Before you start

454 Workshop is in beta. It’s used for real work, but it’s new, and it’s still finding problems. This page is what to know before you connect it to your machine. It takes five minutes to read.

It moves a real machine

A CNC router spins a sharp cutter fast and moves it with a lot of force. A wrong depth, a missed lift or a tab that’s too thin can ruin the work, break a bit, or throw a part. 454 Workshop tries hard to prevent that, and says so plainly when something looks wrong, but software can’t see your machine.

• Air-cut anything new first. Set Z zero well above the material (a few centimetres), run the job, and watch it go through in the air. Only then set the real zero and cut. See the Control quick start.
• Keep a hand near the stop. Know where your e-stop or power switch is before you press Start. Control’s red STOP button stops the job too, but a switch you can reach without looking is faster.
• Stay with the machine while it runs.
• Long jobs: don’t let the computer sleep. A computer that sleeps partway through stops feeding the machine, with the spindle still running. The desktop app keeps the computer awake while the machine is busy; in a browser, Control keeps the screen on while a job runs, as long as its tab stays in front. Set Windows’ USB power saving (USB selective suspend) to off as well, so the port isn’t switched off to save power.
• Hold the work down properly, and check tabs are on through-cuts before cutting parts free.
• Wear eye and ear protection, and use dust collection.

The toolpaths (CAM) are the newest part

Design’s toolpaths are the part most likely to have mistakes, and each one is marked beta. Before cutting a job made in Design:

1. Set the material’s thickness in Job setup, from a measurement, not the label. Design checks every toolpath’s depth against it, and can’t check anything without it.
2. Run Check (the magnifier with a tick, at the top of the Toolpaths panel), and read each toolpath’s notes.
3. Look at Preview in wood: does the finished piece look as you expect?
4. Open it in 454 Control with Preview in 454 Control: its 3D view and checks look at the G-code itself.
5. Air-cut it.

Design warns when a cut would go past the bottom of the material. Any toolpath that does is marked ⚠ on its card, with how far it goes into the spoilboard, and Save G-code stops and names it before saving. You can still save, because cutting into the spoilboard is sometimes meant, but you won’t do it without being told. The warning is only as good as the thickness you entered, and it knows nothing about clamps, screws or where the material really sits: it doesn’t replace the air-cut.

See the CAM reference for what each setting does.

What it’s been tried on

So far, 454 Workshop has run a Shapeoko XXL (GRBL 1.1, a VFD spindle, a BitSetter and a BitZero v2). It’s written for GRBL 1.1 machines generally, such as other Shapeokos and the Nomad, but on anything else you’re among the first: air-cut and go slowly, and tell us how it went, good or bad.

The desktop app runs on Windows, and on Linux (new: see Installing on Linux). The apps also run in Chrome or Edge on other systems, from 454workshop.com.

Installing on Windows

The installer isn’t signed yet, so Windows warns that it’s from an unrecognised publisher. Choose More info, then Run anyway. See The desktop app for installing and updates.

When something goes wrong

Please tell us: it’s how the beta gets better.

• In the desktop app: 454 Workshop → Report a problem…. It opens a short form on GitHub with the version already filled in.
• Or go straight to the form: report a problem.

The form asks what happened, how to make it happen again, and your machine. If the machine moved or cut in a way it shouldn’t have, say so: those reports are looked at first. The drawing (.454.json) or the G-code file helps a lot; drag it into the form. Everything on the form is public, so leave out anything private.

Ideas are welcome too: suggest an idea.