Up to now people who wanted to use HSMAdvisor Speed and Feed Calculator on their Windows 8 machines had to install .Net Framework 2.0

I have decided from this point on to supply HSMAdvisor in both .Net versions.

As much as i would like to move completely to 4.0, too many people still run archaic versions of .NET framework.

I also fixed quite a few other things in this update.
So, if something looked wird before, it now should be fixed.

Edit: I have added a fix for metric taps in version 0.777

Happy Good Friday and a Happy Easter!

It has been over one month since the last sale. And i would like to kick this one off by releasing the latest improved version of HSMAdvisor.

Starting Today all HSMAdvisor licenses are on 25% discount!

Well, i actually released it a day ago. Just could not hold it to my self and wanted to share it with all the customers who are anxiously awaiting for something new!

As i mentioned before, in this update i completely redesigned the Speed and Feed Calculator's interface.

Typical workflow would consist of filling up all available information top- to bottom.

The most important input fields are now located on horizontal panels.

Each panel has a name and carries a certain set of data:

But wait, there is more!

Read More 

I have received a lot of praise and thanks for the easy to navigate interface in FSWizard:Mobile calculator.

Those collapsable accordion-style sections that carry some information in header portion come in really handy when having to put so much information on one small screen on your Android or Apple device.

Lately I felt the need to do something like that for HSMAdvisor as well. It has been over two ears since I came up with that design. And since then massive amount of features I believe overloaded the visual part of it.

It seemed very crowded and busy looking.

So, knowing that collapsable accordion panels do work, i moved all UI elements into them.

This has somewhat changed the percieved workflow of the program and at a later time I will release a series of videos showing off major hints on how to use my tool efficiently and achive best results.

For now please download the latest update. Take it for a spin and tell me what you think.

My email and forums are always open for questions and suggestions

Happy April Fool's day!

Seriously though, i have just published another update.

This update adds a floating Speed and Feed mini-window that stays on top and displays most relevant information to help users with populating S&F values on their CAM software.

To show/Hide this window, click the red-and-white "Float" button in the status bar.

Upon right mouse click on the floating window you can choose what kind of information you would like to display in there.

Also one bug was fixed where when no machine was selected from the drop-down list, deflection and torque limits were not firing for milling and drilling tools.

But wait! There is more!

I will not open all my cards, but right now i am working on a massive update to HSMAdvisor's Tool Database.
Keep tuned in.

Have just released another update to FSWizard for mobile devices.

Version 1.26 available now for Android and in a week for iOS adds Countersink/ Drillpoint Calculator.
It allwos to enter tool diameter, Tip angle, and a diameter of countersink reqiured.
It outputs Depth required to achive such diameter.

Also Thread size dropdown list was fixed.
It was showing wrong thread sizes when calculator was loaded with thread form other than UNC.

In other news i have spent a whole day trying to upload updated FSWizard to the iTunes appstore.

Every time i make an update for iOS i dread that very thing.
Every time i have to spend anywhere from several hour to several DAYS trying to upload an already finished app.
Sometimes i have to restart my computer, sometimes clean the project , sometimes i need to dance around singing voodoo songs....

Apple, YOU take 30% of my profit, I pay YOU 100$ a year just for the privelege of designing apps for your devices.
Can YOU please make the damn thing work THE first time i try it?

Drillpoint wizard

Looks like Adam Savage from Mythbusters got himself a new cool toy.

Check this out. It is a robotic spider. Made of 3d-printed parts it can move sideways, back up and maybe even shake your hand

It is rather expensive though.

He pre-ordered it from a Kickstarter project. But right now according to the video they go for around 500$.

Do not show it to your kids however. My son almost had me buy it.

I have just released another update to FSWizard for android OS.

In this one I added Bolt Hole Line calculator to the mix.

It allows to set the angle of the line and get point positions in polar mode.

Also when you click on any input field, a corresponding dimention lights up on the drawing showing which one you are currently editing.

IOS update will be published a little later.

Bolt Hole line calc

More goodies for our HSMAdvisor users!

I have just uploaded an update that allows several computers running HSMAdvisor to share the same database.
Please check out Tutorials section for more info on how it works and how to turn it on.

I have been bearing this idea for quite some time, but HSMAdvisor user Kevin E. (koodos!) sent me an email and suggested that i finally implement it.
He has almost a dozen CAM computers in his shop and he and his co-workers frequently change workstations.
Obviousy in this kind of setting it would be hard to keep importing/exporting yout tooling data without loosing anything.

Before you go ahead, however, please make sure you create a backup copy of your database yto prevent possible data loss should anything go wrong.

Also several things were improved and fixed.

First of all, Automatic Registration that allows users with multiple purchased seats request and receive their license key online on-demand has been fixed.
All 2 accounts with keys wrongfully issued this way were fixed :)

I also improved the way Tools and Cuts are loaded into the calculator.
Before there was a bit of confusion when loading tools from myCutDB page- speed and feed overrides would pick up wrong values - now it is fixed.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me with their suggestions and feedback.

In HSMAdvisor starting from version 0.750 it is possible for sevaral HSMAdvisor seats to share the same tool and cut library (myCutDB).

All you need to do is tell all HSMAdvisor seats where the shared database file is located. And then check "Shared Database" option in settings page.
This will make all seats use this file in synchronous mode.

Which means changes to the DB made on one computer will automatically propagate to other computers as well.

This is how it looks in a more schematic way:Read More 

Our most recent sale is over and it has been a huge success.

I would like to thank everybody who helped me make this software better with every update.

I just wanted to tell you about an incoming update here.

One of early users- Kevin, expressed his desire to install HSMAdvisor on 9 CAM computers in his shop. Now all computers are connected to the network, so he was wandering if it was possible to make all seats share the same tooling database.

It was not possible back then, so I decided to add that functionality in there.

The testing is almost complete and soon everyone will be able to download an update that lets multiple users share the same tooling database over the network. You could even share it over the internet if you use software like DropBox.

I bit later I will create a tutiorial on how it is done. 

This goes to show how important user feedback is for software makers like me.

So if you have any idea and would like to see it implemented, please let me know.

It it looks stupid but it works, it is NOT stupid!