Panel has been changed to hide buttons and sliders that should should not be clicked at the current state. This will keep users from taking actions that are not appropriate.

There is also now a red rectangle that continually shows the image that will be exported to either Woodturner PRO or to your hard disk. As before, it is controlled by the Clipping Region.

A significant addition is to the Southwest View. Before, it was very confusing to switch between the view of the design and the sub-view that showed how to cut the board to make the design. This has now been merged into a single screen so that both the construction and the resulting design are shown simultaneously. Now, as you change parameters, both the design and construction are immediately updated. There are now instructions as to how to remove the Center Strip from the board. This is done by starting with the width of the current board, subtracting the current width of the center strip and dividing by 2 and using that number as the distance the fence should be moved from the table saw blade. I am hopeful that providing this information will show how simple it is to make a Southwest design in the shop.

Finally, I've made sure that it installs correctly, creates the shortcuts on the desktop, the Start Menu and the Tile display for Windows 10 users. I've also made sure that if you click a valid .lam file, it will open it and zoom you to the same state as when it was saved.

EDIT:
The new version of Lamination PRO is now out of beta and is now the official installer of Lamination PRO. You can get it by clicking this Download link.
END EDIT.

The best news for all of us that the software will now be easier to maintain which means that updates can happen more frequently and much more quickly.

While the changes you see might seem modest, they required completely new architecture and six weeks of nonstop effort. I'd appreciate your comments as soon as possible and please be frank and honest. I intend to send out a Newsletter soon and want to have the software working correctly and as simply as possible when I do. There will soon be an upgrade to Woodturner PRO which will have some new functionality and a patch for issues relating to some Windows 10 installations.

Thanks!
Lloyd
 
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I downloaded the beta program this evening. It loaded without issues in windows 10.
As you suggested I removed my current Lamination Pro before installing the beta.

Will give it a more detailed workout in the next few days.
 
Like Mike, I removed the old version and downloaded into Win 10 with no problem. Have not had time to play with it yet.
 
Thanks Mike and Stuart.

For others that might read this, I'd like for you to test the installation by not first removing the old version. The installer I have now posted will remove the old version for you.
 
Downloaded and installed according to directions. I have done a couple of things with it, but will get more exercise later this week. So far, no issues.
 
I've uploade a new BETA version (build 3.2.001). I've continued on the simplification theme. In addition, with much higher resolution and bigger screens, I have increased the font size of all fields and have spread things out a bit to improve readability.
As before, you do NOT need to remove your current version. Simply run the new installation and it will remove the old version for you.

Here is the link:
download.woodturnerpro.com/software/v3/lamprosetupBETA.exe

Thanks, and I appreciate your feedback.
Lloyd
 
Lloyd:
I downloaded the latest beta into my Dell inspiron windows 10 today. I first uninstalled the first beta program.
The install went ok as far as the program loaded.

When starting 3.2 I get the welcome screen.
hit continue and get the lamination wizard with a default of 5 strips.
The program will not change the number of strips or wood species.

Will play more on Wednesday.
 
Oops. I'll have that fixed in the morning. The code went through a major rewrite and there are likely to be other things I missed. That's why I'm glad to have user help me review the software.

Thanks for your help, Mike.

Lloyd
 
I've repaired the Wizard but it took some pretty big changes due to the change in architecture. A couple changes I've made to it - first, if you click on the Laminate Wizard to edit the current board, I now allow you to select a board with a different number of strips as this has been requested several times. It has to read from the default file, though, because it doesn't know where the new strip should be. Second, since you can now change to a different number of strips, I've removed the Add Strip and Remove Strip buttons as they are now redundant and have caused a lot of problems in the past.
Here's the link to the new build (3.1.002):
download.woodturnerpro.com/software/v3/lamprosetupBETA.exe
 
Just downloaded the revision. 3.1.002
Loaded just fine.
So far so good on working.
I will play with some designs more throughout the day and evening.
Will report what I find or not find. lol

I put the revision through its paces this evening. It seems to be working just fine.
 
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Thanks Mike,
I've made one final change and that is to change the Clipping Region to 'Export Region' and now instead of clipping the entire screen, it stays as a red rectangle only. This reduces confusion and also gives me back some programming flexibility in that I could not write in the screen area that had been clipped.
I also added a checkbox that lets you shift the Export Region by one strip. This basically changes the Repeating Unit from a 'V' to and inverted 'V' and is very useful if you're ever going to export images for use in SketchUp or other drawing programs. I've tested it, though, and am getting ready to release it as a non-beta release.
Thanks everybody for your posts and the emails you have sent.
Lloyd
 
Lloyd
I've used 3.2 with no problems changing number of strips. What is 3.1.002? Is 3.2 the most recent beta version?
 
Art, I have just posted 3.2.003 and it incorporated all of your comments to me except one that I'm still working on.

The reason that I increased the increment value on the up/down components is that there is so much graphics involved that if you clicked the increment arrows too quickly, you could run out of memory. I did some re-architecting, though, and that is no longer an issue.

I'm still searching for the trigonometry formula that lets you start with a 'chord' (the Repeating Unit, in our case) and calculate the diameter of the circle that you could make based on X number of equal-length chords. Starting with the circle and solving for the Repeating Unit is easy, but there usually isn't a need to go in the opposite direction. I knew I should have taken a trig class at some point. i know I should have taken a trigonometry class sometime in my school years.

The new version is now in the Downloads folder. It is not necessary to remove the currently installed 3.x version.

Lloyd
 
Lloyd you make mention of Windows 10 several times. If I haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet, will that be a problem in using this new Beta Program?
 
It won't be a problem. All of my programming is done on Windows 10 using the newest development tools.

Lloyd
 
Lloyd, I tried to download Lampro 3.2.004 and got a message saying something similar to windows smart screen prevented an unrecognized app from opening. Running may put your pc at risk. Do I say run it anyway or not. Art
 
Yes, click Run Anyway. I just added a Digital Signing Certificate to the code today to try to keep Norton and others from complaining and perhaps I didn't add it correctly. It is a VERY confusing process where you have to jump through a lot of hoops. I'll keep after it and see if I can get the settings correct.

Lloyd
 
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