Software question

Community Discussion šŸ“„ General
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Hello to all sienci owners, i just ordered a 4x4 and am excited to get started on this journey.
My wife and I are doing this together, she is the brains obviously, but trying to settle on a cad/cam program is our first hurdle.
My wife is amazing with editing photos and coming up with items for her cricket etc. She uses a program called pic monkey, and probably others. On the other hand, i am not tech savvy, so i am reliant on her knowledge.
So we have been looking at programs and she is thinking carveco maker has a similar workflow to what she is used to doing.
Basically an intuitive program of sorts, we did a trial of vcarve pro, and it felt primitive to what she is used to.
So that leaves me wondering if aspire would be better, or carveco maker or maker plus.

Maybe someone is familiar with my scenario and can offer advice or comparisons to consider.
Thank you in advance and appreciate you taking time to answer.

Shane.

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@Shane75 Welcome to the group.

I believe that you will get better advice if you describe what you intend to do with your new AltMill. For example, do you want to create 3D models from scratch or simply import 3D models into your CAD/CAM application?
As I am sure you aware, Pic Monkey is photo and graphics editing software. There really is no comparison between it and the CAD/CAM applications that you have mentioned.

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Welcome to the group Shane!

Iā€™ve never used a cricket so Iā€™m not familiar with the workflow. As far as CNC goes I think itā€™s pretty common to use multiple programs. I use various design programs depending on what Iā€™m trying to make. For making 3D models something like Blender is great especially for ā€˜organicā€™ things. For machine parts or things of that nature Iā€™ll use Fusion 360, FreeCAD or OpenSCAD.

At least one of your design programs needs the ability to generate G-code, as well as import things from the ones that canā€™t, and unless that program can control a CNC machine directly you need a G-code sender. Sienciā€™s gSender is great for the sending part by the way.

I have VCarve and while I donā€™t have experience with Carveco Maker I believe they are in the same vein with similar workflows.

With VCarve you basically have two kinds of work flows. You either import a 3D model and create a 3D toolpath or your toolpath is base on 2D vectors. Those vectors can be created in VCarve or imported svg files etc. Both 2D and 3D can be mixed in the same project and the end result simulated and viewed in 3D.

On the subject of Aspire from what I can tell itā€™s 3D modelling seems very different to what Iā€™m used to from other 3D design programs. I canā€™t say for sure as itā€™s well beyond my budget, costing more than my LongMill, but itā€™s something to consider if she has experience in other 3D design programs.

On the other side you have programs like Fusion where you mostly work in 3D. You may extrude a 2D sketch into 3D as part of the process but, IMHO, itā€™s about creating a 3D object and then basing toolpaths on that.

Fusion is free for non-commercial use so it costs nothing to try out the Fusion way. I think Carveco is also a good choice and 3D models can be created in another program if it lacks in that department.

Blender, if sheā€™s never tried it, is good enough that itā€™s been used in TV and movies. It can do 2 and 3D modelling, animation, video editing, and more. Itā€™s not the easiest thing to learn but itā€™s amazing, open source, and free! A good choice for filling the 3D gap in some CNC software.

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I hope to do 2d and 3d projects, and we would like to create our own 3d projects. However, the clip art available with programs may make it a less crucial skill. And perhaps its just having to learn a program and not so much ā€œwhichā€ program it is.

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Also look at Vectric Easy Create to create your own AI-generated 3D models to import into vCarve/Aspire. Cost is per model.

Vectricā€™s licensing model allows you to buy more their more advanced software simply by paying the price difference between two tiers. For example, going from vCarve Pro to Aspire, youā€™d pay the price difference between the two and not the full Aspire cost.

VCarve and Easy Create might be a good combination.

Personally, I mostly use a combination of qCad, Fusion, and vCarve Pro. But all my toolpaths are created in vCarve. You canā€™t beat itā€™s simplicity for that step of the workflow.

Fusion is great, but steep learning curve. The 3D models youā€™d create with it are different from the ones you create in Aspire. Model of an electric guitar: Fusion. Model of some flowers or your dog: Aspire or Easy Create. You canā€™t create models in vCarve but you can combine a bunch of built-in models (clip art) to make your own. Or import them from Easy Create.

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@Shane75 Take a look at Mark Lindsay CNC on Youtube for excellent tutorials using VCarve and Aspire. For 3D model creation, check out Michael Mezalickā€™s Youtube channel.
As @Chucky_ott has said, there are many other very powerful CAD programs to choose from. I only have experience with Vectric products, but others here will be able to help you with the others.

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I have looked, read and watched entirely to much about all of the various programs, or the big ones. And Iā€™m not sure it helped at all lol.
Vcarve pro trial struggles stemmed a lot from just trying to figure out how to use the functions in the designing part. I did find a list of functions online but itā€™s a lot, perhaps they all are similar. And maybe thats a better direction for my question, are all of the cad/cam programs tool functions similar? Like control z, or the various mix of mouse and keyboard inputs? And if they are, perhaps printing off a list of program key functions is just part of the learning curve

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Following

I have the same questions and so far I leaning towards Fusion 360 or SolidWorks.

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@Shane75 All I can say is that the reason I use qCAD for my CAD work is because it is a lot more intuitive and has more features than the CAD component of vCarve. But my opinion is largely based on many years of doing CAD work. If you have never used a CAD program, you may find that vCarve is adequate. Many users certainly do.

The CAM component of vCarve is excellent.

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I will have to look into qCAD, not familiar with that name.
I just want to say how appreciative i am of all the help and opinions i have received so far.

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@Shane75 qCAD is a fork of the free Libre CAD. I use it for architectural drawings but it has come in handy for my CNC. If you donā€™t want to buy qCAD, you can always try Libre CAD or the many other free cad programs.

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Iā€™m thinking if you donā€™t want to pay for qCAD you can compile it yourself, maybe?

LibreCAD uses the GPLv2 license which is Copyleft so all derivative works must be open source.

EDIT: No DWG format though as the plugin is proprietary.

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Iā€™ve used both vCarve and Carveco Maker. I used the latter because I had a larger project and I currently only have Desktop for vCarve. Waiting for v13 to come out (no known date) and then will upgrade to Pro.

VCarve and Carveco both do more or less the same thing, albeit differently. It took me a while and a degree of frustration to come to terms with how Carveco manages things like workpiece size. Both will get you there.

Your wife is probably being misled by the cosmetic appearance of vCarve vs. Carveco. The latter is a more modern look while the former has a legacy Windows app appearance. The truth is that vCarve is more functional and includes everything you need. If the missing functionality is around vector editing, then for sure youā€™ll do better in Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, some online tool like Pic Monkey, or a full-featured vector editor. There are nonetheless a lot of great vector editing features in vCarve (or Carveco) and the tracing works great. In my mind, its primary role is to generate production instructions, not to create the source content, kind of like a slicer for a 3D printer.

Others have mentioned Fusion360. Great for building items and has a manufacturing module, but itā€™s very focused on manufacturing a ā€œthingā€ and doing things like vcarving are possible but clunky.

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Thank you for all suggestions so far, holidays got me sidetracked but im getting my head back in the game lol.
I do believe i am going to get vcarve pro, and learn the best i can. I really need to print off a cheat sheet of functions and buttons.

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@Shane75 You may have already seen this, but just in case, here is the complete list of keyboard shortcuts for VCarvePro.

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Thatā€™s perfect, thank you

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I think youā€™ve made a solid choice. The Vectric forums are good and there are a lot of Vectric users here so donā€™t be bashful if you need assistance.

I wish you good fortune in your CNC journey.

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Oh i am sure i will wear you all out, but i will try not too lol.
I will say that this site helped make my decision on the altmill and make it seem less intimidating than i am sure it will end up being.

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