Introducing Oakland

Probe Points

Probe Points is the newest addition to the Labs suite of early-access Extensions. Labs Extensions are still in development, and your feedback plays an important role in helping shape future improvements.

If you’re already familiar with Origin’s Grid feature or Extensions like Probe Circle and Probe Rectangle, you’ll feel right at home with Probe Points. Using the router bit installed in Origin, you can probe your workpiece as many times as needed. Each time you probe, a circular point representing your router bit is added to your Workspace, giving you accurate reference points to work from.

Once you’ve captured the points you need, use Origin’s Export feature to convert your Workspace into a Studio Design. From there, open it in Studio and use your probe points as precise references for building out your design.

Probe Points are especially useful for projects involving unusual or non-standard workpieces. It makes it easier to capture arcs, curves, and other tricky shapes that would otherwise be difficult to digitize and adapt in Studio.

BenchPilot - Adaptive Speed

We’re always working to improve BenchPilot’s cutting performance, with a focus on both cut quality and cutting speed. Adaptive Speed is a new feature for BenchPilot owners that gives you more control over that balance.

You’ll find Adaptive Speed in the Advanced Cut Settings menu while using Pilot Mode. When turned ON, Adaptive Speed enables our new intelligent speed control system, which dynamically adjusts cutting parameters during your cut. This helps improve cut quality, though it may slightly increase the overall cut time.

Turn Adaptive Speed ON when cut quality is your top priority and you want the best possible finish. When speed matters most, or when cut quality is less critical for the job, simply leave Adaptive Speed switched OFF.

This is our first version of Adaptive Speed. It will be refined over time as we fine tune cutting parameters based on feedback we receive from the field. 

BenchPilot - Select Uncut

BenchPilot owners are already familiar with manually selecting the paths they want to cut. To make that workflow faster and easier, we’ve added a new selection shortcut in Pilot Mode.

Pilot Mode’s multi-selection screen now includes a Select Uncut button. Tap Select Uncut to instantly select every path that has not yet been cut. Any paths that have already been cut are automatically left out of the selection, helping you quickly pick up where you left off.

Vertical Plunging for Dovetail Joinery

If you own AutoPass or BenchPilot and have cut dovetail joinery with Origin, you may have noticed your dovetail bit ramping down to the desired depth at the beginning of the cut. You now have the option to disable ramping and use a vertical plunge instead.

Open the AutoPass settings menu and toggle Pass Depth OFF. Your installed router bit will plunge directly to the desired depth before Origin starts moving, ideal for cutting dovetails and other types of joinery.

System Health Check

Each time you power on Origin and the system starts up, a System Health Check will run automatically. This quick scan is designed to look for issues deep within Origin’s operating system and help ensure everything is working as expected.

The scan completes quickly, and you probably won’t even notice it happening. It does not add any delay to Origin’s startup process.

In the unlikely event that the scan detects an issue that could affect tool performance, Origin will let you know and guide you through the steps needed to resolve it.

Wi-Fi Connection Stability Improvements

Some Origin owners have experienced occasional issues with Wi-Fi connection stability, including cases where the tool would unexpectedly drop an established connection and need to be manually reconnected.

We’ve made improvements in the Oakland release to address this. Wi-Fi performance is now more stable, helping Origin stay connected more reliably and making unexpected connection dropouts far less likely.

A Message for Gen1 Owners - A New Focus on Platform Stability 

New Feature Development For Gen1 Will Stop after “P” Release

This year marks the 10th anniversary since Origin Gen1 was first introduced to the market. In that time, Origin has received 14 free System Updates, adding new features and improvements along the way. For those of you who have been with us since the beginning, we’re sure you remember just how limited and rough around the edges the early Origin experience was back then compared to where we are today.  We are especially proud that we’ve been successful in maintaining software feature parity between both generations of Origin machines since Gen2 arrived on the scene in 2022.

Last year, when we introduced BenchPilot, it became more apparent that we were reaching the technical limit of what the underlying Gen1 tool platform was capable of absorbing. Despite developmental setbacks at the time, we remained committed to launching BenchPilot with backwards compatibility for Gen1 machines. We knew that BenchPilot was going to become an essential accessory to expand Origin’s capabilities and we didn’t want to be yet another tool company forcing an unnecessarily early upgrade path with a big financial commitment. Today, we’re thrilled to see BenchPilot in use by Gen1 owners with nearly decade old machines.  

As Gen1 matures, we are concluding new feature development for these machines to dedicate our focus entirely to long-term stability and support. Please rest assured that we will continue to provide critical updates and maintenance to ensure the ongoing reliability and stability of your tools.

This isn’t the end of the line for Gen1, but the Oakland release today is the penultimate Free System Update for Origin Gen1. We wanted to give owners as much notice as possible that the upcoming “P” release will be the final System Update with new features for Origin Gen1. We’ll continue to monitor Gen1 for performance, stability, and reliability, but Gen1 owners should not expect new features going forward beyond “P”.

Origin Gen2 will continue to receive feature-rich Free System Updates in the future.