To make the 2d version they deleted the part of the program that conrols the z axis movement.
I suspect that since I have the 2d version that the driver may have been tested on the 3d version. I insert a MZ command before and after each J2 command to move the bit up and down.
Its a shopbot file alright and it would cut out what I want, if only it included commands to raise and lower the rounter bit into the work! I can take the resulting file, run it through the editor and search for J2 commands. By golly! It is a shopbot file! Am I off to make my fortune? OOOOHHH NOOOOO. Undaunted, I have Engravelab cut, sending the commands to file. Again, no connection! Sooo time to reboot. Clever boy that I am, I unplug the controller box and plug it in again. If I try to connect with shopbot program, it cannot hook up with the controller. Commands get sent to the control box, but nothing happens except that somehow the system, gets really ticked off. My version will not operate the shopbot directly.
Doc'n is as necessary to software as a windshield is to a car. It would be nice if software companies considered their product to be one that has to be usable out of the box, not something that requires hundreds of hours of struggling with. Too bad they don't have more robust tutorials.
I have played with vector cad/cam and it looks good for 2d and some 3d. I don't want any more with the sign guys. I already have enough adventures with file doodling. I want to use the shopbot to cut, that's all. I don't want to be tied to the computer 'fixing' cutting files from corel or whatever for sign shops. There are lots of other applications for the SB96. In a case like this if engravelab works flawlessly with sbp files, I know that the input files that I get won't (shouldn't) cause me grief when I cut the product. I will then generate all of the tool paths and cut the product. I would be on exactly the other end of where you are! I want signshops who have the Engravelab design package, which uses native CadLink code, to e-mail the files to me. I guess the software is designed so that the user must do everything according to Engravelab's prescribed step-by-step procedure. We tried importing CNC G-code programs into Engravelab, and it still did strange things to the files which made them unusable. It looks like a powerful system, but it might take too much control out of the hands of the user.
We downloaded a free evaluation copy from the Cadlink web site in order to understand the software. It might be OK for other signmaking tasks. We now send this customer finished, nested & tested CNC programs for their router, bypassing the Engravelab system. We understand Engravelab will properly handle polyline DXF files, but many CAD systems (including ours) don't support polylines. We have had to give up sending them standard DXF files, since Engravelab fragments them into groups of lines and groups of arcs, destroying the cutting path.
We don't own Engravelab, but we program for a customer who uses it.