Great Software for beginners and hobbyist!!

[John H]

Over the past few months I have been trying out different CAD & CAM software to find one that was fairly easy to use.

I've tried BobCAD/CAM, DolphinCAD/CAM, Alibre, Solidworks, Rhino.....

While I managed to pick up on some of the CAD stuff the CAM part just wasn't sinking in.

By chance I decided to have a closer look at the Vectric (http://www.vectric.com) line of products. I originally disregarded them as I thought it was just for wood carving and I wanted to mill metal mainly. The result was I was making chips in about 10 minutes. No steep learning curve and the program walks you through the steps wizard style. :2tsup:

[rodm]

Hi John,
Quite a few of us use the Vectric software and have found it great to use. I agree it is equally at home on the mill and I use it for all my jobs. I think one of their strengths is they listen to users and develop the products accordingly.

[crocky]

Yep, it is good stuff :)

[John H]

I wish I'd have found found it earlier as I would have saved a few dollars.

If anyone wants to buy a full registered version of BobCAD 21 + 10CD video training, give me a yell.

[John H]

Here is a quick test I did in VCarve by importing a jpg in and creating a toolpath from it.

It's fairly small work and I was impressed on how it finished.

[rodm]

Hi John,
Yes it is very easy to convert jpg, bmp to vector art in Vcarve. If you are going to do a bit of this type of work then take some time out to experiement with the node editing features. You can cut, join and take out those multiple points that cause your machine to be jerky.

Easier still is to search the internet for Vector Art - there is heaps of it out there for free and you don't have to convert it.

You probably already have sussed it out but your depth of cut is a bit deep and causing the engraving to be too close. I go 0.1 to 0.5mm in depth for aluminum. If you ran that job again over the top of the first engraving you would get rid of some of the re-melt in the engraving - use lubricant. Aluminum is fickle and I have found quite a bit of variation in properties in the one sheet.

The next challenge for you is to cut the disc out using tabs. I sit a bit of MDF under the aluminum so I do not mark my table when I cut through. A 6mm or even 3mm thick MDF is cheap and throw away.

Can I ask if you include your project in the project thread so newcomers can see what a CNC machine can do?

Looking forward to seeing many more jobs come off that machine. :2tsup:

[John H]

I'm trying to see where I can set the cut depth. I used the V-Carve/Engraving tool option to create the tool path and it doesn't say max depth in any of the settings?

[rodm]

Hi John,
In the toolpath window there is a setting in the top left that says "flat depth" so tick this and then nomiate the depth.
I didn't realise you were using the Vcarve engraving functions (see last sentence) so this is not going to make your letters any better in this instance. It will still be cutting to the lines in the text - hope that makes sense.
What you need to do is go back to the drawing and space out the characters. If you created the text in Vcarve then there is a text tool with an arrow (third one along in row) and use this while holding shift and you can space the characters a bit more.
I find with small text create it in single line font and profile cut it.

[John H]

It is created from a jpg so I can't do anything with the text spacing. This one turned out much better than the first

[rodm]

Hi John,
I replace text as the jpg conversion usually bring them through fat and thin where they shouldn't be. Only a small amount but I am fussy.

If you strike this problem again then take your Z axis on the DRO to say 20. In the DRO type in say 19.8 and press "enter". Most improtant to press enter or it will revert back to 20. Now run your job and your Z axis will be a little higher. I am assuming you are using Mach3.