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454 Workshopdocs

454 Workshop documentation

454 Workshop is two apps that work together: 454 Design draws the parts, and 454 Control sends jobs to the machine. Both run in a browser, need no installation, and are free and open source.

Before you startIt's beta software that moves a real machine: how to cut safely with it, and how to report a problem.
Control: quick startFrom opening the app to a finished cut, in order.
Control: referenceEvery part of Control's screen: jogging, probing, running a job, the tabs and Settings.
Design: quick startDrawing parts, opening VCarve projects, your tool library.
Design: every toolEach tool, group by group: what it does and how to use it.
Design: workspaceJob setup, layers, the tool library, the Toolpaths panel, checking the drawing and Settings.
Toolpaths (CAM) reference, betaEvery toolpath type and setting in Design, and how to check a job.
Coming from Carbide MotionWhat works the same, and every place it doesn’t.

What 454 Control does

Section titled “What 454 Control does”
  • Opens G-code, checks it, and shows it in 3D before anything moves.
  • Runs the job, adding the things files leave out: spindle spin-up, travelling high, tool-change handling, and a predictable ending.
  • Jogging, zeroing, BitZero probing and BitSetter tool measurement.
  • Recovers a stopped job from the line where cutting actually stopped.

What 454 Design does

Section titled “What 454 Design does”
  • 2D drawing for parts you intend to cut: lines, arcs, text, and the editing tools around them.
  • A design history, as in Fusion: go back to any step, or change one and the steps after it follow.
  • Dimensions that drive the geometry, in millimetres or inches.
  • Opens VCarve .crv files and DXFs, and lists the toolpaths a project contains.
  • Nests parts onto your material, and holds your tool library, imported from VCarve.

What you need

Section titled “What you need”
  • Chrome or Edge on a desktop to talk to the machine. Everything else works in any browser.
  • A GRBL 1.1 controller, which covers the Shapeoko and Nomad.
  • Nothing to install, and no account. Settings live in your browser and export to a file.

Help inside the apps

Section titled “Help inside the apps”

Press F1 in 454 Design or 454 Control, or the ? (Design) or Help (Control) button in the header, and these guides open in a window over the app. It opens at the part about what you’re doing: the kind of cut in the toolpath editor, Job setup, the tool library, setting your zero. Type in the search box to find anything else (try “tabs” or “probe”), press Enter for the first result, and Esc to go back to your work. While it’s open, keys you press don’t reach the app, so nothing on the drawing or the machine changes. Open the docs shows the same page in a window of its own, to keep beside your work.

The small ⓘ beside a section’s name, in either app, does the same for that section: rest the pointer on it for a line about what the section is for, or click it to open the guide there.