I’m gonna try to eventually organize this info I have learned coming from 0 CNC experience and minimal knowledge of wood working. to help other newbies, I find the wiki confusing at times, with various links to different things about the same thing. No offense @WillAdams you are doing great with the Wiki and Wiki is still a great resource for me and others. I would like to contribute and give back specifically helping “noobs” 
and work in conjunction with all the resources available. I am starting to compile things and hopefully have something soon
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My goal is to have straight forward tutorials for simple things, (cuz thats all I know so far). Some times links to forum posts are confusing because then ideas get thrown around in posts after and the original plan changes. I learn better when a tutorial is step by step on how to do something then I can experiment from there to make it fit my project. If people think this is dumb, let me know. I’m just trying to think of a way to giveback, Many here have helped me the past month.
Sounds like a great idea
There are a number of step-by-step tutorials on the wiki, and more would be welcome.
There will also soon be available: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032021.do#
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ooooh fascinating link. I look forward to that.
I’m not sure the best way to present information but I find the Wiki is too much information and much of it is redundant or not needed. I often find it useful when Will posts a specific link to a specific problem but otherwise I never go there.
A concise users guide would be much better since it would only have the information needed by 80% of first time users and it could be updated with the latest and greatest as time passes. It kinda boggles my mind that C3D doesn’t put out such a guide since it would do more for spreading good news about the brand than just about any other thing they could do.
Exactly their support is great when I have emailed them, and they have a tutorial section but it leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe this is a job for the smarter people, but I will give it a go over time. Maybe a dedicated tutorial section on the wiki, I will start a page too.
No, I think the struggles of a first time user are what is easily forgotten by experienced users. It would be great to have a way to start a first time user tutorial then have other first time users provide feedback regarding where they got stuck or frustrated.
I see what you are saying, it was my thought process too. Like now I got the new Z plate and ran a program but my spindle wasn’t low enough in holder since new z plate is smaller and v wheels came out bottom when i was doing a deeper hole and all went crazy. haha
Suggestions on a better structure for the wiki would be welcome (and have been asked after repeatedly).
I envision it going something along the lines of:
- read the landing page: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
- read the Overview page: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Overview
- check the FAQ: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ
- use the Glossary to get up-to-date on terminology: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Glossary
- go to the Workflow page to get started: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Workflow using various end-to-end tutorials until one gets comfortable: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Workflow#List_of_end-to-end_tutorials
- refer to other pages as necessary, following the links
Or, if one isn’t satisfied w/ the free content, then buy a book: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Books
Wiki formatting (layouts for information and what not) is not easy and taking an existing wiki and reformatting it is even more difficult and very time consuming. I wouldn’t mind helping but I’m not sure how to best approached this.
I’d love to see more in the form of end-to-end examples for a project en-tot as I’m a total CNC noob. I went to the wiki after reading the list above by @WillAdams, and though I’d browse through some of the subject matter. I was interested in workflow and the entire “running the job” process, yet the first (2) cites in the Run The Job section yield 404 not founds.
Is there a Carbide3D repo for additional Carbide Create projects?
Note: I have run “Hello World” using the guide from the web page/
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The two empty pages were just listings for specific tools — you could’ve gotten an account, logged in and added content if you’d wished. I’ve edited the links out and moved those two to an Incompleat section.
For Carbide Create, ( http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Carbide_Create ) they seem to prefer video tutorials:
OK, so I sit down tonight to watch the “walkthrough” video… first process is the import of the Carbide Logo file (.svg file). I notice this is in a “Downloads” folder… I think, OK, go find said file on the “Downloads” section of the C3D website… nope. Go check the Wiki… nada. Search the forums… zilch.
I’d think that when following the example walkthrough video one should be importing the same file as you follow along… sigh.
I guess I’ll go look at wiki projects.
Edit: VCarve example to the rescue!