I agree to the point that both functions should most definitely be available, but the "flag" style is actually more accurate and use fewer curves if you know how to use it. A quick approximate outline is most easily created with the draw curve and it's the most intuitive for beginners for creating vectors, but a more accurate vector with fewer points and lines (these are called bezier curves and the flags act as "magnets" or gravitational pulls for the curve which is what gives the accuracy) can actually create an outline with fewer clicks and more accuracy if you know how to use it well. None the less, in my belief the more functions we have the better but I think they tried to remove functions to simplify the user interface and didn't realize 95% of users prefer the easy way, I got 30 years of experience with vector graphics and cnc machining and I'll use the 2 options equally depending on the work needed to be done. The thing with bezier curves is that you have to know by experience how the curve will react before setting your next point and for most people it just doesn't make any sense and will take 3 times longer.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

ApeHolder42066, good points my friend! You and I both hope that draw curves will come back on new upgrades to help out the beginner CNCer!

Thank you for posting this. I can't draw smooth curves without the "draw curve" function. It's frustrating! Why Vectric decided to remove this asset is beyond my comprehension. Sure, the new sketch carving tool is a nice bell and whistle but I would rarely use it for my everyday purposes. My focus and desire is to make unique 'whatevers' not cute pictures I can snatch from the interweb or AI generated. Okay, I vented. :):) Like always, Garrett, your videos are always informative and much appreciated.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

pwilisch, you are so welcome brother! Glad to hear this one helped you so much.

Thank you for posting this. I use draw curves all the time. I'll wait on upgrading Aspire until they bring it back.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

VincentBee2532, you are so welcome my friend.

Thanks for the update Garrett,,,, Nice informative video as well,,,, as always

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

stevecox552, you are so welcome my friend.

reply from Vectric to my inquiry: Many thanks for your inquiry. Many of the Draw Curves tool have been integrated into the main Draw Polyline tool now, and for general curve drawing, the Freehand tool now has superseded the old Draw Curve tool for use, especially in tasks like Tracing as a faster and easier tool to use. When using the mouse to draw lines with the Polyline tool, you can now click and drag your curves instead. Click and Release will make a Straight Line while Click and Drag produces a curved line for you and you can switch between them on the fly easily in the new Updated Polyline tool. So the draw curve tool now resides with the Dodo bird.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

pwilisch, thanks for reaching out to Vectric on that one brother! That is very informative.

Good point. I am struggling trying to draw curves in Vectric V12. Your video was very informative. Great job. Thanks.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

JoeSpath, you are so welcome my friend.

Hey Garrett, looking forward to Next Wednesday. Thanks again for the invite. I am thinking that with the new freehand drawing tool which is a more liquid flowing drawing tool, Vectric most likely didn't see a need for the draw curve tool. Ever since the free hand tool came out in 11.554 (I believe that was the version), I immediately made the move to use it instead of the draw curve tool, I like the flow, especially when doing exactly what you were demonstrating with tracing the outline of the face in the image. I am sure you have experimented with the freehand tool, I really like it for this type of task. Great video, I enjoy your content!

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

SpindleTV, I'm excited to have you on the live session brother! I'm also happy to hear that my videos have been helping you and happy CNCing brother!

Thanks Garrett for this update. I must say this is pretty disappointing as I use it like my right hand, almost all the time. Maybe I won't even update for this reason. Surely hope this put it back 8n it's proper place.😢

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

andreww6738, you are so welcome brother. The update has its pro's and cons for sure my friend!

@paulforshaw8782

Ай бұрын

Garret I have jumped in and updated to 12 and I am angry it's totally different to 11.0 11/5 ...I subscribed to Learn my CNC by Kyle Lyle and I am working through it...this CNC business sure is costing me an absolute fortune 😩😩

Try using the freehand drawing tool. You can go the nodes tool and notice it will reduce the number of nodes down to approximate the curve you drew and it better adjusts the node anchors to match the way you drew the line. I always found the draw curve tool frustrating, and since I have done a number of State drawings I am always working on a curve like a shoreline.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

oscar33212, good call brother. I really like that idea! Thanks for the tips on another way to set this up.

Thanks for highlighting the curve tool, am wondering what version it was introduced as a few years back I needed that function, I called it the bezier curve ability, to create nice graded curves between static measured points. A similar drawing ability existed in a word processor program called Final Copy on a Commodore Amiga in the late 1980's but that usefulness has been lost on other software since

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

CrankedOver, you are so welcome brother! You bring up a lot of good points regarding similar draw abilities on previous software. I could definitely see how that would be useful.

Totally agree, & I've filed complaint about loss of the Draw Curves tool. (After your video confirmed I wasn't just totally overlooking something.)

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

RLamarDuffy, good idea brother! That would help other CNCers once Vectric puts it back in!

@RLamarDuffy

Ай бұрын

@@IDCWoodcraft For the record, here is how I stated my case to Vectric: I am fully aware of the Draw Polyline & Freehand tools, & often use them. But they do NOT replicate the speed & accuracy with which I can trace a complex curve using the Draw Curve tool. The Polyline tool can leave you with distorted curves & handles that are placed in unintuitive positions, & then you have to fiddle with correcting them. And you can inadvertently end up with straight line segments if you're not careful. Then you have to fiddle with handles, nodes, or just undo to get them right. The Freehand tool depends on how steady you can move your mouse & how well you can see your background image through the image of your moving mouse cursor. Yes, the smoothness controls can help, but it's still not perfect. Using the Draw Curve tool, you can very precisely place the crosshairs of your mouse cursor before clicking. Even with your best efforts, the Polyline & Freehand tools result in vector segments with noticeably more nodes than the Draw Curve tool, which unnecessarily slows down toolpath execution on the machine. So you either have to accept that, or waste time removing unnecessary nodes. After fighting V12 to trace a BMP for over 45 minutes, I went back to V11.5 and used the Draw Curve tool to trace the same BMP in 15 SECONDS, & ended up with only about 1/4 to 1/3 the number of nodes. The Draw Curve tool is NOT redundant functionality that can be deprecated. It is an INNOVATIVE APPROACH that Vectric created to draw smooth, complex curves, that is distinct from drawing tools found in even dedicated graphics programs. In fact, I sometimes use it SPECIFICALLY to draw, rather than using my other graphics programs. Please do not abandon this extremely useful tool.

@RLamarDuffy

3 күн бұрын

Good news. It looks like V 12.007 has effectively restored the equivalent of the Draw Curve tool. It's addressed in the first line of the release notes, & I've tested it. To work like the Draw Curve tool of old, use the Polyline Tool, click your first point, then tap S on the keyboard. Now you can click points (not click-drag), & they will be connected by curves, just like the old Draw Curve. Tapping S again will switch you back to the straight-line Polyline Tool. Thanks Vectric!

Yes- This is an older style of the Pen tool in Illustrator. Adobe updated a feature that allows a more fluid process with the last node placed with the Pen tool. There are so many tutorials out there on mastering the Pen tool because it is not intuitive. As you mentioned, there are workarounds that are time-consuming, such as adding more nodes and converting to curves.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

CraigLafferty, very good points my friend! Its unfortunate that the workarounds take a bit of time.

I haven’t yet downloaded Vecrtric, though I will in the next couple of weeks. Having watched a bunch of tutorials, it does look a lot like the pen tool in Photoshop and Illustrator. I use Photoshop a lot and probably will continue to do so as a prep tool for Vectric. Great job on the video. I’ll be curious to see if it is similar here.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

ctenos45069, glad to hear this video helped you brother! I am excited for you to download Vectric so you can get started.

yes I am ok with you, i have the same problem with V12

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

zorglubbrok237, hope this video helped you then brother! Happy CNCing.

Try the freehand sketch tool. I think it works decent.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

Not accurate enough for right tracking

Will you be doing a video on V12 Inlay soon? Hope so.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

arthurgibeaut6824, that is a great idea brother! Ill add it to the video list!

Just great! I'm still recovering from the last upgrade when I went from version 6 to 11.. For example having to zoom in and delete every little bit of waste material by clicking on each individual piece in the preview toolpath section. The older version just had a delete waste button which deleted everything with one click. Or am I missing something?

@IDCWoodcraft

27 күн бұрын

AusWorkshop, glad to hear this one helped you brother! As for the delete waste button, I need to look into that one my friend. That would be a cool tool.

@AusWorkshop

27 күн бұрын

@@IDCWoodcraft Yes it used to work great in Version 6. One click and it was done.

while not as good you can do the outline with the draw line tool, (just click where you want the inflection points), once done use the "fit Curves to vectors" tool with fitting set to "bezier curves" you then have to play with the tolerance (up it quite a bit as far as i can tell). Not as good and not as quick but it has a similar effect as what you are doing

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

olbilldoor, very true brother! that is a very good point.

Can't you use the freehand drawing tool?

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

Yes but try drawing with a mouse rather than picking points

What happens if you hold the control or shift key down while drawing? Maybe it switches function to curves.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

daviddickmeyer5231, not sure on that one quite just yet brother! The software just came out they may have changed things.

I have used both v11.5 and 12 and I also wish the draw curve function was back.

@IDCWoodcraft

27 күн бұрын

RonHibbert-wc3gm, I couldn't agree more brother!

I just upgraded to V12 and ran across the same issue. I don't like it. I may continue to use V11.5 in those instances drawing curves.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

ronhansen7717, good points brother! That could definitely work.

won't the freekhand sketch tool do what you want?

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

No. It's to hard to manage dinner details

@CavedogDesigns

Ай бұрын

@@IDCWoodcraft I always hate trying to figure out dinner details. Where to eat, what time, etc.

Trying to figure out why they would remove a feature like this. It's not like it's cluttering up the UI.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

arthurhammeke8296, very true my friend. I couldn't have said it better myself.

If you use Gear gadget, you will not get to use in in version 12, this is what Vectric said in an email to me "It looks like the Gear Gadget would been remaking to V12 but at this time we do not have any timeline for plans to do that"

@IDCWoodcraft

27 күн бұрын

mikefarris1623, great tips brother. Thanks for sharing.

they just replace curves in version 12.05 update check it out

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

ranger2056, good call brother! Ill take a look.

Tks garrett great wrokaround untill they fix this

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

samspade2519, you are so welcome my friend.

YES, me too , i can't draw correct curve with polyline and the new hand tool, I have the same problem

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

pierregloups2305, great point brother! Sorry to hear that this new tool is giving you trouble.

@pierregloups2305

Ай бұрын

The best solution is to draw polyline with lines only and after édit all the nodes of the polyline to convert to spline with buttons right and select S. It's the only way for me to have a correct curve.

Auto cad needs the draw curve tool too!! That version 12 function is exactly like what Autocad function has!!😡

@IDCWoodcraft

19 күн бұрын

scottdennis6658, good points my friend. I couldn't agree more.

Lightburn has the same system for drawing curves. It's painfully difficult and not instinctive.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

gregself6203, glad to hear this one is a bit easier to use brother! Happy CNCing.

my Mistake not there

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

ranger2056, darn! That would have been very cool.

I use the draw curves function ALL THE TIME. Won't upgrade until they bring it back.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

darinhickling8121, reach out to vectric brother! A lot of other CNCers have and the more folks asking for this feature back the better my friend.

So it seems they hid the curve tool in the line tool per the video they put out: kzread.info/dash/bejne/lKJl06SrdrDZh5M.html Basically use the line tool then hit "S" on the keyboard to toggle to the curve tool

@IDCWoodcraft

10 күн бұрын

olbilldoor, Thanks for sharing the tip from the video! I'll have to give that a try next time I'm working on a project. It's always great to learn new shortcuts.

One of other things I don't like.

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

tedlitz7266, sorry to hear that brother! This update has its pro's and cons for sure!

can't they just put back in the freehand tool? No reason to pay money to go backwards in life

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

kevinbaxter1571, your best bet is to reach out to Vectric on this one brother! They might put it back if enough CNCers ask about it.

too bad vectric has decided to listen to developers instead of it's user-base. STUPIDITY AT IT'S FINEST

@IDCWoodcraft

Ай бұрын

ToddWedlake, try reaching out to Vectric brother! They may consider adding it back.