What's New at Carlson Design

No matter how good CAD programs get, most people still use both scratch CAD design and some hand fitting, so it's important that every sewn good you ship leaves a replacement pattern behind on your PC. One of the ways to do that is to make digitizing so easy there's no excuse not to use it!

The Digitizing Eye works by bouncing an extremely fine laser point off the table with fiberoptics to see the difference between light and dark or dark and light. The new Eye can precisely detect the edge of a pattern against a contrasting backgound, or a line marked by fine-line Sharpie or similar marker on white paper.

With a single click, Plotmaster XP drives the Digitizing Eye to first find an edge of the pattern and then crawls around it with a special search algorithm - all automatically without operator interaction. The pattern develops on the screen in true plotter steps - no scaling or processing required. Once a round trip is completed, the pattern is automatically saved and is immediately plottable by the system, fed to PEdit for manual editing, or exported. The Eye is now operational and will either be mounted to a compact stand-alone carriage or integrated into the CT plotter/cutter. Contact us for details.

A new stand-up, turnkey Operator Station ties up the loose ends in your plotting area. The heavy steel Station includes our ultra-mini PC and LCD monitor, preloaded and tested with PMXP or PM32. The hollow central tube conceals your cabling and makes a impressive addition to your plotting table. Our PC typically includes WinXP, 40 gig hard drive, 128 meg memory, printer port, 4 USB's, Ethernet port, keyboard and mouse, and wireless control (see below), though specs can vary. Cost, $1500.

A new wireless remote control for operating PlotMaster XP and the plotter remotely. The user may jog the plotter and adjust the knife, and scroll through and plot any plot file, or pause the operation without returning to the keyboard. A small USB receiver with 35' range is user mountable. Initially supported by PM XP only, kit price to be determined.

The Carlson Design Repair Station is designed to make furniture and apparel repair and rework cutting as easy as point, click, and cut. The Repair Station can accurately cut replacement parts up to 5 to 10 times faster than hand cutting, and completely eliminates hard patterns.

1.	Repairs begin with a super-simple visual interface created by Carlson Design just for repair. The user opens a marker of the style to repair, which loads it into the upper window. Clicking any part drops it into the bottom window for cutting. Multiple parts may manually nested, even from mutiple markers, and parts may be locked for pattern match. The user is told how much fabric to spread on the table before clicking "Cut".
2.	The Repair Station cutter is based a new high-speed version of our C1 called the C2 Plotter/Cutter, mounted on a 6 by 12 foot Phillocraft Vacuum Table and including a standard Rotary Knife plus the new Rotary Punch. A separate notching tool is unnecessary, as the notches are cut with overcut compensation with the Rotary Knife. To compele his cut, the user simply spreads one or two layers of the amount of fabric shown, clicks on the vacuum, and clicks go.

The Carlson Design Repair Station is available now under $40K. Contact us for details.

The Carlson Design Fiber System is a four step system for producing fiber-reinforced film and fabric structures of paneled contruction of unconstrained fiber orientation.

1.	Fiberpath Designer visual software allows the designer to rough out a sail perimeter and draw virtual fibers on top, with control nodes allowing precise control of fiber spline curves. Fibers are pre-grouped in bundles to quickly create overlaying sets of reinforcing patterns, although almost any pattern is permissible, including overshooting or undershooting the perimeter. Designers not interested in manufacturing stop here and email their design to a Manufacturer, including a cross-cut panel file of his choice. Cost is $1500.
2.	Fiberpath Manufacturer software opens the design file and develops carefully sequenced plot paths for optimal fiber sequencing and application to drive our Fiber Plotter.
3.	The Fiber Plotter is a custom version of our Carlson Design Pro2 plotter/cutter on a large flat-bed Phillocraft vacuum table, carrying a special fiber head capable of apply up to 6 dry fibers simultaneously in straight or curved paths to create on sticky films. The membrane is laminated and finished on other equipment.
4.	After finishing, cross-cut panels from a variety of sail design sources are overlayed and marked and cut with any standard Carlson Design Plotter/Cutter of the user's preference, including the C1/C2 or Pro2. The Plotter/Cutter may be mounted on the same table where space dictates.

The Carlson Design Fiberpath Designer program (item 1) for PC is available now for $1000 in beta version. Software available:

FiberPath Install Full distribution for first install only (1.66 Mb). Unlock codes $1000 per user.

Fiberpath Update Executable only for updates after initial installation (.90 Mb). Unzip and overwrite old .exe file.

The Carlson Design Manufacturing Fiber Plotter System (items 2 & 3) is available for for under $50K.

Carlson Design Plotter/Cutters (item 4) are available now from $25 to $30K.

Services and consulting are available.

Contact us for details.

For 2005, Carlson Design will ship PlotMaster/Control XP for Windows XP, with a streamlined interface for operating your plotter/cutter. PMXP operates plotters shipped beginning 2005 and equipped with a female DB25. PMXP updates are free to users owning a PMXP license (have purchased a system including PMXP from Carlson Design).

Features:

PMXP is simpler, with fewer configuration settings

PMXP requires only one printer port.

PMXP introduces a new male-male cabling using standard cabling

PMXP is compatible with Win98 and WinXP home

PMXP supports USB peripherals including digitizing joysticks and remote controls

PMXP supports advanced features such as drills, fabric feeders, and job logging

PMXP is installed at the factory

Registered users of Plotmaster/Control XP may download this update only here:

PM XP most up-to-date executable (only) for updates after initial factory installation. Unzip and replace existing .exe files (it's a good idea to hide the old version in a separate folder.

The VB6 runtime module is normally part of Windows XP - if you have trouble running PM XP, install it. It's also available from Microsoft at VB6 Runtime.

PlotMaster XP now supports a Pause Switch to start and stop plotting. The hand-held button can select and start plot files, or arrest motion anytime during plotting. While paused, the user may choose to continue, go home, or stop in place. The Pause Switch is useful when learning the system or cutting new or expensive materials. When ordering your Pause Switch for your PMXP-equipped plotter, be sure to specify a cable length. $195 including software.

PlotMaster/Control 32 for Windows 95/98 has an improved and simpler interface for operating your plotter/cutter. PM32 updates are free to users who own a Plotmaster 32 license (have purchased a system with Plotmaster 32 from Carlson Design).

Features:

PM32 is much simpler to configure and easier to use

PM32 runs your cutter with one or two printer ports with suitable cabling from Carlson Design

PM32 does not use DOS drivers

PM32 requires a Pentium 266 minimum - EMachines sells Pentiums under $500

PM32 uses your PC joystick for simpler jogging and digitizing

PM32 is the only supported version

PM32 Word user manual is included in initial distribution zip

Registered users of Plotmaster/Control may download these updates here:

PlotMaster 32 for Win 95/98, full distribution for first install only (2.79 Mb). NOTE: V1.10 added PC joystick support for digitizing; users below V1.10 must use this full download.

PM32 V1.45 most up-to-date executable (only) for updates after initial installation (.344 Mb). Unzip and overwrite old .exe files. Includes new 32 bit executables for PEdit and Quiknest.

Windows XP users need to install a device driver to give PM32 direct control over the printer port. We recommend Direct I/O shareware available here or on the Direct I/O Website. Find the address range of the printer port you want to use under your Windows XP Control Panel: "System", "Hardware", "Device Manager", find and right-click your Printer Port for "Properties" and record its I/O range (e.g. 0378-037F). Back under Direct I/O, "Add" this beginning and ending range (in Hex). Next, under "Security", browse to find and "Add" PM32.EXE. Direct I/O will time out in 30 days if you don't register it ($29).

More instructions for Direct I/O LPT usage are located here.