How to use the simulator to do remote teaching during the pandemic?

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We have many training institutes customers asking about how to use the simulator to do remote teaching during the pandemic.
First of all, if you already have an educational license pack, you can contact our helpdesk to get specific instructions on how to get started. On the other hand, if you are thinking of buying a license but have doubts about how it works, we will explain it below:

When you order an educational license from us, you will get an automatic email back with a license string that can be used to unlock the software on your computers. We also have an alternative license that instead is using a license file. If you contact us, we can convert the license as you like free of charge. When it comes to remote teaching, the license file option is more practical.
We will send you a link to download the license file. The teacher or administrator can then send this file, or the link to download it, to all of the students.

The students will need a Windows PC and a working Internet connection. He or she will then have to download and install the simulator from our download page and finally copy the license file to the installation folder. We will explain this process in detail upon request. The students can either contact our helpdesk directly for instructions or go via the teacher.
Once all students have installed the software the teacher can use the built-in cloud service to upload and download CNC files, drawings, and CAM files to share them with the students. The students can also upload their progress via the cloud service.

The teacher may also choose to use services like Skype, Zoom, Dropbox, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, and others to facilitate the classes and communication with the students.

We hope this helps to clarify how remote teaching with CNCSimulator Pro is done. We will be happy to answer any remaining questions you may have on our helpdesk.

Stay safe everyone!

Nostalgia

We found this picture of the machine selector in version 1. It was 8 years ago. Times fly!

A big thanks to all of our great users that constantly give us suggestions and feedback. Without you guys, we would never have come this far.

Online-help update

We have updated the online-help today to include all the new functionality in version 3.2. As usual, we ask our users to please report any mistakes or if you find that anything is missing. We are constantly trying to improve the documentation, so all feedback is greatly appreciated.

If you do not see the updates, remember to clear your browser cache.

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Kaspersky anti-virus

The Kaspersky virus protection software falsely reports CNCSimulator Pro as having a virus.  We have had several users reporting this.

Here is what you need to do to get around the problem:

How to add an application to exclusions in Kaspersky Internet Security

1. Open the settings Kaspersky Internet Security and choose Additional –> Threats and Exclusions.

How to add an application to exclusions in Kaspersky Internet Security

2. Select Manage exclusions or Specify trusted applications.

Manage exclusions

Select the file or application to exclude from the scan scope in Kaspersky Internet Security. Optionally, specify the protection component that should not scan the application. You can learn more about setting up exclusions in Kaspersky Internet Security in the Knowledge Base.

$CodeHelp

Here is an example on how easy it will be to customize the popup-help in the editor, in version 3.2.

Let us change the help for G00 to Spanish.

In the beginning of the program, or in a separate include-file, we put the following line:


$CodeHelp 1 “G00|POSICIONAMIENTO RÁPIDO|G00 X.. Y.. Z..|Los desplazamientos programados a continuación de G00 se ejecutan en avance rápido establecido en la puesta a punto de la máquina, mediante los parámetros máquina.”

Then when we hold the mouse over G00 we will se the following:

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Version 3.2 news

We are working on the next version of CNCSimulator Pro and would like to share some exciting news with you.

In version 3.2, you will be able to completely customize the simulator so that it matches your machine! We have added commands to define your own G, M, and other codes by connecting them to your own custom subprograms or macros. These will run hidden in the background so that it looks like they are built into the simulator. You will even be able to add your own custom popup-help to match your codes.

We are also working on a feature that will allow users to simplify canned cycles into basic G-codes so that they can be run on any machine.

Stay tuned for more!

Service interruption

Our servers had a major outage today and was down for several hours. That is not good. We understand how important it is for our users and customers to be able to use the software and we sincerely apologize for the downtime created by this outage. Our technicians are working on a solution to prevent this from happening in the future. Thank you for your patience while we are fixing the issue.

Huge documentation overhaul

We have made a complete overhaul of our online-help to reflect all new functionality of version 3 and later. Please let us know if you find any errors or if there is any information missing. We are constantly working on making the documentation better as we believe it is as important as the software itself. You can check it out using this link.

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Blockscript

Advanced users who want to do customizations like plug-ins and custom postprocessors should have a look at this.

In version 3.0 we implemented a built-in Blockscript editor in the simulator. Blockscript is a graphical language specifically made to enable customizations in the CNCSimulator Pro environment.

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You can download the Blockscript documentation from this link.

Important info: Windows 10 S

Microsoft is releasing a new version of Windows called Windows 10 S.

If you want to be able to run CNCSimulator and thousands of other programs (like all Adobe products) do not buy a computer with this operating system. It is a limited version of Windows that just allow you to run software from the Microsoft app store. A computer with Windows 10 S is more like a Chromebook than a real computer. Microsoft is trying to force everyone to use their app store so they can take a share from every sale just like Apple do. It is bad news for the consumers as well as for all independent software creators.

Please have a look at this video by Jerry. He has been an employee at Microsoft for 15 years so he knows what he is talking about.

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