Soon to be owner of a GEN 2 OF machine and I’m curious of what software to consider starting out with. I run on a MACBook but do have access to Parallels to run Windows too. That said I have experience in 3d modeling from years of Sketchup use in my work world so I feel comfortable in learning these other softwares like VCarve or Fusion360.
I won’t be getting into 3d carving anytime soon but I wondering if I don’t just focus on learning Fusion360 and stick with that or start out with VCarve?
Just curious what path others went when starting out? Appreciate your time and feedback!
I taught CNC operations & design for about 10 years for my local makerspace and found students had a significantly steeper learning curve with Fusion than VCarve and VCarve did everything 90% of users need. You can do 3D carving with VCarve. You can’t do 3D model creation (Vectric has added an AI based tool to help you create models in VCarve but it’s not a full 3D modeling tool) unless you step up to Aspire though. But there’s a world of 3D models out there you can import right into VCarve including a lot from Vectric itself.
Fusion supports so many use cases that it can be overwhelming when trying to figure out the subset of things it can do that you need for 3-axis CNC work. You can get where you likely want to go with both, but the initial journey is likely longer and harder with Fusion.
Hello Wes and fellow Mac owner! I use Fusion for all my modeling and mostly use Fusion for CAM. I also use Easel and Carbide Create when necessary (which is rarely).
Though I agree VCarve will meet 99% of your requirements for CAM, it meets <10% for CAD and 0% for native OS support. Same for Carveco and a myriad of other applications. I’m not knocking them - I just want a native experience which I have.
All that said, what you use should come down to what you want to do. If you don’t need 3d modeling, then you don’t need Fusion. If you don’t need intricate vcarving, you don’t need VCarve. If you don’t need to turn images into relief carves, then you don’t need Carveco.
I always recommend starting with something free and purchase something when you need to - that is, when your projects demand more than your tools offer.
Just a suggestion - I have plenty of Fusion tutorials to get you going if you are interested.
As a member of the fellowship of the Mac, I can’t recommend Fusion enough. I think others points about use case are incredibly prescient.
That being said, once you’re comfortable with Fusion it opens so MANY doors. I use it to design traditional woodworking projects, 3D Printer projects, metal cutting CNC and now, wood cutting CNC. There’s definitely a learning curve, but once you climb that hill, just damn. I’m a very firm believer in parametric design, so if you decide to scale that mountain, I’d focus, at bit at a time, on using Fusion as parametrically as possible.
It doesn’t hurt if you create something that doesn’t work parametrically (I have SO many examples of this) but every failed ‘parametric’ design has continued to bring me closer to perfection, though as the Buddhists say, if you believe you’ve found perfection, you have more work to do!
I believe there is a still a fairly robust free license for Fusion, though it’s not as good as it used to be and can take a bit of effort to get rolling, but it’s still there.
I love Fusion. It is a lot to learn. But in a few years of using it it’s always been one step ahead of me in adding features before I need them. There are some things I wish I had access to like steep and shallow toolpaths but I’ve never failed to find a good workaround that suits my needs as a hobbyist.
Product Design Online was my favorite tutorials. They are very well designed and edited, each one has a topic and Kevin Kennedy stays on topic unlike some other channels that tend to meander all over.
I was going to recommend a membership, but in the process of getting you the link to the website and Youtube channel I noticed he now has a 30 day course on Youtube for free, or, well SUBSCRIBE AND LIKES! . That looks like a fantastic resource if you decide to consider Fusion.
Thanks David for the reminder, I’d completely forgotten about PDO.
I can only speak on Fusion but as a long time Sketchup and Mac user, let me tell you, your sketchup experience is not going to help you in Fusion. It’s almost as though the designers delighted in making every operation obscure and difficult. It follows no conventions I’m used to, not even simple things like copy and paste or move. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is a learning experience, and frustratingly, very little of it needed to be IMO. And I’ve been using it for years now, both for FDM and CNC.
It’s super powerful but it’s like using a rocket ship to cross the street, at least for my use cases. If I were starting over I’d be using something else, but many of the simpler programs don’t have integrated CAM. Not talking about programs already mentioned by others, but standalone programs that are more intuitive such as Shapr3D. Sometimes I model in sketchup and import as 2D sketches and re-extrude in Fusion so I can do a few more operations there and then use Fusion’s CAM. This is not ideal, and has its own problems in translation.
And the CAM, while powerful, is also a minefield. The tool tips help but still not easy. Wish I had a nickel for every job I had to redo because I missed an obscure setting!
Anyway, take this all with a grain of salt. I’m not a natural born CAD user and essentially a hobbyist. YMMV.
. That looks like a fantastic resource if you decide to consider Fusion.