Defeat the dongle?

[Corey Renner]

Since the lasercutter is always in such high-demand, I was thinking to myself: "self: I wonder if that stupid dongle could be reproduced or defeated so that people can prepare their files for lasering without tying-up the lasering machine?"

Can the dongle be reproduced (preferably with an arduino)?  Or can someone patch the software to not need it?  Surely someone among us has the requisite skills.

cheers,

c

[Ryan Mcdermott]

Mmm, from a previous life, I know that cracking dongles is usually not so much a thing that gets done.  Usually the software gets patched to just always answer "YES SIR!" to "Is the dongle plugged in?".

I could be wrong, though.

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[david...@gmail.com]

I have a demo version of lasercut 5.3 if that helps.

[Nate Caine]

Let's handle this topic offline.

[Ryan Mcdermott]

...why?  We have lots of people on the list that might be able to offer suggestions for design software or alternatives.

For instance, suggesting that somebody can install a demo version.

[Paul Hickey]

Because cracking or circumventing copy protections on software could be considered illegal and this is an open list.  

Paul Hickey

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[Ryan Mcdermott]

Then talk about that, and talk about alternatives...like installing the demo version of the software, which is something that is covered in the laser class, is totally legal, and is tacitly encouraged by the vendor.

Defeat the dongle: is it practical for one of us to reverse engineer the hardware dongle that lets the laser cutter software run?

Probably not.

Okay, now that we're not illegally discussing how to shift illegal bits around a computer anymore, how can we accomplish the goal in the OP here, which is to allow people to do their design work somewhere other than the machine connected to the laser?

Again: one option is to install the [apparent?] demo.

Another: As a student, you can get AutoCAD for free from autodesk (again this isn't illegal.  It's a demo that works forever.).

Another is Inkscape.  This isn't a drafting software.  Again, this isn't a drafting software.  This is a graphic design application.  It CAN be used for doing laser cut designs, but it sucks at it (and I say this as a person who would consider himself an "expert" on Inkscape, who used it as part of his job every day for several years).

Okay, howabout workflows?

AutoCAD can export directly to DXF.  This is awesome, this is the best solution, and you should use it.

Inkscape /can/ export to DXF, but it sucks.  If somebody wants to legally patch the DXF exporter to make it work, go for it!  I recommend (and do this all the time) exporting to PDF, then importing to coreldraw, and using corel's DXF export.  (Do this on the laser cutter computer.  The "design" computer in the back doesn't seem to have the right mix of tools on it for this to work.)

Import these things to lasercut, set your settings, and enjoy your laser project.

[Bob Bushman]

Has anyone tried LibreCAD? (Open Source fork of QCAD)

http://librecad.org/cms/home.html

Native format is DXF, I used it to draft some involute
gears(*) and cut them from acrylic on a Helix Epilog
a few years ago, and still use it for noodling on
geometric shapes. Works really well for me, though I
haven't tried its output on the HSL setup.

* http://www.cartertools.com/involute.html

> --
>
>

[Corey Renner]

Don't forget the student version of Solidworks installed on the lab machine in the back, it can also export DXF.

Does the demo version of LaserCut allow you to do all of the necessary prep work?  I haven't tried it myself.

cheers,

c

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[Ryan Mcdermott]

There really isn't any "prep" work to do in laser cut other than setting your speed and power settings.

I mean...you *can* do some design in it...but shouldn't be.  There are much better options.

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[Ben Humpherys]

The best time-saver I have found with the laser is that LaserCut will recognize the layers in an imported DXF file, and those are automatically added to the sidebar. This saves you the trouble of going through and selecting the geometry that needs to be done with one setting, then selecting more geometry and assigning another setting. So if you want one set of cuts done first, put those in one layer, and raster's in another layer, and so forth. Then in LaserCut you just put the layers in the order you want them done, and assign power settings to each layer.

[Francois Besnier]

"Inkscape /can/ export to DXF, but it sucks. "

I believe that the free extension "Big Blue Saw's DXF Export For Inkscape" resolves that. At least it seems to work fine for the design I'll attempt to cut tonight on the laser cutter (I checked the exported DXF using a few different drawing tools). I shouldn't need to use CorelDraw to convert the svg into dxf but I'll bring the svg along just in case...

Francois

[david...@gmail.com]

Ok, I am a newbie to Lasercut.

I have lasercut5.3 Demo version.

Here is what I can do so far:

Import various file types;
Manipulate the file;
Use inbedded graphics tools to create images in Lasercut;
Simulate the various modes of operation for the images, i.e cut, engrave, pinhole, etc. ;
Set Power, Speed, gaps, x/y thingies;
Enter "Advanced settings" for the laser i.e. fill circle & engrave fill circle;

Lastly depending on how I close the Demo version I can save the changes and get the following additional files:

projectname.ecp
projectname.INI
projectname.G00

Concerning the .INI, I experimented with the same file, manipulated the image and changed laser settings, closed the demo version in a particular way after the manipulations and settings changes (did this twice),  these changes appeared in the respective .INI files. 

[Rick Schultz]

I had good luck with the laser cutter using the free version of Sketchup 8 and this DXF export plugin http://www.guitar-list.com/download-software/convert-sketchup-skp-files-dxf-or-stl.  I exported in millimeters and selected polyface mesh. This is the fan assembly I cut using this method.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hslphotosync/8055558980/

[Ryan Mcdermott]

Francois: will you install that on the "design" computer in the back?  Its the one on the workbench by the laser cutter.

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[Francois Besnier]

Okay, will do tonight.

Francois

[Simon Heath]

Excerpts from Bob Bushman's message of 2012-12-20 10:55:36 -0700:

> Has anyone tried LibreCAD? (Open Source fork of QCAD)
>
> http://librecad.org/cms/home.html

I second this; I haven't played with LibreCAD, but QCAD
itself is quite good (at least for small projects; I haven't
tried designing an engine block in it) and not expensive.

Simon