I already have VCarve Desktop that has maximum working area of about 2 feet by 2 feet. I updated my CNC Router to my version of LEAD Machine that has working area of about 30 inches by 30 inches. It will cost me $350 to upgrade VCarve Desktop to VCarve Pro. Should I upgrade VCarve or get another program?
I have VCarve Desktop as well and although I haven’t tried it yet it is my understanding you can use tiling to do larger pieces as long as your tiles are no larger than 24 x 24. Don
I know about tiling feature but if not done correctly, the job could be screwed up. What if the job requires two or more bits?
Do you do things than need what Vcarve does (ie Vcarving)? if not.... For normal cutting things out of flat sheet you can use Sketchup+SketchUcam or OpenBuilds CAM Gcode Creator - Public Beta . both free, both quite capable of making good cuts. If you need 3D cutting then Fusion360 is the thing. Quite a learning curve but enormously capable for 'free' if you are hobbiest or earn less than $100000 a year with it.
I am looking at CAM software as well. Free is preferable. Is the VCarve Desktop that you are using now the "Trial" version? The other option I see is $350?
A bit late to this party. @jeffmorris, what have you learned so far? I'm going through a similar process right now. Using sketchucam mostly but it's not really for carving and has a number quirks related to it origins from the phlatcam stuff and, even more so, from the underlying sketchup. Some of it is due to my learning curve as well. Since I am pretty adept at Sketchup, I'll stick with it for some stuff. I want to give Fusion360 a try but for some reason my account isn't letting me. Maybe I'll hear back from the support folks there. I'll also take a look at VCarve but honestly, I would have to use it a lot to pay multi hundred $$. F Engrave seems to work though is pretty bare-bones. There are a number of other tools out there. Not enough time to evaluate many of them. I think that I will probably wind up using several tools. Sketchup/SketchUCAM for sheet cutting. F Engrave for simple carving. Maybe F360 for more 3D stuff.
If you want Almost Free (free to try then $59 for licence) and super feature packed, then Estlcam is hard to beat! estlcam.de This is CAM, the drawing part I do with free drawing programs like Draftsight anything that will do DXF. Cheers Gary
I found out that VCarve 10.0 is released. Should I upgrade from VCarve Desktop 9.5 to VCarve Desktop 10 for $90 or to VCarve 10 Pro for $350? My CNC router has working area of 30" by 30" or 760 mm by 760 mm.
I thought V carve Desktop had a limit of 24" sq? Or does someone here know if there's a fudge for that. You can download a free trial of Vcarve pro then decide if its good value for you.
Yep on the 24". You'd need to tile for bigger jobs. I know with desktop you cant create gcode with multiple tools. Not sure about Pro but might be worth looking into.
