First impression 
Just upgraded from Pro v11.5 to Pro v12 and other than having to learn new icons & screens, I noticed that it seems the Draw Curve icon is missing.
Maybe I’m just old and grouchy, but I don’t like changes, but I’ll get use to it (if I have to, I guess…)
Pony
Yes, the left our the Draw Curve icon, but the Freehand tool can do what the draw curve used to di.
Thanks,
Freehand tool, Woo hoo…
Also tok me a bit to figure out how to rotate the 3D view, but I’ll get use to it.
Pony
I agree, the screen changes aren’t a warm welcome but once I played around it wasn’t so bad. The thing I do not like is the screen and tool colors not having a contrast color. It’s all grey and I was liking my old blue and grey screen from VCarvePro 11. I wonder if we can change backgrounds some how?
I haven’t looked but you should be able to change the colors in the settings. I had noticed that my 3D background had changed and I know that it can be changed in the settings.
I also discovered that despite my telling the upgrade to use my current tool database, it has changed at least 1 of my bits on a drawing I was working on before the upgrade. I’ll have to check bit settings for awhile.
Wish I’d been a Beta tester for Vectric, I’d have found a few flaws for them. I was for Esko when I used ArtiosCad years ago.
Pony
Things I can speak about after a day of kicking the tires:
Brilliant and/or fantastic:
Left sidebar redesign, including collapsable section headers
3D view with editable model components and much better showing of 2D vectors
Overall refresh of the entire user interface including icons
Able to show or hide things like bitmaps, models and vectors easily without hiding a layer
Easily select any sheet, layer or model level with button at top-center
Good idea, failed implementation:
VCarve Inlay Toolpath. Only allows you to choose “VBits” and not tapered ball nose or carving bits like the regular “VCarve” toolpath does, and makes it pretty much useless for any kind of detailed inlay. And, the results as shown in the preview window were pretty bad (chipped tips for the plug carving) for known, good, values that I have used for inlays in the past.
3D view rotation not consistent when switching sheets. Views kept going off screen after switching sheets, and there needs to be a “reset” view button, like older version, for single-click back to a 3/4 profile view without spinning some spherical graphic in the upper-right corner
WTF were they thinking, or “hey, upgrades are not supposed to remove features”:
Save button removed
Curve drawing tool removed
Tempted to upgrade but not sure if its worth it. That carved sketch thing they showed in the previews looked neat but also didn’t really look like anything i would use with any regularity.
You say they have a v inlay toolpath? Thats cool if it takes the manual work out, but its not like that was particularly hard.
Oh man Forrest, you just deflated my excitement level. I was really liking the fact inlays will be an easy task now (I have yet to try it) and if and when I do it would be done with tapered ball nose bits. I can’t imagine a really intricate inlay done with vbits.
I upgraded to Aspire 12, though only because I got a free upgrade since I upgraded from VCarve less than a year before the V12 release.
Anyway, the carved sketch feature is pretty cool, but I’d honestly only recommend it if you have a really stable machine. I’m using a Foreman on a QCW, have reduced acceleration, installed a lot of braces, etc. That said, I’ve never seen my machine shake as badly as it does while using the Vectric sketch thing. Not sure who they have working on that toolpath algorithm, but it could use some work.
I tried the inlay toolpath, but I can’t say I’m particularly fond of it. Admittedly, I don’t regularly do inlays, so I’mprobably not the target audience for this one. It may be worthwhile, but having to enter a glue gap and other parameters seems like something that’ll require destroying a lot of good wood just to figure out how to tune in the new parameters.
I discovered yesterday that they incorporated the text spacing tool right into the text tool. No having to use a second tool.
If you’ve never used text spacing, try it, it’s very handy. Just remember to use your Shift and/or Ctrl keys.
I still wish they would put the SAVE icon back!!! I know that there’s a keyboard shortcut, but the icon was HANDY. Whoever deleted it should be sent back to Catholic school so they can have their knuckles rapped!
Pony
Easy fix, just turn it back on in options. “Show additional file operations”
THANK YOU very much!!!
Pony
I just purchased Vcarve pro V12, just waiting on the license codes to proceed, will it install itself once I type in the license code mate?