Vcarve Pro For Beginners
Octavis Marquez
Hi Neil thanks for the reply this is very new to me so your patience is appreciated. I am using carbide create, i have viewed many inlay videos and tutorials but they dont seem to address my problem. I can cut the female logo but not the male. Pocket toolpath ignores the logo and flattens it all. Vcarve gives an error mssg of no closed vectors. Can i download a CC file of my logo? c2d or nc .
Welcome aboard Redhead! There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to getting a vcarve inlay to come out right. Could you give us a little more detail, such as a pic of your design? Possibly some details on your male and female toolpaths? Once you get the design work complete, be sure to use a decent vbit! Mine looked like crap until I discovered the Whiteside 1541 60 Deg VBit, and this 30deg bit from PreciseBits. Here is something I made for my daughter last week.
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You are going to really struggle to make this work with an end mill. You need to use a v-bit. Two important components. Someone else mentioned putting a border around the male cave in order to select the negative area. The other is choosing the start depth. Use advanced v-carve and set the start depth a fraction of and inch smaller then you female component depth.
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Pro tip- starting at a deeper depth is a big cut. I usually raise my bit 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch off the material and zero, then run a pass, then zero at the top of the wood and run it again so it takes two pass.
The logo is what i am trying to vcarve, but changed the intersection of the B&C so the the B overlaps the C
Still stumped on my logo. CC says to close vector . All vectors are joined as far as i can tell. I must be missing something
I tried to keep everything close to the original, but even things out a bit to make it look a bit less hand drawn. However, if you have a real-world version of the logo you would like for me to reference, you could upload a photo.
Both versions are together in one design for simplicity. Choose whichever you like and delete the other, or let me know if you need some minor updates. Adobe Illustrator original, SVG export, and JPG preview included in ZIP file:
Edit: Quick edit just to say I feel like going from Carveco to VCarve will be more of a natural step if you decide to change programs down the road. But for the use cases you listed Carveco will do everything you need.
if you think of byuing Vectric Aspire in order to be able to use 3D model creation and editing tools, instead of Vectric VCarve Pro, which means you have a big price difference for this additional capability (USD $1,995 vs. $699), you should know that you can also use many other softwares to create your 3D models, e.g. the free and open Blender as mentioned here:
it is important to understand that if you want to use a CAD/CAM program, CAD and CAM are two very different things and that a combined software that does both does not forcibly need to be the best in both parts. CAD means you create a 3D model and vector images. This is a world of its own, and the result is just a part in virtual 3D space that does not know much of being milled and machined. CAM on the other side means you are able to create and export a toolpath for a machine. I would choose a CAM program that is able to use sophisticated algorithms to make the best toolpath and that is best able to get the best performance out ot the tools.
If you are still thinking on which non-free software to use in the future, I mean for what to spend money here, you should know that among the softwares @AndyP mentioned above, there are Vector graphics and 3D modeling softwares that are fully free and open :
So the CAM part of FreeCAD, that exports toolpaths suitable for being executed by a CNC machine, is called Path Workbench. This makes that FreeCAD is a complete CAD/CAM software package with which you can first create the model of the part you want to mill, and then export a toolpath and mill it on your CNC machine. And all for free.
I think if you are new to designing virtual models in 3D (which you want to export as toolpath and mill on your CNC machine), you should know that when attempting to master a CNC machine, learning to use a CAD/CAM software is what takes the most time. Therefore my opinion is, the sooner you start with working with a CAD/CAM software, the better.
Sort of an old thread but to add to this discussion. Carveco is one of the best software on the market for 3d model creation for 3 axis machines. Many of the worlds mints, coin makers and jewelers use Carveco specifically for its 3d Art tools. It has a much larger user base worldwide for this reason. The full version of Carveco while expensive has many features like 8k resolution that none of the Vectric versions have. Maker and Maker plus are the same program but with features disabled for simplicity and cost. Maker has most all of the functionality as vcarve pro and Maker+ has most of the functionality as aspire. Carveco offers perpetual one time licenses for both Maker+ and the full versions as well as the monthly subscription model. One thing with vectric is you buy the version you have and to upgrade to the next version you have to pay an upgrade fee that is not small. With the subscription model you always get the updates so there is more flexibility there. Finally the old argument that there are more helpful videos about vectric is old news and there are several very helpful channels for learning carveco. Here is a great place to start. =94FEoA-rvV9sS1sh
I am at the stage now where I would like to be able to do true three axis 3D carving with my x-carve. I have studied VCarve Pro and gone through the basics for that. It is a great program. I have loaded the sample software and played with it enough to see that I should be able to do what I want with it.
I have also loaded Fusion 360 as a hobbyist. Compared to VCarve it seems to have much more capability but is also significantly more complex to learn. Whereas the are some great YouTube series out there for beginners on VCarve I have had trouble finding anything comparable on Fusion 360. At least those related specifically to wood carving.
The attraction to Fusion 360 is the price, free, of course. What has been your experience? Can you recommend a video training series that focuses on wood carving? Which would you recommend?
I have looked through the forum topics and have some information from them but would be interested in current thinking.
Thank you for any time taken to respond.
I found Vcarve to be easier to use. Of course Vcarve is not a 3D modeling package unless you buy all the way up into Aspire. I use other tools to create 3D models and I import those into Vcarve as .STLs. Of course Vcarve will let you design flatter things such as signs or trace SVGs or images into profiles.
I agree that Vcarve has been a lot easier to understand than Fusion. One thing I am still not clear on is to what extent Vcarve can produce 3D G code that will work on X-Carve. I have run some samples that look like smooth rounded plains from Vcarve pro. Is it that I can import 3D and produce Gcode but cannot design any thing, or maybe manipulate anything in 3D with Pro?
Maybe a stupid question but did you check here and here?
I started modeling in fusion with no CAD background at all and found their tutorials pretty good. However, I agree, that learning a software like fusion is time consuming.
Yes, I did look at those. Thank you. They seemed to lean to more sophisticated modeling than what I was hoping for. I do not have any plans to design parts, do mechanical drawing, etc. I am only interested in creating 3D images on wood. I may have to go the process that these videos show but I was hoping to find a quicker way to doing some relatively basic 3D work for wood.
I think that initially I would want to use existing designs. I am not artistic in the sense that I cannot draw. I cannot look at something and create a good drawing of it. I would see myself using already create images and then turning them into carvings. This could mean using an existing 3D file of an image I want and then creating the Gcode to put into X-Carve. I would like to be able to also take a picture of a flower, scene, etc and be able to ultimately carve it on the X-Carve.
Thank you to everyone for all your helpful suggestions. You have certainly given me plenty of things to check out.
I was wondering if there is a relatively easy way to get a true 3D image into x-carve so that I can see how it performs. I would like something like a flower that would show contours and smoothing. Maybe there is a Gcode file that I could import or another format that I could run through a converter to get to Gcode.
I understand this may sound backwards but I want to see what the cnc can do before I head off and invest time learning one of the packages.
Thank you for any ideas
Hey everyone, a quick announcement to make. Carveco recently got in touch with us about reselling and promoting their software. You can subscribe to Carveco Maker ($15USD/month) and get your first month for free. For more details, please visit the product page.
Please note, we make money from each sale of software. That being said, I will aim to be as unbiased as possible for both of the software we will be discussing today. We also try to be as accurate as possible to compare the two programs,
CNC software traditionally focused heavily on industrial applications, which came with large price tags and very complicated features. Software like HSM and MasterCAM cost thousands of dollars per seat but power the machines that make car parts and airplanes. Even though full-featured software is compatible with LongMills and other hobby-level CNCs, they are generally too complicated and expensive for most people to use.
Having recognized that, software companies have moved to offer lower cost alternatives to their industrial software for use with hobby and semi industrial machines over the last couple years as smaller, budget-friendly machines become more popular.
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