I’ve been using GWizard Calculator more and more over the last week. My trial expired and I didn’t really play with it much but was cheap enough that I bought it when the trial ended knowing that I would end up getting my money’s worth.
I’m now trying to use it to the fullest but I keep banging my head against my desk. I sent support a couple of emails last week about issues I was having and never heard back. I just sent another one this afternoon but based on last week’s no response I don’t have much faith.
I use a Mac so I’m using the Mac version. None of my tool geometries are saving. When I click OK they revert back to what they were went I entered. It seriously can’t be this hard to tell it stuff about the cutter I’m using can it? I’m hoping you guys have a trick that would prevent this from working for me so that I can get back on track.
I figured that maybe it has something to do with the Mac version so I downloaded the Windows version, installed it, and went to create my first tool. I then clicked the geometry button for the tool and I get this:
Yep, same versions as you for everything. I wonder if I should just clear all the data directories and start over. It worked at some point as it has values I had previously set, it just won’t let me set new ones. Glad to know it does work as expected with the same setup though.
For anyone else watching, I just did a complete uninstall and re-install of G-Wizard Calculator on my Mac. The version that was installed is newer than what I previously had though (3.21 vs 3.18) despite my previous G-Wizard installation saying that it was up-to-date and my having turned on immediate updates in the settings (vs waiting 1-7 days).
I now get the nice red error 1009 box when clicking the Geometry button in the tool crib when adding or editing a tool. Same thing as the Windows installation (that one was a clean install as well).
I despise two things when it comes to programs, those that are written in Java and those that are written with Adobe Air.
I checked out FSWizard, but it doesn’t have any knowledge of the machine specs so I’m not sure how useful the information it spits out really is? Still looking for alternatives. G-Wizard support has yet to get back to me on any of my [now] three support requests. I just sent a fourth request but I’m not holding my breath. Are they just severely short staffed or what’s going on over there?
I bought a dedicated machinist’s calculator. I’m not putting Air on my machines, and frankly their slightly sleazy marketing approach really put me off. I really don’t see GW as all that cheap when I can buy a dedicated piece of hardware for approximately what they want for a year’s subscription ( Calculated Industries 4088 Machinist Calc Pro 2 Advanced Machining Math with Materials ). It may not have all the same bells and whistles, but it doesn’t gunk up my Mac either. I’m probably in the minority, but I think I’ll live without GW.
I’m surprised to hear this. Every time I’ve had contact with them I’ve always heard back directly from someone claiming to be Bob Warfield, the company owner. I sorta had the impression it was just mostly him doing this thing.
This is so strange! I and many others run G-Wizard with no issues - Windows or Mac.
Sorry this is happening to you.
I’ve reached out to Bob Warfield and see if I can get his attention. This should not be happening and G-Wizard will be fixed. Bob is KNOWN for his responsiveness. I’ve worked an issue with him and he was wonderful.
FWIW, I still have yet to hear back from Bob or anyone else. I did pay for the product but I regret it a little now. It wasn’t a lot of money and it IS working for me now, but I have no idea for how long (as mentioned, it did work for me initially the first time around but somewhere it got gunked up and stopped working as expected).
It is worrying to me the lack of responses from them. I feel as if I paid for it, they have their money, so now there is no incentive to assist. For example, one of my requests for help using their support request form on their site was for the error that I received upon clicking geometry. I included a screenshot and all reproducible steps (at least what did it for me) but have yet to get anything beyond the initial robot response letting me know that they received the request for help.
It is highly unusual for him to not respond quickly. All I can say let’s see what he says when he does respond… something serious could have happened in his life (forbid!).
I certainly hope nothing bad has happened…I wouldn’t with that on anyone. Is it just Bob then? I had assumed it was a little bigger than a one man operation.
The error resolved itself at this point, but I think something is up with their code. I’m pretty sure it only happens on a clean install. Happened on two different machines with a clean install with 3.21. One a Windows 10 system and the other a Mac running 10.11. My beef with G-Wizard now is their missing support (again, no response to I believe four different tickets placed) and the issue where my previous installation worked fine and eventually gummed up only to start working again after uninstalling everything and starting over. My trust in G-Wizard is falling fast.
On the other end of the spectrum, my Nomad 883 Pro had some issues right out of the gate which @Jorge fixed in rapid fire. He shipped out a new spindle motor, a code update for the spindle turning in the wrong direction, and a couple of new switches as the one on mine failed after the first day. This was all done within a week and he had me back up and running and even had a Skype session with him so he could see what was going on in real-time.
That isn’t what I expect from most companies and for that I think Carbide 3D is a fantastic company. Having said that, I expected a little more by forking over nearly $100 on a software calculator. I don’t expect the sea to part for me or anything, but I did expect something back…even an email saying that they are behind on support requests or something to that extent. I’ve gotten nothing but crickets and I would hate to see someone else potentially waste $100 in the event that they too had issues that needed their support to help resolve.
Glad you got things running. Make sure you keep Air up to date. So you bought a one year subscription? The whole subscription model approach combined with the use of Air is what killed it for me. I realize there is a “lifetime” option, but just south of $300 seems overpriced. Besides, the further I get down the security rabbit hole, the more junk I take off of my systems. Recent removals include everything Adobe I could get rid of while still running Photoshop, and Silverlight. Java went long ago.
When I really, really have to run that sort of junk I use a “suicide” copy of OSX running in an isolated VM.
Well, the 1 year subscription comes with 1 HP for life which is fine for the Nomad. No way I’m paying $300 for a lifetime sub though…not unless the program gets moved from Adobe Air. I wouldn’t mind paying say $50 a year (at most) for an online version though.
Donavon, sorry not to have responded to your queries. Thanks to Mark for bringing this to my attention.
I can’t figure out why, but your messages were not forwarded to me by our ticketing system. I have gotten others since, and I am checking with their support to see if they can tell me what’s up.
FWIW, you can also reach me via direct email too: sales@cnccookbook.com. I do try to answer tickets before email on the assumption they’re likely more urgent.
I am glad you were able to resolve the issue. I checked and did not receive any other similar reports, so hopefully whatever was happening will remain obscure.
Thanks Bob, I’m glad to know that you are around and that the issue was with your ticketing system. I definitely received the automated response from the system saying that you would be getting back to me but that was it…for all of them.
I will contact you via email for further support needs since I have a current distrust for the ticketing system until you figure something out on it. As it stands now the issues are resolved but as mentioned above, I don’t have complete faith that the issues won’t return at this time.
While I have your ear…any chance of moving off of Adobe Air in the future? I saw posts from 2012 that a highly requested feature was offering a mobile version (iOS and Android) but that was it. You commented saying that you would look into it but obviously that hasn’t come to fruition.
Donavon, I haven’t seen a better system than AIR for developer productivity. Nothing else is even close, really.
AIR in fact is perfect for a mobile version that runs on iOS and Android. I tested it enough to know it works there but was stymied by the business model of the walled garden app stores on those platforms. I can’t afford to give them 30% of my revenue nor to introduce on a platform where people expect to pay much less than for a desktop version. It’s a totally losing proposition.
If I ever get there, it would be by offering a version that runs in the browser. But having spent lots of time programming Javascript, that’s not something I have any interest in. Talk about a terrible platform–yuck!
Meanwhile, it makes more sense to me to continue enhancing my existing apps while working on some new things that I hope to introduce some day soon.
@CNCCookbook Just out of curiousity — have you tried / considered any of the HyperCard clones?
Runtime Revolution was quite nice, and is now available as LiveCode — I believe using it would also get you access to the app stores, where you could set the price at a suitable premium, which I suspect some people would be willing to pay.
