Discontinued Woodworking Software
Here is a list of woodworking software that has come and gone. Why
keep such a list? No good reason. Perhaps for the historical record. Or
perhaps to help woodworkers like yourself realize why you can no longer
find a particular product that you once used or heard about. And who
knows, maybe someone will decide one of these programs still has a niche
to fill and attempt to resurrect it? Only time will tell...
Unless noted otherwise, these programs all ran on Windows PC's.
BevelGage for Woodworkers
BevelGage for Woodworkers was a rather ambitious woodworking application
that contained an impressive collection of woodworking calculators and
technical data about wood, composite materials, and fasteners. It was
developed by Ed McClave of the boatbuilding and restoration firm McClave,
Philbrick & Giblin, in Stonington CT. BevelGage provided utilities
for computing beam deflection and stresses; calculating the buckling
characteristics of slender beams; predicting steam-bending and
laminating springback; figuring miter and bevel angles for 15 different
cases, computing dimensional change of wood, weight and board footage,
equilibrium moisture content, tool cutting speeds, and lots more. The
reference data included technical specifications for twist drills,
electrical circuits, 9 different unit conversions, properties for a
variety of fiber-and-resin composite laminates, and countersink/counterbore
data for a number of commonly used screws, nails, nuts and bolts. This
product was available from 2000 to 2005. It originally cost $179.99 but
over time was reduced to just $59.95 (perhaps due to too much
competition from free content on the Internet?)
BevelGage for Boatbuilders
This was an enhanced version of Bevelgage for Woodworkers with
additional boatbuilding design functions. It included functions
for display and automatic fairing of 2-dimensional curves, for
predicting the elastic springback of steam-bent and laminated parts,
calculations for solid and laminated beams, wood dimensional change,
spars, powering and resistance, and an extensive database on wood,
metals, and composites. This version had about twice as many screens as
BevelGage for Woodworkers (around 100). It originally sold for $399 but
was eventually reduced to a mere $100.
QuickCAD
QuickCAD was an entry level CAD package that was around from the mid
1990's (as Drafix QuickCAD) until 2005 (as QuickCAD 8 by Autodesk). It
was relatively inexpensive ($60 in the early days) and had a following
among woodworkers looking for a CAD package for intermittent use. It was
known for having good documentation and functionality usually found only
in higher level CAD packages. The software was originally manufactured
by Foresight Resources Corp, which merged with Softdesk in 1995, which
then merged with Autodesk in 1997. Autodesk kept QuickCAD around for
several years but eventually discontinued it in favor of AutoSketch and
AutoCAD LT. For a while, QuickCAD and AutoSketch had much in common
(including a comon kernel and interface), although Autodesk now
recommends AutoCAD LT if you are looking for something that is similar
to QuickCAD (but much more expensive).
The Woodworker's Maze
The maze was a free online utility created by Jim Mattson of the
Woodworker's Website Association (also called Woodworker's Central) in
1996. The purpose of the Maze was to get people to think about
woodworking, and hopefully learn something along the way. It consisted
of a series of multiple choice and true-or-false questions. When you
clicked on a correct answer, it was a link to the next question. There
were two parts to the Maze: the first part you could negotiate at your
leisure and the second part was timed. If you made it through all the
questions correctly, you were rewarded with recognition in the Maze Hall
of Fame. The Maze was periodically updated with new content
(sometimes on a monthly basis) and was apparently beloved by many even
though "the graphics were cheesy and the poetry inane" (quote from web
critic, Bertha Waddlebright). The maze was unceremoniously discontinued
in 2006.
WOODFIND
This was a DOS/Windows program for searching an index of woodworking
magazines. It was created in 1989 by Jerry Magelssen, who originally
created it for his own use. Like many of us, he had a large collection
of woodworking magazines but was memory-challenged in trying to find
specific articles he had previously read. (Remember there was no
Internet back then). Over time, WOODFIND grew to the point where it
covered 20+ magazines and approximately 30,000 articles. In 2000,
WOODFIND was acquired by Woodworker's Indexing and the content
incorporated into their product. The
WOODFIND site
still exists (as of mid-2006) although it is no longer actively
maintained. In 2000, WOODFIND sold for $59.
WoodRef
This was a WoodBin original that came out in 1998 (around the time
woodbin.com came online) and was decommissioned a couple years later. It
was an educational woodworking program that sold for the astronomical
amount of $15.95. It was created using a "multimedia authoring" product
called Multimedia Toolbook from Asymetrix Inc. (a company started by
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen). WoodRef consisted of 8 main
woodworking topics broken down into 50 subtopics. The topics included
wood properties, lumber grades, project design, milling techniques, and
a variety of tips for dimensioning wood, drilling, assembling, sanding,
finishing, etc. You could quickly navigate through the topics (faster
than a web browser), search by word or phrase, and print custom reports.
The decision was made to decommission WoodRef because it was a hassle to
maintain and distribute it - - all for a measly 15 bucks. However, much
of the content was migrated to the WoodBin web site so the spirit of
WoodRef lives on...
EasyShop Series (available but not supported)
The following programs were originally developed by Chris Lawson of
Information Architects in the mid 1990's. As of 2001, they were no
longer maintained or supported and the Information Architects web site
went away. However, the programs can be downloaded for free at
In The
Woodshop, a site operated by Howard Ruttan. The supported versions
of the software sold for $19.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling.
EasyShop Shop Designer
The EasyShop Shop Designer is used to design floor layouts for a wood
shop. After defining the dimensions of your shop, you can then place
doors, windows, walls, benches and tools right on the floor plan. It
comes pre-loaded with over 20 different tool objects, including ones
commonly found in most wood shops. You can even design a dust collection
system! Your finished layout can be printed at 1/4-inch scale.
EasyShop Tool Journal
This is a data base to keep track of your woodworking tools. You can
print reports to a window or the printer about your tool inventory with
information about when you purchased the tool, where and for how much.
The reports then show individual prices as well as category price totals
and total inventory value. This is useful for insurance purposes as well
as for the tool collector.
EasyShop Crown Molding Calculator
This calculator computes miter and bevel angles when cutting crown
molding. You can determine all the compound angle cuts, print them and
take them to the shop for cutting. It even has a sketch pad to assist
you in making notes about the room and its different corners. The angles
are calculated such that you can cut your molding laying flat on your
saw table.
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