So I’ve been messing with options to run Estlcam on my Mac without having to pay the annual fee for Parallels. My normal workflow is to design my toolpaths at my desk in my office (and air conditioning), then save them in an iCloud folder. I then go to the shop and use a Mac mini to access those toolpaths and push small ones to the Jackpot wirelessly (Always verify the file size to ensure it all arrived safely.) Most medium to large files will fail, so I just transfer those with the SD card. I also have Lightburn on that Mac so it can plug into my LR3 and control the laser. (Lightburn has a Mac version.)
I’ve been using Whisky. Their tagline is “Like WINE but a bit stronger.” It is largely based on Apple’s GPTK (Game Porting Tool Kit).
For quite a while, Estlcam seemed to resist running under Whisky, but lately I’ve been able to get Version 12 to run.
Download Whisky.
During install, it will also need to download Rosetta 2. You should let it do that. It expands the capabilities to draw on non-ARM resources legacy to the Intel era.
Then you create a Whisky Bottle. I use Windows 10 (don’t worry, you don’t need a Windows license for a bottle).
Download Estlcam to your Mac and remember where you put it.
Once you have a bottle created, you click to enter the bottle, and use the Run button in the lower right. Find the Estlcam exe file and run that.
It takes a few moments, but you’ll see Estlcam appear as an icon in the bottle.
Click that icon and Estlcam will start. If you have a license, you can enter it.
You can use a Windows type navigator to find the folder where you store files. However, you can also map the drive letters to common folders on your Mac.
Open Wine Configuration. Then click “Drives”.
Using finder on your Mac, locate the folder you’d like to map for easy access from Estlcam. While holding the option key, right click on the folder and choose Copy as Pathname.
In the Drives Window of Whisky, select or add the drive letter you’d like to map. Paste the Pathname you just copied into the Path box. You should delete the two single quote marks at the beginning and end of the Pathname. Hit Apply.
At this point, you should be able to run Estlcam through Whisky, and access your folder through that drive letter when saving files. This does work to reveal an iCloud Drive folder that won’t be visible otherwise.
Anyway - just thought I’d share in case any other Mac users would like to run Estlcam without Parallels or VMware, etc.
I am intrigued. Thanks so much for that buy I am really, really trying hard not to go there!
I am not yet sure if I am intrigued enough to try yet, but intrigued none the less.
Pros -
1- I can run Estlcam and tap into all the support the mob here can provide, and that would be like getting a big sloppy hug from grandma every time I need help.
2- I could have access to trachoidal milling.
3 - Then there’s the possibiliy of V-Carving too.
Cons-
1-Kirimoto works well for my current stuff
2 - this could be just another black hole out of which I cannot escape
3- Surely Mill Mage is just around the corner - and a sensible person who had a little Lightburn knowledge might think that it would be useful having an application in the same “family”.
4- After forty years, the Mac OS is so burned in my brain, that navigating around a Win system is not impossible, but it must be like watching those “other” old people when sat in front of a computer!
Oh well I only had a thousand other things to do tomorrow, I guess I can put them off for one more day.
I admire this. I have tried that so many times and it just is not my cup of joe.
I hope Mill Mage is around the corner as well. I’ve learned not to get my hopes up though. Not to be debbie downer. I have lightburn already and will definitely upgrade if needed once it is launched.
Wow. Is there not an open source alternative like virtualbox that works on mac?
Using whisky is a better way to go just to not have to run a second OS. I am constantly surprised how much progress steam and proton have made to play games in Linux.
I mean I am thoroughly blown away. I didn’t do any trouble shooting. Just downloaded and opened. Its even pretty snappy! This simplifies soooooo much! A+ @dgkeith237!
The problem for me is then having to “pay” for a WinOS (I have no clue where to steal one from nor how to maintain it) so that level of additional “admin” is not sustainable.
When I was seriously looking a few years ago, it was much easier and a similar cost to purchase a commercial bit of software designed to run on MacOS.
I’m not knocking Win users (even though I hate it with a passion, I understand the reasons many hate MacOS with a passion too), but I simply don’t want to waste more time than I need to fiddling with computers.
UTM is quite a nice VM handler if you have an Apple Silicon Mac. VirtualBox did not work for that chip the last time I checked.
There are WIN 10 volume license keys to buy on the internet for a couple of dollars. The licenses are genuine, but I am a bit unsure if the sellers really are allowed to sell them. Do your homework before buying such a key.
Well, for reasons that a mostly unimportant, I use a Mac at my jobby job in an organization that is deep into Windows/Microsoft/etc. (I guess I’m senior enough that nobody has demanded I stop?) So when Apple went ARM, I felt the need to have access to a Windows computer as a pop-off if I ran into anything that I just couldn’t figure out on Mac (or where working on Mac would waste time.)
Anyway - so a free and open source alternative would definitely have been frowned up by IT. I get locked out just for using a VPN when I’m on the road. So, since Bootcamp wasn’t available any longer, I thought Parallels or VMWare would be more acceptable to them. But, in the interim (I’m on M1, Apple is releasing M4) the support for ARM Macs has largely eliminated the need.
I’m glad to see this may help someone. Nice to see you found it easy @Sabotage37!
Surprisingly easy install, and for the first time I seem able to start EstlCAM 12.
I get a .NET framework unhandled exception error on startup, but it goes away and EstlCAM 12 does load. It also seems to be a 32 bit app according to Wiskey- strange.
Mine didn’t save the default tool list when I was using Parallels so I had saved my tool list and then explicitly loaded and re-saved it as the default tool list. Mine does automatically load my default tool list now.
I was nervous since you’re implying that it may not be saving your settings, but I checked and yes, my settings seem to load properly each time (although I’ll be checking frequently now. )
Since you mentioned this, I also saved my settings out in the bottle, so at worst I should be able to restore settings.
Sorry! I didn’t actually look to see if it saved settings. Just noticed the tool list didn’t. I’ll play around with it some more was just curious on your mileage.
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