I’m new to the hackerspace and the CNC machine so, I’m wondering what software most people use! Fusion 360 or V-Carve?
We have v carve available. You have 2 camps of thought.
1: Use vcarve by itself to design and for cam functions. You can also use another program such as Abode Illustrator or Corel Draw to design your 2d object and then use vcarve for its cam function
2: Use Fusion to do cad and cam function from one place. It has a slighter higher learning curve, but you can do 2d and 3d shapes. Fusion is more versatile long term. It pushes your design skills and can help you avoid some mistakes. Also you can export a dxf out the Fusion and import into v carve if you choose.
Great to know! I already have designs finished up on Fusion 360 so I’m glad to hear that I can import to V- Carve. Thanks!
VCarve is excellent for 2D cuts. It’s pretty straightforward at doing what 95% of people want to do, and the go-to tool.
Once you start talking about 3D, it’s great on simple rastered reliefs, including highly detailed stuff. You can cut a flat-bottom pocket no problem.
But if you wanted even just a ramp (sloped surface), VCarve really didn’t have a range of methods prior to 10.5. It could raster or spiral cut. Which, a lot of the time, that’s what the best solution comes down to anyways. There are other solutions for certain cases but they get super complicated regardless.
VCarve 10.5 does introduce considerable additional 3D solution capabilities. But, in practice, the vast majority of jobs are still 2D cuts.
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