OMAX Intelli-MAX® Premium Revision History   This document lists many of the important changes to the core Intelli-MAX applications.

Note: For information on latest changes to the device driver or USB card firmware, consult the "ReadMe" file in the "Drivers" directory of the OMAX Software CD, USB media, or "Drivers" folder in the installation folder.

Version 32.0, Patch #8

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, Patch #7, which was released on 2/5/2021

Bug Fixes in MAKE

• Fixed a bug where the Terrain Follower would stay active after clicking on the Stand off button for the Z-axis if the OMAX Controller Card was plugged into a USB 3.1 Gen. 2 port.
• Fixed a bug where the Low Pressure Water Locating Beam would not turn on when the OMAX Controller Card was plugged into a USB 3.1 Gen. 2 port.
  

Version 32.0, Patch #7

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, Patch #6, which was released on 7/13/2020

OMAX Monitor

• Enhanced data collection

• Automatic update of data collection software
  

Version 32.0, Patch #6

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, Patch #5, which was released on 1/17/2020

Device Driver and Firmware

• The digital signature for the driver/firmware package has been updated to support Windows 10 Build 2004.
  

MAKE

• Improved automatic configuration of the MicroMAX machine by removing a step to manually change the MakePreference.ini file.
• Improved cutting quality in heavily segmented radii by assigning the correct slower speed. This is most prominent in A-Jet files when they were imported from a scan or Intelli-CAM.
• Improved logging of A-Jet precision calibration in the event log. Added date of precision calibration in the calibration wizard.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Tilt-A-Jet errormap was not applied properly in some cases. This was especially visible when tilting to large angles, as would occur in Tilt Forward configurations.
  
• In MAKE, fixed a bug in brittle mode where in some cases the abrasive delay was not assigned correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where material thinner than 0.25 in. (6.35 mm) was being cut at incorrect high speeds. Cutting times are now more accurate for thin material and the cutting speed profile is much smoother--especially when using tilt forward in small corners.
  
• Fixed default speed and acceleration parameters when selecting a different machine type in the MAKE Advanced/Administrator Technical Setup dialog.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT where the "Stick" Tool Path font was missing from the installer.
  
• Updated links for OMAX support website.

Version 32.0, Patch #5

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, Patch #4, which was released on 7/7/2019

General

• Updated external reference used in setting TimeStamp for signed files. This ensures that digital signatures in the software distribution are all up to date. (Digital signatures are used throughout the software to help ensure that when it is installed, it has not been corrupted or tampered with; digital signatures also reduce the chances of antivirus programs detecting false positives and rejecting the installation or files within our software.)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the first pierce may not occur at piercing height but rather at cutting height.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the selection of Dual on/off valve in the Advanced Administrator Setup dialog was not saved.
  
• Corrected Language-specific web site links. (For some non-English versions of the software, links to OMAX web sites were pointing to older out-of-date locations.)
  
• Fixed an issue in MAKE where the timers and counters were not tracked correctly when the path was paused. Previous to this bug fix, not all running hours were being counted in some instances, which could cause confusion about the actual runtime of the pump, abrasive, and other accessories.
• In MAKE, significantly improved performance of Tilt-A-Jet interpolation. This will be especially noticeable with larger parts.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the delay for the terrain follower at the beginning of the path was not sufficient when Keep the pump on between paths when multi-cycle cutting was selected in the Event and Relay Timing tab.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where a delay between "end of cut" and traverses was missing in some cases. This fixes a case where the jet may not have fully cooled down as the traverse starts, potentially resulting in a blemish on the part at the start of traverses on machines that do not have dual on/off valves, machines with slow responding on/off valves, or when using “brittle mode” to turn the jet on and off at the pump.
• Intelli-VISOR: Fixed an issue where all alert profiles disabled after the system monitor shut down. Status reports would not be automatically sent to the user after restarting the system monitor.
  

Version 32.0, Patch #4

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a critical bug in MAKE where finishing a path would cause the interface to freeze and the pump to remain on, preventing any more control from the application.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the pump turned on at the end of a drawing that had no cutting entities.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where an advanced user could not set the stall distance in the Advanced/Administrator setup if an OMAX Controller Card was not attached when MAKE thought it was running a real machine.
  
• In MAKE, fixed a bug that happened when generating a Tech Support Report--users of some versions of Windows 7 or earlier would receive an error about the wrong version of .NET installed.
• Fixed a compatibility issue in MAKE where the default timing for the Terrain Follower was too short before heads up traverses. This could have caused the Terrain Follower to fault.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the additional delay before an etch was not applied.
• Fixed a bug where, if accelerations for the Rotary Axis were set too high in the Advanced/Administrator setup, an error in the software would result.
  

Version 32.0, Patch #3

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, Patch #2, which was released 4/2/2019

MAKE

• In the OMAX Path Control Dialog (appears when you click Begin Machining), the tooltip now explains that double-clicking the progress bar displays the path's progress in a large window. (This is helpful if you want to view the progress from a distance.)

Scripting

• Added a sample script to demonstrate how dimensioning or other information can be included for machine operators.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the spelling of the word “transferring” in one of the MAKE menu items.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that would falsely display a position error warning after interpolation when an XY errormap was used.
  

Version 32.0, Patch #2

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, Patch #1, which was released 3/18/2019

General

• Trademark-related updates were made.
  

Version 32.0, Patch #1

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 32.0, which was released 1/21/2019

General

• Changed brand names in some dialogs to reflect trademark updates.
  
• Modified the “Check for updates” feature to properly notify users of software patches in addition to major version number changes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in MAKE for Tilt-A-Jets where tilt forward could have caused a blemish at corner passes.
  
• Corrected translation issues (missed strings) and decimal/comma handling in foreign languages.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where very slow cutting speeds (very thick and/hard material) could have caused a perceived delay before the pierce.
  
• Fixed Import Configuration Routine: In Intelli-VISOR, importing configuration files (as performed in the EX or FSP kit installs) disabled all operating state pauses. The disabled pauses effectively disabled pressure monitoring faults, causing the nozzle to continue along the cutting path without a waterjet stream regardless of a pump fault. This bug has been fixed so that the path again pauses when a pump fault occurs.
  
• In LAYOUT, fixed the spelling of a settings file associated with the Advanced Tool Offsetter.

Version 32.0

LAYOUT

• Arc - Two Points and Radius plugin: A new plugin allows a user to define an arc by clicking two points, and then specifying a radius that would fit between those points.
  
• Cosmetic change to the Advanced AutoPath Dialog: The buttons and text in the AutoPath dialog have been updated to clearly show which AutoPath strategies are turned on and off.
  
• Added new sample file showing how to use “generative design” to make 2D OMAX parts.
• Updated the AutoPath dialog’s Strategies section so that it is more obvious as to what is active and what each strategy button does.

MAKE

• Offset Calculator: A new offset calculator is available for machines with tilting accessories. The calculator will produce recommended numbers for the tool offset and taper offset values based on measurements taken from a cut test part. It is available from the Change Path Setup dialog.
  
• The Specify Tilt dialog now stays open after the jet moves, allowing for multiple consecutive moves. To close the dialog, click the Close button or Cancel.
  
• A-Jet Precision Calibration: Added MAKE version to the AjetCalibrationReport.txt file.
• A-Jet precision Calibration: Changed maximum rotation angle from 170 degrees to 165 degrees.
  

Installer

• The installer has been updated to automatically close more OMAX applications that should not be running when the installer is running. This helps prevent the user from trying to install the OMAX software when that software is in use.
  Tip: A best practice is to always close out all applications from all sources prior to running software installers.

Scripting

• Updated some demo scripts with minor improvements and clarifications.
  

General

• Revision 84 Firmware: New firmware has been released for the controller cards for various OMAX products. The firmware will help improve tolerance of interference between the computer and the controller card.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a critical bug that could result in MAKE locking up while running extremely slow paths, such as when cutting exceptionally thick and hard materials. This can happen in any path using slow motion; including waiting for delays used to control the pump, jet, and abrasive.
  
• In LAYOUT, fixed a bug where the Smooth command would occasionally crash if cancelled during processing.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an error when rendering in LAYOUT, which happened if a computer had not been rebooted for several days.
• In LAYOUT, some strings for the Advanced Tool Offsetter were translated.
• In MAKE, fixed a bug regarding bevel interpolation that could have caused a big slowdown before a lead-in.
• In MAKE, improved interpolation in small inside arcs.
• In MAKE, improved bevel interpolation by properly synchronizing corners.
  
• In MAKE, fixed an issue in bevel interpolation with kerf offset on 180-degree entity connections.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could have caused an error when right-clicking on Begin Machining and selecting Go to Spot on Path, or when restarting after clicking  Pause.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause an exception error when printing to a file: when right-clicking on the Statistics tab and choosing Quick Print to, then clicking Cancel on the File Save dialog.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause an error when launching the Path Controller when the estimated time for the tool path is longer than 49 days. With this fix, the display for the time remaining and time estimate in that dialog will simply be “NA” (Not Available) when the error condition occurs.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause the pointer to stick in the hourglass state after importing machine settings from a backup file.
• In LAYOUT, in the Configure Preferences, Backup and Undo tab, fixed a bug that would result in a “Range Check” error if an enormous value (at least 8 digits) was entered into the  Backup every___Seconds box.
  
• Fixed a rare “Range Check" error that could occur when importing OMAX Routed Data (ORD) files that were generated by software other than OMAX LAYOUT.
  
• In MAKE, in the Locate dialog, changed the manner in which the OMAX Camera is launched from clicking the Video button.
  
• Fixed a serious bug that could cause MAKE to occasionally and randomly lock up when wiggle piercing.
  
• In MAKE, in the Change Path Setup dialog, fixed a bug where the Tool Offset tooltip would not show the smallest inside radius in the tool path. It is useful to know the smallest inside radius when debugging tool offset problems--trying to force a large diameter tool into a small radius is a frequent cause of tool offset problems. However, the Tool Offsetter will attempt to autocorrect such instances when possible.
  
• Slightly improved the Tool Offsetter to work better in some rare edge cases relating to arc-to-arc intersections where they form an infinitely sharp point. The fix improves many of these rare cases.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT when importing DXF files from Pro Engineer (and possibly other systems) that could cause the wrong font to be used when importing True Type text.
  
• Countersunk Hole plugin for LAYOUT mouse pointer: Fixed a bug in the Countersunk Hole plugin where the pointer would slowly drift when the mouse was not being used. If you have this plugin installed, you will need to uninstall, then reinstall it for the fix to take effect.
  
• Fixed a bug in the installer where the log file was not being properly created at the start of installation, causing the log file to miss events that occurred at this point.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT where the Preview button for the Smooth command could be in the wrong spot when the dialog was resized.
• Fixed a bug in Tech Support Reports where the report would not indicate which branch of source code the installer was built from.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT’s Clean command where the “convert near circles to true circles” option would sometimes convert non-circlular shapes into circles.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT’s file importer that could cause some text to not properly convert, in particular from title blocks from Pro Engineer files, but possibly others.

Version 31.0

Changes made to Intelli-MAX Premium since version 30.0, which was released 8/13/2018

Device Driver and Firmware Changes

• Windows 10 drivers are now Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certified. This means that Intelli-MAX software was evaluated, passed the required tests, and digitally signed. The WHQL signature is necessary to install Windows 10.
• Changes to the drivers and firmware had caused a layer of buffering around the signals, causing severe but temporary disruptions in communication.
• It is not necessary to replace drivers that are already installed.
• For details, please refer to the OMAX Windows Machine Tool USB Device Driver ReadMe at C:\Program Files (x86)\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_LAYOUT_and_MAKE\Drivers.
  

LAYOUT

• The smooth command has been replaced with a completely new version that provides for much improved results
The Smooth Tool is used to reduce the number of entities in a drawing, as well as convert curves approximated by many small line segments into smoother true arc-based curves. This can in turn improve the speed of cutting and edge quality of the final part, and make the drawings easier to work with in LAYOUT.
This tool is especially useful for artworks where the geometry may not have been so well-suited for cutting due to such artifacts.
To access the Smooth Tool, right-click the Clean button.
To help us continuously improve this tool, please send us your drawing challenges to test on.
If you have geometry that does not smooth well, we would like to see it. Please email techsupport@omax.com, and we will use it for testing for the next updates to this command. Stay tuned for future updates that improve things even more.
Note: The old Smooth command is still available, should  it fit your specific needs better. To use it, press Shift and click the Smooth Tool menu option. If you do choose to use the old command, please let us know why, so we can improve the new. Our intention is to completely remove the old tool in a future update, so let’s make sure the new one does everything you want!

• Minor improvements to DXF and DWG file importing have been made.
  
• AutomaticBackup.dxf saves faster
On some versions of Windows, there could be a conflict between Windows Search Indexing and saving to the automatic backup file in LAYOUT. This would cause the backup process to be slower (seconds--the normal speed is in milliseconds).
The automatic backing up is now handled differently to prevent Windows Search from interfering and slowing down the process.

MAKE

• A-Jet motion on traverses
  Added an option to prevent the A-Jet from rotating during traverses, and only rotate into position before starting the next cut. 
• Machine defaults
  Added machine resolution and jerk settings to default parameters. Now the user can switch to a different machine type and still maintain all pitch corrections.
  
• Faster motion on small outside corners
  Improved motion on small outside corners to where the machine does not slow down as much.
  
• The EventLog.txt in the History folder now records more entries to make it easier to do post mortem diagnosis. For example, the start and finish times of a path are recorded to the daily machine history.
  Note: It is often easy for us to add more information to the various logs, so if there is information you need, let us know.
• In the A-Jet Precision Calibration Wizard, the A-Jet Calibration Report tab has improved layout and revised wording. The report displays in the local language with local units as well as in English with metric units.
  
• Improved warning text for fast, jerky A-Jet motions
  In the Change Path Setup dialog box, the warning that displays for the A-Jet when it may run exceptionally fast now also mentions soft materials and high power pumps as sources of fast motions.
  
• Click on entitiy numbers in compiler warnings
  When compiling a tool path and a compiler warning or error occurs, it is now possible to zoom in on that entity on the screen. This is helpful when diagnosing issues that typically appear when compiling 3D tool paths.
  To zoom in: In the warning message, click on the entity number.
• Tool tips on the Change Path Setup, Preview, Test Pump, and Cut off Saw buttons are now more descriptive for beginning users.
  
• See estimated time of completion 
  The Time Remaining display on the Path Control dialog now displays a tool-tip hint that shows the estimated time at which the path is expected to be finished.
  To see the tool-tip: While a path is running, hold your mouse over the Time Remaining display.
  
• Copy registration code to clipboard 
  There is now a little red triangle on the software registration dialog to remind users that they can right-click to copy the code number to the Windows clipboard, making it quick and easy to paste it into the software activation web site.
• The message that displays when out-of-date device drivers or firmware is detected will now direct users to a utility that automatically updates them.
  
• Vastly improved USB error correction
  The USB subsystem has been completely reworked, and can now handle quite severe noise and USB disconnect conditions.  As part of the USB standard, USB hardware already has quite robust error correction and data recovery systems.  We have taken that one step further by wrapping this system with a software layer that buffers the data, and re-connects the system even in the case of a momentary disconnect of the cable, without interrupting or corrupting the tool path in progress. In addition, we have added additional logging of USB events to improve USB troubleshooting.
  

Installer

• Additional logging has been added to the installer for testing and diagnostic purposes.
• If .NET has not been installed on the computer, then the portions of .NET that are required for the updated driver/firmware changes will automatically be installed. This slightly increases the size of the installer.
  
• The installer now automatically closes more OMAX processes when installation or uninstallation occurs. This prevents applications that were accidentally left open from interfering with the installation process. It is good practice to always close all running applications prior to running the OMAX installer.
  

Scripting

• In the Script Editor, to display the caret's XY position in the text editor, point to the gutter (gray numbered column).
  
• A new command, “OMAX_RedrawSelectedThick” redraws all selected entities with a thickness specified in inches. This is useful, for example, for previewing kerf.
  
• Added new sample files and updated some existing ones.
  
• Based on user feedback, the OMAX Scripting manual has been updated with new information and changes for clarity. New sample scripts have been added and existing ones have been updated. 
  
• Folders to house file filter scripts are now auto-created as part of the installer. This makes it easier to find the right folder to place file filter input scripts into, and prevents making a typo in the folder names.
  

Scripting Engine

• Added some new example scripts to learn from, and updated some of the existing scripts to be more useful and informative.
• Improved the Help text for some of the scripting commands.
  

Intelli-VISOR

• Advanced Override: Allows a user in advanced/debug mode to force a module to a specified value.
  

General

• Added diagnostic parametric shapes for test parts to improve determining tool and taper offsets.
  
• The tool offsetter in both LAYOUT and MAKE now accepts single-entity tool paths.
  
• New XDatas #43 (Force Start Percent Speed) and #44 (Force Start Absolute Speed) allow one to override the speed of a series of entities in a path by either a percentage or an absolute speed. These advanced XData items can be useful for engineering tests or other specialty purposes.
  
• Minor tweaks have been made to visual elements to improve appearance, better fit international text, and more.
• Tech Support Reports now include additional information useful to diagnose issues remotely.
  
• A few minor cosmetic changes were made to various dialogs, and some minor tweaks were also made to a couple of the optional visual themes used to change how the software looks.
  To change themes, see C:\Program Files (x86)\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_LAYOUT_and_MAKE\OMAX_ThemeSwitcher.exe.
  
• The installer has been updated to install more prerequisite files in order to ensure compatibility with older operating systems that may not be as up to date as needed by the Intelli-MAX software.

Bug Fixes

• In MAKE, updated the dial indicator code to support the newest dial indicator firmware from Sylvac (the older code would fail in relation to the newest release of dial indicator firmware from Sylvac).
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that could cause an Access Violation Error if the “Install a Plugin” command was run while a script (or a LAYOUT command that runs a script) was running.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause single entity tool paths of quality Etch or Scribe to calculate as traverse moves with no jet on.
  
• A-Jet speed spikes: Fixed a bug in MAKE A-jet interpolation where small tilting entities could lead to fast motions, which could compromise cutting quality or separation.
• Fixed an issue in MAKE where a quality frame could have been overwritten.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE for the Tilt-A-Jet and A-Jet tilting range when the Z-axis alignment was large.
  
• In the Czech language translation, fixed a bug that could cause a “Rich Edit Line Insertion” error when attempting to view part history for a path.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that had caused unnecessary rotations during lead-ins and lead-outs during A-Jet operation.
• Tilt forward: in MAKE, improved entity transition between radii.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that caused the first line of the XY errormap to be calculated incorrectly.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that prevented a message from displaying when Auto-Home Tilt was canceled.
  
• In MAKE in the Automatic K-factor, fixed a display issue in the Advanced Setup dialog.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the angles in the TiltCalibration.ini file were displayed in radians instead of degree.
  
• Fixed a bug in the BTSviewer that prevented a large bitstream from loading.
  
• Fixed a bug where an exception error might occur when the Array Nester is first launched.
• Fixed bugs in LAYOUT and MAKE that could cause an exception error if a) no printer is set up or b) the user clicks Cancel at the Save Print Output As dialog when printing to a file.
  
• In LAYOUT, fixed a bug where the Clean command was not fixing arcs (such as removing overlaps or duplicates).
  
• In LAYOUT, fixed a rare bug in AutoPath that could otherwise cause gouging at a lead location.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that could cause an error when canceling the AutoPath tool.
  
• In LAYOUT, fixed a bug in the Path Preview dialog box where a possible collision would not be properly highlighted if that collision was the very last entity in the tool path.
• Fixed a bug in the Installer that could force a reboot after installation when a reboot was unnecessary (for example, a simulated machine).
• In the Installer, improved automatic cleanup of desktop icons after un-installing non-English versions of the software. This will help prevent "phantom icons" from remaining on the desktop after the software they point to has been removed.
• Fixed a bug that could cause an exception error with the Inquire command if the tool path interpolator failed to compile a path.
  
• In MAKE, fixed a bug in the Advanced / Administrator Setup, Motor Setup tab where a negative number entered for backlash compensation would cause an exception error.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where, in certain non-English translations, the buttons in the Path dialog box would overlap.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE so that Help on Homes links to the correct Help topic.
• In MAKE, for the A-Jet, revised a warning for cutting thin or soft materials to be more descriptive.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause some traverses to slow down more than necessary when the A-Jet was enabled.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause the soft limits to not be properly enabled after auto-homing the XY axes on some machines. Now, when homing is complete, the software will re-enable the soft limits if it makes sense to do so, not enable them if they have never been enabled before, and ask the user if they want to re-enable them if the situation is ambiguous.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a DLL to not properly register when running the installer on a computer that is missing some prerequisites.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT and MAKE where clicking Save in the Technical Support Report would produce duplicate information in the RTF file.
  
• In MAKE, on the Soft Limit menu, changed the capitalization of “Enable soft Limits” to “Enable Soft Limits.”
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where the Begin button would not properly disable when an invalid value was entered into the Wiggle Pierce field in the Path Controller dialog.
• Fixed a bug in Scripting where OMAX_KeyboardState would not return results if the Shift or Ctrl keys were pressed.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Cut / Continue button would not become shaded when an unsupported value for the numbers of wiggles for wiggle piercing was entered.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT where a parenthesis in a file name could cause an “unrecognized opcode error” when importing files.
• Fixed a bug that could cause unnecessary “File in use” or “I/O 32” error messages when opening some files that are in use by other applications, such as when opening a file from an email attachment. The message now clearly states that the file is in use in another application.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Tech Support Report generator that could cause Czech language to not correctly be reported.
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that could cause the caption of the Inquire dialog to be too large and not display.
• Removed a file from Tech Support Reports that is no longer necessary for the report, and could cause some email systems to block the report as suspicious.
• Fixed a bug in the Installer where the final dialog may not show up after launching the device driver sub-installer.
• Fixed a visual glitch where some test on the Software License dialog was clipped by a couple of pixels when displayed in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and possibly other languages.

Version 30.0

• Announcing the intention to drop support for operating systems older than Windows 10 64 bit. The purpose of the change is to minimize our test  burden, take advantage of new features in Windows, and prepare for the eventual drop of support from Microsoft for older operating systems.
• Version 31 is the final version with support for operating systems older than Windows 10 64 bit.
• After version 31, OMAX will no longer be providing bug fixes and feature updates for 32 bit Windows or operating systems older than Windows 10.
• Your machines will still work fine, and the older software will still be available, but you may not be able to update to the latest unless you have the hardware to support it.
• Please start planning to either stay with what you have, and not receive updates, or upgrade certain hardware components and your computer  to  support Windows 10 and 64 bit (if it does not already). 
• This change is planned for late 2018, software version 32 (subject to change).
• Those most affected are those using the older "5 axis" style USB communication cards. These cards do not support 64 bit Windows. If you have a 5 axis card, or are unsure, you can read further information on the OMAX 5 to 9 Axis Conversion Kit.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a critical bug in MAKE that could cause rough machine motions on 5-axis machines.
  
• Fixed a critical bug that could prevent the firmware and device driver from properly installing when installing the software to a computer for the first time.

Version 29.0

LAYOUT

• The Clean command now reports how many zero length entities it has removed.
• When importing .omx files into LAYOUT that contain 3D Z height information that is defined as entity properties of Z1 and Z2, (for example, that came from the 3D Path Editor), LAYOUT will now show a warning, and remove the 3D information from Z1 and Z2 of the entities.  This is because LAYOUT is not designed to maintain the integrity of all Z operations when working in 2D Layout.  Entities using XData for Z, though, will remain untouched, since LAYOUT is designed to handle XData properly, even for 3D. 
  Note: If you have an existing workflow that by chance is already working fine, and want to preserve the Z1 and Z2 information on importing, hold the SHIFT key down when pressing "OK" on the new dialog to override this change.  The purpose of this change is to prevent confusion where Z1 and Z2 information would otherwise become corrupted.  It is unlikely that this change will affect you, except for those using the software for edge cases that are highly unusual.
• The "Render" command now produces higher fidelity results, but no longer renders to the screen until it is finished.  An option to toggle between a draft (fast) render and a "precise" render is available as a right-click option on the "Render" button.
  

MAKE

• For the test pump stopwatch, the mouse pointer automatically moves onto the "Stop" button after it has been static for ten seconds.
• All machine position displays now update faster (on 50ms intervals instead of 100ms), and they now update while the machine is decelerating.  This results in a smoother more fluid feeling when watching the display while jogging and similar.
• Make now supports specifying unique homing methods for X and Y homing.  For example, for machines that might use hard stop homing for one axis, and limit switch homing for the other.
• Added support for the Z-Axis style drill accessory.
• MAKE no longer launches Intelli-VISOR when on an offline/office PC.  This reduces the number of background tasks running unnecessarily.
• Improvements to machine communication: it is now possible to plug the controller USB cable into the computer while MAKE is running.  This will force MAKE to reboot and establish communication with the device.
• Additional USB logging is reported to Tech Support Reports.
• Added additional logging to MAKE to help diagnose some issues easier.
• Improved some USB related error messages to be more useful for diagnostics.
  
• Changed a warning about "thin materials" causing fast jerky Tilt-A-Jet motions with the Tilt-A-Jet to be less confusing when cutting soft materials, or when cutting with super high power setups  that also behave in a similar manner.  (Where machine may cut slower than the cutting models predict in order to adhere to Newtonian constraints that might otherwise shake the machine.)
• The file containing Z axis positions now saves more frequently (a request by those reading the file from external applications for automation and monitoring purposes.)
• The custom report variable [OMAX_OMAXSoftwareBuilder] no longer uses commas in the result, to make parsing custom reports with 3rd party software easier.
• A-Jet: Improved interpolation of corners when large error maps have to be compensated.
• A-Jet: Improved speed calculation for inside bevels.
  
• There is an improved consistency of taper prediction in the cutting model.
• Improved auto calculation of the K-factor for multiple connected nozzles.
• Implemented separate homing methods and encoder style for each axis.
• Implemented option to revert to default settings when changing machine type.
• In Advanced / Administrator Technical Setup, you can now change the machine size for any machine type; it does not have to be custom.
  

 Scripting & Script Editor

General

• All brands installed: This installer (Premium installer only), will now install ProtoMAX, GlobalMAX, and as before, MAXIEM brands of LAYOUT and MAKE.  In addition, some safeguards have been put in place to prevent the accidental running of MAKE in these alternate brands on an actual machine tool, and they will now run their correct help screens, though an Internet connection is required.  The primary purpose of adding these to the installer is to allow OMAX sales people a convenient way to demo the differences between brands, though perhaps there is some use here to others as well.
  
• To Run the software in these alternate brands:
• Locate the "Θ - -Other OMAX Brands" shortcut that is in the C:\Program Files (x86)\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_LAYOUT_and_MAKE\ folder (Sort the folder by "name" at it will appear alphabetically at the bottom.)
• Right click on the shortcut and select "Send To   >" and then "Desktop (create shortcut)"
• You now have a folder on your Windows desktop that contains shortcuts to LAYOUT and MAKE in each of the 4 brands.
  
• Important: While the exes will behave appropriately for each brand in general, the suite of supporting files (scripts, sample files, tool path fonts, and other) will all be the Premium versions.  Therefore, the experience may vary slightly compared to an official installers of these alternate brands.  If you need a "pure" ProtoMAX, GlobalMAX, or MAXIEM experience, then you will have to install the official installers for those brands.
• Important: Do not run brands on your actual machine tool that were not intended for that tool.  Doing so will result in corrupt machine positions.  (The software will prevent you from running by mistake)
• The installer now puts fewer icons on the "Start" menu.  That way, what is there is easier to find (Windows 10 imposes a limit to how many it will display, so we stay under that limit.)
• A few help links have been updated to point to improved help topics.
  
• The installer will now warn the user when attempting to install the software on an older version of Windows that is no longer supported, and will provide options about what to do.
  
• All digital signatures have been updated, as the old were set to expire.  OMAX digitally signs installers, executables and some other supporting files to help ensure that the files you are installing indeed came from OMAX and that they have not been tampered with.
• Improved the installer to do a better job of cleaning up old icons.
• Unified contact information for Technical Support:  In order to ensure the best customer and technical support, we have updated many contact email addresses to reference "techsupport@omax.com" instead of multiple other email addresses that may send folks to other departments, resulting in support that is not tracked, and sometimes not followed up on.  Please use techsupport@omax.com for all support requests, and they will be happy to manage, follow up, and solicit others throughout the company on your behalf.
• Improved auto closing of Intelli-VISOR background services so that it will no longer run when it is not needed.  (So it's not using any computer resources when not being used.)
• Improved what used to be an "I/O 32" error message to now say "File is in use in another application" to help reduce confusion when one attempts to open a file in the OMAX software that is locked in use by another application.
• For LAYOUT, MAKE, and other places, in the Print dialog box, clicking Print also saves your selections in the Options section.
  

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug in MAKE that would prevent growing or shrinking of lead-ins when applying Intelli-PIERCE optimizations to a tool path on machines that do not have on/off valve hardware attached. This would result in pierces being slower than necessary, especially for thicker parts where such optimizations are most beneficial.
  
• Scripting: Fixed a bug in OMAX_GetTimeEstimateFromMAKE that could cause an exception error in MAKE when called, if MAKE was previously opened by the user and not by a script.
• Scripting: Fixed a bug in OMAX_GetTimeEstimateFromMAKE that could result in a machine positioning error being reported incorrectly if the estimation level passed to the function was less than 100%.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that would cause a particular SVG file to not import correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug in the "Notes" section of the history form in MAKE where it was not correctly scrolling to the bottom of the notes automatically for the user.
• Fixed a bug in the installer where the dialog box did not display after updating drivers.
  
• Fixed a bug in the installer where an old version of the OMAX Touch Utility was being distributed instead of the latest.  This in turn fixed a bug where the Touch utility was launching the wrong help topic.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Advanced/Administrator Setup dialog in MAKE where the tab order (the order in which user interface elements receive input when using the "Tab" key to move between them) was out of sequence.
  
• Fixed a bug in the File/Import command of LAYOUT that could cause errors when importing files that have parentheses in the file name.
  
• Fixed a bug in the installer where some icons were not being removed from the desktop when removing non-English versions of the software.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that would allow the "Render" command button to be active, even when there were no entities to render.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause a false calculation of A-Jet cutting speed when cutting inside arcs with bevels.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that would allow users to enter in a pipe symbol into the comment string for the XData Comment on Entity, which would result in that string parsing incorrectly next time it is displayed.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could incorrectly state that there is a "soft limit hit" at the end of auto-homing the machine.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could incorrectly report an error in Z axis calculations for tool paths that use XData to define Z motions.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT and MAKE that could cause XData information to be corrupted after loading and resaving .OMX files on computers that used commas for decimal separators instead of periods.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT that could cause the window that shows measurement results to go behind LAYOUT when LAYOUT is minimized and then restored.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT and MAKE where multiple RTF files could be included in Tech Support Reports if multiple Tech Support Reports were generated in a row without exiting MAKE.
  
• Fixed a general cosmetic bug where the "Cancel" button on some progress dialogs would overlap the bottom of the window, or the progress bar.  Also, fixed a few other miscellaneous cosmetic issues.
  
• Fixed a bug in LAYOUT's Shell command that could, in rare cases, cause a "Range Check" error.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Script Editor where Ctrl+Mouse Wheel zooming of the text could cause the text to scroll, and sometimes not exit zoom mode when the user finishes.
• Scripting: Fixed a bug where OMAX_Is_Locale_Brazil and OMAX_Is_Locale_Germany would cause an error instead of returning a result.
  
• LAYOUT: Fixed a bug that could allow some Layers from other CAD systems to import into LAYOUT as Qualities that simply do not exist, which could confuse tool pathing operations later on.
  
• MAKE: Fixed a bug that would cause the warning about part paths being exceptionally large to disrupt automated cutting when MAKE is running in an automated manner.
  
• LAYOUT: Fixed a bug that would cause the "Select Special" dialog to stretch larger than necessary, and then not stretch the components on it that needed to stretch with it.
  
• LAYOUT:  Fixed a bug in the Tab feature that could cause an exception error after upgrading from earlier versions.
  
• MAKE: Fixed a bug where bitstream files were not being attached to Tech Support Reports.  This resulted in the inconvenience of important motor position diagnostic information not easily making it to technical support.
• Scripting: Fixed a bug where OMAX_Client_SendMessage could return a result of "True" when it should have returned "False".  This affects those who may have written custom scripts that use this command.
• MAKE: Fixed a bug that could cause the arrow key graphics on the screen to inappropriately show in the "down" state when jogging with the mouse, causing a slight rare irritation to the user.
• MAKE: Fixed a bug that may have compromised the length of corner passes.
• MAKE: Fixed a bug where changing from Tilt-A-Jet to A-Jet could have caused a problem when upgrading from Version 23 of MAKE or earlier, to MAKE version 25 or newer.
• MAKE: Fixed a bug where a Tilt Homing message was displayed even though the machine had not homed.
• Fixed bug that would prevent starting the Bitstream Viewer from MAKE debug menu.
• Fixed bug in XDATA 32 (TaperCompensation) to make sure it is only applied when the A-jet is active.
• Fixed bug in restart-array that could have caused IOs to be set wrong (for example, no low pressure).
• Fixed an issue where changing the Z-axis type was not functioning properly.
• Fixed an issue with Z-axis jogging when two Z-axes were connected.
• Rotary Axis: Fixed an issue with speed calculation when there was only rotary motion and no XY motion.
• Fixed an issue with optimizing the length of corner passes.
• The restart quality for Etch was changed from 'Lead-in' to 'Etch'.
• Fixed bug in the restart-array that could have caused input-output signals to be set wrong (for example, no low pressure).
  

Version 28.0

LAYOUT

• Minor updates and improvement to file filters for importing from other CAD systems.
  

MAKE

• No significant changes made for this release.
  

Scripting & Script Editor

General

• Czech Support:  The Intelli-MAX software is now available in the Czech language.

Bug fixes

Version 27.0

LAYOUT

• Faster Launch: Layout now launches about 20% faster.
• Improved Shell command: The "complex" option for the "Shell" command is now faster, more reliable, and can handle more data at once.   It also has improved handling when working with partial selections of geometry, offsetting to the proper side in context to surrounding entities.
  

MAKE

• Remains unchanged other than bug fixes mentioned below.
• Improved performance of path smoothing.
  

Scripting & Script Editor

General

• Intelli-VISOR: Revised Module Wizard controls to be enabled/disabled contextually for a more guided UX.
• Intelli-VISOR: Revised HTML status report "date" to reduce confusion.  Previous versions used "time of last report" without proper explanation, current template uses date/time the report was generated.
  
• Tool Tips (the hints when you mouse over a user interface element) will now show for a longer time, if the text of the tip is longer.)
• A new SolidWorks Macro is available for SolidWorks 2016 through 2018.  This allows importing a 2D face of a solid model from SolidWorks directly into LAYOUT or MAKE.  For additional information and instructions, consult relevant documents that are kept in the C:\Program Files (x86)\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_LAYOUT_and_MAKE\SolidWorksMacro\Documentation\ folder.  For additional 3D options, including options specific to SolidWorks, be sure to download Intelli-CAM for Free, from the OMAX Support Site.

Bug fixes

Version 26.0

LAYOUT

• 2018 DXF and DWG Support: File filters updated to support DXF and DWG files up to version 2018.
  
• Changed the "Path" button to say "Post", and changed it's icon.  This change should help clarify the role of that button to mean "sequence the tool path and save it to a file for MAKE".  The term "Post" is an industry standard term as well.

MAKE

General:

Scripting & Script Editor

Bug fixes

Version 25.0 Maintenance Release

LAYOUT

• Improved PDF support: The PDF importers have been updated to improve support of PDF files that have gigantic bitmap images embedded into them.
  

MAKE

General:

Scripting & Script Editor

• New Script Commands:
• OMAX_CountProcessesWithSameName - Returns the number of Windows Processes of a given name that are running on the computer.
  

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug in Intelli-VISOR relating to pressure monitoring functionality for systems formerly running version 23 or older.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where corner passing was disabled when an A-Jet was present, even if not enabled.
• Fixed an issue in the utility "MachineAlignment.exe" (a utility used by tech support) where the calibration code was not properly recognized on new lasers.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where when using the Drill feature "Recompile pierces only" would not properly assign the drill offset.
• Fixed issue in MAKE when drilling individual parts where the jet would have been turned on while moving to the drill position.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause the Drill offset to not be correctly applied when the drill accessory was enabled.
• Fixed a firmware issue that could cause excessively hard decelerations when running MAKE at speeds higher than 350 inches per minute.
• Fixed a visual artifact that could show up in the Machine Setup dialog in MAKE when running in Windows 7.
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that in rare cases could result in severe and incorrect taper compensation angles.
  
• Fixed a bug in Intelli-VISOR regarding enabling / disabling modules from the right-click context menu.
• Fixed an issue in Intelli-VISOR where Alert Status Report subscriptions could be forgotten after closing or restarting Intelli-VISOR.
  
• Fixed a severe conflict between MAKE and some machines where the "B Channel Relays" were being used to duplicate signals meant for the A Channel.  This conflict arose as we updated the software to support multiple tilting cutting heads on the same machine.  Several customers reported this after version 24 was released, and addressing this issue is the reason for this Version 25 maintenance release.  Note: There is no software configuration required regardless of your machine setup - simply install version 25 instead of version 24.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where a routine to report the maximum size of each machine model for the purposes of computing maximum jog distances was under-reporting, which could cause long jogs and similar to stop prematurely.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE where if one has hit a soft limit through a move such as a jog, it may not always tell you it is hit.
  
• Fixed a bug in the UN-INSTALLER where icons would not be fully removed from the "Start" menu on uninstall.
  
• Fixed a bug in the INSTALLER where CustomColor.INI was not being shipped with the software
  
• Fixed a general bug where some Quality colors in the Colors.INI file were not being properly read / ignored.
  
• Fixed a bug in MAKE that could cause an access violation error if the "zero home" button was right-clicked when no path was loaded.
  

).

Version 24.0

LAYOUT

• Improved AutoPath: The Autopath command has been improved:
• Faster performance on giant files
• Improvements on lead placement to be more human like in its results.
  
• Auto-path parts with features that have multiple tabs per feature (Previously it only considered the case of a single tab per feature).
  
• For parts that are held in by tabs, it will not waste time by using heads up traverses over them, since presumably they are not going to tip.
  
• General improvements to minimize over-use of heads up traverses.
  
• Right-click on the end point for the option to end the path without a final traverse
• The Auto-Path configuration dialog now allows near zero (0.0001" / 0.00254mm) length lead outs.
• When autopathing geometry that contains etches or scribes, all etches and scribes for each individual part are done first now.  (In the past, the pather might choose to do some etching, then some cuts, then more etching, which is inefficient and more prone to possible collisions.)  It is still the case that each part will be completed 100% before moving to the next part (so in a giant nest, for example, it will not do all the etches for the entire nest, and then start cutting out the parts, because that puts all parts at risk, should something go wrong with a single part.)
• Autopath now avoids placing leads at ultra sharp pointy endpoints of external corners, in order to make generating the ORD/OMX file easier, and improve the corner of the final part.
• Tip: The automatic tool path algorithms are driven by your input.  When you have results that are less than perfect, please use the "Generate Report For Tech Support" feature on the Help menu in LAYOUT to package up your work and send to us for analysis so that we can improve the results for the next round of software.   Please include a note on precisely how you think it could have done a better job.
  
• Improvements to the "Clean" tool: 
• Added a new function to automatically detect "near circles" and turn them into true circles.  This can be useful for cleaning up circles that came from sliced or flattened 3D files, raster to vector image conversions, messy DXF files, and similar. 
  
• Note: It is recommended not to use the tool for converting near circles to circles unless there is a specific need, as often near circles are purposefully drawn that way, such as the toothed hole of a box wrench.
• Clean Selected: If entities are "selected" when the cleaning process begins, an option will be presented to clean the entire drawing, or only those entities that are selected.
  
• Tweaked and improved the Clean tool in LAYOUT to provide even better results in general.
• Added a right-click option to the "Clean" that will launch the "smooth" command.  (And the Smooth command has disappeared from its previous spot on the main screen)
• Improvements to PDF, DXF, DWG, AI, IGES, and other file imports:
  
• The "Generation I", "Generation II", and "Generation III" file filter options are no longer available, as we now have a single file filter engine that handles them all. 
  
• The PDF file importers have been completely overhauled to give better results, and to support yet more "flavors" of PDF from different systems.
  
• Minor improvements have been made to improve yet more flavors of these files, including improved spline importing from Autodesk® Fusion 360, and more.
  
• The Spline Curve Conversion Tolerance slider now works when importing IGES files.  This can result in considerably cleaner importing of some IGES files (especially artistic ones), if the sliders are used accordingly.
  
• Improved Spline conversion when importing DXF, DWG, and DWF files, including automatic elimination of duplicate splines that would otherwise cause the need for much manual cleanup for some complex artistic files.
  
• We now log the process of importing these files to a history file to make diagnosis of import issues easier.  These logs are available inside of LAYOUT Tech Support Reports.
• AI importing, if it fails, no longer raises an error message before attempting other methods of importing.  (Removing a minor annoyance / user confusion.)  AI importing has also been improved in general to support a few more "flavors" of AI, and import "guide lines".
  
• If you have any file that does not import as you expect, please send it to techsupport@omax.com, so that we can support it.
• New support for importing DGN files.  It is now possible to import MicroStation DGN files into LAYOUT with the "Import from other CAD" command.  To use this feature, choose "File", and then "Import from other CAD...".  If you have DGN (or other) files that do not import correctly, please email them to techsupport@omax.com so they can be used for testing and development.
• Some buttons have moved around slightly.
  
• The "Smooth" feature has been moved to be a right-click option on the "Clean" button. 
  
• The "Size" button has been moved to where "Smooth" used to be
• "Offset Selected" has been renamed to "Shell", and has been moved to the "Edit" category
• The "Text" button has moved to the "Draw" category
• Added new buttons for "Chamfer", "Offset single entity", and "AutoPath" to the "Draw" category.
• Improved Offset Selected (now renamed "Shell"): The advanced options in the Shell command now give better results, and it is faster.  In addition, if some entities are "selected", while other entities in the drawing are not selected, the non-selected entities are still considered in context to improve the overall results.
  
• Improved Drawing Statistics on the "Info" button:  Clicking "Info" will now provide counts for all entities of each Quality supported.
  
• Constrain 2 edge circle drawing with SHIFT key: The 2 edge circle command now supports holding down the SHIFT key to "ortho constrain" the location of the endpoint.  This makes drawing tangent circles and tangent to end of lines easier in some cases.
• Minor improvement to the Open and Run Script menu item.  It now remembers the last folder one opened a script from, instead of defaulting to the script folder.  It does default to the script folder still, but only on the first run.
• A minor improvement to the Sketch tool has been made to reduce the number of entities generated.
• Always divide leads: The Lead drawing tools now will always divide the entities they are attached to, even if "divide entities that are snapped to" is turned off in the snap options.  This fixes an annoyance for those who prefer to not divide in most other cases.
• Warning if not registered: LAYOUT now shows a warning message at the bottom of the screen if the software is not registered.
• New Plugins: A couple of new plugins are available to install from the Scripts and Plugins menu.
• Intelli-TRACE now produces slightly cleaner results.
• Improved form auto positioning: Various user interface elements "Forms" now auto reposition themselves every time they are shown.  This prevents the annoyance where if one does some editing with the Layout maximized, and then stretches LAYOUT to a new size, the editing tools are in goofy spots and have to be manually re-arranged.
• The keyboard hot key viewer on the Help menu now allows a right-click option to copy to the clipboard, which can be useful if you want to paste into some document to print or similar.
• The "Stick" font has been improved to give better results when turned into a tool path, and better yet, there is now a new Stick_ETCH  font that contains traverses for etching purposes.
  

MAKE

Intelli-VISOR

OMAX Camera

• Improved support for Windows 10: OMAX Camera now installs the necessary software for the latest Camera hardware from OMAX to work properly with Windows 10.  If you need drivers for your camera (in particular the newer Ethernet based "Basler" camera that previously was not Windows 10 compatible), then check the software section of the support site.
  

Scripting & Script Editor

•   Completely New Script Editor: The Script Editor has been re-worked with a new editor engine that is nicer to use. 
  
• Code Navigator: Option for a "Code navigator" on the right of the screen
• See the CAD output without leaving your code: Option to display the CAD box on the left
• A "render" button has been added to the CAD tools.
  
• "Run" files that are not even scripts: Option to open DXF, ORD, and OMX files in the code editor, make changes, and immediately see the changes in the CAD box upon hitting an "Update" button.  This can be handy when hand-editing .OMX files in particular, such as when programming Parametric Shapes.
• Note: One can right-click on Parametric Shapes in the Parametric Shape dialog, and choose to "edit in the OMAX Script Editor", for added convenience.
• Improved Search and Replace: Improvements have also been made to Search and other editor functionality, as well as a "Replace" option.
• Copy code in color: Added a right-click option to copy selected code to the clipboard in color.  This is handy when making documentation, or pasting code into an email, for example.
• Improved the "Inquire" tool to dump to text that is easier to reference later and copy/paste.
• Use CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE to browse through available commands.  Simply start typing a command such as "OMAX_", (or type nothing at all) and then press these keys to see a list of commands that start with this text.  Look at the bottom of the screen for more detailed documentation on the highlighted command.
• Use either F5 or F9 to run your script without having to click the button.
• Highlight a command for details.  Double click on an "OMAX_" command so that it is highlighted.  Additional documentation on that command will appear at the bottom of the screen.
• Editor font style and size preferences remembered.  Use CTRL+Mouse Wheel to change the font size.  Pick a font style from the pull down menu at the top.  Choose a color scheme.  These items are now persistent between sessions.
  
• Color schemes for the editor, in case you don't like the default black text on white. (Color schemes are saved in the C:\Users\Public\OMAX_Corporation\AllUserData\Themes\ScriptEditor\ folder.  Double click on one of the files to edit or make a new one, or hold down SHIFT when you choose the scheme from the Script Editors menu.)
• Added many new sample scripts to learn from, and improved the  comments and code in others to be more educational and complete.
• Added a few new "plugins", such as one for making dotted bend lines for sheet metal bending.
  
• Added new script templates, which can be accessed via the "File / New from Template" menu item.
  
• Additional "Event Scripts" supported for MAKE "Event Script" including events for when a path is completed, MAKE_OnAllPathCyclesCompleted, MAKE_OnDryRunCompleted, MAKE_OnDryRunPaused and MAKE_OnPathPaused
• Have more than one Event Script for the same event (Consult the manual for how to do this.)
• Make your own custom File Open filters: The scripting engine has been updated to allow one to write scripts to make custom file open filters for LAYOUT, MAKE and the OMAX Viewer.  When these scripts are placed in a special folder, the Open dialogs will automatically recognize them.  This also supports files launched on the command line, or drag/dropped into LAYOUT.  A starter template is provided on the "File / New from Template" menu.  Consult the Scripting Manual for details.
• New or changed commands:
• OMAX_DebugOut can be used to dump variables or other information to the text window at the bottom of the script editor.  This is a handy tool for debugging scripts.  Pass it an empty string to clear the debug output window.
  
• OMAX_BoolToStr now has an optional parameter as to whether or not it should display in English, or the native language when on non-English versions of the software.
• OMAX_AddLine adds a line without having to bother with "bow".
• OMAX_PlaySound and OMAX_Speak functions can be used to play .WAV files and converting text to speech.
  
• OMAX_GetDecimalCharacter returns the symbol used as a decimal place (Typically a period or a comma, depending on the Windows setup for Regional Settings).
• OMAX_GetFullSoftwareVersion returns information about what version of the OMAX software is running.
• OMAX_Import can be used to import some supported 3rd party CAD file formats.
• OMAX_GetComputerName can be used to determine the name of the computer that the script is running on.
  
• OMAX_GetLoggedOnUserName can be used to determine the user name of the active Windows user that is logged in at the moment.
  
• OMAX_KillProcess can be used to kill a running exe
  
• OMAX_SaveScreenShot can be used to take a screen shot of Windows
• OMAX_SaveFormAsImage can be used to save a screen shot of a particular user interface form
  
• OMAX_SaveCADImage and OMAX_CreateThumbnail functions can be used to generate .jpg or .bmp images of the CAD data.  SaveCADImage saves essentially a screen shot of the CAD box, while CreateThumbnail saves the CAD image rendered to a custom size, on a white background.
• OMAX_IsThemeEnabled Returns "True" if a custom theme / skin is applied to the OMAX software (A feature that allows overriding the look of the software.  See C:\Users\Public\OMAX_Corporation\AllUserData\Themes\VCL\Theme.txt for more information.
  
• OMAX_IsThemeMaterial returns "True" if a theme is active, and it is of the "Material" style (a kind of flat look.)
  
• OMAX_IsThemeDark returns "True" if a theme is active, and that theme is a dark style.
  
• OMAX_RemoveGlyphFromBitBtnIfMaterialThemed function removes a glyph from a TBitButton style button if the active theme is material (where such button glyphs would otherwise clash.)
• OMAX_InsertBlankEntity and OMAX_InsertEntity insert entities without corrupting the sequence of a tool path.
• OMAX_GetCurrencySymbol returns the symbol used for money ($, etc) for the computers configuration.
• OMAX_SysErrorMessage and OMAX_GetLastError functions can be used to get the last error code from Windows, and translate it into a human readable string.
  
• OMAX_GetOSDescription replaces OMAX_GetOSID and OMAX_GetOSNameFromID.  The old versions are still there for backwards compatibility, but it is suggested to only use the new version, since it is significantly  more reliable and supports Windows 10 properly.
  
• Deprecated OMAX_Rad2Bow, and it is replaced with similar but slightly more capable OMAX_EndpointsAndCenterToBow, which allows specifying a tolerance.
  
• The OMAX_GenerateSplineFromEntities command now accepts a few more parameters to make it a little more generically useful.
• OMAX_E_Z1 and OMAX_E_Z2 functions have been added to allow getting and setting Z1 and Z2 properties in entities (not useful for scripts that run in LAYOUT, typically, but quite useful for Event Scripts and File Filter scripts for MAKE.)
• Added a new class "TOMAXOpenDialog" which is allows for multi-selecting files in an OpenDialog (Because the standard TOpenDialog previously exposed to the scripting engine did not allow choosing more than one file at once.).
• OMAX_Server_SetPortNumber, OMAX_Server_SetActive, OMAX_Server_SendMessage, OMAX_Server_ReceiveMessage, OMAX_Client_Setup, OMAX_Client_SetActive, OMAX_Client_SendMessage OMAX_Client_ReceiveMessage have been added to support both client and server "sockets" for TCP/IP communication.
• OMAX_GetTimeEstimateFromMAKE automates the process of grabbing a time estimate by launching MAKE and returning the result. (Note: Runs in Premium software only.)
  
• To learn more about these or other scripting commands, press CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE in the script editor to scroll through a list of commands, and/or type in the command, and select it, and read more at the bottom of the script editor.
  
• Improved error reporting from the scripting engine slightly, to help make it easier to diagnose things if an error in a script should occur.
• There is now a "Print" option for printing code.
  
• More and updated information in the scripting manual, which can be found from the "Help" menu in the Scripting Editor.
  

OMAX Interactive Reference (OIR):

General:

• Slightly new look: We finished a major project to move all the code for the Intelli-MAX software to a new development system.  As such, some of the icons, buttons, cursors, dialogs, and other visual elements have inherited from the new system a slightly different look. Note that how the software looks, will depend a little bit on the operating system it it is running on, so the software will look different in Windows Vista than it does in Windows 10.  We have also spent a little bit of time cleaning up the user interface in general.
• New naming convention: "Layout" is now "LAYOUT" and "Make" is now "MAKE" per our marketing department.
  
• Antialiasing: Some of the CAD displays now will redraw lines and arcs with antialiasing.  The purpose of this is to improve the visual clarity of the image. This occurs automatically, but only if there is enough time in the redraw, so as to not slow down zooming and panning and similar.
  
• Favorites button: File / Open and File / Change Path Setup dialogs in LAYOUT and MAKE now have a "Favorites" icon to make the right-click option for this more obvious to new users.
  
• Two New Languages Supported:  Romanian and the Portugal flavor of the Portuguese language.
  
• New installer: We have completely re-written the software installer from scratch.  This replaces an older install technology that was getting brittle and difficult to maintain with a much more robust and flexible system to meet our increasingly complex needs.  Some benefits of this switch over include:
• Faster installer
• No need to re-boot after install when installing to an offline PC (Though a power down and reboot is still required when upgrading a machine tool, since drivers and firmware are often updated in this case.)
• Properly digitally signed un-installer
• Some files are no longer copied over when installing to an offline PC, resulting in less unnecessary "pollution".  In particular, "OMAX Startup" will not run on Windows boot, unless you are connected to an actual machine tool that needs it.
  
• On fresh installs, and for some upgrades it will now ask whether installing for an offline PC, or an actual machine tool.  If installing for an actual machine tool, the installer will now install necessary device drivers, allowing more automatic configuration of machine tool settings for new PC's.
• The installer will no longer force you to un-install when upgrading beta software.  So, there is never a need to un-install anything before installing (unless you are installing "Premium" over "Standard" or vise versa).  Just run the installer!
• Version info is now a property of the installer file, so one can right-click on it and choose "properties" to see such info.
• There is a new method for installing the driver and firmware software, and this is now mostly automatic and happens during the normal installation process (instead of as a second installation).  This makes it easier to configure the software to run on machine tools.
• Power plan and reboot options, when installing for a machine tool, can be automatically set via check boxes in the installer.  This makes it much easier to configure a virgin PC as a machine tool controller.
• Nearly all .exe files in the installer are now digitally signed.  This helps reduce the number of false reports from antivirus software that something contains a virus.  (Previously, only the installers themselves were digitally signed.)
• There is now a log file generated during installing, and saved to the "history" folder, to help diagnose installer related issues.
  
• Schools and large installations - Ask about silent and automated install options (email techsupport@omax.com)
  
• Improved experience for Macintosh users running "Bootcamp" to run the OMAX software:
• In LAYOUT, the "BackSpace" key now works as "Delete". This is because many Macs do not expose the "Delete" key in the same manner as PCs, but instead label the "Backspace" key as "Delete".  This change makes it easy to delete selected entities in LAYOUT.
• Tech Support Reports will now report if running under Bootcamp
  
• For more information on using Bootcamp for a Mac, click here.
  
• Tech Support Reports now report additional information including a basic validity check on all INI files included in the report.
• One can copy text from Tech Support Reports now, by selecting the text, and right clicking.
  
• Exes now self detect corruption:  If an exe detects that it is not the same exe it used to be (for example, if a virus has attached itself to it, or the file has become corrupt due to a disk error, or similar), then an error message will show, and the exe will not run.  This will help prevent confusion caused by running an exe that is corrupt, making such problems obvious to diagnose.
  
• Improved Calculator error reporting: The OMAX Calculator no longer says "no errors in expression" if there are no errors, but instead does not display anything on that label.   This makes the calculator look a little bit less busy, and also does not falsely imply that there are no errors, when there may be some error we simply did not detect.
• Added 4K versions of the wallpapers that can be found in the C:\Program Files (x86)\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_LAYOUT_and_MAKE\WallPaper\ folder.
• Reduced grid brightness: The default brightness of the "grid" in the CAD box when running the black color scheme is now about 20% less bright, since modern displays tend to show the grid much brighter than in the past.  Other color schemes have also been very slightly tweaked.
• Warnings if running in "Compatibility Mode":  We now warn the user when running in Windows Compatibility Mode.  The OMAX software should never be run in this mode, and if one does so, weird hard to diagnose problems occur.  So, we now warn the user.   Normally, one should never see this warning, but it is there to help our tech support folks.
• New OMAX Marketplace: Check out the new OMAX Marketplace at https://marketplace.omax.com.  Various links from the software now link to this new spot to buy parts and other such items.
• Faster "Render" command: The "Render" command is now slightly faster, and gives slightly better results on multi-core processors due to the use of threads.  Likewise, the OMAX_IsPointOnPart command is about 2 to 3 times faster performing due to the same change.
• Added an OMAX Viewer Utility for diagnosing and displaying USB status for a computer.
  
• Improved Performance: A few key routines have been optimized and/or moved onto threads to improve performance across the board on systems with multi-core processors.
  
• Improved importing non-OMAX .ORD files: Improved the "Detect and convert leads to OMAX Quality of "Lead"" option when opening non-OMAX source .ORD files to handle the case where no lead out was specified.
• Changed the way .zip files are handled (for example when sending Tech Support Reports) to remove an external utility and gain some performance.
• New Theme Changer: Located in the Program Files folder, along with LAYOUT and MAKE, there is now an executable, "OMAX_ThemeSwitcher.exe" that allows swapping out the "look" of the OMAX software to other themes / visual styles.   The default theme is "Windows", which is what everyone is used to, but there are other themes with different style buttons and colors and the like to choose from.
  
• Support for OMAX GlobalMAX machines:  There is now a special version of the OMAX Software branded and designed specifically for the GlobalMAX product line recently launched.  It is very similar to the OMAX Standard software used on the MAXIEM line of machines, with a few changes here and there.
  
• Unofficial / experimental features (These are not officially released or supported, and are scheduled for version 25 or later.  Use them at your own risk.  They are subject to change):
  
• XData 42 allows to assign a new work piece thickness to portions of the cutting path.
  
• Added new XData items 43 and 44 to override speed for a series of entities.  XData 43 (Start Percent Speed override) is the same as XData 13 (Force Percent Speed), except that it overrides following entities until it is stopped by setting it's value to "zero" to mean "Stop overriding".   XData 44 (Force start absolute speed) is similar in that overrides the following entities with an absolute speed until it is discontinued by assigning it a value of zero to mean "stop".

Bug fixes

Version 23 Patch 2

• Improved Tilt-A-Jet precision: Fixed a bug that could cause positioning errors due to an incorrect application of the tilting error map that was generated by older versions of Make.  If you have a Tilt-A-Jet that was calibrated with an older version of Make (version 21 patch 4 and earlier), then this release is important to ensure best precision.  It is generally recommended to regularly re-calibrate the Tilt-A-Jet with the Precision Calibration Kit.  The update itself does not require re-calibration, but will rather ensure that the Tilt-A-Jet will work precisely even with older error maps.
  
• Improved tolerance of noise on the USB line.  Version 22/23 introduced an error message that was overly sensitive to reporting USB related noise and communication issues.  This resulted in several complaints of this error message showing on machines where it was unnecessary to do so.  This patch now will silently log any such issues, since they are almost always harmless and automatically corrected for in the USB subsystem.
• Improved Intelli-VISOR: This patch fixes a bug that could cause maintenance modules created in older versions of the software from working in newer versions.  With this patch, those legacy modules will now work properly again.
  

Version 23

• This release fixes a bug that affects machines running Intelli-VISOR.  It fixes a critical bug which would cause short, frequent lock-ups if the pre-configured hardware connection could not be established.
• Other minor changes have been made including a bug fix that would limit the manual A-Jet motion to changes of 150 degrees, as well as a minor bug fix in the tech utility "MachineAlignment.exe" that would prevent it from working properly if no machine type was specified.

Version 22

• Greatly Improved Offset Selected command: The Offset Selected command has been greatly improved, offering many new options about how entities are offset, as well as automatic "grooming" of the entities to ensure clean results.  One can now choose to do a simple raw offset on an entity by entity basis (the old way), or use the new "complex" method, which cleans up intersections and messes for you.  This is very similar to the 3rd party product, "Design To Cut", except built right into Layout for free:
  
  
  Above: "Simple" offsetting (left), and the new "Complex" offsetting (right).
  
  To access this command, select some entities, then right-click on the "Offset" button on the left side of Layout, and choose "Offset Selected".
  
• New AutoPath dialog with new and improved features:
• The Auto Path dialog has been updated to support new functionality.  In particular:
• Specify the "end corner" of the tool path, which can be the same as the start
• New and Improved control over how and when heads up traverses are used.
• The ability to specify non straight paths ("circuitous routes") for heads down traverses, should you want a completely heads down path.
  
• More control over what "method" of pathing is used.  Simply choose from one or more methods such as "zigzag", "nearest neighbor", and others, or choose them all and have the AutoPather pick the best result for you.
• Option to "keep existing leads" and "Keep existing traverses", so that you can AutoPath a drawing, but easily preserve any special leads and traverses you may already have there.
  
• Improved logic within the pather for better results in general.
• One can now load and save settings from/to disk, so that profiles can be setup to be easily switched between for different purposes (for example, one might have a "thin material setup" that is saved separate from that used for thick, brittle, etc.).
  
• We are constantly working to make AutoPath as perfect as it can be, incorporating all the knowledge of an expert human with the efficiency of the computer.  We will not be done until it is perfect.  If you find fault with it, or have suggestions to improve it, we want to know!  Please send sample files, screen shots, and your notes to techsupport@omax.com.
• Note: This is our third major version of the Automatic tool path routines.  Version 1 and Version 2 are still available, and can be enabled via the "debug" menu for legacy purposes.  We encourage you not to use these, though, but instead let us know your needs so the most current version will work best for you.
  
• Support for "Plugins"
• The scripting functionality has been updated to allow for easy installation of "Plugins" into Layout. This makes the distribution and installation of scripts easier.  To install a plugin, visit the "Scripts and Plugins" menu at the top of Layout, and choose "Install a Plugin..."  A few simple sample plugins are included.   This allows OMAX to ship features of the software that are useful to a narrow range of users without polluting the user interface with features and buttons that most users may not need.   It also allows people the flexibility to add their own functionality to Layout, and share features with others.  For more information on plugins, consult the OMAX Scripting Manual (there is a link to it from the help screen topic "Scripting")
• Improved file filters:
• AutoCAD 2015 support: The DXF and DWG file importers have been updated to support AutoCAD 2015 files.
• If you have any files that do not import properly, or additional file formats you wished OMAX would support in the future, please email test files and comments to techsupport@omax.com.  We are always looking for test files to ensure that the files you work with will always import perfectly, so please send them to us!
  
• General improvements have also been made to improve the results of many different "flavors" of DXF, DWG, and DWF file importing.
• A few more items were added to the default "Layer Substitution Map" to improve importing of files from Autodesk® 123D Make.
  
• A few rare breeds of EPS and AI files also have improved importing.
• Planned Change alert:  It is our intention to get rid of the "Generation I, Generation II, and Generation III" options in the dialog for importing DXF and DWG files.  It has been years since we have seen any need at all for this feature.  If you have a need for these filters, please email techsupport@omax.com with example files that need them.   We can then ensure that the Generation IV file filters properly support those files, before we remove the legacy filters.  This will allow us to clean up the user interface, and delete legacy code that is otherwise holding us back.
  
• Super-high performance "Clean": The "Clean" tool in Layout has been re-written from scratch to be super-fast, and also provide higher precision results.  The new High Performance Clean function is especially useful for cleaning huge drawings. This new clean utility is similar to the old, but with some additional features:
  

Version 21 Patch #4

• This patch fixes a severe bug that affects A-Jet users, where the error map file for the A-Jet was not being applied correctly.
• Special note to Windows XP users: This may be the very last version of the OMAX software that is compatible with Windows XP.

Version 21 Patch #3

• Fixed a conflict between Make and Intelli-VISOR where there was a slight chance that the file "CountersAndTimers.ini" could become corrupt should both applications attempt to access the file at the same time.  This could result in the machine reporting enormous time on its odometer.
• Fixed a rare exception error in Make that would report itself as "Delphi Range Check Error".
• Fixed a bug in Make where an incorrect (too hard) acceleration could occur on some transitions between drill pierces and rapid traverse moves.  This occurred when "pierce first" was selected with a mechanical drill.
  

Version 21 Patch #2

• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause a "No disk in drive" error on startup on some versions of Windows if no D: drive is present with media inside of it.
• Fixed a bug in Make where some of the newer listed table sizes had their X and Y dimensions swapped.

Version 21 Patch #1

• Fixed Installer for Windows XP: Fixed a bug in the installer that was conflicting with some Windows XP users that could cause the installer to go into an infinite loop trying to "repair" itself.
  

Version 21

• AutoPath updates: Improvements made to the AutoPath command based on submitted problem files and suggestions from customers, including:
• Additional checking for collisions when deciding when to do heads up traversing (using the same logic as the "check for collisions" button.)
• Improved traversing between parts when there are multiple parts in a path
• Consideration of closed paths of "slit" qualities to be collision hazards, but unclosed slit Quality paths to not be considered collision hazards, as well as qualities of etch and scribe to never be considered collision hazards.  This enables more efficient pathing, minimizing unnecessary heads down and heads up traverses.
• Do you want new features or changes to AutoPath?  If so, email techsupport@omax.com with your thoughts and test files.  We are looking for feedback and files to test against!
  
• File Importing: 
• DXF / DWG improvements: Minor updates to DXF/DWG importing based on submitted problem files from customers, in particular relating to AutoCAD 2013 files. 
  
• Improved PDF importing to support a few new "flavors" of PDF.
• Import raster images from Adobe files: If an Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) file contains a bitmap image, then that image is now imported as well as any vector data.
• Import PPG files: It is now possible to import *.PPG g-code files directly into Layout.  These files are used by some older waterjets.
• Submit your files: As always, if you have any file that you cannot import, we want to see it.  Perhaps we can help, or better yet we can use it to import the file filters for the future.  It's extremely rare that we come across something that does not import, so if you know of something send it to techsupport@omax.com.
• File Save Warning: Added a clearer warning when attempting to save inside of a .zip file, that saving to inside of .zip files is not allowed.
• Improved Intelli-TRACE for huge images: Intelli-TRACE is now more tolerant of gigantic images (Images 30 to 200 megapixels, or even larger). Files that previously would not load at all now do.  In some cases they load fine, on older operating systems with less memory, they may load in at reduced size.  The change is helpful on both 32 and 64 bit computers, but the best results where the highest fidelity image is used are achieved when running under 64 bit.  The tracing process can now also be canceled via the Escape Key.
• New Tool Path font: "dot-course": Designed with sign making in mind, where it can be resized to that needed for a particular light bulb or LED size.  Or, it can be a plate backlit with a colored gel or glass behind it.
• New "Chamfer" command.  Right-click on the "Fillet" button or press CTRL+SHIFT+F to use it.
• More info displayed: When drawing boxes and circles, as well as when using Select Window or Deselect Window, more information about the area, size, and perimeter is now reported at the bottom of the screen.
• The "Drawing Info" box now reports more information.
• CTRL+SHIFT+R will now do a "Quick Render" of whatever is on the screen in the main Layout Window, or the File/Open dialog in Layout.  This usually does a good job of rendering parts, but in cases of ambiguity, it may still make mistakes.  This is a nice feature for getting a quick glimpse of what the final part may look like.
• It is now possible to disable automatic file renaming when the "import" command is used.  This is done via an INI file entry in preferences.ini.

• New Generation 4 Cutting Model
  

• Tilt-A-Jet precision improvements: Tilt Forward for Tilt-A-Jet users has been improved to greatly increase cutting speed and the precision of inside corners and small radii, particularly in thick materials. In order to take advantage of this, be sure to enable Tilt Forward in the "Cutting Model Optimizations" setup screen in Make, and to precision calibrate your Tilt-A-Jet.
  
• Faster high-speed corners: When the Generation 4 cutting model is enabled, tool paths are now optimized so that certain Newtonian constrained (physics constrained) corners run at higher speeds than before.  In previous software versions, all corners were treated the same in that the machine would decelerate and slow down when approaching a corner, and then accelerate and speed up when exiting the corner.  This was done in order to avoid exceeding the Newtonian / physical capabilities of the machine.  A very conservative approach was taken, by looking at the combined motions of both the X and Y axes simultaneously.  The new approach looks at and compensates for the accelerations and decelerations on a per-axis basis.  This means that for some corners, it is now possible to run full speed in one axis, and adjust slower in the other axis, instead of slowing down for both axes at once.  (For example, imagine the machine were traveling in +X at full traverse speed, and then was commanded to veer off in y by 6 degrees towards Y.  In this case, the X axis does not really need to slow down very much.)  The end result, is that high speed motions such as thin material cutting, water only cutting, etching, scribing, and of course rapid traverse moves may be able to maintain higher speeds for some of the corners in the path, resulting in overall reduced cycle times.
• Choose whatever pressure units you like:  One is no longer restricted in what pressure units are available when switching between Metric and Imperial Units.  Regardless of Metric or Imperial, one can choose PSI/KSI, MPa, or Bar.
• The default file filter for the "Open with Windows style dialog" option in the "Change Path Setup" dialog in Make now is "All supported files" instead of just ".ord files".
• Added a new INI file entry for TiltPointingInYDirection, which allows one to mount the Tilt-A-Jet at a 90 degree angle, and have Make do all the math to correct for that orientation.  (This is used on the new MicroMAX machine.)
• It is now possible to set material thickness via XData in OMX files, if (and only if) using the Generation 4 cutting model.  (Note: This is working, though not officially supported yet.  Contact techsupport@omax.com for details, should you care to use this.)
• Keyboard equivalent of "^" (SHIFT + 6) to toggle XData display method now works when the Path Controller is open.
• The "Go to spot on path" command no longer does an auto-preview, unless the drill accessory is enabled and in the "drill cut drill cut" mode, where the auto-preview is actually useful.
• Zoom out further: The minimum scale that Make can "zoom out" to is now even smaller, to allow full viewing of our largest most giant machines.
• Changes to the Rotary Axis support:
• Improved display: The Rotary Axis display now shows more or fewer significant digits based on the motor resolution.  The higher the resolution of the motors, the more digits are displayed.  This prevents displaying way more digits than reasonable for the digital nature of the motions, which has caused some user confusion.
  
• Improved precision: Accumulated floating point rounding errors are now tracked to prevent accumulations of tiny errors between rotary motions that might otherwise occur for certain rotary commands used over and over.  This results in improved precision, especially when many XDatas are used to handle hundreds of rotary moves over and over.
  
• A "Prevent Intelli-VISOR from Closing" option has been added to the Advanced/Administrator setup dialog, to have Make constantly monitor to make sure that Intelli-VISOR is running, and to re-open it if not.
• Help link for compiler messages: The Compiler Messages tab that shows up when errors or warnings occur when compiling a tool path now has a help button on it, to make it easier to get more information on the warnings given.
  
• A bunch of new variables have been exposed for Custom Reports.  These new ones are mostly used by OMAX for internal testing, but some are of general use: [OMAX_ComputerName],  [OMAX_OMAXSoftwareBuildNumber], [OMAX_OMAXSoftwareBuilder], [OMAX_OMAXSoftwareCompileDate], [OMAX_FastestSpeedWhenCutting], [OMAX_SlowestSpeedWhenCutting], [OMAX_TotalTimeSpentCuttingMin], [OMAX_TotalTimeSpentEtchingMin], [OMAX_TotalTimeSpentScribingMin], [OMAX_TotalTimeSpentWaterCuttingMin], [OMAX_TotalTimeSpentTraversingMin], [OMAX_TotalTimeSpentOnRelaysMin], [OMAX_TiltAJetEnabled], [OMAX_AJetEnabled], [OMAX_IsCornerPassingActive], and [OMAX_IsTiltForwardActive]
  
  

• Improved high DPI support: (For those running ultra high resolution displays, where Windows may re-scale applications automatically) There is now an INI file and troubleshooting information relating to running on high DPI displays (Adjustments to fix an issue observed on one high DPI tablet where the Zoom and Pan motions would not work well.)
  
• No limit to "Slope": Across all applications, it is now allowed to command Z motions all the way to 90 degrees in all places where the previous limit was 60 degrees.
• OMX files now open faster, in particular Parametric Shapes, as well as gigantic OMX files
  
• OMX files now support "PostFlipX" and "PostFlipY" to mirror the data (useful for parametric shape programming)
• The "QuickEval" function (used throughout the software for numeric processing) is now significantly faster in many cases, which speeds up the software in general.  The most notable speed-up is when processing OMX files. Also, a "Trunc" function was added.
  
• The OMAX Interactive Reference has additional and updated content, including additional tutorials.
  
• Some of the Parametric Shapes have been updated to improve precision on rotary parts.
• New parametric shapes and folder "OMAX_Diagnostic_Shapes" with some useful shapes for cutting tests, as well as some minor tweaks to some of the existing shapes.  The Parametric Shape dialog has also been widened a little bit to allow more room for text.
  
• More memory for the 3D Path Editor: The 3D Path Editor is now "Large Address Aware", meaning that it will reserve more memory for itself on 64 bit computers, which in turn will allow importing of larger 3D files for the Reference Geometry feature.
• 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio versions of some of the OMAX Windows desktop backgrounds have been added to the CD/DVD images.
• Faster rotations: Sped up all commands that rotate things by about 20% (The "Rotate" command in Layout is the main beneficiary of this.)
• More machines: Added more machines to the machine type list in the Advanced/Administrator Setup dialog.
• The subject and default file names for Technical Support Reports now contain more information that is useful to OMAX to see "at a glance" when processing reports.
  

• Do not forget about OMAX Intelli-CAM^TM, which is now at version 3.0:
  
  
  
  
• OMAX Intelli-CAM Features:
  
• Very fast and easy 3D file conversion to 2D:
• Convert by a face
• Convert by a slice
• Convert by a shadow projection
• Output directly to Layout, or even right to Make
  
• Easy 3D Tool Pathing for many common 3D Tool path operations.
• Direct integration to send data and tool paths to Layout and Make
• Robust Importing of many popular 3D Solid Model file formats, including
  
• 3D DWG
• 3D DXF
• ACIS
• CATIA
• IGES
• Inventor
• Unigraphics NX
• Parasolid
• Pro/E / Creo
• SolidWorks
• Solid Edge
• STEP
• VDS-FS
• Export as OMAX .OMX, or DXF
• If you happen to also have SolidWorks^®, Rhinoceros^®, or Autodesk^® Inventor, then there are optional plug-ins to allow direct integration into these products for additional convenience.
  
• This is of great value, even if you do not cut 3D parts, because of its very powerful 3D to 2D conversion tools.
  
• This free download, and frequent updates are available to OMAX Customers at http://www.omax.com/support
  

• Added the missing letter "R" to the MIK Aladin Stencil Tool Path Font.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the Cut off Saw was cutting slower than the specified Quality.
• Fixed a bug in Make where the Generation 2 and 3 cutting models were calculating Quality of Minimum Taper speeds incorrectly by as much as 50% for the given Minimum Taper target specified in Advanced / Administrator Setup. With this bug fixed, expect the Quality of Minimum Taper sections of tool paths to now be significantly faster or slower, but with the results being closer to the specified Minimum Taper target value, or better.
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would allow a lead to gouge a neighboring feature in a particular set of conditions when using AutoPath.
  
• Fixed a bug in Intelli-ETCH where accelerations and decelerations at high resolution motor steps would cause problems with the etch pattern generated.
• Fixed a bug in Intelli-ETCH where very slow speed settings could cause an error in the generated etch path.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an Access Violation in the Change Path Setup dialog if the dialog was opened with no part loaded, and the Terrain Follower was enabled.
• Fixed a bug in Make where it would show a warning about version mismatches when using the "Backup Transfer Settings" wizard, even when the versions matched.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where AutoPath would sometimes delete an arc.
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an Access Violation when choosing the "Change Path Setup" dialog after opening a bitstream file on machines with the Terrain Follower.
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the "divide" command would sometimes draw the dot for the new division point in the wrong color (typically black instead of white.)
  
• Added some error checking in Layout to make sure when importing a file with XData that the XData is one we support.
  
• Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor where if the "undo" button were pressed when no file is open, then the next command would generate an exception error.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause a "Floating point exception error" when importing a certain DXF file using the Generation 1 file filters and the "Import from other CAD" feature.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause the Terrain Follower to be inappropriately disabled when running paths from Intelli-CAM or other sources, where the tool path was defined with non-zero z values, while simultaneously being completely flat parts.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where if a bitstream was loaded and then something would occur to cause a "re-compile", that in some cases the bitstream would unload, nothing would remain, and the preview would show nothing.
  
• Fixed an arc reversal bug in Layout where the "clean" command could in a rare instance cause an arcs bow to flip to the opposite direction after removing the "dot" to join to arcs.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an unused "choose which page to import" dialog when importing an SVG file after importing a PDF file.
• Fixed a bug in OMX file opening, where the "PostRotate" variable would cause rotation in the opposite direction specified.  This bug fix will cause some parametric shapes to now rotate in the opposite direction from before, which is the correct behavior.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would allow one to use the "Size", "Copy" and "Move" commands when no entities were drawn, which could result in a ghost entity being temporarily drawn.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout's function plot utility where it would hang if the start and ending values were equal.
  
• Fixed a minor visual glitch where the double-buffering for the CAD box would sometimes disable itself, reverting to an older less smooth redraw style.
  
• Fixed an issue with recording files in Intelli-VISOR which caused column headers to leave out the Module Identifier numbers.
• The stack height calculator in Make now defaults to calculate 2 additional layers instead of 1, which helps prevent it from stopping prematurely in the event of tiny bits of ripple in the results.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where a particular flavor of DXF file would have an arc imported corrupt.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where if an image were cropped in Intelli-TRACE, the cropped image would then be remembered as the last image loaded, and irritate the user by loading itself instead of the original image the next time Intelli-TRACE was run.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where up-converted images in Intelli-TRACE would sometimes have the vector result not properly align with the original raster image after tracing was finished (result was at wrong scale.)
  
• Fixed a bug related to QuickEval where it would sometimes report a syntax error where there was none, if syntax checking is enabled.  (Visible when working with and debugging parametric shapes.)
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a (silent) error to occur when parsing OMX files that contain variables.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause bitstreams to be sent without the End of Job marker in them.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the beta reporting reports to not be sent due to a server change.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an access violation when re-starting the Interpolator after using the Change Path Setup or Advanced / Administrator Setup dialogs.
  
• Fixed a bug where if one has installed both Premium and Standard on the computer at some time, then OMAX_Startup.exe would not run, causing some startup flags to not be set.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Parametric Shape dialog where the thumbnail previews would not reflect changes to attached hardware.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause a jerk under just the right conditions when jogging at speeds greater than 300 inches per minute..
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the "[Soft limits hit]" message may stay on inappropriately when running a path that starts on the hairy edge of the soft limits.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause the "limit" and "Selected Limit" snaps to inappropriately snap to the center of an entity in the event the drawing was just a single entity.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where if one did a "Restore to defaults" on the Machine Setup form, the Z axis fast jog speed could default to a speed faster than the machine is set for, causing the box to turn yellow.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause the pump / nozzle power to be vastly underreported in custom reports such as the linear feed rate report.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could occur when importing Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) files generated by Corel Draw.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Script Engine where OMAX_ExitScript(False) would not always exit the script.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would prevent the cut from slowing down enough for beveled arcs, resulting in striations on the lower edge.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause some arc to arc fillets to incorrectly delete the wrong section when auto trimming.
• Fixed a bug in Layout where internal gears with lots of teeth (typically more than 100 teeth) would have the fillets on the wrong side of the teeth, as though they were external gears.
  
• Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor that would cause an infinite hourglass cursor if a corrupt or unsupported file were passed via the command line.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause deviations in prediction of tilt/taper compensation when using the Generation 2 cutting model.
  
• Fixed a bug in all applications, where the master expression evaluator used by all math parsing could cause the application to hang when processing the "hex" function under certain conditions.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the check-mark for the "Show Image" menu item would sometimes not be checked after importing an image from a PDF file.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause improper tilting in some rare cases when using the Generation 2 cutting model.
  
• Polished Terrain Follower delay handling in Make.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause incorrect Z axis behavior when dry-running through a path with Heads Up Traverses and terrain follower on machines with the Terrain Follower equipped and enabled.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause flickering of buttons when the tab or arrow keys were held down.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Tech Support Report feature where it was not reporting the used space or drive size of the fist drive in the list of reported disk drives.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could in rare instances cause a floating point error when using the F2 key to do a "Line from endpoint to endpoint" command on an empty drawing.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause the "Recompile at separation speed" to actually re-compile at Quality of 1, which is conservatively slower than the true "separation speed".  Note that this bug remains in the non-English versions of Make, and will be addressed in the next beta release.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause a rare Access Violation when working with parts that have tilted corners.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the "desired minimum taper" target value configured for the cutting model would not take effect immediately, but instead only after Make was rebooted.
  
• Fixed a bug in the script engine where "OMAX_SplitBowArc" would cause an "unrecognized command" error.
  
• Fixed bug in the script engine that could cause an Integer Overflow Error on some computers when calculating the unique fingerprint for OMAX_GetUniqueFingerprint.
  
• Fixed a minor memory leak in shut down of Make.
• Fixed a very rare bug in Layout where an extra line or arc would sometimes appear after using a tool to create geometry just after starting a new drawing
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where if the "snap grid" were enabled, and one were to use the "Enter Enter" technique to quickly extend an entity, sometimes the angle would be auto-filled in with the angle of the nearest entity to the snap grid, instead of the nearest entity to the mouse click.
• Fixed bug in Make where whenever card entered babysit mode, Make reported the X2 and Terrain Follower as having faulted when they had not, or as having not  faulted when they had, in fact, faulted.
  
• Fixed a bug in AutoPath that could cause arc style leads to sometimes gouge.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an Access Violation when the compiler is re-started when in the middle of a tilt calculation.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Swedish version of the Jet Simulator would have a green background.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the jet would not turn on for cutting after heads up traverses with negative relay event delays.
  
• Fixed a bug in Jet Simulator where the buttons would not respond after clicking on the "About" button, while the simulator was in motion.
  
• Fixed a bug / made an improvement in Make where the internal variable "KLSLockThickness" was causing unnecessary slowdowns.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where if the drill accessory was enabled, the comments tab of the statistics would not show the comments for the active file.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the mouse hints for "Move X" and "Move Y" commands would always show the units in "Inches" despite users preference otherwise.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause Access Violation errors when using the Centerline Trace method.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout's AutoPath command where it would sometimes re-calculate the path unnecessarily when the "Ok" button was pressed.
• Fixed a bug in Layout's AutoPath command where head's up traverses were sometimes not appropriately assigned.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where if "Check for collisions" was used on an OMX file, and then the output were saved, it would default to saving as an ORD file with potentially less capability than the original OMX.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the white dots might not draw as white after certain commands were exited prematurely.
  
• Fixed some possible error conditions in Layout's Intelli-TRACE, especially when working with huge images.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the XY error map was being applied to the Rotary Axis, resulting in errors added to the rotary component of a cut.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the tab order of the "Specify by length and Angle" dialog would be wrong, if the user swaps the order of the GUI components with the "swap" button.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where pressing "Esc" to cancel the 2-Click Intersection Divide command would cancel the command, but keep the first entity selected highlighted.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Standard Make software where the "Change Password" button would not actually change anything.
  
• Fixed a bug in the sample script file CAD_Inside_Of_CAD.omaxscript, where it was calling an external script from a location that we recently moved.
• Fixed bug in the sample script file Clock.omaxscript where new "min" function was conflicting with the variable name used for "minutes".
  
• Fixed a bug in Make's "Test Pump" dialog where if a fractional time was entered using a symbol other than the period as the decimal point, then an "Invalid Floating Point" error would show.
  
• Fixed lots of other bugs not listed here.

Version 20 Patch #2 (maintenance release)

• This patch fixes a bug introduced in Patch #1 that could cause rough motor motions on older machines using the older "5-axis" style USB card on OMAX machines.

Version 20 Patch #1 (maintenance release)

• AutoPath updates: Minor improvements made to the AutoPath command based on submitted problem files and suggestions from customers.
• File Importing: 
• Minor updates to DXF/DWG importing based on submitted problem files from customers.
  
• Added a "Print" button to the import dialog used by DXF/DWG and a few other file formats.
• Keyboard short cuts for slit qualities now work when the Quality toolbar is open (CTRL+ number key)
• New "Caliper" Tool Path Font: Similar to the "Keychain" font, except creates a pair of calipers.

• Change to default settings: Some default settings (the settings that are there when you first install the software for the very first time, or delete the setup files) now default to more common pump, nozzle, and motor setups.
• Printing the daily history file from the history interface in Make now prints the date of the history file at the top of the print out.
• Intelli-VISOR: Added new MakePreferences.INI file entry to force system monitoring to always be on when Make is running.
• Swap X and Y motors: Added a new INI file entry for SwapXandYMotorMotions that will cause all X motions to be sent to the Y motors, and all Y motions to be sent to the X motors on 9-axis cards.  This is used to allow for proper motion on the new dual-y bridge Micromax machine.  It is strongly recommended that you do NOT play with this.
• Pump off when drilling: The "drill all and then cut" drill pierce mode now does not start the pump until the very first cutting entity is encountered.  This eliminates unnecessary pump running while drilling is in progress.
• Improved "Tilt Forward" behavior in inside corners for Tilt-A-Jet accessories.

• A few more sample files have been added
• Reworked the structure of the sample file folder to make it easier to find the demos
• Added a few new commands including commands for vectorizing and listing installed True Type Fonts, working with Layout and Make's preferences files across Premium vs Standard software, exiting scripts via optional OMAX_ExitScript parameters, working with "named pipes", OMAX_FloatToStrPeriod, which ensures floating point numbers are formatted with a period for the decimal place prior to writing out to a file, and more.
  
• Be sure to check out the "Sublime Text 2" installer at omax.com/support.  Sublime is a 3rd party text editor that is free to try, but otherwise costs money from the 3rd party.  It is considerably more powerful than the simple script editor supplied with Layout and Make.  Folks at OMAX have written extensions for it to integrate right into OMAX Scripting, making it an ideal development environment for those serious about script writing.
• Encrypt Scripts: It is now possible to encrypt scripts in the event you wish to prevent tampering or reading of your scripts by the end user.  This is done via a menu item in the OMAX Script Editor.
• Added a "OMAX_GetUniqueComputerID" to provide a hook for developers to create per-PC user registration schemes.
• Added "Min" and "Max" functions that return the larger or smaller of two passed in numbers.
• Quite a bit of general improvements to the "OMAX_GroomedOffset" command.
  

• Launch ReadMe from installer: For English language installers (English only), there is now a check-box to have this revision list automatically display after the installation has finished and the computer has been rebooted.
• OMAX Interactive Reference: Continuous new and updated content.
• Intelli-VISOR®: Minor polish and bug fixes.
• Tech Support Reports: The "cc" field in the Tech Support Report form now remembers all the email(s) entered between sessions.
• A few of the kerf check parts have been updated with Metric versions.
  

• Layout: Fixed a few minor bugs in AutoPath where external arc style tangential leads would be flipped to the wrong direction, arc style leads might overlap some geometry, and would sometimes be drawn in a manner that would confuse the generation of the ORD or OMX file later on.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where if one enabled high pressure piercing and brittle mode simultaneously, (a very unusual combination) the pump would not turn on. 
• Make: Fixed a bug where small beveled arcs would cut at a speed slower than necessary.
• Make: Fixed a serious bug that would prevent precision operation of the A-Jet by not applying the A-Jet's error map, or properly correcting for its stand-off.
• Make: Fixed a bug in drill piercing that could cause the pump to turn on the first cut instead of the first entity when the drill was not in operation.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug  in water only cutting with heads up traverses where the the jet would start before the Terrain Follower has had time to move from heads-up position all the way down to the material.  Note: It is generally recommended not to use the Terrain Follower for water-only applications due to the typically soft nature of the materials water-only cutting is used for.
  
• Script Editor: Fixed a bug that could cause some redraw issues / missing user interface elements in Windows 8.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the stationary pierce safety factor was not being considered for stationary pierces, causing a safety factor of 1.0 to be assumed, and the entry in the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog to be ignored.
  
• Layout: Fixed a bug in AutoPath where paths with very large lead angles would cause pieces of the resulting path to go missing.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the "number of pumps" field in Advanced / Administrator Setup was simply being ignored.
• Make: Fixed an Access Violation in the hidden "Test Cuts" dialog.
  
• Layout: Fixed a bug where when closing multiple copies of Layout simultaneously, and exception error could occur.
  
• All applications: Fixed a bug where the boolean XOR would not process properly when evaluating expressions that use XOR such as the OMAX_QuickEval, Calculator, and Parametric Shapes..
  
• Layout: Fixed a bug where corner loops would be giant when made in metric.
• OMAX Startup: Added additional error trapping and logging to help prevent and diagnose an exception error on Windows Startup reported by one beta user.
  
• All applications: Fixed a memory leak in the CAD box that could cause unnecessary accumulated memory usage if lots of files are opened and closed over and over.  This fix will allow for greater stability of the software if run continuously for days on end.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where in paths involving programmed movement of the Z-axis, the calculated X and Y axis motor motions could deviate from the path.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the state of the right-click menu item in the path controller to auto-close the controller when the path finishes would be forgotten.
  
• Nesting: Fixed a bug in the array nester introduced in V20, where it was not fitting parts together, but instead only doing a simple rectangular array nest of the bounding box.
• Make: Fixed a bug where previewing to the screen with a slow preview would cause an exception error.
• Scripting: The OMAX_GroomedOffset command now shows the status with a "stay on top" form so that it does not accidentally get hidden behind the host application.
• Intelli-VISOR: Fixed bug which prevented the user from disabling a factory configured machine rule (wasn't saving 'ignore trigger mask' in client file).
• Intelli-VISOR: Fixed hover hints for Machine Rule Trigger modules which are set to display in secondary units.
• Intelli-VISOR: Fixed disconnect between File Menu Alert Profiles and Alert Profile settings panel (changes in menu weren't carrying over to settings panel).
• Intelli-VISOR: Fixed bug in Alert Profile settings panel where the profile selection combo box may clear (turn blank) after enabling an alert profile.
• Intelli-VISOR: Fixed bug in User Alert Triggers which formerly allowed the user to set alerts on whole module groups (which would be ignored).
• Layout: Fixed a bug / annoyance where more error messages than necessary were being displayed when the software was unregistered when pathing a path from Intelli-CAM to send to Make.
• Make: Fixed a bug with Tilt Forward relating to wrong speed being set.
• Make: Fixed a bug with Tilt Forward could result in the wrong angle at lead out.
• Make: Fixed where high pressure traverses were not set properly.

Version 20

Layout

• New automatic tool path planning engine:  We have completely re-written the automatic tool path planner from scratch.  The new version provides the same basic features, but with better results.
  
• Note: There are no longer 7 "methods" to choose from.  Instead, many methods are attempted behind the scenes, scored, and the best method is automatically chosen.  In the place of the "method" buttons, is an option to use or not use Heads Up Traverses when needed.
• Tip: You can now cancel pathing by holding the Escape key.  If you cancel early, it simply returns as though the pathing never occurred.  If you cancel after it has already evaluated a few possible paths, then it will return the best one it has found so far, when possible to do so. 
  
• Important Note: This is just "stage one" of a much bigger project: We need your feedback and feature requests to make the automatic pather even better for the future.  Please email techsupport@omax.com.
  
• New "Select Circular Window", "Deselect Circular Window", and "Erase Circular Window" commands: One can now use circular windows instead of just rectangular windows for these popular operations.  This make it easier to do certain kinds of selections where a circular shaped window is just more convenient.   Some notes:
• To access the commands, just right click on the Select, Deselect, or Erase buttons.
  
• The compound keyboard equivalent is SHIFT+W instead of the regular "W" for a rectangular window.  (So, for example, to select a circular window from the keyboard, type "S" to be in the "Select" mode, and then press "SHIFT+W" to switch to a circular window selection mode.
• It asks for a center point and a point on the radius, just like the circle command.  However, because it is often convenient with this command to center about the exact center of an existing circle, if one moves the mouse cursor within a couple of pixels of an existing circle or arc, the cursor will change to indicate that if you click here, it will grab the exact center of the entity you are over.  Practice and use this convenient feature!
  
• New tab tool with "bridge" and advanced tab shapes:
• The Tab tool has been replaced with a more advanced tab tool that gives more options for the shape of the tab, as well as the ability to create "bridge" tabs between two different parts.  Bridge tabs are especially useful, because they reduce the number of pierces required (only one pierce needed to make two or more parts), which saves time.  For those who do not like change, the old Tab tool is still available.  If you wish to enable the old one, simply assign it to a function key.
  
• Move Lead tool now supports snaps.
  
• Provide lots of comments with your drawing: The "Drawing Info" button (The button with the OMAX Logo in the upper right of Layout) has in the past allowed for a single line of text to be added as a comment to the drawing.  This has now been expanded to allow very long comments.  If an OMX file is generated, then these comments will also transfer to the OMX file to be available for viewing in other applications - for example for the machine operator to view in Make.  (Tip: One can also use XData to assign comments to individual drawing entities, but that is not new.)
  
• General Improvements to file importing:
• AutoCAD 2013 DXF, DWG, and DWF support: AutoCAD 2013 files can now be imported into Layout.  If you have files that do not open correctly, please email them to techsupport@omax.com so that we may improve them even more.
• Improved Spline importing: Splines from DXF, DWG, and DWG files will now import cleaner with better results with fewer entities.
• Improvements to Adobe Illustrator importing: More unusual flavors of AI files are now supported, as well as some bug fixes.  In addition, if no geometry is found using the standard AI import filters, then the file will attempt to load using the PDF import filters, which increases the chances of a successful import for unusual AI files.
• Specify Ellipse Tolerances: One can now specify how ellipses are converted when importing with the Generation IV DXF/DWG file importers. 
  
• Please Wait: Added additional "Please Wait" dialogs when opening large files in Layout

• Improved performance:
  
• Redraw performance improvements: All screen redraws when zooming or panning are now about 2 to 200% faster when working with high entity count drawings, and much smoother when working with smaller drawings.
  
• Faster performance for Move, Copy, and Rotate commands: These commands now redraw much faster (400% or more) in Windows Vista and newer, allowing one to manipulate a larger chunk of the drawing without it switching to preview only the bounding box.
  
• New high performance undo system: Allows for working with high entity count drawings with less waiting for the undo system to "memorize" changing.  This removes some irritations one might otherwise experience when working with drawings of more than 50,000 entities.  It also allows for editing drawings significantly larger than before without running out of memory so easily.  Note: When working with high entity count drawings (More than 500,000 entities), the number of undo levels will be reduced in order to preserve memory.
• Undo system now remembers individual erases and selects, so when you "undo" it will undo the last erase you did, not all the erases you did since the command started.
• Generating Tool Paths (The process of sequencing the drawing to make ORD or OMX files) is now approximately 200% faster (most noticeable on giant complex paths.)
  
• Other improvements include: Closing the "Configure Preferences" dialog is now nearly instant, instead of waiting a couple of seconds. Loading and saving to INI files is also much faster in many areas of the software.
  
• Show Degree Wheel stays shown: The status of the check-box next to the item "Show Degree Wheel" on the "Help" menu will now be remembered after Layout closes, allowing Layout to re-open next time with the degree wheel showing.
• Improvements to function key programming:
• Program Function Keys to launch the XData dialog with a specific XData Type in the dialog.  The command to look for in the "Hot Keys" configuration dialog is "XData: Set by command".  Likewise, one can just launch the dialog with no command specified with the command "XData: Show Dialog".
• Function key dialog has been improved to not show useless fields for "Snap types" for commands that don't use snaps.
• Less conflicts with other software: User defined function keys now will override some operating system behaviors for that key, but only if a Layout function is defined for it. 
  
• Keyboard Equivalent display now displays the names of scripts assigned to function keys.
• Note: CTRL+SHIFT+X is also a new keyboard equivalent for "Edit XData".
• By popular request: Layout now requires registration to save.  This prevents your competitors from being able to use Layout.
• Save and Load dialogs have been tweaked a little bit to default to more sensible folders more often, when it is otherwise ambiguous as to where to save to.
  
• XData is no longer displayed for the entities being manipulated when using "Move", "Rotate" or "Copy".
  
• Additional statistics on selected entities are now reported in the "Drawing Info" tool.
  
• XData dialog now has a check-box for showing / hiding advance XData items that might otherwise be confusing to new users.  The dialog will now also automatically do a "Deselect All" when closed (a frequent user request)
  
• Tool path font characters can now be specified as OMX files, or as a mix of ORD and OMX.  This makes it possible to construct 3D tool path fonts, or use XData in fonts for other special functionality. (We have not yet made any such fonts, though.  For information on creating Tool Path Fonts, please type in "Creating your own fonts" into the index of the OMAX Interactive Reference.)
  
• Intelli-TRACE: Minor updates to improve tracing results, and make the results more consistent between outline and centerline trace methods (similar settings will give similar results).  Also, now handles larger images for tracing.
  
• The default location for saving a new file now defaults to the last folder used, instead of My Documents.  My Documents is only used if the last folder location is not available.
  

Device Drivers and Firmware

Intelli-VISOR®

General / Misc. Changes

• Support for lower resolution computers:  Previous releases required 1024x768 screen resolution or higher.  Software now supports 1024x720 resolution, making it compatible with increasingly popular 720p displays, as well as the Microsoft Surface Pro, which re-scales the software, despite its higher resolution display.
• Improved support for high DPI computers: Various dialogs and interfaces have been updated to work and display better on high DPI displays when the operating system automatically scales the software.  In particular, the "Zoom Cursor" now behaves properly.
• The word "OMAX" has been added to the shortcut to the readme file in order to make it easier to find on the Windows 8 "start" screen.
  
• Tech Support Reports now report a few more bits of information from the computer.
  
• Screen redraws, panning, and zooming are now significantly smoother and faster in all applications.
  
• Lots more content in the OMAX Interactive Reference - in particular relating to lead strategies in 3D to avoid splash and control the angle at pierce time.
  
• OMAX Camera has been updated to support a wider range of cameras.
• Improved warnings and errors when working with large nests in the Array Nester.
  
• A couple of new sample files have been added.
  
• The default anti-aliasing value for the 3D Path Editor is now "4" instead of "0"
  
• New XData items to override tool offsets: One can now force a particular offset on a feature by feature basis using XData.  There are new commands to either: Force a particular absolute offset amount, increment (or decrement) from the current offset amount, or return tool offsetting back to user control.  This can be used for specialty purposes, such as to add extra material to a feature that will have secondary machining.  Note: It is generally discouraged to use this feature, in favor of the best practice of simply drawing your tool path to the desired final dimension.
• XData item #34 for inserting bitstreams into the path now works with both absolute and relative file paths.  (So if no path is specified to the file, the file is assumed to be in the same folder as the OMX file.)
  
• OMAX Calculator and Function Plot Syntax Checking: Typos are now reported if found in OMAX Calculator, or Layout's "Function Plot" command.
  
• Custom Report Template Syntax checking.  The debug output log for custom reports now report additional syntax errors that might occur when using the QuickEval function.
• New [OMAX_NumWaterOnlyPierces] variable has been added to Custom Reports.
  
• Changes to Parametric Shapes / OMX file format.
  
• Macros can now have macros inside of macros.  For example, Macro B can have Macro A within it, provided Macro A was defined before Macro B.
  
• Parametric Shape syntax checking: There is now a right-click option to "Enable syntax checking" in the parametric shape dialog.  If this is enabled, then many errors and typos in OMX files are detected and reported.  This makes debugging parametric shape files much faster.
  
• Added new pre-defined variables "AllowUserRotate" and "AllowUserScale", which by default are "True", but can be set to "False" in order to disable the "Rotate" and "Scale" fields in the user interface.
• Added PostStretchX, PostStretchY, and PostStretchZ, which behave exactly the same as PostScaleX, PostScaleY, and PostScaleZ, except they are applied after any PostRotate rotations have been been applied.
  
• Predefined variable "IsHostApp3D" will now return "True" if the OMX file is opened in the 3D Path Editor.
• Added a new predefined variable "PostEraseZeroLength", which will automatically delete zero length (or almost zero length) entities from the tool path after the parametric shape has been finished. By default this is False, but set to True if useful for your shapes.
  
• Parametric Shapes that contain the invisible Layer / Quality of "13" will now gray out the "ok" button if that layer makes it into the final tool path.  (#13 is used as construction geometry for creating graphics that occur when the parametric shape is invalid for some reason.  For example the "NO" symbol that appears when using some 3D Parametric shapes in Layout.)
• Moved the "tapered plug" parametric shape to the "OMAX Tube Round" shape library, to be with the other shapes useful for round tube cutting.
  
• New and updated Parametric Shapes: New parametric shapes have been added, and a few of them have been updated.
  
• Installer will now attempt to auto-close OMAX Touch, Intelli-VISOR, and OMAX Cooler Control utilities before installing files. 
  
• Installer now will provide the user the option of registering OMX files to open in the 3D Path Editor or OMAX Make, with the default now being OMAX Make instead of the 3D Path Editor utility.
  
• Windows Messaging (used by 3rd party applications, Intelli-VISOR, and in-house automated testing): Added new items to report status or errors in last tool path compile.
  
• Scripting:
  
• Added an icon to launch the Script Editor to the "Start" menu.
• One can now launch the script editor from within Layout
  
• One can now double-click on an OMAX_ command to see notes on that command.
  
• New "UserForms" to create user interfaces that are automatically cleaned up when the script is canceled or finished.
  
• Added lots of new commands to the script engine, here are only some:
  
• OMAX_ResizeSelected: Resize with both X and Y scale factors
  
• OMAX_AutoPathG1: Run Auto-Path to automatically add a leads and traverses
  
• OMAX_GenerateGears: Generate gears
• OMAX_GetXYZFromMake to return live coordinates from Make into your scripts.
• OMAX_GroomedOffset: Advanced offsetting / veining of selected entities
  
• ...many other new OMAX_ functions added...
• Arc splitting functions
• Zipping and Unzipping and other file handling functions
  
• OMAX Button types
  
• Insert parametric shapes, and set the variables declared within those shapes.
• Inquire about colors used for various qualities and backgrounds
• Inquire about the host's CAD window position (to better position user interface elements on it.)
• Support for menus and popup menus
• Additional modules to include, such as the Snap Toolbar
• Additional sample scripts have been added (be sure to browse these, as they are probably one of the best ways to learn.)
  
• Launch Make (even run a tool path) from a script.
  
• Launch help screens
• Updates to the scripting manual
• Misc minor updates to the script editor
  
• A couple of bug fixes
• ...and a lot more...
• 3D Path Editor now maintains original coordinate system when loading / saving files (instead of moving to center over 0,0).  This makes it a little nicer to work on files in a text editor, and also prevents potential corruption of certain XData items that may rely on a specific coordinate system.
  

Most significant known bugs at time of release

• Layout and Make Array Nester: The "Auto" option does not properly rotate the parts to maximize materials.  The work-around is to use the rotate and displacement commands by hand.  This bug is fixed in beta 20.1 or newer.
• Make: Preview Speed: If one chooses a custom preview speed, one will often get an error.  The work-around is to just avoid custom preview speeds. This bug is fixed in beta 20.1 or newer.
• Make: Rare motor fault possible: If one uses the "Scribe/Etch on the fly" feature (tangential traverse to scribe to avoid slowing down), and then uses "Pause at end of Next Traverse" from the Path Controller, it is possible to cause a motor fault when the machine pauses at the traverse to scribe intersection.  This bug is very rare, and still remains to be fixed.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in Intelli-ETCH that could cause smearing, especially on high motor resolution machines such as the Micromax.
  
• Fixed a bug where certain strings entered into the XData edit form in Layout would inappropriately show with a red background.
  
• Fixed a bug where only the PascalScript "flavor" of scripts would run in Layout
• Fixed a memory allocation issue in the bitstream filter in Make that would cause too much memory to be allocated and freed, resulting in very slow performance.
  
• Fixed a bug in the OMAX Email Sender that would tag all emails sent from the OMAX software as having the incorrect time stamp for when it was sent.
  
• Fixed a bug in the script editor that would allow the main menu to be accessible while a script is running.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an exception error when sending status information out using Windows Messaging, in the event no path had been interpolated.
  
• Fixed a bug in the script engine where C++ syntax was not parsing "#include" statements properly, and the empty C++ template was using the incorrect syntax.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause Intelli-ETCH bitstreams to report as "traverses" to Intelli-VISOR.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an exception on shutdown when running on insanely slow computers that are bogged down.
  
• Fixed a bug in the script engine where incorrect units of measure were used for OMAX_AutoPathG1
  
• Fixed miss aligned redraw bug in Machine Status Rules (in 'System Settings') in Intelli-VISOR.
• Fixed bug in math engine for DATE & DATETIME references (only in custom modules) in Intelli-VISOR
• Fixed bug for hardware installation where Machine Status rules being imported would mask pre-existing rules in Intelli-VISOR.
• Fixed bug in Module Wizard for modifying digital modules in Intelli-VISOR.
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Camera that could cause error messages about no disk in drive on one computer when the Help/About option was chosen.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the "Needs Saving Flag" was not set when using the Bump and Nudge commands.
  
• Fixed an exception error that could occur when working with huge images in Intelli-TRACE.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the "Check for problems" button would do 2x the amount of work necessary when looking for potential collisions.  Also updated the "Please wait" message to come on immediately.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where canceling move, copy, or rotate commands would not redraw XData.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Nester that would cause inefficient traversing if the first traverse of the path to nest was a Heads Up Traverse.
  
• Improved the "timed out waiting for card to start" message in Make to make it clear to the user that it's okay to simply choose "retry".
  
• Fixed a bug in Make when bitstream recording giant paths, where the path may still be recording when the next motion is commanded, resulting in lockups and/or bitstream corruption.
  
• Fixed a visual bug in Make on the Z-Axis tool bar that would cause some buttons to be partly hidden on some computers.
  
• Added additional error logging in Make to some events relating to USB communication.
  
• Fixed a bug in the default VBScript template that made it unusable.
• Fixed several bugs and polished a few items relating to tilting in Make.
  
• Reworked the warning system in Layout that warns if attempting to save to a folder that is either a system folder, or used by OMAX, so that it does a more appropriate job of warning for the best range of folders.
  
• Some names of the materials in the OMAX Materials Database in Make have been modified to more accurately reflect the actual material tested, and to remove confusing extra information.
• Fixed a bug in the Locate dialog in Make where the arrow keys would sometimes not respond to jog motions when they otherwise should.
  
• Fixed bug in script editor where when switching to a new language, the new language would not immediately be recognized by the text that shows what language it is supposed to be in.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an "Invalid Floating Point Error" in Layout when attempting to fillet between parallel lines on some computers.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Many Clicks Draw Command script template that could cause more entities than expected to be generated.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the Move Leads command could cause lead order to switch on inside corners.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where if the Join command was requested to do an impossible join, it would sometimes try to to do it anyway by creating garbage.
  
• Fixed a bug where the script command OMAX_SplitArc was accepting Radian instead of the standard of Degrees.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Script Editor where parameters being passed to script via the parameters edit box would not be nullified after deleting the text box contents.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the keyboard equivalents for "Z" and "X" would not function properly when using the stretch arc command.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would cause large CMX and possibly AI files to open only partially.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would cause the Snap type of "zero" to cancel the 3 point arc and 3 point circle commands.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause comments entered into the info box to not be saved in OMX files generated.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause "dots" to "ghost" when the zoom wheel was activated for some commands that do not support zoom wheel zooming.
  
• Comments in DXF files when saved from Layout no longer will allow ASCII characters lower than 32 in them.  This prevents potential corruption of the DXF file should someone load in a file that has such characters in it (Typically from 3rd party software), and then re-save from Layout.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause too fast of a speed on some kinds of lead-outs when the A-Jet is enabled, resulting in a jerky motion on some machines, and a motor fault on others.
  
• Fixed a few visual glitches in the CAD display for all applications.
  
• Fixed a bug in the installer where dual-bridge wallpapers were not properly being distributed.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the right-click option for the "Save" button in the nesting dialog would say "Save as ORD" but actually save as an OMX.
  
• Fixed a bug in the "Import Settings" command in Make that would falsely warn the user about mismatched software versions.
  
• Fixed various bugs in Layout relating to Adobe Illustrator importing.
• Fixed a bug in Make where the statistics display for "number of pierces" would always show zero for water-only paths.
• Fixed a bug in Make where file paths in custom reports that contained slash ("\") characters would not show up if the custom report template was an RTF file.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a skewed preview, as well as incorrect positioning with "go to spot on path" when some Intelli-ETCH files were opened in Make.
• Fixed a bug where the "1" and "2" wallpapers for dual bridge machines were not included in the installer.
• Lots of other bug fixes and polish not listed here.
  

Version 19

General Changes

• "System Monitoring" has been renamed to "Intelli-VISOR^®" to please the sales and marketing folks
• System monitoring: Various improvements have been made under the hood.
  
• New XData items have been added including new items available in the interface in Layout, as well as some hidden items there for advanced users / post processor developers.
  
• Help screens have been updated with more content, especially related to 3rd party software options and an extensive 3D / Bevel tutorials section has been added.  For anyone with an A-Jet, or working with 3D in general, we highly recommend working through the bevel tutorial section.
  
• OMAX Scripting: Added additional script templates, demos, and other minor polish.
• Toggle the displaying of XData using the "^" key (Shift+6 on most keyboards): This works for most, but not all display windows.  Press the key to toggle between 4 display modes (off, icons, text, text+icons)
• Quickeval, and all math evaluators / numeric inputs can now accept a few new functions including: KFactor, NozzleFromPumpPressure, and PumpFromNozzlePressure., and a whole bunch of advanced trig function such as "ATan2", "Versin", "Vercosin", "Coversin", "Covercosin", "Haversin", "Havercosin", "Hacoversin", "Hacovercosin", "Exsec", "Excsc", and "Chord".  These are useful when programming parametric shapes, using "function plot", configuring Intelli-VISOR, etc.
• Parametric Shapes:
  
• Additional tube / pipe cutting parametric shapes added to the parametric shape library, as well as some improvements to existing shapes.
• Parametric shapes for pipe and tube cutting have received a few updates.
• XData can now be processed as part of parametric shape processing, and there are some specific key variables that work with XData only for additional power.
  
• Some optimizations have been made to the way XData is evaluated when OMX files are loaded, as well as when displaying to the screen, to allow for more reasonable and faster display when working with parametric shapes.
• Added PostMoveX, PostMoveY, and PostMoveZ variables, to move your shape by a specific displacement after it has been processed.
  
• Additional status information about "Faults" detected by the USB card are now sent via Windows Messaging for third party software products / Intelli-VISOR to pick up.
  
• Added a Nozzle Wrench to the "Useful Tools" sample file folder, as well as some other new sample files.
  
• SolidWorks sample files (for SolidWorks macro) moved to sample files folders.
• Added more icons for displaying some of the more unusual or hidden XData items.
• Added more information to what is reported by tech support reports.
• Additional wallpapers have been added to the "wallpapers" folder so that the background in the displays for multi-bridge machines can say "1" for bridge 1, and "2" for bridge 2.
  

Bug Fixes

• Make: Fixed a bug where the rotary axis position was not being saved at every single pause event, which could result in the white cross hair being off and/or position loss when the rotary axis is attached.
  
• Layout and Make: Fixed a bug that could cause the Korean tech support report generator to lock when generating a report for tech support.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where if certain kinds of compiler errors (errors meant for the developer to see) were present in the path being compiled, then the alert to the user may miss the pop-up message.
• Make: Added code to make path compiling more robust in situations of zero length entities.
  
• Installer: Fixed a bug where some text was out of place (on top of a button) in the Spanish installer.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the Path Dialog would not auto-launch after using the "Go to spot on path" command on some computers.
• Make: Fixed a bug that could allow the pump to stay running if "Keep pump on between paths" was enabled and "Pause at Start or End of next traverse" was chosen.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where a radius would be used to fillet around an outside corner, when a sharp point should have been placed there when using TiltAngleStart and TiltAngleEnd to define the tilts of two adjoining entities.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug that could cause the XData item that increments the rotary axis by a relative angle to cause an accumulation of errors that would add up to the rotary axis being significantly off if used many times in a row.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where if one quickly clicks on a jog button, then quickly clicks on another jog button for a different axes, if the timing is just right the first axis would continue to move.
  
• MIKS Advert Stencil font: Fixed missing capital "I" character, and incorrect "J".
  
• SendMail.exe (Used by System Monitoring and Tech Support Reports): Fixed a bug that could cause a divide by zero error if email was empty.
  
• Layout: Fixed a bug in the Russian version of Layout that would cause arc style leads to occur as lines in the automatic pathing dialog.
  
• Make: Fixed a potential divide by zero error that could occur when computing line to line intersections on nearly parallel lines when interpolating 3D bevel cuts.
  
• Layout and Make: Fixed an "Invalid Typecast Error" message that could occur when using the touch screen popup numeric keypad in the Parametric Shape dialog.
  
• Layout: Fixed a bug where the "Remember entered values" check-box would not remember anything when used in Layout.
  
• Layout and Make: Reduced a blemish that could occur when offsetting arc to arc inside corners, where one of the arcs is tiny, and when offset the two arcs don't intersect.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the check-box for reversing the rotary direction in the Advanced/Administrator Setup dialog was the opposite behavior of intended.
  
• Layout: Added check to prevent commas in XData items for improved international support, as well as preventing potential file corruption since the comma is a delimiter used to keep data items separate inside the file.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where some features related to preparing the tool path for corner passing were incorrectly being activated, even when corner passing was disabled paths containing XData tilt commands.
  
• Link.exe (Used by help screens): Suppressed an annoying error message that could occur when opening files from within the help screens in 64 bit Windows 7.
  
• Layout and Make: Fixed a bug in the parametric shape dialog that could cause coordinates to shift in a manner incompatible with the new parametric shape support for XData.
  
• Make: Added code to prevent super sharp pointy corners from extending out ridiculously far when offsetting sharp corners sharply for A-Jet compilations.  Now, if the corner is exceptionally sharp, a small radius is added.  (If this behavior is not desired, then use a corner loop to enforce the desired behavior.)
  
• Make: Fixed a bug that could cause slightly incorrect cutting of sharp corners with the A-Jet as it compensates for oval kerf at tilt angles.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug that could cause a single step motor drift in the event of a very rare rounding condition.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug with tilting when traverses lead directly to a cutting entity with no lead.
  
• Layout: Fixed a bug where the radius entry dialog for the Stretch Arc command would always assume units of "inches" despite the units configured in Layout.
• Layout: Fixed a bug where when applying a new bow using the "Inquire" command, Layout would temporarily hide the XData assigned to that entity.
  
• Layout: FIxed a bug where a computer configured with giant font sizes would cause the "Inquire" dialog to not display data in its title bar.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where if the rotary axis was mounted on the right hand side of the table (with the shaft pointing towards -X), the white cross hair would not follow the path when running.  Also fixed a bug where the white cross hair could show in the wrong location when using "Backup" and "Ahead" through the path.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the coordinate for "Tilt in X" for the A-Jet could read negative the value it is supposed to be.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug where the XData item "Force Absolute Speed" and "Force Percent Speed" may not work properly for non-tilted paths.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug in the "PostRotate" variable in OMX files that could cause rotations to be applied in the opposite direction intended.
• Make: Improved tool offsetter for some categories of A-Jet parts to partly fix a bug that can cause an arc to bend in some rare cases.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug that caused a shift in an entity when interpolating.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug that could cause out of sequence events at endpoints of entities with certain XData items assigned.
  
• Make: Fixed standoff bug that would cause unwanted motion in tool paths with the Tilt-A-Jet.
• Make: Fixed a bug that would cause the error map portion of the Tilt-A-Jet preview to appear slightly wrong.
  
• Layout / Sprocket Maker: Fixed a bug where it was generating sprockets that were not to proper specification.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug in XData Force Percent Speed that would cause incorrect speed when tilting, as well as not be reliable between 70% and 100%.
• Firmware: Fixed a bug in the firmware affecting dual pump users, where the second pump would not turn on, as well as a bug that could cause a rely flicker when "Pause at next traverse" was used. consult the "ReadMe.txt" file in the "[Program Files]\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_Layout_and_Make\Drivers\" folder for details.
• Make: Fixed a bug that could incorrectly detect a "stuck key" on a particular computer.
• About box: Fixed a bug that could cause the mouse cursor to become invisible when moving over an Internet link on some computers.
• Make: Fixed a bug that could cause the nozzle cross hair to appear "white on white" on some computers, making it impossible to see when the white color scheme was enabled.
• All: Fixed XData #24's icon to properly be transparent.
• Layout and Make: More useful info contained in Tech Support Reports.
• Make: Fixed a bug where changing the zoom preference between "Window" and "Cursor" would not take affect until Make was rebooted.
• Make: Fixed a bug where water only entities from some non-OMAX generated ORD files could import with a percent feed rate override of "-1"
  
• All: When displaying entities in "thick" mode, the XData text also displays thicker.
• Intelli-ETCH: Fixed a bug that could cause an exception error when selecting the border color on 64 bit computers.
• System Monitoring: Fixed various bugs
  

Version 18.0

  Important note for machines with the Tilt-A-Jet mounted on the right-hand side of the carriage:

After installing Version 18.0 of the Intelli-MAX Software, it will be necessary to perform a Perpendicularity Calibration of your Tilt-A-Jet in Make (while in Make, select Setup->Advanced->Calibrations->Calibrate Auto Square Perpendicularity…)  Failure to do so, after installing Version 18.0, will result in the Tilt-A-Jet not being square with the table when the Auto Square Tilt (Re-calibrate)… command is performed.

Notes:

• There are two levels of Tilt-A-Jet calibration. The first is a simple squareness (perpendicularity) calibration, and is the calibration that must be re-done after installing this software update as noted above.  The second is a precision calibration mapping, which is not affected by this software update and can be left as is, though one should consider doing the precision calibration periodically for maximum precision.
• In the event that the machine is reverted to an earlier version of the software (Version 17.0 or earlier), it will be necessary to perform the Auto Square Perpendicularity calibration again.
  

Layout

• Improved file importing
• Much improved Adobe Illustrator importing for up to Adobe Illustrator version CS5
• General improvements to DXF and DWG importing, including fixes for certain "flavors" of DXF and smoother spline conversions.
• Improved importing of latest versions of SVG files, in particular much better importing of SVG files from the free program "Inkscape", as well as Corel Draw.
• Added mouse wheel zooming support for the preview dialog in the importer.
• Made some minor improvements and bug fixes to PDF importing.
  
• Made some minor improvements to spline importing
• Drag and drop files directly into Layout.   Any file that can be opened via the "Image Tracing" or "File / Open" command can be dragged and dropped directly into Layout.  (For example, "drag" a .ORD file from Windows Explorer, and "drop" it into Layout.)
  
• For vector images (OMAX .DXF, or .ORD files): The first file dragged in will be placed in the drawing area at the location dropped.  If multiple images were selected and dropped at once, then the first image will be placed at the drop location, but the remainder of the images are placed to the left of the drawing extents (to prevent them from being piled on top of each other).  Use the "Move", "Nudge", "Rotate", and other commands for precision placement once it's in.  To force the drop to place the data at (0,0), hold the SHIFT key when you let go of the mouse button to drop.  To force the data to be place at the right limit of the drawing, hold down Control.
  
• For raster images (BMP, jpg, gif, png, tiff, etc.) the image is simply loaded as the image to be traced.
• Changes to Tool Path Fonts: When making your own Tool Path Fonts, It is now possible to define characters previously not definable.  this is done by naming the font character MyFontO*.ord, where the "O" stands for "Other", and you put your special character where the "*" is.  The "*" does have to be a legal character for a file name, though.  For example, to define the caret symbol, the file name for the font character might be "MyFontO^.ord".
• New Thai Tool Path Fonts: Two variations of a Thai font have been added.  Characters can be typed on a standard English, or standard Thai keyboard.
  
• Swap Lead tool: A new tool in layout (as a Right-Click option on the "Leads" button) allows one to quickly swap a lead in and lead out, and move the connected traverses accordingly with a single mouse click near the lead.  Tip: Hold down SHIFT key when moving leads to force angles from original geometry instead of using default angles for the moved lead.
  
• Move Lead tool: Similar to Swap Lead, this tool allows one to click on an existing lead, and drag it to a new location. Keyboard equivalent is "CTRL+SHIFT+V"
  
• Support for new XData feature: One can now assign additional (eXtra) data attributes to each entity in the drawing to add additional functionality to tool paths.  For example, one can assign a "pause point" or "tilt angle" to an entity.  This new feature is in Layout, Make, and the OMX file structure, so is shared across applications, so see the "XData Support" area of the "General Changes" section below for additional information on this.
  
• Generate Sprockets: The Gear and Rack Generator has been updated to also allow for the generation of sprockets.  Choose from some pre-defined standard sprockets, or input custom dimensions of your own.
• The Tool Path Preview dialog now remembers your previously entered tool offset, and also has a "remove nest" option to "undo" a nest via right-clicking on the "Nest" button.
• More user definable hot keys: In addition to F1 to F24 being assign able, one can now assign Shift+F1-24, and Control+F1-24.  This allows one a lot more possible keys to assign, as well as the ability to assign 3 similar tasks to the same key.  (Note that when using Shift and Control, that some computer configurations may already have such combinations assigned for other purposes, and not all keyboards properly support function keys higher than F12.)
• Layout no longer requires registration: To minimize annoyance to users, it is now no longer required to register the software in order to save in Layout.
• Slight improvements to circle detection in AutoTrace.
• Some more menu items have keyboard equivalents on the main menu.
  

• "Babysit" changes: The term "babysit" has been renamed to "fault" throughout the software to be less confusing to international users, and more in line with industry standards.  In addition, when a "fault" is triggered, one can now click on the blinking fault message to receive additional details on what specifically triggered the babysit.  Note that extended info is available on some machines only.
  
• Updated compiler messages and error reporting: Compiler messages and warnings are now logged onto the screen to make it easier to debug complex tool paths that generate errors or warnings.
  
• A log file is now generated when custom reports are created, which can be useful for debug use when developing custom report templates.  (look for "_CustomReportLog.txt", in the root of the "Reports" folder after generating a report.)
• Shift+R is a new keyboard equivalent for "Recompile Normal"
• Tilt-A-Jet calculations are now faster - particularly when working with larger files.
• New kind of drill accessory: Added support for a new Pneumatic Drill accessory.
  
• Support for new XData feature: See the "XData Support" area of the "General Changes" section below for information on this
  
• Added a "Maximum XY Cutting Speed" edit box to the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog.  One can use this to limit the cutting speed to be a value less than the maximum traverse speed, if desired.
• A-Jet taper compensation:  The A-Jet now does automatic cutting-model-based taper compensation similar to the Tilt-A-Jet.  As part of this, the A-Jet now also handles back and forth transitions across the vertical more efficiently. 
  
  
• Important: Taper Compensation requires the A-Jet to move to the appropriate orientation of the jet.  Depending on the geometry of the part and applied parameters this can involve additional motions of the A-Jet axes.  To achieve the uttermost precision it is strongly recommended to apply the A-Jet Error Map feature (see below), which provides for compensation of assembly and alignment tolerances..
• Note: A-Jet taper compensation is not possible on all parts.  Some traditional 2D geometries will not support A-Jet taper compensation unless the tool path is modified slightly to accommodate for the geometry of the hardware.
  
• A-Jet error mapping support: A-Jets can now be precision error mapped to get significantly higher precision through software error compensation. See  below for information on the new utility that allows for this.
  
• Importing non-OMAX .ORD files:  An additional set of settings will appear in the Change Path Setup dialog when a non-OMAX .ORD file is imported from a competitor's machine that has licensed some OMAX technologies.   This dialog provides options for how to import and convert the file to take advantage of OMAX pierce and cutting models, etc.  For more information on this feature, type "Non-OMAX .ORD" into the index of the OMAX Interactive Reference.
  
• Added option to "keep pump on between paths" to the Event and Relay Setup dialog.  For certain machines this will allow the pump to stay on when using step and repeat cutting, eliminating the need to wait extra time for the pump to cycle, and eliminating an extra pressure cycle on the plumbing that can cause fatigue.
• Additional Rotary Axis Support: A lot of new features have been added to the software specific to running the rotary axis including:
  
• Rotate to specific (absolute) angle command (Relative to the start of the path): For example "Rotate to 90 degree point"
  
• Rotate by a (relative) angle command (Relative to present location): For example, "Rotate by 5 degrees"
  
• Substitute Y motions with rotary command (to cut XY patterns on a tube with easy programming in Layout)
  
  Above: Tubes cut from flat patterns programmed in Layout using the new "Substitute Y motions with Rotary" command. Very complex artworks can easily be cut into tubes with this feature.
  
• New parametric shapes specific to tube and pipe cutting (more on this below in the discussion of new Parametric shape capabilities)
• New ability to use the Tilt-A-Jet at the same time as the rotary axis for coordinated motions, such as cutting bevels in artworks such as in the picture above.
  
• Ability to reverse the rotary axis direction through a check-box in the Advanced/Administrator Setup dialog, so that the rotary axis can be mounted to point in the opposite direction without causing shapes to be mirrored.  (So same shape cut will be made regardless of whether the Rotary Axis is mounted pointing to the left or the right.)
  
• Important note on rotary axis directions: The rotary axis is now defined such that one can cut an XY pattern on the surface of a tube without the pattern being cut upside down.   "+Rotary" means "Move as though the head were moving in the +Y direction, so that the top of the pipe is moving towards the operator".  This makes it intuitive to cut patterns on the surface of a tube by simply drawing a normal XY path in Layout, and assigning a single XData to the start of the path of "Substitute Y motions with Rotary".   If you discover that your rotary axis appears to be moving in the reverse of what is explained here, then you need to swap the value of the checkbox in the Advanced / Administrator setup dialog to correct it.
• Stuck key detection, correction, and warnings: Make will now try to detect and correct for many kinds of keyboard issues relating to multiple keys being pressed at once, or keys stuck in the down position - even if more than one keyboard is physically attached.   Depending on the condition and what is possible to do through software, Make will either prevent the motion, stop motion in progress, automatically correct the issue, or warn the operator and ask the operator to correct the issue.
  
• More frequent Windows Messaging status updates: Windows Messaging in Make (used for automation, System monitoring, MTConnect, and other advanced applications that need to know Make's status), now sends the status at 1 second intervals, regardless of whether any status has changed or not (and more frequently if the status changes).  This allows listening applications the opportunity to have fresh status at startup.
• More Windows Messaging information sent: More information reported by Make's Windows Messaging for 3rd party software to pick up.
• More reliable start-ups in electrically noisy environments: A small code change was made in Make to prevent "Timed out waiting for card to start" messages that could occur in noisy environments.  Essentially noisy signals travel slower than clean ones, which on some computers would cause commands to occur out of sequence since USB sends things down separate "pipes", resulting in the USB card not responding.  We now verify that the command reached its destination before sending the next command.
  
• Improved sanity checking for A-Jet motions: Edit boxes in the Specify A-Jet dialog have changed to turn light yellow if the combination of tilts exceeds the hardware limits, even if each tilt individually does not.  Also added some text to explain this.
• Option to set A-Jet position by "Motor Angle": In the Specify A-Jet dialog, there is now the option to specify the A-Jet position by providing the raw motor angles.
  
• Improved motor tuning: Changed default bitstream filter width to 50 for new machines, as we found this value to work best in most cases.  Note that this value only is used on new installations.  For existing installations the present value is preserved.  It is strongly recommended to leave this value alone unless directed by Tech Support.
  
• Changed the order of squaring when using "Go to Spot On Path" and "Go to Path Interrupted Home" commands so that the A-Jet is squared prior to traversing, instead of afterwards.
  
• Added Max Path Acceleration and Max Cutting Speed user interface elements to the Advanced / Administrator Setup, so that one can easily adjust the maximum acceleration and speed when cutting to be different than that used for traversing.  This allows harder  motions on traverses for faster traversing while maintaining smoother motions for cutting.
  
• Improved automatic Z axis recovery warnings for "Go To Spot On Path": Changed the threshold for warning about Z moves when resuming a tool path with "Go to spot on path" to be more sensitive if the motion is in the down direction.  This prevents an annoyance where one may have made Z adjustments say for warped materials, and then the machine automatically moves to what it thinks is the right spot, ignoring your adjustments.
• G-Code / CNC file support in Make: The Bitstream Recording toolbar has a new button that allows one to import *.nc / *.cnc / *.omaxnc files into Make and have them converted to bitstreams.  In addition, *.nc, *.cnc, *.omaxcnc and *.omaxnc files can be launched by the command line when Make starts.  This allows one to use CNC "G-Code" programs to run the machine, which is useful for some rare very complex 3D operations.  Since this is a bitstream tool, it can be appended to other bitstreams for combined approaches of traditional OMX / ORD mixed with g-code.   This is an advanced user feature of limited use, and it is generally recommended to use OMX for advanced 3D.  Please consider this feature to be "beta" at this time, as it has not undergone the extensive testing it deserves yet.  Layout has been updated to also import the 2D portions of some of these files.  Some basic sample files are included in the new "CNC" samples folder.
  
• Tech Support Reports now report additional information useful for OMAX to remotely support machines.
• Copy error messages to the clipboard:  For most error messages in Make, if one holds down the Control key when pressing "OK" the text of the message will be copied to the clipboard, making it easier to past into emails or documents.  Of course, one can still use Alt+Printscreen to copy an image of the window to the clipboard as well.
• Launch Make from an external application while ignoring the "Change Path Setup" dialog: If you are writing software to automatically launch Make, one can prevent the "Change Path Setup" dialog from defaulting to open by adding the word "NoDialog" somewhere within the passed path or file name.
  
• Improved "Recompile Pierces Only": This command now optimizes the traverses between pierces, and removes the lead out's so only lead in's remain.  This results in less wasted time for pierce-only paths.
• Force Traverses to High Pressure: A new checkbox for this has been added to the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog, allowing one to choose to either do all traverses at high pressure (the old way of doing things), or to run the traverses at whatever pressure the previous jet on condition left things at.   Typically, one would just leave this setting alone, but if one does low pressure cutting with high pressure piercing (a very unusual thing to do), then unchecking this box can lead to less high pressure line fatigue.
• Scribe and Etch "on the Fly": It is now possible to start a scribe (or etch) with zero nozzle delay, and maintaining the velocity from the previous traverse.  This can result in avoiding the small pit that may otherwise occur on some machine configurations at the start of the scribe, by eliminating the delay there.  In order for this feature to work, one must set the "Delay after nozzle fires before moving" for scribing (or etching) to zero, and then ensure that the traverse leading up to the scribe and the scribe itself are touched tangentially (no corner).   Please note that there is one known bug with this at the time of release, where this is incompatible with the right-click pause option for "Pause at the end of the next traverse", where using this feature can cause a motor fault due to a harsh deceleration (So, don't use that particular pause option if you choose to use this feature)
  
• Updated Inquire Motor Step to show more significant digits when inquiring a step at speeds less than 1 unit per minute.
• Additional information on error mapping status for various accessories is now displayed at the bottom of the statistics window.
• Moved the "Change Password" button to the "User Interface" tab of the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog, as some users were clicking on the button in the old location thinking it was an "ok" button, which caused confusion.
  
• Improved error reporting when opening an invalid OMX file, so that instead of silently failing with no hint as to why, one now has an error message.  (This is useful to third parties developing software to generate OMX files.)
  
• An additional "Stop" file has been added to allow remote shut down of the machine, even if OMAX Watcher is not enabled.   This file is used by the new System Monitoring feature, though could also be used by other 3rd party software that may wish to shut down the machine.
  

OMAX Touch

• Adjust delays: OMAX Touch now has a configuration screen that allows adjustment of the delay before popping up the numeric keypad for numeric inputs in any OMAX application.   There are two settings:  One delay for when OMAX Touch is running, and the other for when it is not.
  
• 64 bit friendly: OMAX Touch will now properly launch the onscreen keyboard on 64 bit computers.  Click here for important information on 64 bit

Intelli-ETCH

• Etch shapes beyond rectangles: One can now define a color to "mask" to allow etches with non-rectangular boundaries (for example to Intelli-ETCH within an oval).
  

New A-Jet / Tilt-A-Jet Calibration Wizard

• A-Jet Error Mapping: One can now calibrate and error map the A-Jet for significantly enhanced precision.  It is also a requirement to error map the A-Jet in order to take advantage of the A-Jet for taper compensation.  Application features:
  
• Runs inside of Make
  
• Uses the same calibration equipment as the Tilt a Jet
• After maintenance operations, the A-Jet mechanism accuracy can be restored on site.
• Bevel cutting and 3D geometries are improved with improved total indicator runout (TIR) accuracy of the AJet
• Make incorporates the AJet calibration error map for improve positional accuracy
• Automated calibration wizard simplifies the calibration process.
• Requires error mapping hardware for map generation.  
• Contact Technical Support for information on mapping your hardware.
  

New System Monitoring

• System Monitoring is a new feature that compliments, extends, and/or replaces the existing MTConnect and OMAX Watcher features.  It allows one to monitor the OMAX software (and eventually hardware sensors) for changes, and automatically shut down the machine should something go wrong.   It has multiple levels of warning and monitoring, and multiple ways to shut down the machine based on the severity of the issue.  For example, if the abrasive is running low, it may shut down the machine at the next traverse in order to prevent a blemish on the part, while if the abrasive is empty it would shut down the machine immediately.  Alerts can occur on-screen, as well as remotely via text message or email.
• Features:
• Monitors software timers, counters and status
  
• Monitors optional hardware (sold / upgraded separately, but not required for some basic monitoring functions - check with OMAX for availability.)
  
• Automatically shuts down machine as appropriate for the circumstance
• Automatic on-screen, text, or email alerts
• Fully configurable and expandable
  
• Automatically runs when Windows starts, but stays hidden unless needed
• Easy to use interface
• Can be used to track hours on maintenance items (for example mixing tubes and pump seals.)
  
• Graphical display to view system status at a glance
• Note: Although some basic functionality is provided as a software-only solution, System Monitoring is really designed to be used with optional hardware. Contact OMAX for information on ordering additional hardware.
  
• For additional information consult the topic "System Monitoring" in the index of the OMAX Interactive Reference.

General changes

• Unified and standard coordinate systems: Many dialogs and screens have been updated to reflect a unified and standardized approach to coordinate systems inline with common engineering, machine tool, and robotics standards.  In particular any dialogs relating to Rotary and Tilt axes.  This may lead to some initial user confusion in some dialogs ("Why do I now have to enter in a negative number here when I used to enter positive?" kind of issues), but in the long run should result in less confusion by adhering to standards.
  
• Windows 8 support: Minor changes have been made to support Windows 8 properly.  Note that previous versions of the Intelli-MAX software also run fine in Windows 8, though we changed a few things for an improved experience.  Note also that if you are looking to upgrade your machine tool computer, then it is strongly recommended to check with Technical Support prior to making such an upgrade to ensure compatibility.  We do not recommend upgrading to Windows 8 at this time, as we see no advantage and only risk in doing so.
  
• New supported Languages: Finnish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Swedish.  Full installers are now available for each of these languages.
  
• This is a "3D release" with many features concentrating on basic to advanced 3D including support for X, Y, Z1, Z2, Two axis of "Tilt", and Rotary.  Most of the new functionality is in "under the hood" in Make and the file formats that Make reads, and some of the functionality is visible in the user interface and in Layout.
  
• Fixed an overflow in Make issue that could cause paths to run at wrong speed when cutting at speeds less than 37 hours per inch.
  
• Large Address Awareness: Large address awareness has been enabled for Make, Intelli-ETCH, and Layout, allowing them to have a little bit more memory available when running on large address enabled operating systems. 
  
• Lots of additions to the online help: The OMAX Interactive Reference has a lot of new content relating to new features of the software, and the developers guide.
  
• Run Intelli-MAX Premium and Intelli-MAX Standard on the same computer.  If you install Intelli-MAX Premium, then the standard (MAXIEM) versions of Layout, Make, and the 3D Path Editor are also installed.  They can be accessed from the "Start" menu under "Start / Programs / OMAX Layout and Make / Standard".  This is useful for those with a mix of OMAX and MAXIEM machines who need the ability to do time estimates in either system.  Please note that only the 3 executables for Standard are installed, so the Standard software will share the OMAX Interactive Reference (where in a normal Standard installation, the help screens are limited to just the basics.)
  
• Tilt forward (lead/lag) support in OMX files:  In addition to being able to specify tilting to the side at the start and end of each entity in the tool path, one can now also specify "TiltAlong" (sometimes referred to as lead / lag) in the OMX file.   If these items are left unspecified, then Make will do what it has done in the past, and automatically calculate the corner geometry.  If these items are specified, then Make will use the desired specification.  This gives people writing post processors or parametric shapes or similar advanced applications the ability to have greater control over how tilted corners are handled.
  
• XData Support: It is now possible to add advanced tags to entities in Layout, OMX files, or Make to provide additional commands about how the tool path should be interpreted. 
  
• For example:
• Specify delays and pause points
• Specify an entity to run at a particular absolute speed, or percent of separation or other speed
• Specify that the next entities should be interpreted as rotary motion, so that you can cut a pattern on the surface of a tube
• Command the rotary axis to move by a specific angle, or to a specific angle
  
• Specify the nozzle to move to a specific tilt angle with various different ways to specify the angle.
  
• Add a comment to an entity, such as a note to the operator to display on the screen.
• Create tilt via vectors for easier post processor writing.
  
• ...and more
  
• The easiest way to add XData to a path is to use the "XData" commands from the pull-down menu at the top of the screen in Layout.  From there, one can specify XData to be assigned to entities, or choose how XData is displayed on the screen.  XData can also be saved in parametric shapes or hand edited in OMX files.
• Tip: XData items are typically executed at the start of the entity the XData is assigned to.  Please note that because the path direction is undefined in Layout, the XData is displayed in the middle of the entity, even though once the path is defined it typically executes at the entity start.
• Tip: Consult the OMAX Interactive Reference for information on each XData item.  To do this, type in "XData" in the index, read the page, and be sure to click on the "Next" button for the command reference.
  
• Major changes to Parametric Shape Support:
  
• Updated Parametric Shape Dialog: The Parametric Shape Dialog has been updated to:
• Auto-stretch to reveal exposed variables to the user with minimal need for scroll-bars.
• Added stretch points to allow the dialog to be stretched manually in ways more conducive to parametric shape development (For example, the "Comments" window can be stretched taller, etc.) 
  
• Allow CTRL+Click on the "Render as solid" button, for an alternate way of rendering.
• Allow right-clicking on the "OK" button to save the parametric shape (with the current values applied) as an OMX file.  This allows one to save the shape with its settings locked in for later use and recall.
• Provide improved error reporting of errors in parametric shapes, which is useful to those developing their own shapes to add ot the library.
  
• New Parametric Shapes:
• Lots of new 2D and 3D / multi-axis parametric shapes have been added, especially for pipe / tube cutting.
  
  
• Some sample files included to illustrate how to take advantage of some of the new commands listed below...
• Note: Some parametric shapes work in Make only, and will not present valid data in Layout.
  
• Advanced Parametric Shape Programming Support: OMX files, which are the core to making parametric shapes for the parametric shape library, now include more capability to process logically with "goto" and "if" and "assign" support.  In addition there are new key words, and additions to the expression evaluator.   These changes allow one to make parametric shapes with fairly advanced logic - greatly increasing the kinds of parametric shapes that can be defined.  New features include:
• "Anchor" key word:  This is used to define a spot that the new "GoTo" command can jump to.
• "GoTo" command: One can create loops, or skip to other sections of a file with the "GoTo" command.
• "Private" key word: Use this to declare variables that are not meant to be seen by the user.  For example, counters and other internal variables.
  
• "Assign" Command: Use this to assign a variable a new value.
• "If" command: Use this in conjunction with Assign or GoTo to process logic as in "If Radius > 3 then Goto Anchor_MakeBigPipe"
  
• Cancel OMX file loading with the "Escape" key: An important new feature when creating parametric shapes that can potentially get stuck in infinite loops due to the GoTo command.
• "DumpAllVars" command - Will cause the values of all variables in the shape to be dumped to the "Comments" window in the Parametric Shape dialog, which is useful for debugging.  An optional parameter/label can be passed to remind yourself where the dump came from.
• New internal variable "ExitString", which is a special variable that can be assigned to using the "Assign" command, and if assigned, will display to the user in the Parametric Shape dialog.
• New pre-defined variables "PostScaleX", "PostScaleY", "PostScaleZ", and "PostRotate" that one can assign values to in order to rotate and scale the drawing after all other processing is finished.  This is useful, for example, to rotate and scale your parametric shape in a clean way without making a mess in the rest of your code. Examples of these in use can be found in some of the new pipe cutting parametric shapes.
• New pre-defined variable "HostAppIs3D" added so that one can provide different logic on the shape based on whether the host ap (Layout or Make) is fully 3D capable.
  
• Fixed a few bugs in the parser.
• Major changes to the expression evaluator (which is used for all numeric inputs, function plot, parametric shape definitions in OMX files, and the "QuickEval" function for custom report templates):
  
• Override units of measure: The expression evaluator now can have it's units of measure (Degree, Radian, Gradian) overridden by entering a semicolon followed by the measure at the end of the expression.  For example, to override the default of evaluating trig functions in "Degrees" with "Radians" in the function "Sin(1.23)", Simply add ";Radian" to the end of the expression like so: "Sin(1.23);Radian".  This trick works anywhere the expression evaluator is used.
• New function "RadToBow(X1;Y1;X2;Y2;DesiredRadius)", which outputs a bow value useful when working with parametric shapes where one might want to curve fit within the shape.
  
• Expression evaluation no longer follows Excel: The expression evaluator has been revamped to fix some rare bugs relating to order of operations with negation and exponents.  It also no longer follows the rules of Microsoft Excel in this regard, but instead uses the correct rules as tested against Wolfram Alpha / Mathmatica.  (More on what Excel does here)   Most users should not notice any change.  However, if you have parametric shapes or heavily use the function plot feature, then there is a small chance that you may notice some expressions evaluate slightly differently (incorrectly before, properly now).
• Better error reporting: The expression evaluator now reports more specific errors when working with ArcSin, ArcCos and other trig functions, instead of just "general error", in places where such errors are reported such as OMAX Calculator and Custom Reports.  When using the Custom Reports feature in Make, the QuickEval function will now show an error message in the custom report generated if it was unable to do the math desired due to an error in the expression.   (Instead of silently just passing on a garbage result.)
  
• OMAX Calculator now can accept expressions passed to it via the command line.  (A feature implemented primarily for testing purposes.)
• New Sample Files: A few new sample files and parametric shapes have been added to various folders.
• Improved Error Messages: Various error messages that were confusing now have additional information displayed to be less so.
• International web sites: In some areas of the software, links to omax.com will now jump to the OMAX web site of the language the OMAX software is running in.
• User switching now will cause Make and OMAX Tester to shut down whatever path is running to prevent the next user from losing the user interface to Make.
  
• Installer now check for prerequisites earlier on and allows user to install (with warnings) even if they don't meet some of the less-critical prerequisites.  For example, though not advised, one can now install the software on machines that don't meet the 1024x768 minimum screen resolution requirement.
  
• OMAX SolidWorks Macros have been verified to work in SolidWorks 2012.  (The existing 2011 macros work fine with 2012)
• New "Dial_Tester.exe" is a simple utility to validate proper operation of dial indicators used for various calibration kits.
• Scripting: Although not officially supported yet, advanced users who know how to program may be interested in OMAX Scripting to extend the capabilities of OMAX Layout, write new commands, or even create applications. (For example, the new Sprocket Maker, Swap Lead, and Move Lead tools were all done with OMAX scripting.)  Scripts can be written in a syntax similar to Pascal (Delphi), VB, or C/C++ to suite the individual's coding style, and most Layout high-level functionality is exposed to the engine.  We would be interested to know if this is a feature we should spend more time on and make it official, so feedback is welcome. If this is of interest to you, look for and run OMAX_Script.exe in your OMAX "Program Files" folder, and/or contact scripting@omax.com to express your thoughts and learn more.

OMAX Interactive Reference

• Lots of new content has been added and updated, including:
  
• Information on all the new features
• More 3rd party software descriptions
• More tips and tricks
• More troubleshooting
• More in the developer's guide
• New XData reference guide
  
• ...and more...

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug relating to OMX parsing and metric units in parametric shapes being evaluated improperly.
  
• Fixed a bug where SHIFT+O in Layout would launch a dialog even when it shouldn't.
  
• Fixed a bug where the keyboard equivalent display from the Help menu in Layout would not update after making a change to the key assignments.
  
• Fixed a bug where if the "select" command was active, then a "Quality All" command was executed from the keyboard, and error could occur and cause Layout to appear locked up.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause Tilt-A-Jet users with the head mounted on the right hand side of the carriage to have the user squareness calibration off slightly.   Because of this bug fix, it is recommended for maximum precision to re-do the squareness calibration for machines equipped with right-hand mounted Tilt-A-Jets. (which is a good thing to do periodically anyway.)
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause some Windows Messages to external applications to not go through.
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause a joystick generated move to stick in motion.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where if a custom report template has only a single "AskFor" variable, then it would correctly asks the user for the value, but never populate the report with it.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Select Special command in Layout that would cause it to sometimes say "Selected" instead of "Deselected" and vise versa.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout and the 3D Path Editor where the dialog "Save changes to..." could appear behind Layout if Layout was closed from the Windows task bar while in the minimized state.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the INI file containing the rotary axis setup was not included in Backup/Transfer Settings
  
• Fixed a bug in Recompile Pierces Only in Make where the compiled path may be corrupted if a right tool offset was used.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an overflow error when Make starts compiling on 64 bit machines with huge memory installed.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause "Recompile Pierces Only" to add cuts / pierces where not necessary, and removed lead outs from the resulting path, since one does not need to pre-drill or pre-pierce lead outs.
  
• Fixed an obscure bug in Layout and other applications that would cause the drawing limits to be redrawn to the screen to sometimes be wrong, resulting in some redraws not occurring correctly, in particular sometimes selected elements would not appear selected or rubberbanding would stop displaying.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make where the A-Jet dialog would have active buttons that should have been grayed out when the VCR dialog is open.
  
• Fixed the A-Jet specify by Rotation and Angle graphic in Make to make +X to the right and -X to the left, to avoid confusing folks with the wrong data.
• Fixed a bug in the A-Jet squareness wizard where the word "Rotary" should have been labeled "Tilt" in one of the fields.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in version 17.0 that caused Make's joy-stick jogging feature to no longer work.
  
• Made some improvements in Make to better handle necessary speed changes when cutting at tilted angles.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause numeric entries for various "Specify" snaps to be wrong if the Shift key was held down when entering in a math formula (which would cause the Ortho command to kick in and override the numeric entry)
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause Make to appear to be locked up if the Home key is held down filling the keyboard buffer with hundreds of "Zoom Extents" commands.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause an Access Violation if the OK button on the Parametric Shape dialog was pressed when no shape was selected.
• Fixed a bug that could cause some variables in parametric shapes to not process properly if the variable name happened to be a sub-set of another variable, for example, "MyVar" could conflict with "ThisIsMyVarForSuchAndSuch" when parsed in the past.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause some shallow arcs to have their "bow" flipped to the wrong side when importing a specific flavor of DXF file.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would prevent error maps larger than 100 x 200 inches (2.54 meters by 5.08 meters)
• Fixed a bug in Make where the QuickEval function for custom reports would not evaluate unless somewhere in the same line of text was the word "OMAX", which would trigger that line to be searched for QuickEval.
• Fixed a bug in the "Divide into equal sections" command in Layout that could cause one more than desired division.
• Fixed tab order in the Drill section of the Advanced / Admin Setup in Make.
• Lots of bugs fixed relating to bevel and tilt cutting in general
• Lots of other bugs have been fixed not listed here.
  

Version 17.0

Note: Version 17.0 is a bug fix release with no significant new functionality.  It addresses a few bugs found after releasing 16.0

Bug Fixes and Minor tweaks

• Minor changes and performance improvements:
  
  
• 6 new tool path fonts have been added: DTZ New Eden Round Stencil, DTZ New Eden Stencil, DTZ StarzCraft Stencil, DTZ Stencil Camera, DTZ Sweep Bold Stencil, DTZ Technique Stencil from Jay Childs of Digitalnutz.
  
• Slightly improved speed of redraw when using the mouse wheel to zoom in Vista and 7 when the Dots are enabled.
• Added double buffering to XP and Windows 2000 computers when an image is loaded for Image tracing in Layout.  This reduces flicker otherwise seen when drawing on top of an image.
• Modified the default Layer Substitution Map used by the "Import from other CAD" command to include several new more descriptive layer names, allowing one to build templates in other CAD systems that call out OMAX Layers with full descriptions.
• Added a folder ...Program Files\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_Layout_and_Make\DraftSight\ that contains templates for Dassault Systems DraftSight^TM CAD.  The templates have OMAX Quality Layers defined, to allow the option of drawing in OMAX Qualities with the proper color and line types, and layer names for each Quality.
  
• Bug fixes:
  
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would cause the "Import from other CAD" feature to incorrectly convert layer 28 to a rapid traverse instead of a water-only slit.
  
• Fixed a bug in the bitstream filter in Make that could (under a very rare set of conditions only witnessed on one machine) cause an acceleration strong enough to fault a motor.
• Fixed a bug in Make where a slow click of the mouse button on the "Begin" button for the "Test" dialog would cause the click to be ignored.
• Fixed some visual glitches in the Installer for some non-English languages.
• Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor that would prevent the "auto fix selected slopes" command from fixing some paths that contained zero length entities.  Also, improved the detection of "potential slope errors" by not reporting some "potential errors" where there really was no chance for there to be a problem.
  
• Fixed a general bug that could cause a "Not enough storage space to process this command" error on some Vista or Windows 7 machines running extremely high resolution displays or multiple high resolution monitors.
• Fixed a very rare bug in Make that could cause the tool path interpolation to lock up
• Fixed a bug in Intelli-ETCH that would cause negative relay delays to be ignored (Making it difficult to etch glass or other very brittle materials.)
  

Version 16.0

Layout

• New ways to move and copy your data:
• New "Nudge" functionality: When entities are selected, use SHIFT+Arrow Key, or Control+Arrow Key to "Nudge" the selected entities by either a coarse or fine amount.   Use Shift + Page Up or Shift + Page Down, or Control + Page Up, or Control + Page Down, to rotate the entities by either 10 or 1 degrees.  This is useful for easily moving entities around for such purposes as manual nesting, or adjusting the spacing between letters in text, etc.
• Mouse Wheel Zooming improvement: You can now use the mouse wheel to "zoom" at any time when using the "copy" or "move" commands.
• DXF and DWG importing: Updated file filters to support yet more flavors of DXF and DWG, as well as fixed a few minor bugs.  File importing of exceptionally large files is now about 50% faster as well.  Also, added some logic that will attempt to find data amongst a multi-sheet drawing by defaulting to open the first sheet found that actually contains data.  This helps prevent user confusion when a drawing comes up blank because the data occurs on a different sheet than default.  Note: AutoCAD 2011 DXF and DWG files are supported, as AutoCAD 2011 uses the 2010 format.
  
• Added "Shift + O" keyboard equivalent for launching the 3rd party plug-in "Design-To-Cut^®" (Distributed through OMAX: Part Number 203462).
  
• Updates to SolidWorks Macros:
• New: SolidWorks Macro to Make: In addition to the two SolidWorks macros introduced in version 15.0, a new Macro for SolidWorks is now available to go from SolidWorks directly through Layout to an ORD file that opens in OMAX Make.  Of course, it is up to the human operator to verify that this path is valid and make corrections in Layout if necessary.
• SolidWorks 2011 support: New SolidWorks 2011 macros have been added.  These are identical to the SolidWorks 2010 macros, but it is suggested you use the SolidWorks 2011 macros in SolidWorks 2011 in case updates that are specific to SW 2011 are made in the future.
• There are now folders in the OMAX Samples folder that contain SolidWorks .sldprt files as samples to use the macros on.
  
• New command "Divide into even sections": Use this to divide an entity into a specified number of equal sections.
• Non-uniform sizing: The "Size" dialog will now accept X and Y values to allow "stretching" of selected entities (for example, to turn a circle into an oval)
• Improved Auto-Path: Auto-path is now better about not creating leads that gouge into the edge of the part, leads placed on the part instead of the scrap, and leads where the tool offset is to the incorrect side.   Although it is still up to the user to verify the results and correct as necessary, these improvements significantly reduce the chances of Auto-Path making a mistake.  Note: As always, for best results, be sure to "clean" the drawing prior to Auto-Pathing, as duplicate entities and gaps will always cause confusion, and always double-check Auto-Path's results and correct when necessary.
  
• New "Check for problems" button in the preview dialog that is displayed after a path is generated.   The "Check for collisions" button is now "Check for Problems".  In addition to looking for potential collisions, this button now also checks for and highlights areas where the tool path is offset into the part instead of the scrap, and also highlights areas where radii are smaller than the tool offset.  Finally, traverses that may potentially collide on previously cut portions of the path are now highlighted with an arrow, to make it clear the direction of travel.  All of these changes are to make it easier to see many common kinds of errors in paths.
• The "Default" number of undo levels in Layout has been increased from 100 to 400.
  
• The "Esc" key can now be used to close a few forms that previously required mouse clicks.
  

Version 15.0

Changes made since rev "14.0" of the software, which was released 7/27/2009.

Layout

• SolidWorks macros for SolidWorks 2008, 2009, and 2010:  SolidWorks users can now find macro's to run inside of SolidWorks for directly exporting a 2D face of a 3D model to OMAX Layout.  There are two different macros, one of them sends geometry over to Layout, and the other does the same, except it also tells Layout to path it.  Once the macros are setup in SolidWorks, exporting 2D Geometry to Layout becomes a simple matter of two clicks: First click on the button assigned to the macro, and then click on the 2D surface you want to open in Layout. This is an alternate method to traditional file exporting that can save considerable time for frequent operations.  The SolidWorks macros and support files are automatically installed when the Intelli-MAX software is installed, but some manual configuration in SolidWorks is required to enable the buttons for it inside of SolidWorks.  For instructions, consult the OMAX Interactive Reference by typing in "SolidWorks" into the index.
  
• Updates to Intelli-TRACE: 
• New "Centerline Trace" option allows tracing of thin lines without outlining them.  This is useful for tracing scanned CAD drawings, or sketches, for example.  A new checkbox for "invert image" has also been added, so that thin light lines on a dark background can be traced as well.
• Added a few more options to the "display settings" pop-up menu in the final page of the Intelli-TRACE wizard.  The new settings allow highlighting arcs in purple, yellow, or not at all.  The preview now defaults to highlighting arcs in yellow to make it easier to see the results of changing the various trace settings.
• There is now a progress bar in the "Please wait" form that shows when loading and preparing files.
  
• Updates to file filters:
• Updated DXF and DWG file importing to include support for AutoCAD files up to release 2010
• Added a checkbox for "Ignore User Coordinate System", which allows proper importing of some rare DXF or DWG files that might otherwise import in a user defined perspective view that is inappropriate for cutting.
• Added an option to filter layers into OMAX Qualities when importing.  Custom filters can be made.  This is useful when drawing paths in 3rd party CAD applications where you may prefer to call a layer "part", or "etch", and have it import the layer named "Part" as a "Quality of 1", and the layer "etch" as an etch when bringing it into Layout.
• General improvements were made to support more "flavors" of DXF / DWG from various systems.
  
• Improved text and dimensioning importing options to more correctly import or not import these items depending on user selection.
• Added additional text to error message when a file fails to import to recommend checking the OMAX support site for updates.
• Added automatic detection of some file types, so that if a DXF has been renamed to "DWG", it will still try to import it anyway.  This prevents the damage done by some kinds of user confusions where someone says "Please send me a DXF", and the sender then mistakenly thinks they can change a DWG into a DXF by simply renaming the file extension.
  
• Note: As always, OMAX is looking for examples to test.  If you have DXF or DWG or other CAD files that you are having trouble importing into OMAX Layout, first check for updates on the OMAX web site.  The beta software always has the latest updates.  If the update does not fix your problem, then please email your troublesome file(s) to techsupport@omax.com, so that we can make improvements to the filters.
• Improved Exporting: DXF files saved from Layout now include the "units" field, to improve importing of Layout generated DXF files into other CAD software.
  
• Loading these newer DXF files into older versions of OMAX Layout will cause a warning in the File/Open dialog that can be ignored.
  
• This may cause some files imported into other CAD / CAM programs that previously imported out of scale to now import at the correct scale. In some cases, you may need to adjust such processes accordingly, possibly eliminating the now unnecessary step of re-scaling the imported file.
• The file filter for Corel Draw CMX files has been updated to import a specific rare flavor of CMX that would previously generate an error message.
• Warnings if saving to unsafe locations: Layout will now warn you if you attempt to save your DXF file to an unsafe location such as a Windows System folder, or OMAX Sample file folders. (OMAX Sample file folders are considered unsafe because of the possibility that future software updates may overwrite files you save there.)
  
• Links to OMAX Parts Online, and Technical Support Online: Links have been added to the "Help" menu to directly go to the Technical Support or Parts Online web sites.
• Added a "Zoom Extents" button to the lower tool-bar.  This is to make it more obvious that this command exists, and also to allow touch-screen users a better option for when the "Home" key is not accessible.
  
• New Tool Path font "Scritch": This font is designed for etching or scribing quickly with a continuous, cursive, style.
• Improved results of the Gear maker when making certain specification gears with more than 100 teeth.
  
• Shortcuts to opening tool paths: There are now more options for the right-click menu on the "Path" button to open both OMX and ORD files in the 3D Path Editor or Make.
  
• The interface to the 3rd party plug-in "Design-To-Cut®" has been improved to allow for a "quick preview".  Other minor improvements have also been made. For more information on Design-To-Cut, please visit the vendors web site, or consult the OMAX Interactive Reference.
  

Make

• New support for the OMAX A-Jet^tm 5 axis cutting head (X, Y, Z, Tilt, Rotation): Presently, the support covers the basic 5 axis motions within a tool path, as well as manual tilt controls, an automatic squaring wizard, tilt preview, and angle display.  The 3D Path Editor Utility can be used for simple tilt assignments to existing tool paths, and most 3rd party CAD/CAM and Nesting software that support programmable tilt operations can also be used for programming via a custom post processor.  Programming for the A-Jet is the same as for the Tilt-A-Jet, with the exception that extra care must be taken at leads and other special geometry points due to the typically larger tilt angles used.  For more information on the A-Jet accessory, visit omax.com, or read the OMAX Interactive Reference.
• Improvements to path previewing:
• Preview with Tilt: For A-Jet and Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines, it is now possible to preview tilting by pressing "T" on the keyboard, or choosing "Preview Showing Tilts..." from the right-click menu of the "Preview" button.  Hold down the SHIFT key at the start of the preview to exaggerate the angle shown.
• Preview now compensates for X and Y motions caused by the tilting process, resulting in an improved preview for Tilt-A-Jet machines.
• Hold down "SHIFT" key to double the scale when doing a velocity preview.
  
• Insert Pause Point command: Yet another way to pause the machine - right click on the "Change Path Setup" button, choose "Insert Pause Point Here", then click on your part where you wish to insert a pause point.   You can add as many pause points as you like.  Choose "Clear Pause Points", or re-compile the path to remove them.  When a path is running, and this point is encountered, the exact same behavior will occur as though someone pressed "pause" at that spot.   Note that pause points only pause when the path is running, not during dry runs or when using "backup" or "ahead" to move through the path. 
  
• Much improved support for "Purposeful Tilt" when using the Tilt-A-Jet: Although this feature is still not officially supported and advertised, the Tilt-A-Jet interpolation has been significantly upgraded for better support of "Purposeful Tilt" with better geometrical results in nearly all situations.
  
• Improved result for Tilt-A-Jet cutting of thin parts (Parts less than about 0.3” / 7.5mm thick):  As a general rule thin parts naturally exhibit much more taper than thicker parts.  Thin parts also cut significantly faster than thick parts.  The combination of fast cutting with large taper angles leads to very fast motions of the Tilt-A-Jet hardware as it attempts to make the desired edge.  These fast motions then translate into vibrations and witness marks, in particular at or near corners where there is a lot of change going on at once.
  
  To overcome this in the past, it had been necessary to either completely disable the Tilt-A-Jet when cutting thin parts, or to force the cutting to be significantly slower.  (And a warning was often displayed to the user to disable the Tilt-A-Jet completely in such conditions.)  This software update has features that enable more reliable cutting of thin materials with the Tilt-A-Jet enabled, and even goes so far as to allow for “purposeful tilt” in thin materials.  In order to accomplish this, there has been some slow down of the cutting speeds, in particular at corners, but the trade off is that you can now use the Tilt-A-Jet for parts that one would otherwise have to either completely disable the Tilt-A-Jet, or slow down the entire path for in order to minimize vibrations.
  
  The software has now been updated to better optimize this situation in terms of both providing for the desired zero-taper edge (or purposeful taper angle), and also allowing good cutting speeds.  It no longer is left up to the user to have to guess at the best solution.
  
  One concern, of course, is slightly slower cutting speeds – especially for thin parts with lots of corners.  If this is a concern, then one can simply disable the Tilt-A-Jet and run at full speed, but with the resulting taper.  If the proper edge angle is more important, then enable the Tilt-A-Jet, but at a slight sacrifice in speed.  Please keep in mind, though, that this slower part is a part that you may not have been able to successfully make prior to this release, without slowing down the entire path by faking the material thickness to be thicker than it really is or similar.  With this update, the slow downs are only applied where they are needed – at the corners.
  
  Note: This is a feature that can be turned off or adjusted.  For information on how to do this, contact Technical Support.
• Leads no longer grow or shrink if the lead has Z motions.  This helps prevent leads from gouging into slanted materials or shrinking to become super-steep.
  
• Updated the Generation III cutting model to enhance the accuracy for these orifice/mixing tube combinations: 0.014"/0.040", 0.011"/0.030", 0.011"/0.033", 0.013"/0.030". 
  
• Support for more machines: Added options for more standard machine sizes to the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog, in particular, MAXIEM models 1515 1530 2030 and 2040.  Note that MAXIEM machines typically run Intelli-MAX Standard - not Premium.  The standard MAXIEM controller hardware is not sufficient to run Intelli-MAX Premium.
• Make now automatically "maximizes" its window when first run, if the screen resolution is less than or equal to 1280x1024
• Drill: The maximum delays allowed for a drill pierce operations have been greatly increased, allowing drill times of up to one hour.
• Print Statistics Update: The color picker in the Print Statistics dialog has been updated to a version that has a few more color options, and the drop down list boxes have been extended so less scrolling is required to pick a font or color.
• User lock-outs: Additional user lock-out options have been added to the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog, allowing administrators to password protect yet more features.
• Updated "Test Pump" dialog
  
• Added ability to turn on the pump all by itself (Useful for adjusting the optional Adjustable Dump Orifice).
  
• Test Pump now handles negative delays for when the abrasive turns on: This allows Test Pump to be used for verifying settings made in the "Event and Relay Timing" dialog.  This is particularly useful for testing and calibrating low pressure setups where one might use a negative delay to allow the abrasive to enter the nozzle prior to the nozzle firing.  Note: The exact settings used are what a tool path would do when going from a traverse to a cutting Quality (not a traverse to an etch or scribe.)
  
• Motion recording tools: AKA "Bitstream recording" (An advanced feature) It is now possible to record a series of motions to a bitstream file for later playback.  By default, the recording tools are not available, but can be enabled via the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog.  Once enabled, one can press "Record", then perform a series of machine motions, including running tool paths.  These motions are then saved to a continuous bitstream file that can later be played back, or used to form even more complex paths, etc.   This allows for very complex motions to be created in a kind of "teach" mode, but also has some limitations.  For more information, consult the OMAX Interactive Reference or contact techsupport@omax.com.
• Disable warning messages: There is now an option in the Advanced / Administrator Setup to disable warnings in the Change Path Setup dialog.  If warnings are disabled, red "warnings disabled" will appear in the Change Path Setup dialog as a reminder.  In addition, when running in off-line mode (not connected to a machine), Make does not bother asking if you want to square the machine prior to opening some dialogs.
  
• Bitstream filtering: A feature that smoothes out tiny vibrations in some very rare motions by making clever manipulations to the motor timing.  This may result in slightly smoother part edges on some machines for certain setups, though it will slow down compiling (particularly when compiling Tilt-A-Jet or A-Jet paths).  This can be turned on or off via the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog.
  
• New "Recompile at separation speed": This will re-compile at separation speed, which is a speed at which the part should just barely separate, and is significantly faster than Quality of 1.  This feature is here for educational purposes only, and it is not intended that a user would cut at this speed because of the numerous opportunities it presents for making a part that will not actually separate from the host material.  When using this option, a message will remind the user of this.
  
• Updated Inquire Element: The Inquire Element command now shows tilt information for the start and end of the entity, if Make is configured with either a Tilt-A-Jet or A-Jet.
• Updated Inquire Motor Step: Inquiring of motor steps is now supported for Tilt-A-Jet users.
  
• MTConnect^®: The OMAX MTConnect "Adapter" is now included as part of the standard install, and configuration options are now available in the Advanced / Administrator Setup screen.  Consult the OMAX Interactive Reference for details on MTConnect support, or visit the MTConnect web site for an overview of MTConnect.
  
• Windows Messaging: The pump and nozzle setup is now broadcast via Windows Messaging along with all previous data supported (Windows Messaging is used to talk with 3rd party applications as well as MTConnect).
• Total Time Remaining Hint: Move the mouse over the "Time Remaining" indicator in the path running dialog, and it will show a hint with the total time remaining for all paths in the case where the path is set to run multiple times.
• Improved response to user when using Page Up and Page Down keys to move the Z axis.
  
• New progress bar: Loading and saving of bitstream files now has a progress bar.
• Links to OMAX Parts Online, and Technical Support Online: Links have been added to the "Help" menu to directly go to the Technical Support or Parts Online web sites.
• Updated the RTF "All Variables" report template to include all the variables supported (some were left out previously)
• Warn if not zero before clicking Begin: Added an option in the Advanced Administrator Setup screen to turn on a warning if the Z axis or Path Start Home do not display zero when the "Begin" button is pressed.  By default, this warning is turned OFF.
• Find slope errors easier in Make: If the maximum allowed Z slope is exceeded for a tool path, a white cross will appear over each offending entity, making it easier to spot problematic spots.
  
• Avoid communication conflicts: It is now impossible to open OMAX Make if OMAX Tester is running.  This prevents potential communication conflicts between the two applications and the OMAX USB Device that might otherwise occur in this unsupported condition.
  
• Improved machine history recording: Additional information regarding the cutting model version used, and version of Make running, as well as improved recording of potential signal noise is now recorded to the various Machine and part history files.

New: Intelli-ETCH^tm Utility

• OMAX Intelli-ETCH is a patent pending technology for etching artistic and other patterns using the abrasivejet.  A raster image (BMP, JPG, TIF, etc.) is provided as an input.  A compiler then compiles a tool path where the brightness of each pixel in the image represents a speed (and therefore depth) at which to etch.  The output directly launches OMAX Make, or can be saved as a "bitstream" file.  Although Intelli-ETCH demonstrates leading edge abrasivejet control, it is not intended for precision milling.
  
  
  
  
  Above: Example outputs form Intelli-ETCH.  (Butterfly and lizard original height maps courtesy of ArtCAM, and can be found in the ...\Samples\Intelli-ETCH\ folder.)
  

New: OMAX Touch

• OMAX Touch is a utility that provides an easy solution for finger-tip right-clicking, as well as a shortcut to the Windows on-screen keyboard.
• Once running, it can be configured to always run when Windows starts, if desired.
• Note: Additional touch-screen functionality has been added to all numeric inputs in the OMAX software.  Simply press and hold in any numeric edit box for a finger-friendly numeric keypad.
  

OMAX Interactive Reference

• Lots of new content has been added and updated, including:
  
• Information on all the new features
• More information in the "Developer's Guide"
• More information in the "Troubleshooting" section
• More 3rd party software descriptions
• Much more...

3D Path Editor

• Update to support the "A-Jet": Changed the default value for "Maximum tilt allowed" to 59.5 degrees, and changed the default tilt exaggeration value to default to "1".  Of course, both of these can be overridden to suit your preferences and equipment.
  
• Changed the "eye target" in the 3D Path editor, to allow the user to choose one of several different kinds of eye targets.
• Mirror Z command: flips all z coordinates to be negative their previous value.
• Auto Fix Selected Slopes: This command loops through selected data and ensures that all slopes within a specified slope or angle value.
• Arc Flip / Arc Flip Selected: Simply reverses the "Bow" of an entity or group of entities, similar to the same commands in Layout.
• Fit selected entities to reference contour: Divides entities into small sections, and then fits the Z heights to the topography of whatever 3D reference geometry is presently open.  Some base geometry objects (sphere and cylinder) are now in the "Z-3D" sample folders to provide useful basic geometry for this function.
  
• Support for "OBJ" files for reference geometry has been added.
  
• Scale reference geometry in X, Y, and Z: Instead of just a simple scale, one can squish reference geometry in all 3 axes independently, or all 3 locked together.
  
• Show / Configure Reference plane: A simple XY plane that can be moved in the Z direction to provide a visual reference.
• Show tilting at the top of the geometry: An option is now available to allow the "tilt" view to follow the Z contour, or show it on the Z=0 plane.  Showing it at the height provides a more realistic preview of the actual cut to be made.
  
• Pressing SHIFT+HOME now does a "Zoom Actual"
• Pressing CTRL+HOME now does a "Reset 3D and 2D Zooms to default" (a handy shortcut if you get lost).  This can also be done via a right-click option on the "Zoom Extents" button.
  
• Added a "<<" button to hide or reveal the menus on the left
  
• Added an "Open this in Make..." option to the "File" menu.
• "Potential Errors" now show up as a gray line, but with colored areas to indicate the Z height below, where previously the entire area was gray.  "Certain Errors" show up the same way as always, with both features as gray.  This makes it a little bit easier to tell the difference in the 3D editor, and it also makes it easier to ignore "potential" errors and still see the "Quality" assigned to such entities.

Other utilities and general changes

• Korean Language: In addition to English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Dutch, and Russian, the OMAX software is now available in Korean.
  
• Numeric Keypad for touch screens: For nearly any numeric input in the OMAX software, simply press and hold your finger (or mouse) on the edit box for a moment, and a numeric keypad will appear.  From this keypad, numbers or mathematical expressions can be entered, eliminating the need for a keyboard in many cases.
  
• Reverse Mouse Wheel Zoom Direction: There are now options within Layout, Make, and the 3D Path Editor to reverse the operation of the mouse wheel zooming.  This allows you to configure the software to behave similar to other software that may behave in this manner that you might already be used to.  (e.g.. SolidWorks and others.)
• Darker "grid" lines: The grid lines have been reduced by 20% to provide less visual disturbance on modern, brighter, LCD monitors.  Note that these settings can be overridden by defining a custom color scheme.  See "colors, customizing" in the OMAX Interactive Reference for details.
  
• In Layout and Make, the Array Nester now supports nesting of OMX files, while preserving much of the OMX data.  (Previously, the OMX would be down-converted to an ORD file, losing 3D information.) This new change allows nesting of files with 3D or tilt data.  Note: It is very important, and left up to the user, to ensure adequate spacing between parts when doing 3D motions in nests, such as tilting.
  
• Tech Support Reports: 
• A few more items are now reported in the "Create Report for Technical Support" feature, including reporting if running under Windows 7 correctly, and heap memory status.
  
• It is now possible to generate a report in the event that the tool path compiling thread is locked.
• Event logs now dump more information when events or errors occur, and 300 lines of history are recorded instead of previous 100
  
• Parametric Shapes:
• Added a right-click option for "Edit in Notepad++" to the right-click menu in the Parametric Shape dialog, to allow the popular utility Notepad++ to be easily used for editing parametric shapes.
• Added new constant "ElNo" that refers to the element number count as the parametric shape is loaded in.  (Useful for using as an index for trig functions, for example.)
  
• Improved Tilt-A-Jet Precision Calibration Wizard: The Tilt-A-Jet precision Calibration Wizard has been improved to be easier to use with less opportunity for error.
• Changes to OMAX Tester:
• Added new "USB Signal Delay Graph" that tracks the travel time of status signals across the USB status pipe.  This can be useful for diagnosing cabling issues that can be caused by noise or lack of bandwidth.
• Added a new menu item to display the decoded USB Card status as a message.
  
• New icon on the desktop: OMAX Parts Online - Links to the OMAX Parts Online web site.  (If you do not like this icon on your desktop, simply right-click on it and choose "delete")
• Numerous small tweaks and bug fixes, spelling corrections, etc., were made to all applications

Bug Fixes

• General reliability improvements for Make, Firmware, and USB Card:
  
  
• Added code in Make to insert a tiny delay between stopping and restarting a motion, in the event that the user is running on an extreme performance computer that might be able to send commands faster than they could be processed by the USB system.   While this does not fix any known bugs, it does add a measure of robustness for theoretical computers of the future.
  
• Added code in Make to wait up to 500 ms prior to starting a motion, in the event the previous motion was not completed yet.  This results in slightly improved response to the user because previously the motion would simply not occur.
• If a "Timed out waiting for card to start" message occurs, the OMAX USB Card is now automatically reset, to clear any potential garbage from its memory.  This prevents machine position loss in the rare cases where there is a small chance that this might otherwise occur.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make and Firmware that could cause corruption of the tool path in the event the "backup" and "ahead" buttons were clicked rapidly and repeatedly on some newer machines equipped with the 9 axis OMAX USB Card.
• Fixed a bug in the Firmware that could cause corruption of the tool path on some machines when wiggle piercing was used.  Note that because this bug is very rare, we are looking for feedback from customers who have experienced this problem in the past as to the quality of our fix.
• Device drivers are now digitally signed
  
• For details on changes to the firmware: consult the "Readme.txt" file in the "C:\Program Files\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_Layout_and_Make\Drivers\" folder. )
  

Fixed a bug in Make that would cause the Card deceleration values for X and Y to be used when jogging the rotary axis, instead of the correct rotary axis deceleration valued.

Fixed a bug that could cause some non-OMAX .ORD files created by OMAX competitors to import incorrectly, if the arc sweeps more than 180 degrees.

Fixed a bug in the array nester and percent utilization calculator where "areas" were reported incorrectly if any unit other than Inches was active.

Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor where the "Assign Tilt" buttons incorrectly had the "Z button" popup menu assigned to them.
Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor where if a mouse button were held down to zoom, and the mouse wheel was then used while the mouse button was down, that the editor may lock.

Fixed a bug that could cause the "Join" command in the 3D Path Editor to sometimes flip an arc around to the incorrect direction.
Removed a "beep" that could occur in the 3D Path Editor when pressing the "Esc" key to cancel a command.

The Gear Generator has been improved to allow for more combinations of gears to successfully generate.  In particular, it now handles many gears with higher teeth counts.
Fixed a bug in Make that could cause Rotary Axis velocities to be different than specified.

Fixed a bug in Make that could cause all rotation values in the "Locate Part" dialog to be incorrect if the rotation angles needed for correction are large and the machine is configured for non-square motor steps.
Fixed an obscure bug in Make that could cause a "Range Check Error" when doing a "Vector Move" in the event that the machine is configured to move at data rates faster than the USB card can handle them.

Removed the "Chrome" option in the Reference Geometry dialog of the 3D Path Editor because it is a frivolous feature that can cause an error message on some computers / video cards.

Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause improper True Type Font scaling when importing files from other CAD systems.
Fixed a bug in Make that could cause tilt in the incorrect direction if purposeful tilt is used with the Tilt-A-Jet, and the total amount of tilt exceeds the specifications of the Tilt-A-Jet.
Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor that could cause an incorrect tilt direction if the "Mirror X" or "Mirror Y" command was used on a path that contained purposeful tilt. 

Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an incorrect tilt direction if the "Flip" command in the Change Path Setup was used on a path that contained purposeful tilt.  (Note: Using "Flip" on 3D paths is generally not recommended because of the ambiguous definition as to what "Flip" may mean in a 3D context.  If you do use this command, do so with caution, and carefully preview your part, dry run, etc., prior to pressing "begin".)

Fixed a bug in Make that could cause X/Y correction to be in the wrong direction when non-standard stand-off values are used for A-Jet or Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines.
Fixed a bug in the "all variables" report templates that could cause a minor error message to display in Make when they are used.

Fixed a bug that could cause the Tilt-A-Jet to tilt in the wrong direction after a corner-pass when cutting a part with tilt assigned to the entities neighboring the corner.

Fixed a bug in Layout where the "Zero" snap would cause the "Rotate Copy" command to exit prematurely.
Fixed a bug in Layout where it was possible to create a tool path that would loop for infinity when using slits.
Fixed a cosmetic bug in the OMAX_SendMail.exe application that could cause the bottom buttons to shift after growing / shrinking the form.

Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause text to import as what would appear to be an "alien language" for a particular rare flavor of DXF file.

Fixed a bug in Make that could a Tilt-A-Jet to tilt in the opposite direction desired when the Generation 3 cutting model was used in conjunction with a thick part, and a specific small radius inside corner.

Fixed a bug that could cause 64 bit computers to automatically un-register the OMAX software in some cases.

Fixed the "7" and "8" characters in the MIK Goudy font (prior to fixing, the file for "7" was missing and the file for "8" generated a "7")

Fixed a bug in the "Import Settings" command in Make that would allow the settings for OMAX Watcher to be inappropriately copied to the new computer.
Fixed a bug in the "Inquire Motor Step" command in Make that would cause water-only cuts and slits to be considered traverses.
Fixed a bug in Make where a water-only Quality attached to a lead could confuse the interpolator.

Fixed a bug in Make's Inquire Motor Step command that would cause the Newton speed to be reported instead of the cutting speed when inquiring a water-only section of the path.

Fixed a bug in Make that could allow a jog command to stay active if the Windows Menu key was accidentally pressed while doing a keyboard jog.
Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause extremely high radius arcs to convert to a series of line segments when the "Auto-Path" command was used.

Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor where the "Save" command would behave as a "Save As" if the file name or path of the presently open file contained a period in it.
Fixed a bug in the DWG/DXF importer that was possibly only in previous Beta software, where font definitions would disappear during the conversion process (resulting in situations where the "Arial" font might be imported as "Times", for example.)

Fixed a bug in the expression evaluator where if a trig function evaluated to a negative value, and the previous operator was a negative sign, then in some cases the double negative would be incorrectly evaluated, corrupting the ability to properly evaluate some expressions.  The expression evaluator is used anywhere a numeric entry is asked for throughout all OMAX applications, though this bug would typically only be experienced in the "Function Plot" command, or when working with parametric OMX files.
Fixed a bug in Layout that would cause the "Limit" snap to incorrectly snap to (0,0) if all elements of the drawing are selected.
Fixed a bug in Layout where the "Perpendicular" snap was improperly enabled during the "copy" command, resulting in a goofy display issue if the snap were used. (Now it is properly disabled.)

Fixed a bug in Make that would allow the stack height calculator to run for water-only cutting paths, which would otherwise cause an infinite calculation because water-only cutting does not use a cutting model.  Now, the stack height calculator button is properly disabled for water-only paths.

Tilt-A-Jet bug fix: A bug was found in Make that could cause very slight inaccuracies in tilt when the Tilt-A-Jet is used at high angles.
Fixed a bug that could cause an exception error when importing a DXF or DWG file with a particular rare form of spline geometry in it.
Fixed a bug in Make where the hint shown in the edit boxes for the "Move to X/Y Coordinate" command would always show units in Inches, even if an alternate measurement system was active.
Fixed a bug in Make where external corners were sometimes using a slower corner model than necessary, resulting in slower parts than necessary.  This bug fix will improve the cutting speed on external corners where corner passing is not used, resulting in slightly faster parts.
Fixed a bug in Make where some "recompile with..." menu items would stay enabled when they should have been grayed out if a bitstream file was open.
Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an exception error under certain conditions when using the "smooth" command.
Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause invisible layers in a DXF/DWG file to show up when they should not.
Fixed a bug in Make that could cause a button on the Z numbers display panel to display the wrong size in a rare situation.
Fixed a bug in Layout that would incorrectly report the location of the automatic backup file in Vista and newer.
Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an extra line to be drawn when using the SHIFT key to constrain the Continuous Line Draw command.
Added two 3 second delays into the automatic squaring routine in Make used by the Tilt-A-Jet to ensure that each axis has adequate time to detect the hard stop has been hit.  This eliminates a very rare issue that could cause the nozzle to be out of square.
Fixed a bug in the "Rockbar Connect" font that placed the tool offset to the wrong side of the path for features of the capital "M" and "N" characters.
Fixed a bug in Layout and Make that could cause unit switching to not be recognized in the Dutch and Russian translations.
Fixed a bug in Make where a change to any of the 3 drill delays would not cause the "ok" button to enable or disable based on invalid data entered.

Version 14.0


Changes made since rev "13.0" of the software, which was released 2/27/2009.

Layout



• New command "Resize Selected Arcs to New Radius": This allows one to quickly resize multiple holes at once without the holes loosing their center points.
  
• Auto-Zoom on Re-size - When the Layout window is re-sized, a "zoom extents" now occurs.
• Updates to file filters
  
• Updated DXF / DWG filters for improved results on some rare flavors of DXF/DWG
  
• Improved results importing some PDF files
• When importing PDF files into the white color scheme, the PDF now imports slightly "whited out" in order to improve visibility of vector lines drawn on top.  (This adjustment can be overridden by the user in the "Adjust Image Colors" dialog.)
• When importing certain common file formats (DXF, DWG, PDF, SVG), it is now possible to use the "Esc" key to cancel the importing (or preview).
  
• When importing files, hold down the "Shift" key when pressing "Open" in the dialog to skip the preview / settings screen, and simply use the last options chosen.
• Several new raster file formats now supported for image tracing.
• Image tracing will now allow importing of HUGE raster images.  If an image is determined to be huge (meaning that the current computer won't display it using standard Windows image manipulating routines), then it is automatically shrunk down to a lower resolution (where previously it would simply give up).   Note that quite large images can typically be loaded without shrinking (depending on your hardware setup and such), so this option is rarely invoked.
  
• 3rd party plug-in support: Added support for an upcoming 3rd party plug-in.
  
• Added a "white level" adjuster in the form for adjusting the image for manual tracing.  This allows images to be "whited out" a little bit, making them nicer to work with when using the white color scheme in Layout.
• Added more info reported in the "Tech Support Report" feature.
• When using "Alt+Tab" to switch between windows, Layout now reports the file that is in use, making it easy to distinguish between multiple instances of Layout on the same computer.
  
• The "Open Path in Make" menu item in Layout now features an auto-close Make option, in the event Make is already open.
  
• Improved performance of routines throughout the software that use rotations (rotate commands, nester, etc.) slightly, resulting in marginal speed improvements in the nester, as well as functions such as "rotate" that use these shared routines.
• The Create Report for Technical Support feature now allows entering of multiple email addresses to "carbon copy" the report to when using the "email" feature.   It also reports a few new items useful to technical support for diagnosis.
• Layout no longer redraws the screen multiple times when it is first opened (a fix to a minor annoyance).
• Added compound keyboard combination for "Select Quality X", to select a Quality. For example, press "S", then "Q", then "3" on the keyboard to select all entities of Quality of 3.  Also added similar option for "Deselect".
  

Make



• Added option to the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog for "Reverse Rotary Direction", which can be used in the event the rotary axis is physically flipped around on the machine.
• Added 3 new materials to the database (A new form of Brass, Silver, and Niobium)
• The Generation 3 cutting model has been improved slightly to allow better predictions when nonstandard size mixing tubes are used. The following nozzle combinations are supported with different degrees of testing.  Other nozzle combinations are also supported with less testing and lower accuracy:
  
Jewel Size  Mixing Tube Diameter
(inches)    (inches)

0.014       0.030
0.010       0.021
0.014       0.042
0.015       0.048
0.020       0.042
0.007       0.015
0.015       0.042

In addition, numerous tweaks and minor adjustments have been made throughout to improve results based on customer feedback and additional testing.
Important Note: OMAX is always working to make the Generation 3 cutting model predict and compensate for jet behaviors, and create parts to the specified cutting qualities as accurately as possible.  We do this by continuously gathering data based on real world cutting, and adding this data into the model.  Sometimes we discover that new data causes the cutting to occur faster than previous iterations of our models, and sometimes we discover that new data causes the cutting to occur slower.  In either case this new and more accurate data is added to the model to allow the model to be more accurate. 

When you upgrade to newer versions of the software, expect to see these changes reflected in the cutting times of your parts, and the edge Quality - Your part will more accurately be the edge Quality specified.   If you find that the parts cut significantly slower than previously, you will find that the parts also are of better (and more accurate Quality of) surface finish.  If you need to fine-tune the cutting speeds in order to match times of previous software versions, it is recommended you adjust the machineability setting slightly.  For larger changes, pick a higher or lower cut Quality.  Using the Generation 2 cutting model also an option, but is not recommended due to it being less precise.

• Added more info reported in the "Tech Support Report" feature.
• Low pressure "Locating Beam": It is now possible with machines equipped with the "Pull to Open Valve" to use a low pressure stream of water as a locating device, via a new "Locating beam" feature.  This feature requires an OMAX pump with sufficient charge pressure, and a Pull to Open valve.
• Improved tool offsetting routines slightly for better results under some rare conditions, such as when working with tiny lead ins, or at some specific line to arc transitions.
• Modified corner passing slightly to be used slightly more often on arc corners.
• The Create Report for Technical Support feature now allows entering of multiple email addresses to "carbon copy" the report to when using the "email" feature.   It also reports a few new items useful to technical support for diagnosis.
• Added 38 new variables to the Custom Reports feature to to report statistics relating to what "Quality" the part is made in.  Of particular interest is [OMAX_PredominantQuality] which reports the cutting Quality of the largest length in the path, and [OMAX_PathQuality] which reports the overall Quality of the entire path, or "Various" if the path is a mix of qualities.
• Added a new report template "Basic" which is a bare minimum report useful for quoting.
  
• Updated the "Z" toolbars to move with the Make window when the Make window is moved.
• Bitstream Filter: OMAX’s unique machine control is capable of controlling the motion of the jet very precise with highest resolution. This gives the user a competitive advantage especially at complex and intricate cutting geometries by saving a significant amount of cutting time through smart machine control. However, there may be rare cases where the high dynamics of the cutting path can cause unexpected striations on the cutting edge. To avoid this effect a “Bitstream Filter” can be applied. It is disabled by default and can be enabled in the ‘MakePreferences.INI’ by setting "WidthOfBitstreamFilterX" to a recommended value of 200 (value 0 disables the filter).
  

Introducing: Intelli-MAX Standard



• Intelli-MAX Standard is a special version of the Intelli-MAX software branded specifically for the MAXIEM line of low-cost waterjet machines.  The Standard version of Intelli-MAX should be familiar to any OMAX user, but the Premium version for OMAX customers contains over 50 additional features (for example corner passing, Intelli-PIERCE, Tilt-A-Jet support, and higher resolution motion calculations). 
  
• As an OMAX customer, there is no compelling reason to use Intelli-MAX Standard, because the premium version that you already have contains all the features in Standard, and more.  
• MAXIEM machines can only run the Standard version of the software, and security measures are in place to prevent the Premium (OMAX) software from running on a MAXIEM machine.
  
• OMAX Routed Data (.ORD) files generated with either the Standard or Premium versions of the software will run on any OMAX or MAXIEM machine. 
  
• Note: Intelli-MAX Standard is not part of the standard OMAX Software setup program.  It is mentioned here only for the awareness of OMAX customers. 
  
     


Above: Maxiem Waterjet model 1530 running Intelli-MAX Standard (Click images for more info)


Installation program



• No need to un-install first: The installer now automatically updates on top of Version 13.0 or older without bothering the user to un-install the old version first.  (Though when installing over Beta versions, it may still prompt you to un-install first.)
• Faster install: Cleaned up some code internal to the installer to reduce the overhead doing multiple file copying, making the installation cleaner and faster.
• Reduced interaction: Only one elevation prompt when installing for Windows Vista or Windows 7, and fewer dialogs to deal with unnecessarily.
  
• Support for Windows 7: Some minor changes have been made to ensure best support when running on Windows 7.
  

OMAX Interactive Reference



• New content has been added, including:
  
• Drill and tap chart (with handy shortcut from the "Help" menu in Layout)
  
• Expanded troubleshooting section
  
• Other new and updated content.
  

Bug Fixes



• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause multiple copies of a part to be printed, if previously the user had chosen to print multiple copies of the statistics.
  
• Fixed an uninitialized variable that could surface as a bug in Make, but has not actually caused a problem to our knowledge.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause an "excess steps" error message to sometimes display for insignificant amounts of error if units are set to millimeters.
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines to tilt for the cut-off-saw if a taper offset is entered.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would cause SVG files to be incorrectly imported (ignored) based on settings used for previously importing a DXF or DWG file.
• Fixed a bug in Layout where using the "X" button to close the "pick offset side" dialog would cause the command to continue on as though the "ok" button were pressed instead of canceling the command.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would incorrectly print the "part history" when the user selected to print the "notes".
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause text and dimensioning to not import even when user specified to do so for some DXF/DWG files.
• Removed link to "About" box in the Cooler Control application, to prevent a potential lock-up that could otherwise occur.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause calculations for "Tilt-Forward" to occur even if a Tilt-A-Jet is not attached to the system or is disabled.  This bug was causing significant unnecessary slow downs for some parts on non-Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines.
  
• Fixed a bug in the tool path interpolator in Make that could cause a lock-up in the event "recompile pierces only" was done on a path that contained only a single pierce point without any cutting, and the drill accessory is enabled.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Tech Support Report generator that would cause two copies of the same report to be sent in emails.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout and Make that could cause a tool offset glitch in the case of very specific arc to line geometry, where the resulting offset line would exactly intersect a quadrant point of the original arc.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that would cause the last event triggered in the "test pump" form to run a second time, after it had completed, if the user first starts a test pump, then changes focus to another application, and then while the focus is elsewhere the test completes, then the user right-clicks on Windows Make in the task bar.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that cause the message "Stopped from baby-sit" to appear many times in a row if baby-sit is triggered during a jog, and the source of the trigger is not fixed.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause corner pass lengths to be the incorrect length (too short), resulting in "stuck corners".
  
• Fixed a glitch in the letter "D" of the Ekstrom Times Connect font.
• Fixed some typos in a few error messages in all applications
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout where the "View existing path" option was enabled for drawings that had no associated path.
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause a beep noise when it first starts
• Removed some files from the installer that would conflict with Windows Embedded.
  

Rev 13.0


Changes made since rev "12.0" of the software, which was released 12/10/2008.

International Languages



• New Russian and Dutch translations.  The official list of supported languages is now:
• English
• German
• French
• Italian
• Spanish
• Polish
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Russian (new!)
  
• Dutch (new!)
  
• These alternate languages may be downloaded from the OMAX Technical Support web site, or ordered on CD or DVD.

Layout



• Updates to File Importing
• Updated DXF / DWG filters for improved results on some rare flavors of DXF/DWG
  
• Various bug fixes (See bug fix list below)
• 12 new high-quality tool path fonts.  New fonts are: MIK Aladin stencil, MIK Aladin stick, MIK Brandy stencil, MIK Brandy stick, MIKCentury Bold stencil, MIKCentury Bold stick, MIKcbkugein stencil, MIKcbkugein stick, MIK Advert stencil, MIK Coney stencil, MIK Diner stencil, and MIKAlgerian stencil.fnt.
• Small arc highlighting in tool path: When previewing a completed tool path, areas of the path where an inside radius is less than the specified tool offset are now highlighted in Yellow because such areas can sometimes cause troubles in tool offsetting.  In most cases, such areas are automatically fixed by the tool offsetter, but they are nevertheless highlighted.  Older DOS users must not ignore these highlights because the DOS version of Make does not automatically fix such areas.  To force the highlights to appear, simply make a change to the tool offset.
  
• Added error detection, recovery, and reporting in the event a corrupt .ORD file was attempted to be loaded as part of a Tool Path Font.
  

Make




• Additional user lock-outs: Added options to lock out (password protect) more features of Make.  Specific items that are now password protect able (in addition to what is already there):  Zero Z home, Go To Z Home, Zero User Home Button, Zero Active Home Button, Go To User Home Button, Go To Active Home Button, Test Pump, Cut Off Saw.  These new lock-outs are not exposed in the user interface.  Contact techsupport@omax.com for details, if you need to lock these features out.  Other lock-out options are on the Advanced / Administrator Setup screen.
  
• Cutting model tweaks to "Tilt Forward" option: 
• Optimized some code to help prevent a small bowed cut-out that can occur when cutting tight inside corners with the Tilt-A-Jet and "Tilt Forward" enabled in thin materials.
• Slowed speed down slightly at cutting to lead-out transitions when "Tilt Forward" is enabled to be still faster than without tilting forward, but slower than in version 12.  This prevents an issue where under less than ideal cutting conditions the part might "stick" to the scrap at this spot.
• Changed the default value for the rotary axis steps per revolution to 10,000 instead of 500,000 in order to reflect the rotary axis hardware that OMAX actually sells.

Other utilities and general changes




• The OMAX Interactive Reference has been updated with new content and some minor changes.
  
• Jet Simulator utility now has a checkbox to enable an exaggerated version of the "tilt forward" feature.
• Added additional file description encoded inside of "OMAX Startup" so that its purpose is clear to system administrators who might wonder what it is for.  (OMAX Startup is a program that runs briefly when Windows first boots.  It sets a flag so that Make knows whether or not the computer has been rebooted, which is used to determine whether or not to nag the user to re-home the machine or Tilt-A-Jet accessory.  It is also used to launch the OMAX Cooler Control application.)
  
• All applications now report their "build numbers" in the about box.
  

Bug Fixes



• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause blemishes at corners with tiny entities if "tilt forward" is enabled.
  
• Fixed two bugs in Layout that could cause some files (Adobe Illustrator and PDF files, primarily) to not import properly in the event the computer is configured to use commas as the decimal character.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause and exception error on paths that end with a very tiny section of Heads Up Traverse.
• Fixed a bug in Make that could prevent the "key up" event to halt the "Jog" command in the event that the jogging was being done with the keyboard, while the operator simultaneously attempted to access right-click menus.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause OMAX Camera to have an exception error on the very first time it is run after a new install
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause display corruption of the "There are updates available" button in the About Box when running on some non-English installations.
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an exception error and prevent the "File / Import From Other CAD" option from working properly on Windows 2000 computers (Note that this bug was also fixed for version 12, but required downloading of a "patch" to fix.)
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause PDF files that do not contain any vector data to not import anything at all.
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an exception error when importing PDF files
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an error when using "Import from other CAD", if the file being imported contained Unicode characters, and the "Import text" or "import dimensioning" options were enabled.
  
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Camera that could cause a silent "range check error" when in the "Change Camera Resolution" dialog.
• Fixed the semicolon character in the "Stick" Tool Path Font to work correctly.
  

Rev 12.0

Changes made since rev "11.0" of the software, which was released 7/2/2007.

Layout



• Layout is now password protected using the same password as Make.  This is to ensure the competitive advantages offered by OMAX Layout are taken advantage of only by OMAX customers by preventing non-customers from using Layout to program non-OMAX machines.  If a valid password is not entered, then all saving, and copy to clipboard operations in Layout will be disabled.
• New and improved file filters:
  
• New ability to DIRECTLY import Adobe Illustrator *.AI files.  Adobe Illustrator is a very popular vector based illustration software package used for heavily for artistic purposes. OMAX Layout will now allow directly opening native Adobe Illustrator files by simply choosing "File / Import from other CAD".   Curves from Adobe Illustrator are then smoothly converted to arcs in OMAX Layout - eliminating messy issues relating to Adobe DXF file transfers, or the need for third party translation utilities.  Adobe Illustrator *.AI files are now a preferred method for bringing in data into OMAX Layout. 
  
• Tip: It is strongly recommended when importing files from Adobe Illustrator to use Adobe Illustrator (AI) files.  Do not use DXF files.  Although DXF files are a generally recommended solution for nearly all CAD files to be used on the OMAX, DXF files from Adobe Illustrator are very messy and awkward to use.
  
• Tip: Maximum support is provided for Adobe Illustrator files version "CS" or older.   Adobe Illustrator CS2 and CS3 files are only partly supported and may not import correctly.
  
• Corel Draw CMX and Encapsulated Post Script (EPS) Support: It is now possible to import most EPS files and a few simple PS (Post Script) files, as well as most Corel Draw CMX files..
• Tip: When working with Corel Draw, use SVG files or CMX files, as the DXF files from Corel Draw tend to be quite messy.
  
• New ability to import vector data from "SVG" file formats: SVG files are "Scalable Vector Graphics" files that are typically output by a wide variety of vector based illustration tools such as Adobe Illustrator, and many others typically used in artistic applications.  For more information on SVG files, see: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG
• Updated DXF and DWG file filters: The latest filters support:
• New support for up to AutoCAD version 2009
  
• Improved AutoCAD 2007 importing
• Improved support for importing text from Adobe Illustrator DXF / DWG files (Though it is recommended to use AI or SVG files when working with Adobe files)
  
• If a DXF or DWG file has more than one layout in it, then the "Layouts" combobox will slowly blink, drawing attention to itself.
• The slider for "Spline conversion tolerance" now allows for a wider range of tolerance values.
• Improved spline conversions to give better results on some rare files
  
• Updated filters to support yet more "flavors" of DXF / DWG
• Updated PDF file filters: PDF file filters now "decompose" text objects into lines and arcs.
  
• The file extension "*.cnc" is now recognized as a valid file format for reverse posting g-code files (though not all "flavors" of .cnc files are supported).
  
• Tip: For a complete list of file formats supported by the OMAX Software, and notes on each, type "File formats supported" into the index of the OMAX Interactive Reference.
• Measure in "Pixels": If there is an image showing in the background of Layout for Image Tracing, then the "Measure" command will show the length of measurement in the title bar of the results window in units of "Pixels".   This is handy for calculating "Pixels / inch" of a photograph that has a feature of a known dimension in it - useful to know when reverse engineering photographed parts, lining up tool paths with the grains of marble, etc.
  
• Render as Solid
  
• Improved the resolution of the "Render as Solid" command, allowing it to catch finer details (though at a slight expense in calculation speed, and memory used.) Tip: Hold down the "Shift" key when clicking on "Render as Solid" for a quick render (at low resolution), or right-click for an options menu.
  
• The right-click option to save to file now saves a file that is the same size as the rendering window (So stretch the window to the size you want prior to rendering.)
•   Calculate Percent Utilization: A button for this has been added next to the "Render as Solid" button in both Layout and Make to calculate what portion of a material is utilized by the part.
  
• Improved Tool Offsetting: A few "pre-filters" have been added to the tool offsetting routines to remove some common geometry problems that otherwise cause tool offset errors.   In particular, tiny arcs in inside corners are now tolerated a little bit better, as are tiny round holes.  It is still advised to avoid tiny arcs (or tiny entities in general) at inside corners, but if you forget, chances are it will now offset fine anyway.
• Added "Shift+B" for "Bolt Circle" keyboard equivalent.  Also added "Generate Standard Shape" to the list of commands that hot-keys can be assigned to (which runs the bolt circle command.)
• 18 new high-quality tool path fonts: Seventeen of these fonts came from an OMAX customer.  Note that you can make your own tool path fonts, and if they are of high-quality then OMAX would like to consider purchasing them from you to then include in future software updates.  If this is of interest to you, be sure to read the topics "Creating your own fonts for Layout", and "Checklist for submitting fonts to OMAX" in the OMAX Interactive Reference.
• Added new sample files folder "Machine_Layouts" which includes 1:1 scale DXF drawings of most OMAX machines and large accessories.  These can then be used for floor planning purposes when planning to install or move OMAX machines.  Tip: Use the "Select Quality =" command to easily move just the portions of the drawing you need.
  
• Add spaces between characters in a tool path font: A right-click menu item has been added to the "ABCD" button in the Tool Path Text dialog to automatically add spaces between the characters.  This makes it quick and easy to build a DXF file of all the letters in a tool path font, which is useful should you wish to edit the tool path font, or use it as a starting point for a new font.  Simply click on the "ABCD" button, then right click on it to add the spaces.
• Added "permanent" shortcuts to common locations for storing OMAX files the shortcut popup menu in the File/Open dialog.   Right-click on the folder list to access these.  Note that the "Public" and "downloads" folder shortcuts only show up if these folders are defined (typically in Windows Vista)

Make




• New Generation 3 Cutting Model: The three generations are defined as follows:
  
  
• Generation 1 – The cutting model used in early versions of the OMAX software for DOS. This cutting model was based on Dr. Jay Zeng’s doctoral thesis at the University of Rhode Island.
• Generation 2 –  A modification of the above, with significant enhancements to support a wider range of pump, nozzle, and material combinations, as well as extended to support significant process improvements including improved corner control, corner passing, taper prediction and compensation, and fast piercing. This cutting model was introduced with revision “T” of the OMAX software released 1/21/2002
  
• Generation 3 –  A completely new model created from scratch with significant improvements, as outlined below.
  
Some key features of the new Generation 3 Cutting Model include: 

• Precision coverage of a wider range of thickness and types of materials
• Precision coverage of a wider range of pump and nozzle combinations (in particular it improves support for the OMAX “stone” nozzles, high power pump and nozzle combinations, and any further additions of the OMAX nozzle family.)
• Improved prediction of taper, jet lag, kerf growth, and other jet behaviors
• Support for separate modeling for different categories of materials (So “stone” can be treated differently than “metal”, etc.), which allows for greater precision in modeling the process.
• Much improved ability to expand and refine as more testing is done in the future (This is a model that easily and quickly adapts to new applications and new process capabilities.)
• Machineabilities for more materials now included with the software
  
• For Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines:
• The jet now "tilts forward" in the cutting direction to improve speed and precision at corners and arcs, as well as improving edge finish (or cutting speed) along straight sections.
• Improvements have been made in arc-to-arc and arc-to-line transitions, reducing “boogers” at such points in thick materials.
• Improvements have been made to eliminate "kick back" from ricocheting after corner passing in thick materials.
• Because of the above and other changes, Tilt-A-Jet users will see significant improvements in cutting speeds for most parts.
  
• The old cutting model (Generation 2) can still be used via a setting in the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog. The version 2 model has also been updated with minor changes to include better support for additional nozzle combinations, but otherwise stays the same. In particular, the older model has been updated to improve results with 0.015/0.048" and 0.014/0.042" jewel / mixing tube combinations.
  
• Additional configurations for the advanced user are exposed in the "Cutting Model" tab of the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog.  Some of these configuration settings work for both Generation 2 and 3, and some are unique to 3.
  
In order to take advantage of the Generation 3 cutting models, there have been some significant changes to the user interface of OMAX Make:

• The materials database has been re-worked to organize the materials it contains into different “categories”. This allows the cutting model to treat each category of material differently and be significantly more precise. This precision then translates into better speed for some materials, and better precision for others. Because the cutting model now needs to know this category, the user interface has changed to ask for it.
  
• It is now much easier to add and remove materials from the database, and there is no risk of adding a material to the database, and having OMAX overwrite it in the future. It is also much easier to share custom materials with other OMAX users or machines. This is because instead of a single file that contains all the materials that is difficult to edit and expand, each material is now stored in its own file that is easy to copy and share.
  
• To copy custom materials to another computer, simply copy the material files into the appropriate folder. OMAX materials are stored in a different folder than user materials, so there is no risk at all of OMAX materials overwriting or erasing user materials when the software is updated later on.  To easily browse to the Materials Folder using Windows, simply choose "Explore Materials Folder" from the materials menu in Make.  Be sure to copy all "user" materials to and from the "user" folder.
  
• “Legacy” custom materials from prior to release 12.0 of the OMAX software are automatically transferred over to the new system, and categorized in the material category “legacy”. Note that these materials are missing important information about what “category” they belong in; therefore, the OMAX has to make safe assumptions about these materials, and not all benefits of the new cutting model will be utilized when selecting materials from this list. However, it is easy (and recommended) to edit these materials and move them into specific categories for better performance – especially in future software versions.
  
• Because the material list can become quite long, it is possible to hide infrequently used categories of materials. For example, if one does mostly metal work, and rarely stone work, it is possible to easily hide stone materials from displaying in the list. They can be re-displayed later when needed.
• An additional check-box has been added to the "Cutting Model Setup" dialog to enable or disable the Tilt-Forward feature. (See important note below on why one might wish to do this.)
  
Important note to Tilt-A-Jet users:

The Generation 3 cutting models provide a tremendous speed increase for many parts, due to the introduction of the "tilt forward" feature.   Unfortunately, this feature requires precision calibration of the Tilt-A-Jet hardware - beyond the precision as may have been previously shipped from the factory for older Tilt-A-Jets.  If the Tilt-A-Jet is not precisely calibrated, it is likely that the "tilt forward" feature will result in inaccurate parts due to X/Y shifting at the extreme tilt angles used in many cases.  Because of this possibility, the "Tilt Forward" feature is disabled by default when upgrading the software. This feature can be easily enabled from within the "Cutting Model Setup" dialog (the same dialog where corner passing and such can be enabled / disabled.)   OMAX will be offering a precision calibration service as well as the option to purchase the necessary equipment for those who prefer to do this service themselves.  Contact OMAX Technical support (techsupport@omax.com) for details.


FAQ’s:

• Q: I went to manually enter in a machineability for a material, but the machineability edit box was grayed out and it would not let me. Why is this, and what do I do?
  
• A: The new cutting model needs to know what “category’ of material this machineability is to be classified under. Choose the option in blue text in the appropriate category for your material, and it will then allow you to manually enter in a machineability.
  
• Q: I notice when compiling tool paths that there is a slight pause at the start of compiling when using the Generation 3 models, what's with that?
  
• A: The Generation 3 cutting model recalculates some data at the start of compiling. This takes a fixed amount of time, regardless of the tool path.
  
• Q: I notice that “Separation Speed” is now reported. How is that different than “Quality of 1”?
  
• A: Separation speed is the speed required to separate the material under ideal conditions (perfect nozzle, etc.) Quality of 1 is slowed down to ensure part separation in slightly less than ideal situations.
  
• Q: Can I use the older Generation 2 cutting models if I want to?
  
• A: Yes. It is possible to choose between “Generation 3” and “Generation 2” cutting models in the “Advanced / Administrator” setup. Note that the Generation 3 cutting models are typically more accurate than the Generation 2 cutting models, especially for nozzle combinations other than 14/30 (Standard Maxjet4 and Maxjet5) and 10/21 (Minijet).
  
• Q: What kind of speed-up (or slow down) can I expect when using the Generation 3 cutting model, when compared with the Generation 2 model?
  
• A: Since the new cutting model allows for better prediction of tool behaviors, in general parts will cut quicker, but this is not true for all parts. Actual part cycle times will vary slightly when compared to the same part cut with the Generation 2 cutting model. Some parts may be slightly slower, and some parts may be faster, however for all parts, the cutting model will more accurately produce the part to the desired “Quality”. For thick parts with many inside corners and small arcs, a speed-up is likely. Tilt-A-Jet users will also see significant speed up improvements for corners and straight line cutting, due to the new "tilt forward" feature.  Compiling of the tool path will take slightly longer due to a few seconds required to initialize the cutting model.
  
• Q: What kind of change in part precision can I expect when using the Generation 3 cutting model, when compared with the Generation 2 model?
  
• A: For those following precision practices, part precision will typically be better, especially at arc-arc or arc-line transition points. Surface quality may appear to be “upgraded” slightly in some cases. However, for most users, the precision may not be noticeably different, except in cases where the Generation 2 model was significantly lacking, for example, when nozzle combinations other than 14/30 and 10/21 are used.
  
• Q: What is the range of parameters that the Generation 3 cutting model can handle, and how does that compare with Generation 2?
  
• A: Compared with Generation 2, the boundaries of parameters that the Generation 3 cutting model can handle are always on the move (expanding). Currently it supports the OMAX standard nozzles (14/30 and 10/21) mostly reliably and the newly released nozzles (14/42, 15/48, 20/42) moderately. The current ranges of the other parameters are: pressure 20 – 60 KSI, material thickness 0-6 inches, abrasive mesh 50-220 (limited by nozzle size), and abrasive flow rate 0.1-3 lb/min (limited by nozzle size). Using the model outside these current ranges may generate less than ideal predictions, similar to the Generation 2 model. However feedback of new applications and demands from the users will drive the expansion of these boundaries continuously.
  
• Q: Now that I am using the new system, I would like to copy all the custom materials I have made from my OMAX machine to my office PC. What do I copy?
  
• A: Each material is saved as its own file in the ..\Materials\User\ folder. Simply copy the materials from this location on your OMAX machine to the same location on your office PC. The next time you run OMAX Make, the materials will be automatically detected and added to the list you can choose from. Note that the “Materials” folder is typically in your C:\Program Files\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_Layout_and_Make\Materials\ on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. However, the location is in the C:\Users\Public\OMAX_Corporation\AllUserData\Materials\ Folder under Windows Vista.  To easily browse to the Materials Folder using Windows, simply choose "Explore Materials Folder" from the materials menu in Make.  Be sure to copy all "user" materials to and from the "..materials\user" folder, and do not use the "..materials\OMAX" folder (The "..materials\OMAX" folder is used by Make exclusively, and is frequently erased and re-created.)
• Q: I installed the software on my Tilt-A-Jet equipped machine, and seem to be getting pretty good precision on my parts.  Should I still perform the precision calibration?
• A: If the part precision is perfectly acceptable to you, then there is no need for additional calibration.  However, additional calibration may be useful, especially if you do precision work that is beyond the advertised specifications for the machine.  Calibration may be the difference between "good parts" and "great parts", though there is some risk of performing the service on an already perfect Tilt-A-Jet.
  
• Rotary axis support: Basic support for jogging and indexing a rotary axis is now part of the software.  Contact OMAX for information on hardware availability.
  
• Improved results in thin materials with Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines: Some improvements have been made to improve the results of thin material cutting with the Tilt-A-Jet.
• Corner passing is now disabled for features that exceed 60 inches/minute when the Tilt-A-Jet is enabled.   This prevents unnecessary slow-down and vibration for many parts - especially when cutting thin or soft materials.
  
• Improved machineability chart: The machineability chart is now better looking, and provides the option to show pierceability values in the same chart.
  
• Faster collision checking: Some changes were made to speed up line to line collision checking, which in turn speeds up calculation of corner passing and lead optimizations, nesting, and other areas of the software that do collision checking.
• Optimized the lead in calculations to take less time when auto-growing lead ins for the fastest pierce.  This improves calculation performance slightly when working with huge tool paths with many pierces.
  
• Specify material for paths with no cutting: It is now possible to specify the material and thickness for tool paths that do not contain any cutting entities, but do contain leads.  This is useful when making paths that are purely pierce points - for example fine hole drilling.
  
• Improved corner passing: Some tolerances were adjusted to allow for corner passing on some corners that previously would not, resulting in a small speed-up for some parts.
  
• Improvements to "Homing"
  
• Machine homes are now saved at the moment the "begin" button is pressed, to ensure that the Path Start Home is preserved in the event of a power failure during the cutting process.
  
• History files now record "auto-home" events.  This helps diagnose home related problems related to users not homing their machines after machine power downs.
• A 2 second delay has been added to the homing process after a baby-sit is triggered, to prevent users who "cheat" the homing process by pressing "pause" from accidentally causing portions of the homing process to be skipped, resulting in homes being lost by a tiny amount.  Now, the homes will only be (potentially) inaccurate if the button is held down for longer than 2 seconds.
  
• Improvements to Tilt-A-Jet Squaring:
  
• Make will now ask to auto-square the Tilt-A-Jet after the operator disables the Tilt-A-Jet in the "Change Path Setup" dialog, in the event that the nozzle might have been left in a tilted condition previously.  This helps prevent the possibility of cutting a part with the Tilt-A-Jet, stopping it in the middle, with the head tilted, turning off the Tilt-A-Jet, then cutting a new part with it left tilted by mistake.
• Tilt-A-Jet squaring is now a LOT faster
• Soft limits: On machines that "home" in the +X or +Y directions (or both), it is now allowed to enter in a negative distance when setting up soft limits by corner and size.  (Making it more convenient to set the soft limits immediately after homing on machines such as the Fabricator, which home in the +X direction.).   Note that setting the soft limits after homing is typically unnecessary, as the homing process itself automatically restores soft limits.  The only reason to reset the soft limits after homing are: 1 - if the soft limits were corrupted by setting them when machine had no established home position, 2 - if the soft limits had never been set before, or 3 - if the location of the absolute home is being moved elsewhere for some reason.
  
• Improved response to user when "jogging" and "Bumping" slightly.
  
• Statistics display now shows "Separation Speed", which is the fastest speed cutting that is possible to still separate the material.  This speed is significantly faster than even a Quality of 1 speed, but carries the very likely risk of not cutting all of the way through.  (Which is why Quality of 1 is purposely slowed down, and why "separation speed" is not actually used for cutting purposes.)
  
• The Statistics box will now scroll in response to the mouse wheel.
• Moved the setting for "Stall Distance" from the "Motion Preference" dialog to the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog, because this setting is rarely changed, and is confusing to users.
• "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog changes:
  
• Added option for an administrator to password protect OMAX Make from running at all (in addition to the other individual password protection options.)
• Rearranged some of the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog menus.
• Added option to change the number of significant digits displayed in the coordinate display ("Green Numbers").  Note that this will allow setting more digits than will fit in the display, so it is up to the user to be reasonable with this.
  
• Added a check-box that enables a button in the "Change Path Setup" dialog that allows direct access to the "OMAX Machine Setup" dialog (so users can change pump and nozzle setup, timing, etc., from within the "Change Path Setup" dialog.)
• Added new settings relating to the Generation 3 Cutting Model.
• Added adjuster sliders to fine-tune the deceleration of the Z axis while jogging to the "Speed Limits & Homing" page.  These sliders affect how hard the Z axis comes to a stop when jogging using the mouse or keyboard.
  
• Improved Bitstream "BTS file" loading, saving, running, and previewing: (Advanced hidden feature) Many changes have been made to make it easier for advanced users to use BTS files for advanced applications. BTS files allow total control of the motion and outputs of the machine at an extremely fine spatial and temporal resolution, but at the same time are often quite difficult to create outside of Make.  Typically they are created for you automatically when a tool path file is "compiled" in Make, but they can also be made by other means.  Bitstream files for the current tool path are also included as part of Technical Support Reports, for shorter paths.  New bitstream support includes:
  
• When BTS files are loaded statistics are displayed about the path
• The "color preview" function now properly displays colors as a function of speed. 
  
• The "Zoom Extents" command now properly zooms to the extents of the motion.
• The "Inquire Motor Step" command also now works on BTS files.
• If an error is detected in a BTS file during loading, then the Frame Number and approximate line number of the error are shown in the error message.
• If an existing tool path is already in memory (whether loaded from a previous BTS file, or a compiled tool path), then there is an option to append the new BTS file to the end of the currently loaded BTS file.  This is a handy feature for "stitching" two BTS files into a single file, and the resulting bitstream can be re-saved out as a new BTS file, if desired. (allowing the creation of fairly complex custom paths.)
  
• It is now possible to auto-start Make with a bitstream file for the purpose of automatic reporting
• It is now possible to auto-start Make with a bitstream file for the purpose of automatically running the machine.
• Saving of BTS files has been added as a right-click option to some motion commands.
• Bitstream files now properly resume the jet state when resuming after being paused.
• Bitstream files now properly handle accelerations when resuming after being paused
  
• BTS file support is a feature that is normally hidden from the user.  For more information on the BTS file and what it can do for you, contact techsupport@omax.com.
• Improvements to the Transfer Settings feature: The Transfer Settings command has been moved from the "Setup / Advanced" menu back one level to the base of the "setup" menu, and has been renamed to "Transfer / Backup Settings" to indicate that it is also useful for backing up critical settings.  In addition, it is now possible to save the settings as a .zip file with a name and location of your choosing.   One result of these changes is it is now very easy to run quotes on an off-line computer for several different OMAX machines configured with different configurations (Simply "import" the setup from the machine you need to quote from.)
• Registration password information is no longer stored in "MakePreferences.ini".  This makes it easier to copy MakePreferences from one computer to another without "un-registering" the software by mistake.  This is useful, for example, in the case where job quoting for several differently configured OMAX machines is done on an office PC.  Simply copy over the MakePreferences.ini for the machine to quote for, and then run OMAX Make.  (A simple .BAT file can be created to automate this process, if desired - or, of course, simply use the above mentioned "Transfer Settings" option in Make.)
•   Improvements to "Custom Reports":
  
• Many new variables have been added  For example, variables have been added to expose the linear feed rates for the various Qualities, calculated water flow rate, calculated horsepower at the nozzle, separation speed, material category, and more.  See either the "All_Variables_Spreadsheet.xml" or the "All_Variables.rtf" OMAX Template file for a list of all the existing and new variables.
• Added a new OMAX Report Template for "Linear Feed Rate Report", which produces a document similar to the report generated by the OMAX Abrasivejet Feed Rate Calculator.  (Note that the OMAX Abrasivejet Feed Rate Calculator" has been discontinued.)
• Custom Reports can now be automatically generated via 3rd party applications.  For example, one can write software to launch Make, compile a tool path, generate a report, and then exit.  This is useful for automated software testing, batch processing of OMAX files for quoting purposes, and other automation tasks.  Note that a special password is needed in order to enable this feature.  (email techsupport@omax.com for details on interfacing.)
• Added ability for custom reports to take a screen-shot when running in automated mode.
  
• Custom reports can now grab data directly from INI files using the syntax  [OMAX_ReadINI_"IniFileName.ini"_Section_Identifier], where "IniFileName.ini" is the name of the INI file to read from (for example, "MakePreferences.INI"), "Section", and "Identifier" indicate the section and variable name to read.   This is useful to read just about any setting one might need for a custom report that is not otherwise exposed specifically.
  
• Some errors (errors in interpolation) are now exposed to custom reports.  (Used mostly for in-house automated testing.)
• A progress bar now entertains the user while larger reports are generated.
• Improvements have been made to speed up report generation - in some cases very significantly
• Inquire Motor Step command now displays the time from the start of the path, to the point inquired.  This can be used, for example, to determine the time between two arbitrary points in the tool path.
• Render as Solid
  
• Greatly improved the resolution of the "Render as Solid" command, allowing it to catch finer details (though at a slight expense in calculation speed, and memory used.) Tip: Hold down the "Shift" key when clicking on "Render as Solid" for a quick render (at lower resolution.)
• The right-click option to save to file now saves a file that is the same size as the rendering window (So stretch the window to the size you want prior to rendering.)
  
• Calculate Percent Utilization: A button for this has been added next to the "Render as Solid" button in both Layout and Make.
• Comments in OMX and BTS files are designated by the "//" characters.  In previous versions of the OMAX software, these two characters would have to be at the start of a line in the file.  Now, they can also occur at the end of a line in the file, to add comments to the right of whatever data is on the line.
• Improved inter-process communication to 3rd party applications: OMAX Make "broadcasts" it's status via Windows Messaging to any applications that care to listen.  This might be used, for example, for machine tool monitoring or control purposes via custom software (or MTConnect, etc).  New to this release are some improvements in the efficiency of this process, as well as some new configuration options, and a whole bunch of new data that gets sent.   Contact techsupport@omax.com for details.
  
• Improved Tool Offsetting: A few "pre-filters" have been added to the tool offsetting routines to remove some common geometries that otherwise cause tool offset errors.   In particular, tiny arcs in inside corners are now tolerated a little bit better, as are tiny round holes.  It is still advised to avoid tiny arcs at inside corners, but if you forget, chances are it will offset fine anyway.  It is also now allowed to enter in Tool Offset values that are smaller than the smallest inside corner radius.  If such an offset is entered, the offset edit box will turn yellow as a warning (as it always had), but the "ok" button will be enabled allowing the user to compile anyway.  As always, preview the tool path carefully before pressing "begin", but be especially vigilant when compiling paths where the offset edit box is yellow, since not all possible errors are detected or corrected.
  
• Removed ability to specify material to cut with the "cut off saw".  Cut off saw now simply uses whatever material is currently loaded for the current part.  (This functionality has been removed with the introduction of the Generation 3 cutting models, but will may be restored in a future software version, depending on customer feedback.)
• Removed a minor annoyance to Tilt-A-Jet users: Make no longer asks the user to square the Tilt-A-Jet prior to running the cut-off-saw feature, if the head is already square.
• Added warning if total tilt angle commanded to the Tilt-A-Jet is outside of limits: If the combined tilting of taper offset, purposefully programmed in tilt, and forward tilting for a path exceeds the maximum tilt angle allowed by the Tilt-A-Jet hardware for at least one spot in this path, then a warning is displayed to the user.
• Improvement to lead outs when the Tilt-A-Jet is enabled: The interpolator and tool offsetter now turn off the jet sooner at lead outs in order to save time on thick parts, and reduce blemishes caused by tilting or dwelling at lead out locations.
  
• Specify plumbing resistance for high pressure tubing:  Advanced users can now specify whether the pressure entered into Make is measured at the nozzle, or at the pump (or some other location in the plumbing system).   If measured at the pump, then an option for a "Resistance Factor" can be entered in, so that Make knows how to properly calculate the pressure loss between the pump and nozzle, regardless of the kind of nozzle attached.  By using "Resistance Factor", it is possible to accurately tell Make the exact pressure at the nozzle, even when measuring the pressure at the pump with long tubing that causes pressure drop.  Using a "Resistance Factor" instead of a simple pressure offset, enables this feature to automatically work regardless of the orifice size of the nozzle.  This is set in the "Advanced / Administrator Setup", and information on how to calculate or measure the resistance factor is provided in the help screens.  This feature is most important for those with larger machines with long high pressure tubing where pressure loss can be significant.  Consult the OMAX Interactive Reference for suggested values for various machine configurations.
  
• Added support for a new machine types "80-X".  This is a new large size OMAX machine using traction drive technology, and can be extended to custom lengths in 2 meter increments.
• Added "permanent" shortcuts to common locations for storing OMAX files the shortcut popup menu in the Change Path Setup dialog.   Right-click on the folder list to access these.  Note that the "Public" and "downloads" folder shortcuts only show up if these folders are defined (typically in Windows Vista)
  
• Added code to prevent accidentally loading non-tool path files into Make by using "Open With" in Explorer, or similar.  (In other words, if a file type of either OMX, ORD, or BTS is passed to Make, it will open, but other file types will generate an error message.  Previously, other file types would open, but open as a useless mess.)
• Power management features (hibernate, sleep, etc.) are now disabled whenever Make is running, if Make is configured as an actual machine tool.  This prevents power management features from stopping USB communication to the motors, and eliminates the need to custom configure each computer to disable power management functionality.
• New Diagnostic Tools (typically used by OMAX Technical Support and Development):
  
• Added features to detect delays on the USB line (which can be an indicator of a noisy signal) and log them the error log history file.  Line is checked for delays only at certain events, such as the start of a jog or tool path.  The error log history file is included in Tech Support Reports.
  
• Added a graph of detected potential USB noise that appears when the hidden debug menu is visible.  (Used by OMAX support for diagnostic purposes.)
  
• Added tool path verification, where the calculated tool path is compared with the original vector data, and if the starting point and ending point of the two data sets don't agree, an error is generated and logged to the history file.  If the error is more than 0.005" (0.127 mm), then an error is shown to the operator.  Also, if either of the tilt axes do not return to exactly zero, then an error is recorded to the history file, and if the error is more than two motor steps (approximately 0.05 degrees), it is displayed to the operator.  This verification always runs on all tool paths, when the software is configured as an actual OMAX machine tool.
• Improved the Axis Vs. Time Viewer (a utility supplied in the applications folder), to allow for better support of viewing of large tool paths (paths larger than 1,000,000 commands in size), as well as mouse-wheel zooming.
• Improved exception handling of the tool path interpolator so that it reports errors that might otherwise cause the compiling process to lock up.
• Technical Support Reports now include additional information about USB such as the USB Device Descriptor and Product ID, as well as more information on concurrently running processes, and more.
  
• OMAX Tester now reports the USB Product ID in plain sight at the bottom of the window.
  
• The user can now prevent Make from automatically closing at the end of automatic reporting if the SHIFT and CTRL keys are held down simultaneously.  This is to allow access to Make for purposes such as generating Technical Support Reports, in the event that the automatic reporting is stopped by an error message or similar.
• It is possible to run a 3D preview of a tool path using the a hidden menu item in the 3D Path Editor and / or a debug menu item in Make.
  
• Contact techsupport@omax.com if you need information on any of these.
  

3D Path Editor Utility



• Added a new display option for "'Show tilts only for entities that have tilts", which is now the default display option.
• Added a check box for "Modify connected entities to match angles" to the tilt angle specification form.  If this box is checked, then ending angle of the previous entity and the starting angle of the next entity in the tool path will be set to be equal to the angle of the entities they touch.   This feature is mostly useful as a shortcut for blending two tangent entities together, but it is not recommended to use this for non tangent connections.
  
• When a tool path is opened that contains tilt information, but the display of tilt angles is not enabled in the viewer, then the 3D Path Editor will ask if you want to enable display of tilting information.
• Important: "Purposeful Tilt" is a feature that is not yet officially supported.  Because of the complexities involved with the cutting model and hardware, and the extra difficulty involved in programming for it, it is advised that you do test cuts to verify the path prior to running on expensive material.  OMAX does not yet advertise machines to have this capability.  At this point, please consider this to be a bonus feature to use at your own risk.  Check www.omax.com/support for updates.
  

Abrasivejet Feed Rate Calculator (Discontinued)



• The Abrasivejet Feed Rate Calculator has been discontinued.  Nearly all of it's functionality is available within OMAX Make, making the feed rate calculator redundant.   For reports similar to those made by the calculator, use the custom report template "Linear Feed Rate Report" in Make.

OMAX Video Player (Discontinued)



• The OMAX Video Player (and associated media) is no longer included on software CD's or DVD's and has been discontinued.  For images and other marketing materials, please contact OMAX Marketing directly.
  

OMAX Calculator



• Functions atan, acosh, acos, asinh, asin, and sqr can all now also be typed in as arctan, arccosh, arccos, arcsinh, arcsin, and sqrt.  This helps eliminate potential user mistakes where the official spelling is forgotten, by allowing these common alternate spellings. This change affects all areas where the calculator engine is used, which is nearly all areas of the software where a number can be entered.
  
• Display of result is now green instead of red.
  

New Utility: Tilt-A-Jet Precision Calibration Software



• This application is used, along with special calibration hardware, to very precisely calibrate Tilt-A-Jets.  If you have a Tilt-A-Jet equipped machine, this utility can greatly increase its accuracy by mapping the hardware at the full range of tilt angles.   This is important when using the "Tilt Forward" feature to speed up cutting, because when tilting forward the high angle of attack amplifies small errors that might otherwise be present.  This utility requires special hardware to automate the process.  Contact OMAX Technical Support for information on having the calibration process performed on your machine, or on renting or purchasing the calibration hardware.  OMAX Technical Support can also assist you in evaluating the need for such service by cutting a special test part and measuring the results.
  

Installation program



• The installer now properly handles the file type association dialog when installing on Windows Vista, eliminating the need for a special menu item in Layout to do this.
• Improved progress bar for file copy in Windows Vista slightly.
• Added Tilt-A-Jet Precision Calibration Software to the installer (shows on the "Start" menu). 
  

OMAX Interactive Reference



• Lots of new content has been added, including
  
• More technical articles
• Large software troubleshooting section
• Developer's Guide
• Information on new and updated features
  

Bug Fixes



Tip: All known active bugs in the OMAX software are documented in a bug list kept at http://www.omax.com/support

• Bug fixes in Layout
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the spacing between nested paths to be incorrect when in units other than "inches" in the array nesting feature.
  
• Fixed some tool path font so that the "+" character would properly display.
• Fixed a bug that could cause Adobe Illustrator AI files to not open, if an AI file was previously opened in the same instance of Layout.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an access violation when opening the "File/Open" dialog if a bookmark referred to a disk drive that no longer exists.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "gap length" in the "tab" command would revert back to the default value after Layout is closed and re-opened.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an exception error when generating a Tech Support Report in Windows Vista if certain kinds of disk drives are attached and no media is in them.
• Fixed a bug that could cause warnings relating to tiny arcs in inside corners not offsetting properly to show for entities such as rapid traverses or etches, where the warning is not necessary.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the cutting Quality of two entities to swap in the event of using the "Fillet" command to fillet two arcs of different qualities.
  
• Fixed a conflict that could cause a divide by zero error on some computers when entering in text in the True Type Text dialog, if the computer has corrupt or bad monitor device drivers installed.
  
• The number "7" has been added to the FutureSign Tool Path Font, fixing a bug where that number would not properly appear when asked for.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a partial redraw instead of a full redraw when an image is loaded for image tracing, and other windows that are in front of it are closed or moved.
• Fixed a bug that would incorrectly cause a "zoom extents" when the "function plot" command is canceled.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause PDF files that contain negative rotation angles of the paper to generate an error when importing, and then import the vector portion of the drawing at the wrong rotation, and with the raster portion rendered as a gray square with no useful geometry visible.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a "beep" noise in extremely rare instances when using the "fillet" command.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the ".zip" extension to disappear from the .zip file when saving a Technical Support Report, if the user deletes ".zip" from the file name when saving.
  
• Fixed a bug where if the snap options form were closed, the focus would not be returned back to the snap toolbar, resulting in incorrect processing of keyboard input for the next key press.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect tangency when using the SHIFT key to force drawing a line that is perpendicular to an arc but constrained to a specific angle.  Note that the "rubber banding" may not preview exactly correctly, but the resulting geometry is perfect.
  
• Removed some flicker that otherwise occurs when canceling the file/import dialog after launching Layout via the command line to import a file.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the FQ and BQ suffixes in Tool Path Font names to be ignored.
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the dialog asking for "number of copies" from showing up, if the "Copy" command was used with the "Specify XY" snap, and the user had the option "Keep tool active" turned on.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a beep noise when saving a tool path in some rare situations
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause some intersections to not divide with the "Divide all elements touching an element" and "Divide all selected elements", in the event that the intersection of two entities happened to be at the end of one of the entities
  
• Fixed a bug that could prevent pages other than the very first page of a PDF file from importing properly
• Fixed a bug that could cause lead ins to offset when they should not, resulting in a potential minor blemish at some rare lead locations.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the tool offset to be saved along with the geometry data if the "Save as DXF" option is used in the array nester.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an entity to inappropriately "divide" itself when another line is drawn under just the right "magic numbers" conditions.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Parametric Shape dialog to lock-up if there was a comma missing in the variable declaration section of the parametric file.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause unrecognized layers in imported files from sometimes appearing as "invisible black entities" that are hard to see.
  
• Fixed bugs that could cause PDF or SVG or possibly other files to not open properly, if a DXF or DWG file was loaded at some earlier date, and that file had a non-standard "Layout" chosen.
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent entering in of some valid dimensions into a Parametric Shape, if units other than "inches" are selected, and the particular parametric shape had variables that were declared with a limited range of allowed values.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a "slit" to offset by mistake if connected to a Heads Up Traverse.
  
• Fixed a bug that would show the "Specify Length and Angle" dialog after using the "Perpendicular" snap, which creates an ambiguous situation with infinite possible results.  (So now the form does not show if the first snap is "Perpendicular"
• Fixed a bug that could cause the origin to be shifted if the "move drawing onto grid if not already there" check-box is "unchecked" and the drawing is then re-sized for metric automatically during "File / Import from Other CAD" importing
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent a white dot from being drawn at the division point when using the "divide" command with the "intersection" snap in certain circumstances.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause entities to be divided when they should not be, and divided in the wrong spot, when drawing other entities near to them.  This could cause the symptom of where you draw something and a nearby entity "bends" over and touches where you clicked.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the cursor to be incorrect when using the "None" snap
• Fixed a bug that would cause line to arc intersections to not always divide both entities that intersect when using the various "intersection divide" commands.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause line to arc intersections to not calculate precisely in certain circumstances.  This bug fix could effect all OMAX applications
• Fixed a bug that would cause slit qualities to incorrectly "offset" if the "offset leads" option was turned on, and the slits were connected to leads.
• Fixed a bug where the "Create Report for Technical Support" feature, when running on Windows Vista, might not include one of the INI files in the Rich Text File report, or in some cases, might even include an older version.
• Bug Fixes in Make
  
• Fixed a bug that could incorrectly allow the next path to start if using "step and repeat" cutting to run multiple paths, and the "pause at END of next traverse" command was invoked prior to the very last traverse in the path.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the spacing between nested paths to be incorrect when in units other than "inches" in the array nesting feature.
• Fixed a bug that could cause an access violation when opening the "Change Path Setup" dialog if a bookmark referred to a disk drive that no longer exists.
• Fixed a bug that could cause an exception error when generating a Tech Support Report in Windows Vista if certain kinds of disk drives are attached and no media is in them.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an error message when compiling tool paths where the Z1 coordinate of the first entity in the path is not zero.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause entities to "weld" together (remove the "dot") when they should not, during automatic cleaning of OMX files on loading for files that contained purposeful tilt.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause rough motor motions under certain circumstances if backlash compensation is enabled
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the progress bar to flicker to 25% for a brief moment at the end of a tool path compile
  
• Fixed a very rare bug in the interpolator that could cause the cutting speed to be faster than commanded, resulting in a rougher edge than desired, and possibly a "stuck part"
  
• Fixed a very rare bug that could cause the jet to turn on during a "go to spot on path" move for machines equipped with Terrain Followers if the terrain follower was turned on during a previous cut-off-saw command, and the machine is configured for low pressure piercing and brittle materials.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the "fastest speed when cutting" value as reported in the statistics window to be miss reported as a value higher than actual in some cases for Tilt-A-Jet equipped machines.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the "limit" snap in the measure command to incorrectly report the offset path dimensions when the part dimensions were requested.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the very last entity of a tool path to not be considered in the estimated times.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where clicking on the "Change Path Setup" button, or pressing the "Enter" key moments after a part starts compiling could cause part path corruption due to improperly canceling the previous path calculation.
  
• Miscellaneous bugs have been fixed relating to the not yet officially released "purposeful tilt" feature, to improve the results of parts cut with this feature.
  
• Fixed a bug that would allow the operator to use the "step jog" mode to step past soft limits.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the "green numbers" to quit responding in extremely rare circumstances - even though normal machine motion would still work.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a rare "timed out" message when a user repeatedly and quickly pressed jog keys.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the ".zip" extension to disappear from the .zip file when saving a Technical Support Report, if the user deletes ".zip" from the file name when saving.
• Fixed a bug where an inside corner could be mislabeled as "external", resulting in a potential tool offset error.
  
• Fixed a bug that forced huge multi-second delays between motions when automatically squaring the Tilt-A-Jet.  The result of this bug fix means that the squaring process is now a LOT faster.  This same bug fix also improves response of other motions such as jogging slightly.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause XY motion to not start or complete prematurely when the "Move Z Axis up prior to going home" feature was enabled.
  
• Fixed a bug that would incorrectly swap out "Slit" Quality of "Minimum Taper" with the substitution Quality specified in the Advanced Setup  page, when in fact the Min Taper Quality should be preserved for slits, since a TAJ can't compensate for taper on slits (Because there is no "scrap" to tilt into; therefore, it is necessary to slow down to reduce taper, not tilt.)
  
• Fixed a bug that could potentially cause a minor squareness issue on parts with the Tilt-A-Jet during operations at high tilt angles (though results of this "bug" have not been observed on actual parts.)
  
• Fixed a bug in the Interpolator that would incorrectly restrict how quickly the Tilt-A-Jet would respond to fast changes in tilt angle.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the jerk filters to slow down more than necessary on arcs inserted as part of the tool offsetting.
  
• Fixed a bug that would allow a user to right-click on the title bar of the Z axis tool bar, and choose "maximize"
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an incorrect deceleration profile to be used when jogging the Z axis.
  
• Fixed a bug that could incorrectly set the size of limits of travel for Fabricator machines that are extended longer than the default length.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a "beep" noise when jogging a machine, if an OMAX USB box is plugged in, but Make is configured as an off-line PC.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause an error of a single motor step at heads up traverses
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause tool path calculations to lock up for parts that contain heads up traverses.
• Fixed a bug that could cause lead ins to offset when they should not, resulting in a potential minor blemish at some rare lead locations.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the nozzle to open during a traverse when using low pressure and a constant speed pump.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause some corner passes to not occur when they should on corners defined by one or more arcs.
  
• Fixed a bug in the preview command "Show Path Sequence" where the very first event shown was numbered "2" instead of "1".
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Z axis to "drift" if Heads Up Traverses were used in combination with the Tilt-A-Jet
• Changed the email server used by the Tech Support Report Email feature to a more reliable server that hopefully will not change for a very long time.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the tool offset to be saved along with the geometry data if the "Save as DXF" option is used in the array nester.
  
• Fixed a bug in interpolation that could cause a tiny amount of Tilt-A-Jet "drift" if certain geometrical combinations were repeated over and over in combination with using Heads up Traverses.  This bug would most frequently show up when Leads are not used to pierce the material.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Parametric Shape dialog to lock-up if there was a comma missing in the variable declaration section of the parametric file.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an "AskFor" variable to not get "asked for" when a report is generated that has only a single "AskFor" variable in it.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a sudden acceleration at the point of intersection between a lead and a Heads Up Traverse, if the lead and traverse were exactly tangent to each other, and a very high machineability is used.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a lock-up during compiling if a distance of exactly 2.5" is specified for the Heads Up Traverse "hop distance".
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an "Access Violation" error when generating a custom report.
  
• Fixed a bug that could allow Z1 or Z2 signals to be sent even if no Z axis is attached, if the "Page up" or "Page Down" keys were pressed.
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent entering in of some valid dimensions into a Parametric Shape, if units other than "inches" are selected, and the particular parametric shape had variables that were declared with a limited range of allowed values.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a "slit" to offset by mistake if connected to a Heads Up Traverse.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause an error "cannot focus a disabled or invisible window" if a tool path finishes compiling while the "About" box is showing in Make.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause slit qualities to incorrectly "offset" if the "offset leads" option was turned on, and the slits were connected to leads.
• Fixed a bug where the "Create Report for Technical Support" feature, when running on Windows Vista, might not include one of the INI files in the Rich Text File report, or in some cases, might even include an older version.
• Other bug fixes
  


• Fixed a bug that could cause non-English versions of Watcher and Make to not properly communicate the status of whether make is running a path or not, and thus cause the "pause" button in Watcher to be grayed out when it should otherwise be available.
  
• Added extra error trapping in the "Create Report For Tech Support" feature to prevent a potential exception error when listing disk drives in Windows Vista.
  
• Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor that could cause the display to lock up if the "Set eye target" command was used to set the target to a location in the 3D window when no path was loaded.
  
• Fixed a bug in a low-level routine that is used in many OMAX applications for determining the angle between two entities that could sometimes return an incorrect angle.  Though this bug was not known to cause any specific issues, the fact that it is fixed may eliminate rare but unknown bugs through the software.
  
• Fixed a bug in both Layout and Make that would cause the extension ".zip" to go missing from Tech Support Reports if the user deletes it from the file/save dialog.
  
• Fixed a bug in the 3D Path Editor that would cause numbers entered into the "Reference Geometry" form from being correct when switching between mm, inches, or cm.
  
• Fixed a bug in all applications that could cause numerical expressions entered into edit boxes to be incorrect in in the case of certain trig functions (Sin, cos, etc.) resulting in negative numbers being subtracted from the rest of the expression.
  
• Fixed a bug in Link.exe (a utility used by the help screens) that could cause links to external applications to not load properly on Windows Vista.
  
• Fixed a mislabel of the "TY" check-box in the Axis vs Time viewer diagnostic utility.
  
• Fixed a bug that can cause the various OMAX software applications to lock if currently logged in user does not have sufficient privileges to write to the disk.  Now, an error message appears in its place.
  
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Tester that would display a red triangle on a "Send" button, when it should not be there.
  
• Fixed a bug in All OMAX Applications that could cause some extremely large radius arcs to not display when zoomed in to high magnification.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong Z coordinate to change when a Z1 or Z2 coordinate is moved after the "Mirror X" or "Mirror Y" command is used in the 3D Path Editor.
  

Rev 11.0


Changes made since rev "10.0" of the software, which was released 12/11/2006.

Special Changes to support Windows Vista



• Lots of changes have been made to properly support Windows Vista, without introducing headaches to users in older operating systems.  Most of these changes should be completely transparent to all users, though significant changes have been made "under the hood" to accomplish this.
  
• License Registration: License registration has been updated to work within Windows Vista security.  This prevents a problem where Vista would "un-register" the software, and create application errors periodically.
• Location of setup and common files: In Windows Vista, setup files for the OMAX software are moved to a location that can be accessed by all Vista user's, allowing different people to share the computer with different log-ins, yet keep the same software setup settings and share data.  (Which allows the machine setup to be preserved, even if different users log in.)  These files are in the "C:\Users\Public\OMAX_Corporation\AllUserData\" folder and its sub folders, where in XP and 2000 these same files are kept in C:\Program Files\OMAX Corporation\OMAX_Layout_and_Make\, as they have always been.
• Installation and updating of device drivers has been updated to properly work on Vista
  
• Code has changed to properly execute the "Cooler Control" application on Windows Startup, if configured to do so
• File type associations now work properly (so you can associate DXF, DWG and ORD files to open in OMAX software when double clicked on, if desired.)  
• Note: In Windows Vista, file associations are set from within the "File / Register File Associations..." menu item in Layout, Make, or the 3D path Editor - NOT during the installer process.  Therefore, if you want your DXF, ORD, or OMX files to open in OMAX software when double clicked on, be sure to run this command in Layout.  In XP and 2000, file type registration is done during the software install process.  Note also that once they are set, there is no "un-register" capability.  If you wish to change the registration to a different application, then it is necessary to use that applications "register" features, or use the file registration tools built into the operating system.
  
• Many other minor changes have been made that listed individually would be impractical to list in this document, but cumulatively add up to a proper Vista compatible experience.
• For additional Windows Vista related information, visit the OMAX Technical Support web site (http://www.omax.com/support)
  

Layout



•  Changes and additions to the "Import from other CAD" command:
• Added new capability to read "DWF" files.
• Added capability to read and decompose PDF files.  
• Important Notes:
• PDF files are not meant to be decomposed for editing in CAD software. In fact, they are designed to prevent being edited, and they are designed to be viewed on the screen or printed. Therefore, PDF files are NOT preferred methods for importing into the OMAX software, and they will likely contain features not appropriate for cutting, as well as inaccuracies.  Use them with caution, and expect to have to do some clean-up after importing.
• PDF images are a mix of vector and raster data.  Some images might not contain any vector data at all.  In this case, the OMAX software simply brings it in as a bitmap for the user to trace "by hand" or trace using "Intelli-TRACE". Vector portions of the file import as lines and arcs, and the raster portion imports as a bitmap background the same bitmap background used for image tracing.
• PDF files do not necessarily contain vector data. In fact, many PDF files don't contain any vector data at all. In this case, Layout will only import the bitmap background, because that is all there is available to import.
• The bitmap image of the PDF is automatically darkened to 50% brightness when it is loaded.  This makes it easier to see the vector data on top of it.  If brightness other than 50% is preferred, use the Image Tracing "Adjust image colors" command to set it otherwise.
• The actual size of the bitmap image (its resolution) depends on the memory and speed of your computer.  On a a really fast high memory computer, Layout may render the bitmap up to 30 megapixels in size, if there is less memory or speed available, the image will be a lower resolution.  Basically, it is re-sized it so that it "zooms" reasonably quickly, yet has enough resolution so the user can see it clearly. It is also sized so that if the user decides to run Intelli-TRACE, it does not bog down too much. Note that the Image Resolution setting used by the Image Tracing feature in Layout will automatically be set to the value appropriate for the PDF file, so that the bitmap image of the PDF file will line up precisely with the vector data it also contains.
• Although it is technically possible to have a PDF file that is reasonably high precision, most PDFs are not. For example, many PDF files are created using a "virtual printer", which tends to create low resolution PDFs. Circles will likely not import as true circles, for example, but instead may look like warped polygons.  This is a fault of the PDF itself, and not the PDF translation. If you need precision, use DXF.  If you have no choice but to use PDF, then consider rendering the PDF file to a large paper size (Such as A0, 32"x44" or similar), which will improve the precision slightly compared rendering to smaller paper sizes.
• Most standard text is not converted, but instead left in raster format.  This is something left for future development, if there is customer demand. (If you think this is something OMAX should supply and is worth doing, email techsupport@omax.com to request this feature.)
  
• PDF files may contain more than one page. If a PDF has multiple pages, then Layout will ask which page to import.
• Added support for a new "Generation" of IGES / IGS file import filters.
  
• The old filters are still available to insure backwards compatibility, but the new ones offer considerably better support.
• The same dialog as the "DXF/DWG" file import filters now displays when importing an IGS or IGES file, though the configuration options are limited.
• Important: Although we went to considerable effort to add this extended support for IGES/IGS files, it is still the case that not all IGES files are supported.  3D IGES files usually will not import - use 2D files only.  In addition, as with DXF and DWG, there are many different "flavors" of IGES that do not adhere to proper IGES standards.  These also may not import properly.  It is suggested that you use DXF or DWG for your file sharing needs, and only use IGES if you do not have any choice.  If you have 2D IGES/IGS files that do not import properly, we would love to use them for testing.  Please send them to techsupport@omax.com.
  
• Improvements have been made to the DXF / DWG file import filters, in particular relating to reading AutoCAD 2007 files.
• Important: At this point, some AutoCAD 2007 DXF or DWG files may still not import properly.  If you need to convert version 2007 DWG files to version 2006 or older, in order to import them into Layout, then you have these choices:
  
• Open the file in AutoCAD 2007, and re-save as an older version
• Use the free utility from Autodesk, DWG TrueConvert, to "down convert" the file prior to importing into Layout.
• Ask your customer to send you the file as an older style DXF/DWG
  
• Wait for future free software updates from OMAX that will include additional support for version 2007 files.
• There is a new option to "Move drawing onto 'grid' if not already there", when importing DXF, DWG, or IGES files. so it is now possible to keep the exact original coordinates from the original CAD system, if desired (Un-check the option to preserve original coordinates.)  In older software, this option was always on - now you have the choice.
• As always, if you have a file that does not import properly into the OMAX software, please email it to techsupport@omax.com, so that we may use it to improve our file filters for the future.  Ideally, include the original file, and let us know what CAD program it came from originally, and details on what is wrong.
• Array Nester: Added "Center" as an option for the Start and End points of the tool path when using the Array Nester.
• Increased the default resolution for the "Redraw as Solid" slightly to improve the amount of resolvable detail slightly when rendering on Windows XP.
• Technical Support Report now displays additional information about monitors attached to the computer (useful for multi-monitor setups.), as well as some additional language information.
  
• Added a new Tool Path Font "Capsule Chain" which is essentially the same font as "Capsule" with different caps on the end, making it useful to make bracelets connected with chains.  Capsule and Capsule Chain fonts have also had the letters A-Z and a-z and numbers 0-9 optimized to work with tool offsets of up to 0.029", which means the letters can also be shrunk down smaller before tool offset errors occur.
• Hold down the Shift key when clicking on the "Render as Solid" button for a material usage estimate.   Note: This feature is not officially released yet, which is why it is hidden.

Make



• Array Nester: Added "Center" as an option for the Start and End points of the tool path when using the Array Nester.
  
• Added "Pierce Safety Factor for Low Pressure Piercing" to the Advanced / Administrator setup.  This allows adjusting the pierce safety factor separately for low and high pressures, for a finer level of control than previous.  The default low pressure pierce safety factor is set to 1.3x, which allows considerably more margin for error for low pressure piercing, resulting in more reliable piercing at low pressures with less risk of cracking by preventing the high pressure from kicking in too early.
  
• Resuming a tool path using the "Go to Spot on Path" command, and a Heads Up Traverse is chosen to go to, or if the Z axis is otherwise at a different height than the tool path should be at, then a message will ask the user if it is ok to move in the Z direction to find the correct height for resuming.  If "Yes" is chosen, then the Z axis will move to the location, if "Cancel" is chosen, then the Z axis will stay where it is, and the path will resume at whatever Z height it happens to be at. 
  
• Dual Z Axis support change: Changed the Z axis coordinate display so that the "Zero" and "Go" buttons now lock together in sync with the buttons on the Z axis toolbar.  This helps prevent accidentally moving an individual Z axis when they are locked together.
• Support for "Programmable Tilt":  It is now possible to program in purposeful tilt angles for an entire part, or on a feature by feature basis within the tool path.  In order to do this, it is necessary to do one of the following:
• Use the OMAX 3D Path editor to assign tilt angles on individual drawing entities in an existing tool path.  (See 3D Path Editor information below)
  
• Hand-edit a .OMX file to enter in tilt angles for the features that require it.  (Consult the help screens for information on the OMX file format, and its structure)
  
• Use a 3rd party 3D editor such as Mastercam to output the 3D information.  (Mastercam now has a 3D Post Processor for the OMAX.  Contact tech support for details and availability.)  Other 3D CAD/CAM systems can also work, consult the 3rd party software reference guide in the OMAX Interactive Reference for details.
  
• Simply enter in a non-zero number for the "Taper Offset" value in Make (In this case, assigning tilt to the entire part.)
• Important: This feature is new, and not officially supported yet.  Because of the complexities involved with the cutting model and hardware, and the extra difficulty involved in programming for it, it is advised that you do test cuts to verify the path prior to running on expensive material.  OMAX does not yet advertise machines to have this capability.  At this point, please consider this to be a bonus feature to use at your own risk.
  
• Added support for the "Pull To Open Valve" high pressure valve.  This valve increases reliability when piercing brittle materials, and required some minor non-visible software changes in order to work at it's best.
  
• Completely re-worked the Terrain Follower code (For optional Terrain Follower accessory):
  
• Terrain follower is always either in the "Off" our "Auto" mode, and the controls for it have moved to the "Change Path Setup" dialog. (A single check box to enable or disable it for the path.)
  
• "Hard Pause" settings: Added slider bars in the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog that determine how hard to decelerate in the event the Terrain Follower detects a collision.  This allows the machine to come to a very fast and abrupt pause in the event of a collision, instead of the normal smooth slow deceleration that is inappropriate in the event of a collision.
• Added support for automatically setting the stand-off by holding down the "Stand-Off" button on the Z axis toolbar.  Simply move your nozzle over the material, and then hold down the "Stand-Off" button until it touches.  It does not require that the Terrain Follower be enabled, in order to work. This can be useful, even if you intend to have the Terrain Follower disabled for the path itself. 
  
• Z axis display now resets to your default stand-off value when the terrain follower is in use, and also displays as "Auto" to prevent user confusion that was caused by having the numbers change.  So, if you use the "Stand-Off" button to automatically set your stand-off, then the value displayed in the Z axis number display will reflect the stand-off value set as the default preference in the "Motion Preferences" dialog.   Note: It is important that this value match the actual stand-off value that the Terrain Follower is calibrated to, or else the software and hardware will be out of sync.
  
• Added a check-box to enable or disable the Terrain Follower during a "Vector Move", or "Cut off Saw" operation. (Defaults to "off")
• Added code to better handle the Terrain Follower being on with paths that have "Heads up Traverses" in them.  Note that the "Backup" feature will be disabled when using the Terrain Follower on paths that have the Terrain Follower enabled and Heads up Traverses in them.  Use the "Go to Spot on Path" command if you need to go backwards in such a path.  Note also that there are delays between when you press the "Backup" or "Ahead" buttons and when the X,Y motions actually start to happen.  These delays are there to insure that the Terrain Follower has adequate time to follow the material from whatever position it is currently at.
  
• Know if it's enabled: If the Terrain Follower is enabled, it says so at the very bottom of the "Statistics" display
• Reminder to calibrate: If the terrain follower is attached, and Make is configured to warn users about the need to "Home" the machine, then the message displayed will also remind the user to calibrate the Terrain Follower stand-off, in case it has drifted over time.
• Support for Tilt-A-Jet's: The Terrain follower now works with the OMAX Tilt-A-Jet accessory.  Note: If doing precision work that is beyond the advertised specification for the machine, (say, 0.002" or better) and/or when doing work with high angles of tilt, it is recommended to use a feeler gauge to get the stand-off distance "perfect", and disable the Terrain Follower for that part, and to cut on flat material.
• It is no longer allowed to use the "Page Up" or "Page Down" keys (or any other Z keys) to move the Z axis while the terrain follower is active.  (This prevents a conflict that was overlooked in previous releases.)
• If a path contains 3D information (other than "Heads up Traverses") that move more than 0.1" (2.54mm), then turning on the Terrain Follower is not an option. (Because it will conflict)
• If the "Go To Spot On Path" feature is used, the machine will traverse into position, but will not lower down to the height for cutting until the "Continue", "Ahead", or "Backup" buttons are pressed.
• If "Move X", "Move Y", "Move Radius and Angle", "Go Home", or "Go to X,Y coordinate" are used, then the Terrain Follower will NOT drop and follow during these actions.  This is to prevent the case where the user may have had the head in the air in order to clear obstacles, where it would be unwise to "follow" the material and crash into them.  (Note: The "Move Radius and Angle" command has the option of turning on the Terrain Follower, if desired.)
  
• The "Cut Off Saw" command has a check-box making the Terrain Follower optional for this operation.  By default it is turned OFF, because the Cut Off Saw command is often used to cut materials starting from the edge, where the Terrain Follower may otherwise snag.
  
• Added additional machine types to the choices in the Advanced / Administrator Setup dialog, to accommodate many new machines now available from OMAX.  So the list is now:
  
  
• OMAX 2626
• OMAX 2626xp
• OMAX 2448
  
• OMAX 2652
• OMAX 2652a
• OMAX 55100
• OMAX 6060 (new!)
• OMAX 80160
• OMAX 60120 (new!)
• OMAX Fabricator+0m (new!)
• OMAX Fabricator+2m (new!)
• OMAX Fabricator+4m (new!)
• OMAX Fabricator+6m (new!)
• OMAX Fabricator+8m (new!)

Check with OMAX sales or omax.com for specifications and availability of new machines.

• Improved "Time Remaining" display when running paths: The estimated Time Remaining display in the Path Controller dialog no longer grays out and becomes invalid after using the Dry Run or "Backup" or "Ahead" or "Go to Spot on Path" features.  The times are now correct.
• Support for dual abrasive flow rates (requires optional hardware): Added support for the "low" check-box to turn on the low pressure bit when doing an abrasive test to the "Test Pump and Nozzle" dialog.  This allows for easy measurement of the low abrasive flow rate setting when using a machine equipped with dual abrasive flow rate capability.
• Added warning to the "Test Pump and Nozzle" dialog to warn about the danger to the bottom of the tank of firing the nozzle for extended periods of time with the nozzle above the water level.  (This can quickly cut a hole in the bottom of the tank, because the entrained air creates an "air bearing" that allows the jet to be effective all the way to the bottom, where it picks up abrasive and erodes away.)
• Added "Drill accessory is attached" check-box to the Advanced Administrator Setup, to enable the drill accessory without the requirement to install special software.
• Technical Support Report now displays additional information about monitors attached to the computer (useful for multi-monitor setups.), as well as some additional language information.
• Hold down the Shift key when clicking on the "Render as Solid" button for a material usage estimate.   Note: This feature is not officially released yet, which is why it is hidden.
  

3D Path Editor Utility



• Support for viewing tool paths with purposeful Tilt: Paths that have purposeful tilt assigned to them will display with the tilt showing in the 3D path editor, with a new display option. 
  
• Display options relating to tilt are on a new "Tilt View Settings" pull-down menu.
• Tilt shows up as tilted entities with a color representing the magnitude and direction of the tilt.  Left-hand tilting is colored orange, while right hand tilting is sky blue.
• Tilt can be exaggerated in the view, so small tilt angles are easy to see.
  
  Above: A typical part with tilt assignments shown in blue and orange color
  
• Support for modifying tilt on a per-entity basis: 3 new buttons have been added to allow setting the Starting Tilt Angle, and the Ending Tilt Angle for each entity in the tool path.  These 3 buttons work essentially in the same way as for setting the Z heights.  The keyboard equivalent for setting taper on selected entities is "T"
• A new menu item has been added for "Set maximum allowed tilt", which sets the largest tilt angle the software will allow.  Be sure to set this value to a value less than or equal to the maximum tilt allowed by your particular Tilt-A-Jet accessory.
  
• The keyboard equivalent for changing the camera's target location has changed from "T" (for "Target") to "E" (for "Eye Target"), in order to free up the "T" key to become the keyboard equivalent for the new "Taper" command.
• Important: This feature is new, and not officially supported yet.  Because of the complexities involved with the cutting model and hardware, and the extra difficulty involved in programming for it, it is advised that you do test cuts to verify the path prior to running on expensive material.  OMAX does not yet advertise machines to have this capability.  At this point, please consider this to be a bonus feature to use at your own risk.

International Languages



• In addition to English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Polish, which were released in version 10, there is now support for Chinese and Japanese. Download from the OMAX Technical Support web site, or order on CD or DVD.

Software Installer



• Software installers and some key files are now "Digitally signed" by the independent company VeriSign for security and validation purposes.  One feature of this is that it allows the person installing the software to be assured that the software came from OMAX.
• Added extra code to prevent some dialogs from appearing during the un-install process that should not be there.
• Significant changes have been made in order to support Windows Vista.
• Removed "Modify" and "Repair" options from the installer because these have the opportunity to otherwise corrupt the installation.
• Easier to install accessories: Removed the requirement for separate installation CD's in order to activate the Precision Optical Locator, Drill, Motorized Z axis, or Tilt-A-Jet accessories.  Note that separate CD's or configuration disks may still be needed in order to install necessary device drivers or configuration files (which is the case for the Tilt-A-Jet and Precision Optical Locator accessories.)
  

Special Changes to USB Card Firmware



• Two changes have been made to the firmware to make the USB Card more resistant to noise.  Now, when no other OMAX applications are running, the card is sending data to shut off all OMAX devices 100 times per second.  When Make is running, the proper relay data for the operation at hand is sent about 50 times per second.  This insures that electrical noise can not start and run or stop OMAX equipment except when it is supposed to be running or stopped.
• Additional changes have been made to the firmware.  For details read the "readme.txt" file located in the "Drivers" folder of the OMAX Software CD or DVD.
  

Bug Fixes



• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause it to mis-report tool offset errors when no tool offset errors actually occurred in tool paths where corner passing is enabled.
• Fixed a bug in Make where corner passes on arcs could sometimes cause tool offset errors.
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Camera that could cause OMAX Camera to disappear behind Make sometimes.
  
• Added code that significantly increases the reliability of USB communication between the OMAX USB box and the computer.  In particular, it makes Make more tolerant to slow data transmissions that can occur when noise is present.
  
• Fixed a bug that could allow the user to use the "continue from path interrupted home" after re-zero-ing to a new "path start home" that is different from where the previous path was started.
• Fixed a bug that could occur "beeps" to occur during some keyboard commands.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the rotation and "flip" state of a part to flip differently when the tool path is compiled than what was previewed in the "Change Path Setup" dialog.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a "soft limits will be exceeded" message to incorrectly display when it should not, when using the "go to spot on path" or "continue from Path Interrupted Home" commands.
  
• A bug was fixed in the firmware of the OMAX USB device that could cause an error of +/- one motor step when pausing the machine while running a part.  This error would be +/-0.0005" on most OMAX machines, or +/- 0.00025" on OMAX 2626xp machines.  This bug is now fixed, and after installing version 11 of the software the fix will automatically be applied to the OMAX USB device firmware after re-booting the computer.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause the "Preview after generating a tool path" dialog from displaying properly on some multi-monitor systems, as well as a similar issue with the "File / Open" command.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause "Mirror about a line" command to not work if "erase original" was checked
• Fixed a bug that could corrupt the undo buffer when using the "Mirror about a line" command
• Fixed a bug that could cause the angle automatically filled in for the "Rotate Copy" command to not always auto-fill
• Corrected some code in the tool path interpolator that never surfaced as any known bug, but might some day
• Fixed a bug in the Terrain Follower code that could cause the Terrain Follower to move up in Z slightly if the "Ahead" or "Backup" keys were very rapidly clicked.
• Fixed a bug in the installer that prevented the firmware on the OMAX USB device to not properly update when upgrading over version 4 or older of the OMAX software.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause some binary DXF files to not load properly with the Generation IV DXF file filters.
• Fixed a cosmetic bug in Make that could cause long leads to not be drawn to the screen at certain magnifications
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could allow the user to move Z1 independent of Z2, even if the "Lock Zs" check box were checked, if the numeric keypad was used to move the Z's.
• Fixed a bug that could cause "AskFor" variables in custom reports to be ignored if there were only a single "AskFor" variable in the report.
• Fixed a bug that could cause improper operation of the Pull to Open Valve on the first pierce of a tool path.
  

Rev 10.0


Changes made since rev "9.0" of the software, which was released 6/27/2006.


International Languages



• The OMAX software is now available in a variety of languages including:
  
• English
• German
  
• French
• Italian
• Spanish
• Polish
• Languages are available as:
• Individual CD's, with one language per CD.
• DVD with all languages on a single DVD
• Download from the OMAX Technical Support web site.
  

Software Installer



• The install program has been completely re-done to provide better support for non-English versions of the OMAX software, as well as to provide more capability and compatibility for the future.  Great pains were taken to make sure the installation process remains as simple as possible, given the constraints of the Microsoft System Installer technology used.  Some considerations:
  
  
• Installing over older OMAX software should be easy, and similar to the way it has always been.  Simply run the new installer, and choose all of the default settings.  There is no need to uninstall first.
• The minimum system requirements for the OMAX software have raised.  The installer will not install the software if you attempt to install on a system that does not meet certain requirements.  See System Requirements for details.  (Basically, you need Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or newer, and 1024x768 screen resolution or higher, and 16 bit color or higher.  All Windows based OMAX machines meet this minimum specification, unless changed.)
• When installing over an older version, in some rare cases, you may discover duplicate icons on your desktop or your start menu.  If this happens, and it bothers you, then simply right-click on the duplicate, and choose "delete".  Otherwise, these duplicated icons will work fine, and are harmless.
  
• The Windows "Add / Remove" dialog will likely contain more than one entry for the OMAX Software.  This does not hurt anything.  Future software upgrades will likely add additional entries to the "Add / Remove" dialog.  Again, these do not hurt anything.  When uninstalling, these extra entries can be removed in most cases by simply running the uninstaller for each entry.  However, it is possible that some entries may stick around, even after the software has been uninstalled.  Again, this is harmless, but a slight annoyance, and a by-product of a trade off we made to make the installer (and upgrade) process easier in other areas.
  

Make



• New variables added to the custom report generation feature, "[OMAX_JobCostingCostPerHourValue]" and "[OMAX_EstimatedCostValue]", which are the same as "[OMAX_JobCostingCostPerHour]" and "[OMAX_EstimatedCost]", except that they do not include the currency symbol, making these variables useful for calculations in spreadsheets.
• Edit a Custom Report Template at the same time as the report is generated.  (In other words, if you are using WordPad to edit the template, you can leave WordPad open when you test the template, where previously it would generate an error.)  This makes editing and previewing templates faster and easier.
• "Transfer Settings" wizard now transfers all settings that can affect the time estimates of the machine, including installed support software, such as the software for the Tilt-A-Jet, Motorized Z Axes, and Drill Accessory.  It is no longer necessary to install these CD's separately on an office PC for precision time estimates.  In addition, the wizard will warn when importing files from a different version of software.
• Support for "Hard Pausing" added, to pause the machine as fast as possible, when the baby-sit is triggered.  This allows for very fast, but violent pausing if the hardware pause or baby-sit is triggered, yet a smooth and pleasing pause speed for other operations.  This "Hard pause" only is enabled if the terrain follower accessory is installed and turned on, and allows the machine to stop abruptly in the event of a high speed collision.
• More support for advanced "developer" features:
• Make now broadcasts key information about its status via "Windows Messaging" so that other applications can easily pick this information up.  This feature is not documented in the help screens. Contact techsupport@omax.com, if you are interested in learning more.
• Make now can be run, and a path can be started, from the command line (for example launched from a .BAT file, or called from a 3rd party application).  This is for use in automated systems where user intervention is not desired. This feature is not documented in the help screens. Contact techsupport@omax.com, if you are interested in learning more.
• Make can now accept a Bitstream file (*.bts) from the command line.  So, it's possible to open a BTS file by simply double clicking on it in explorer, for example.  This is useful for running pre calculated tool paths for special purposes. (BTS files are to the OMAX as Atoms are to objects, or assembly language is to software - they allow extreme control of the hardware, supporting ultra high resolution positioning and timing of 8 axes and 16 or more digital outputs, but are also very difficult to create.  For information on BTS files, contact techsupport@omax.com, because they are currently not officially documented.)

Layout



• Rudimentary Support for AutoCAD 2007 DXF and DWG importing: The "Import from Other CAD" command now can read some DXF and DWG files that were created in AutoCAD 2007 (Previously, support only was up to AutoCAD version 2006).  Note: This is the first cut at 2007 support.  AutoCAD 2007 support is not as strong as support for older DXF/DWG versions.  Therefore for maximum reliability it is still recommended to use older versions of DXF / DWG files when possible.  Also, send any files that give you troubles to techsupport@omax.com so that we can help you with a fix and improve our filters. 
  
  
Important: At this point, many AutoCAD 2007 DXF or DWG files will still not import properly.  If you need to convert version 2007 DWG files to version 2006 or older, in order to import them into Layout, then you have these choices:


• Open the file in AutoCAD 2007, and re-save as an older version
• Use the free utility from Autodesk, DWG TrueConvert, to "down convert" the file prior to importing into Layout.
• Ask your customer to send you the file as an older style DXF/DWG
  
• Wait for future free software updates from OMAX that will include additional support for version 2007 files.
  
  
• Other DXF / DWG file importing improvements:
  
  
• Importing drawings with multiple "Layouts": If a DXF or DWG file being imported has multiple "Layouts" in it, then the "Layouts" choice in the Import dialog will draw attention to itself by being highlighted with a yellow border.  This is so that you know that this file may have more than one part specified in it.
• Some fixes were made to support a few additional "flavors" of DXF and DWG files.
  
• Lots of new Tool Path Fonts: "RockBar Connect", "QuickName", "Emboss", "Capsule", "Empower", "Presidential", "Keyed", and several "Blazed" fonts have been added.  These fonts came from other OMAX customers.  Note that you can make your own tool path fonts, and if they are of high-quality then OMAX would like to consider purchasing them from you to then include in future software updates.  If this is of interest to you, be sure to read the topics "Creating your own fonts for Layout", and "Checklist for submitting fonts to OMAX" in the OMAX Interactive Reference.
• Tool Path Font dialog now remembers previous folder fonts were loaded from, in the event that fonts were loaded from a folder other than the default location.  This makes it a little more convenient to develop fonts in an alternate folder.  To restore the default folder, simply right-click in the font list for a menu of options.
• Create custom color schemes:  In addition to the pre-defined color schemes of "Black", "White", "Teal", "Extra Bright", etc., it is now possible to mix your own custom colors.  To make your own custom palette:  Close all OMAX software, open "CustomColors.INI" in NotePad or similar, then re-save it with a new name "Colors.ini", (overwriting existing Colors.ini file).  Make your changes to this file.  When you are ready to test, re-save as "Colors.ini", run Layout or Make, and then open the Preferences dialog and choose "From Colors.ini" as the color scheme to use.
  

3D Path Editor



• Improved Error reporting on leads: If there are any Changes in Z along a lead in or a lead out, then this will always be reported as a "potential error" in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, and the lead will be highlighted in the 3D view to make it more visible.  This is because changes in Z over a lead can cause steep angles to occur when the leads shrink in X and Y as a function of the Intelli-PIERCE function in Make.  (It is still possible to make the leads at angles in Z, but it is not recommended.)
  

Other utilities and general changes



• The "About" box in OMAX Tester now reports Device Driver and DLL information.
• Email support for the "Create Report for Technical Support" feature now uses different technology that is (hopefully) more tolerant of fire walls and other such things that might otherwise prevent emails from being sent.
• Lots of minor changes were made to dialogs and menus to make them easier to translate into other languages
  

Bug Fixes



• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause the "pixels / inch" scaling property for images being traced to be incorrect if units other than "inches" were used.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause an incorrect fillet when filleting between two arcs where one arc was almost exactly a complete semi-circle, and the fillet radius was tiny or zero.
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Camera that could cause the "Zoom" buttons to disappear.
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause Layout to lock if the "Q" key was held down continuously, and then the "A" key was held down continuously.
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Calculator (and all locations in all other OMAX software where mathematical expressions are evaluated), that could cause incorrect evaluation of the expression if negative numbers were used with exponents in certain circumstances.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an improper compensation by the X and Y axes when tilting when stand-off distances other than the default value of 0.060" (1.5mm) were used.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause the stand-off to be incorrect if the "Page Up" or "Page Down" keys were used to move the machine after pausing, but before using "go to spot on path".  Also, suppressed an unnecessary warning message in this regard.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that could cause "slits" to have an offset, if path with slits in it were saved as an .OMX file.
  
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Make that could cause estimated times to be slower than actual times on tool paths containing heads up traverses
  
• Fixed a bug in OMAX Watcher that could cause troubles when running OMAX Watcher on a computer with non-USA number formats.
• Added additional exception handling code to OMAX Watcher to provide more reliability on unreliable networks.
• Added additional exception tracking to OMAX Make to track errors on start-up for easier diagnosis should any occur.
  
• Make: Fixed a bug that could cause an improper tool offset on the last element before a lead out, when using water-only cutting.
  
• Fixed a bug in Layout that would cause a "cannot focus disabled window" error under certain conditions when using the "frame" command.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause an exception error if the DD/MMM/YY format is chosen in "regional settings" as the method of displaying dates.
  
• Fixed bug in Layout that could cause the "undo" command to "undo" incorrectly after using the "Mirror X" or "Mirror Y" command several times in a row.
  
• Fixed a broken link to the help screens in the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog
• Fixed a bug that would cause the video display in OMAX Watcher to appear scrunched up.
• Fixed a bug in Make where the "inquire motor step" feature would return the speed for traversing instead of cutting, if inquiring a motor step on a "slit".
• Abrasivejet feed rate calculator now properly uses regional settings for decimal points in its display of numbers.
• Layout: Possibly fixed a bug that could cause a "Invalid Floating Point Operation" when repeatedly using the True Type Text dialog.
  
• All applications: Possibly fixed a bug that could cause the software version to be reported as "?", which was seen on one computer.
• Possibly fixed a bug that could cause dialog windows to appear behind the main application windows in Layout and Make.  (The bug is in Windows XP, and a work-around was added to Layout and Make to avoid the bug.  However, the bug is rare enough that we are not 100% sure it is 100% fixed.)
  

Rev 9.0


Changes made since rev "8.0" of the software, which was released 6/9/2006.

Make


• Fixed a bug that could cause an incorrect velocity under just the right set of conditions on some parts.  This bug could cause the effected portion of the tool path to cut incorrectly (typically too rough).  This bug has been fixed, and is the reason why rev 9.0 has been released so soon after release 8.0. (Any bug related to the actual motion of the machine is considered of extreme importance and priority.)

Layout


• Added support for additional special characters in Tool Path Fonts.  In particular, it is now possible to create Tool Path Fonts that support the following new characters:  % & $ ( ) [ ] { } : ; _ ~ | = ' `.  For information on Tool Path Fonts and how to make them, consult the OMAX Interactive Reference.
• Fixed a bug that could cause "slits" to not import properly when using the Generation IV DXF / DWG file import filters.
  

Rev 8.0


Changes made since rev "7.0" of the software, which was released 1/3/2006.


Layout



• "Sketch" tool: You can now sketch using Splines.  Right-click on the "Circle" button, and choose "Spline (Free-form Curve Drawing)" (Keyboard equivalent is "%").  Then hold down the mouse while you sketch on the screen.  This will draw a series of short line segments, similar to the "Continuous Line Draw" command.  When you let go of the mouse button, the entities will convert to a clean and smooth Spline curve, which is then converted into a series of lines and arcs, and you can continue to draw some more.  To quit drawing, press the Right mouse button, or press "Esc", or choose a different command.  You can operate this tool in one of two modes:  The default mode is that when the mouse button is let up, the "pencil" also is picked up, so that you can quickly sketch a new curve.  The second mode is to always keep the pencil down, which is useful if you want to specify the curve by a series of clicks, such as when tracing around an image.  When in this mode, to "pick up the pencil" press the "Space" bar on the keyboard.  This command is most useful for artistic purposes, such as hand-tracing images, sketching, etc., but is not well suited for precision applications.
  
• 7 new "Qualities" for doing "Slits": For each cutting Quality 1,2,3,4,5, "Water-Only" and "Minimum Taper", there is now a corresponding Quality for "Slit".   These qualities are essentially the same as Qualities 1-5, "Water-Only", and "Minimum Taper", except that they will not have any tool offset applied to them.  This means that they cut right down the center-line. On screen, they are the same color as other qualities, but they show up as dotted lines.  To access slits, Right-Click on one of the Quality buttons in the Quality tool bar in Layout, and choose "Slit" from the pop-up menu.  You can also use the keyboard equivalents of "Ctrl+1", "Ctrl+2", "Ctrl+3", "Ctrl+4", "Ctrl+5", "Ctrl+8" (Water only slit), or "Ctrl+minus" (Minimum Taper Slit).
• Improvements to DXF / DWG filters:
• Added a "Preview" window:  This allows previewing the results of the settings prior to committing to them. 
• Specify which "layout" of a drawing to consider for importing, in the case where a drawing may be composed of multiple views.
• Updated filters to support for yet more "flavors" of DXF and DWG
• Slightly improved error messages when some kinds of files don't load properly.
• New Tool Path Font: "FutureSign", which is modern looking stencil font.  Font courtesy of Bob Ekstrom.
  
• Parametric Shape Library now remembers previously entered settings (if you wish): There is now a check-box in the "Parametric Shape Library" dialog that if checked, will cause Layout to save the entered values for the currently entered shape, when you press the "OK" button  to accept the shape.  Then, next time that parametric shape is used, the edit boxes will automatically be filled in with the previous values used.  (This feature is also available in Make, since Make also uses the Parametric Shape Library.)
  
• File / Open dialog now has an option for "Open file using Windows style dialog".  This is useful if you need some of the standard features provided by the WIndows style dialog, such as sorting by date, access to network drives, etc.  Simply right click in the file list of the dialog for this option. 
  
• Improved "Tab" command: It is now possible to specify the two legs in the "Tab" command to be different qualities.  Also, there is a new option under the "Quality" selectors for "Same as part".  This is used to set the tab Quality to be the same as whatever entity you click on.  For example, if you click the tab onto an existing entity that is Quality of 3, then that piece of the tab specified to be "same as part" will also be Quality of 3.
  
• Enter a description for variables in parametric files: You can now enter an optional description for each variable in a parametric file.  This description will show up to the user.  For example, you can have a variable named "vRad", and a description of "Outer Radius".  The user will see "Outer Radius".  If no description exists, then the variable name will be used in its place.  Descriptions are added at the very end of the variable declaration line, with a comma separating it from the other items in the declaration.
  
• Specify frame length: It is now possible to specify the line length in the "Frame" command to be anything that you like.  Enter a length of "0" to have the computer automatically pick a length for you (as it did in previous versions.)
  
• When opening an image for manual tracing, the "Adjust Image Colors" dialog now automatically appears.  This makes it easy to quickly turn down the brightness or make other adjustments, which are useful for insuring that it is easy to see the CAD lines that are drawn on top of the image.  Note that the "Adjust Image Colors" display may not show up on exceptionally large images,.
  
• Automatic Backup now temporarily disables itself when the drawing size exceeds 100,000 drawing entities.  This is to prevent the annoyance of a long delay while the backup occurs.  It will automatically re-enable when the drawing size is less than 100,000 entities.
  
• New Clean Option, "Divide all entities where an endpoint touches another entity":  By default, this option is turned off.  If you turn it on, it will loop through all the entities in the drawing, and look for spots where the endpoint of an entity touches the side of another entity.  It will then divide the entity it touches at that location.  This feature is most useful if you import a file from another CAD or CAM program that has leads and traverses already assigned to it, and you want to make sure the leads function properly, and cut into the feature they touch.. (So there is no more need to "I-divide" every lead location one at a time by hand.)
  

Make



• Support for optional Terrain Follower hardware: There is now an option in the "Advanced / Administrator Setup" dialog to tell Make that Terrain Follower hardware is attached to the machine.  If this option is turned on, then the Z-Axis toolbar will contain Terrain Follower options for "On", "Off", and "Auto".  Requires optional Terrain Follower accessory in order to work.
  
• Automatic dialog closing, mouse moving, and locking: The "Test Pump" and "Cut off Saw" dialogs will now automatically close after 60 seconds of no activity, if they were left in a condition where an inadvertent mouse press could start the machine.  In addition, the mouse pointer will move away from buttons that could cause the jet to turn on if pressed, after 10 seconds of no activity.  Likewise, the "VCR" style "Path Controller" dialog will now automatically move the mouse cursor away from the "Start / Continue" button, and over to the "Pause" button after 10 seconds.  Finally, in the "Path Controller" dialog, the "Cycles Remaining" edit box will automatically lock itself after 10 seconds, to prevent accidental keyboard presses from changing the value.  (There is a button to lock-unlock it manually as well.)
  
• Custom Report Generation: In addition to the "Print Path" and "Print Statistics" option, there is now "Print Report".  This allows you to print custom reports with formatting and data of your choosing.  You can choose from several pre-defined templates, or create your own using 3rd party software such as HTML editors, Microsoft Word or WordPad, Excel, and virtually any other program that uses ASCII based text files.  Reports can include pictures of the part, logo's, etc., and be as fancy as the template file that you make.  There are over 100 built-in variables to allow including information from Make (like "Material Thickness") into your reports.  You can also declare your own variables, so that Make can ask the person generating the report to provide additional information, such as the name of the company the report is being prepared for, etc.
• Acceleration Smoothing: Starting with version 8.0 of the OMAX software, there is a new feature that can greatly enhance the smoothness and speed of all X, Y motor motions of your machine.  OMAX Calls this feature “Acceleration Smoothing”:
  
  
Benefits include:
•    Run reliably at significantly higher accelerations
•    Eliminate vibrations caused by sudden changes in acceleration, improving parts that involve high speed motions (thin and soft materials in particular)



Key points:



•    Version 8.0 of the software automatically upgrades you to the new acceleration values
•    Acceleration smoothing is turned on by default when you install version 8.0 of the software.
•    The default values are those that work well for all OMAX machines.  However, the advanced user may wish to fine-tune them to gain extra speed or to even further smooth out motor motions (For example, increase the acceleration even more, for small machines such as the 2626 or 2652.) 
•    The default values are set so that most parts will take approximately the same amount of time as before.
•    For some parts (especially thin parts with lots of corners), part times may be slightly slower, but the parts will typically come out significantly better.
•    Acceleration smoothing can be disabled by advanced users.


Technical Description

When the controller asks for a sudden change in the acceleration on the tool path, the force causing the acceleration must suddenly change. These sudden changes of force cause vibrations of the machine structure. In software revisions 7 and earlier these effects were minimized by simply keeping the accelerations low. Beginning with revision 8 the permitted acceleration is increased and the rate of change of acceleration is managed to minimize machine vibration.

There are 3 parameters that an administrator can select to affect the XY acceleration and vibration of the machine. They are all found on the advanced setup screens.

As before, the maximum acceleration of the machine can be selected. This value is input in units of g, the acceleration of gravity on the earth. One g is equivalent to 386.4 inches per second squared (or 9.8 m/s².) In software revision 7 and earlier it was normally set between .01g and .05g. With revisions after 8, the maximum acceleration should be set to .15g. There is little reason to adjust it from this value.

The next parameter is the maximum rate of change of acceleration, maximum smoothing.  It is input in units of inches per second cubed (or mm/sec³). The correct technical name for this parameter (as odd as it seems) is “Jerk”. The default value of 100 inches/sec³ (or 2540 mm/sec³) will give path times shorter than previous software revisions in all but the most intricate paths. To shorten the path time while permitting more vibration, raise the value to 500 inches/sec³ (or 12700 mm/sec³). Conversely, to reduce vibration while increasing path time, lower the value to 20 inches/sec³ (or 508 mm/s³). This parameter will have the greatest effect on thin parts and traverse lines where the machine is moving at its highest speeds and accelerations.

The last parameter, max delta accel, is concerned with the centrifugal acceleration perpendicular to the path direction when following curves. Imagine traveling a straight section and then entering an arc along a tangent to the arc. On the straight line, there is no acceleration perpendicular to the travel direction. On the arc, there is a large acceleration dependent on the speed along the arc. The sideward acceleration suddenly jumps by an amount dependent on the speed and arc radius. The maximum permitted value of this jump in acceleration is the third parameter that can be set, the max delta accel. Choosing a low value causes the machine to slow at the arc to line joint whereas a high value permits a high speed with attendant higher level of vibration. The default value of 10 inches/sec² (or 254 mm/sec²) caused neither significant slowing nor excess vibration.

The Z axis motion is not affected by these settings and is managed as before by simply specifying a maximum acceleration. The Tx and Ty axes for the Tilt-A-Jet are only indirectly affected by these settings. In general, smoother motion of the XY axes will cause smother motion of the Tilt-A-Jet.

Acceleration Smoothing can be disabled by setting the values for maximum smoothing, and max delta accel to one million (1000000).  If acceleration smoothing is disabled, then it is also required to set the maximum acceleration of the X and Y axes back to the previous lower value appropriate for your machine (0.01 to 0.05g).

If you have additional questions about this feature, email techsupport@omax.com



• Warning message to home machine: A warning message regarding the need to home the machine now appears when Make is run for the first time after a re-boot.  (This message can be disabled in Advanced Setup, if desired.)  The purpose of this message is to remind the user that it is good practice to re-home the machine after it has been turned off.  The reason it is good practice, is because when the power is disabled to the motors, it is possible for the machine to be moved.  These movements are not recorded, which can result in the machine home positions and soft limits drifting by the amount of the movement.   Re-homing the machine after power-up eliminates this as a possible problem.
  
• Updated to support new "Slit" Qualities.  (See description above for Layout).
  
• Display pressure in MPa or Bar, or KSI/PSI: When the units are configured for metric (mm, cm, etc.), then there is now a choice to display pressure in units of either "MPa" (megapascals) or "Bar".  This is configured in the "Configure Display & Units" dialog.
  
• Parametric Shape Library now remembers previously entered settings (if you wish): There is now a check-box in the "Parametric Shape Library" dialog that if checked, will cause Make to save the entered values for the currently entered shape, when you press the "OK" button  to accept the shape.  Then, next time that parametric shape is used, the edit boxes will automatically be filled in with the previous values used.  (This feature is also available in Layout, since Layout also uses the Parametric Shape Library.)
• 3D button always shows up in make, even if a 2D path is loaded.  (Just as a reminder that this feature exists.  Previously, it was invisible except if a 3D OMX file was loaded.)
• New naming convention for temporarily nested files:  Instead of saving nests as "Nest_Temp.ord", the software now chooses a file name that is unique to the computer the nesting is done with.  The file name is now "Nest_Temp_XXX" where "XXX" is replaced by the machine serial number of the computer it is on.  If the machine serial number is not set, then it uses the computer's name.  This prevents conflicts when nesting the same file that is stored somewhere on the Network, where multiple users with multiple OMAX machines might otherwise accidentally over-write each others temporary nested files.
• BTS files ("Bitstream files) can now contain comments: The A line with "//" in front will be ignored, allowing advanced users who are hand-editing BTS files to include comments to make it easier to navigate within the file. (BTS files are to the OMAX as Atoms are to objects, or assembly language is to software - they allow extreme control of the hardware, but are extremely difficult to create.  For information on BTS files, contact techsupport@omax.com.)
  
• Drill piercing small holes without turning on the jet: If the Drill accessory is turned on, and there is a pierce point defined by a traverse, then a tiny piece of "lead", then another traverse (as one would draw for making small pierces), then the hole will be drilled, but the jet will not turn on.  This works for short "leads" where the lead is shorter than 1 mixing tube diameter.
• Change to Tilt-A-Jet warning: If the Tilt-A-Jet is enabled, then when previewing a part to the screen, or when cutting a part, a note will now appear at the bottom of the preview stating that the previewed nozzle position (or white cross hair that indicates the nozzle position) may drift slightly from the original offset tool path, in order to compensate for X,Y motions introduced by tilting the cutting head.   Also, the warning message with the "Ok" button that appears the first time a preview is generated is no longer needed, so no longer shows.
  
• Better support for recording parts history: If the history file for a part grows to be larger than about 1.5 Mb, then the older portions of the file will be removed, in order to keep the file size down.  (Previously, the history would simply stop recording if the file exceeded 1 Mb.)

3D Path Editor



• Updated to support new "Slit" Qualities. (Slits are cutting qualities with no offset.  See description above in the Layout section.)
  
• Updated to support newer video cards and device drivers with OpenGL 2.0 (previously, an error would occur when attempting to run the 3D path editor with some device drivers that ship with OpenGL version 2.0.)
• Added "Draw Path With Arrows" button to display the tool path direction in the 2D view.
• It's now possible to "zoom" in closer to objects without them disappearing in the 3D view.
  
• Uses the same "File / Open" dialog as OMAX Layout.  (If you have a need to use the standard Windows-style file/open dialog, simply right click in the file list and choose, "Open file using Windows style dialog...")
  

OMAX Interactive Reference



• Lots of new content has been added.
• The PDF files supplied with the OMAX Interactive Reference are no longer shipped.  This is because we found them to not be very widely used, yet they take considerable effort to maintain and keep up to date.

Bug Fixes



• Fixed a bug that could allow the user to use the "go to spot on path" command while the machine was already running a path.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the machine to be off by one motor step (0.0005"/.0127mm for most machines, or 0.00025"/0.00635mm for the 2626XP) after the "Go to Spot on Path" command was used.
• Fixed a bug that could cause some DXF and DWG files to not import correctly when importing on computers with regional settings configured with commas to be used as decimal points.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the machine position to be off slightly after using the "Go to Path Interrupted Home" command on machines using Error Mapping.
  
• Fixed a bug where display corruption could occur after using the "right-click" option for "Use alternate filters" in the "File / Open" dialog.
• Fixed a bug where the "Test Pump" and "Path Controller" dialogs in Make would not appear when the software was installed on an off-line PC.
  
• Decreased collision checking tolerance for corner passing, to prevent a rare conflict where the corner pass might interfere with another feature of the path, and cause a rough edge, or skipped cut.  (So now, the corner pass will be disabled for that corner.)
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause parts that are longer than one dimension of a sheet of material to be nested to, to sometimes nest outside of the sheet.
• Fixed a bug that could cause an error when loading certain DWG files.
  
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause a part to be cut in "water only" if a negative abrasive on delay was entered, and "brittle mode" was turned on.
• Fixed a bug in Make that could cause unnecessary acceleration and vibration in some parts
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an error when attempting an impossible fillet in Layout.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a "range check error" when attempting to load a file with a Quality that is beyond the range of what the OMAX handles.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Precision Optical Locator to activate the automatic squaring of the Tilt-A-Jet, even on machines that did not have a Tilt-A-Jet installed.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause a display optimization to make shallow arcs appear as lines, and become confusing to users, particularly when using the "divide" commands.
• Fixed some areas where units would be displayed in all capital letters.
  
• Fixed a bug in the "Load Path" dialog that could cause the "transfer path and drawing" command to fail if the destination path was exceptionally long.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the left/right justification to be switched backwards in the True Type Text dialog.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an improper offset on the last cutting element of a tool path, if there was no final rapid traverse move, and the cutting element right before the end of the path was broken into two pieces.
  
• Fixed a bug that would allow OMAX Intelli-TRACE to (poorly) run on systems that do not meet the minimum system requirements.  Now if you attempt to run OMAX Intelli-TRACE on a computer that does not meet the minimum system requirements, and error message will occur, and the feature will not be executed.
• Fixed a bug that could cause some arc entities to be "flipped" the wrong direction when importing some DXF/DWG files
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the "Esc" key from canceling the "Rotate Copy" command properly
• Fixed a bug that could cause instability of Layout or Make when files with more than 500,000 entities are open.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the "Enable Soft Limits" checkbox on the pull-down menu from properly being checked after checking the similar check-box in the "Set soft limits by corner and size" dialog.
• Fixed a bug in the Abrasivejet Feed Rate Calculator, where the "Print Form" option would print without showing the text in the comboboxes.

Other:



• The "Esc" key can now be used as a shortcut for "clear" in the OMAX Calculator.
• OMAX Tester now shows bit for "Follow Z1" and "Follow Z2", which are used by the terrain follower accessory.
  
• Technical Support Reports now contain additional information:
• Which video display devices are available (video card information)
  
• Screen-capture of the screen when the last exception error occurred
• Whether or not Windows Vista is running
• Location of the Windows "Temp" directory.
• The bitstream image of the tool path (individual calculated motor movements) will now be included in the report if it's less than 150Mb (previously, it would not be included if greater than 50Mb)
  

Rev 7.0


Changes made since rev "6.0" of the software, which was released 10/26/2005.


Layout



• Intelli-TRACE^tm Automatic Raster To Vector conversion: The Image Tracing features has been greatly expanded to support an automatic mode for automatically tracing raster based images along areas of high contrast, and converting the raster image into a vector image suitable for editing in Layout and eventually making into a tool path.  To access this feature, use the "Image Tracing" pull-down menu at the top of Layout.  Manual tracing is also still available.
  
• Image Tracing (Manual and Intelli-TRACE) now supports a wide variety of raster file formats.  The following file filters are now supported: *.tif; *.jpg; *.gif; *.bmp; *.ico; *.png; *.cur; *.jp2; *.pxm; *.j2k; *.emf; *.wbmp; *.wmf; *.avi; *.wmv; *.mpg; *.crw; *.dcx; *.tga.  Note that only the very first frame of video file formats (*.wmv; *.avi; *.mpg) is loaded for tracing, and that full support for these file formats may depend on installed CODECs.  For animated gif files, or tiff files with multiple images, it is possible to specify which frame to trace by clicking on it in the preview window of the Open Picture dialog.
• Change the default pixels per inch property used in Image Tracing to 96 pixels per inch (typical screen density for a computer screen).  Previously, it was 300 pixels per inch.
• Faster bitmaps: Zooming raster images works a little better now (faster), as well as is a bit more reliable when running on computers with buggy or conflicting video drivers.
• New tool path font: Ariel Diamond: This is a variation of the Ariel font. When it is typed in, it creates a connected font within a diamond grid.  This (and many other) fonts are courtesy of Bob Ekstrom of Zimmerman McDonald . For information on making your own custom Tool Path Fonts, consult the OMAX Interactive Reference and / or training videos .  OMAX will pay money for high quality tool path fonts.  Contact techsupport@omax.com for details.
• It is now possible to type in spaces all by themselves (with no letters) when entering in text in the Tool Path Text Dialog.  This allows making geometry from just the "space" character (for example, making a diamond grid using the space character in the new "Ariel Diamond" font.)

Make



• If the Tilt-A-Jet is not square prior to opening the Precision Optical Locator "Locate" form in Make, then it will square itself.  This prevents mistakes of using the POL when the Tilt-A-Jet is not square.
• It is now possible to specify "HomeStepsFromHardStopX" and "HomeStepsFromHardStopY" In the MakePreferences.INI file to specify how far from hard stops the actual "Absolute Home" should be located.  This is used by OMAX when creating error maps for the OMAX 2626 xp machine.
  
Bug Fixes


• Fixed a bug in Layout's Rotate-Copy command where if an XY value was specified, and the local zero was not at the same position as absolute zero, then the rotation point would be in the incorrect spot.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the very last line of a .OMX file to be ignored
• Fixed a bug that could cause an application error when importing some 3D DXF / DWG files
  
• Fixed a bug in the Precision Optical Locator calibration dialog that could cause the calibration values to be lost when units other than Inches are used.
• Fixed a bug in the expression evaluator that could cause the expression to be incorrectly evaluated when evaluating trig functions that result in negative numbers.  This applies to anywhere where numbers are entered in as mathematical expressions, but is most noticed in the OMAX Calculator, Parametric Shape definitions, and the "Function Plot" feature of Layout..
Other:
|

• A new utility "OMAX Error Map Maker" has been added to the installation.  This utility is not for general use, but is used by OMAX Technicians for the purpose of making error maps. (Error mapping is a method for significantly increasing the positioning accuracy of the machine. This is useful for the highest precision applications - especially where high precision must be maintained over large distances. Error mapping is standard on the OMAX "xp" machines, but can be applied to any OMAX.  Contact OMAX for information on having error mapping performed on your machine.)

Rev 6.0


Changes made since rev "5.0" of the software, which was released 4/18/2005.