This is sort of a follow up to a question that Will has answered for me. I found a similar topic in the threads, but did not understand the answer and suspect it was answered for a Windows machine, not Mac.
I’ve just started using CC514 after upgrading one of my older Macs. I like to design on one Mac and use dropbox to share it with my Shapeoko controller Mac in my shop.
I see that there is a new tool library format that looks much more comprehensive than the one in CC431 which I was previously using.
My question is this:
After creating these custom libraries, can I share them between machines? I understand they are in .CSV format somewhere, but I don’t know where. Ideally, I’d like CC514 to just point to a CSV file in a location of my choosing, but I think that’s asking too much. Barring that, how can I get the new custom library from one Mac to another?
I think there could be an easy solution to this, even if it is hard coded.
Couldn’t the settings.ini file have a “defaulttooldatabase” which could be edited by users (not the best option) or allow the location of the tool database to be defined within CC and then stored in the settings.ini file (best option), making it accessible from all software variants of CC?
a persistent network share available to both machines — if one is always on, it could share to the other, or use a service such as Dropbox as noted above
if using a network share, move a good copy of the Carbide Create folder to it
All you need to do is move a copy of the folder there, then generate links to it on each computer — when Carbide Create is running on each computer it will use the network copy via the link.
Apparently, there are no more hard links in Mac OS anymore, only symbolic links (i’m running High Sierra). I’ve tried several times (unsuccessfully) to have CC look at symbolic link to both the entire Carbide Create folder and also to just the tools folder. Neither seems to work.
I’ve got both my Macs on the same network and I know the symbolic link works, because I can move the original CSV file anywhere on my machine and still open it from the symbolic link.
What I can’t get to happen is for CC to look at that symbolic link and open the custom tool library.
I just tried something else after some more research. Seems you can move the Symbolic link file, but not the original file. So one can put the link file on the desktop and open the CSV file from the tools folder, but not the other way around.
APFS (which it seems the OS is now using) file system does not support hard links on the Mac from what I’ve read. I’m not fluent in this at all, just doing research as I hit each stumbling block.
Yes, as Will says , that’s what lets both versions “see” the same tool library. I actually didn’t make a copy, I made a second symlink from the “master” file.