Any VCarve Pro users?

Software
1

I have been using VCarve for my cnc router and laser cutter. I also have a Fusion license. So frequently I find my self bouncing around these programs. I do like VCarve for its relative simplicity. I can design and generate toolpaths for simple projects for the cnc router. I export .dxfs for the laser cutter software. VCarve also has a “trace” capability to generate vector files from bitmaps. I find myself using that a lot.

It is easy to “join” lines into single paths with VCarve. I found that if a dxf of a complex curve is, I guess the term would be disjointed, the laser cutter would jump around, starting a cut, move to a different point and continuing the cut. I can imagine the same problem could happen with a plasma cut if the dxf is not continuous.

I have imported dxfs into Fusion. Fairly straightforward. And I will probably use Fusion initially for drawing and design and toolpath generation. The only reason not to use VCarve for toolpaths is the lack of a plasma postprocessor. Custom postprocessors can be created for VCarve, but I don’t think I’m smart enough to write one.

I guess that I am writing this to see if anyone has used VCarve, and for the very slight possibility that there exists a plasma postprocessor for VCarve that someone has used.

I am really looking forward to receiving, assembling and using the plasma cnc. I know it will be an adventure.

2

I’m a VCarve Pro user for a couple different CNC machines (Shopbot & High Z). But I haven’t looked into custom post for a plasma. A quick look at the Vectric forum shows some posts by folks who have written post-processors for VCarve though so that’s the place to go to see if you can get a copy.

EZ-Plasma sells VCarve with their CNC plasma machines so they must have a post as well. (They also sell Mach 3 and some other software too.)

3

Has anyone found a post processor for vectric v-carve or aspire?

4

There’s a Mach 3 post-processor for VCarve (Mach 2/3) Arc.

Not sure if it will work with the Crossfire because I only have VCarve via Shopbot and only their posts are included.

5

Okay I use vcarve desktop and with my crossfire. I use the post processor Shopsabor_plasma and then edit the G-code. Change M62 to M5 - torch off, M61 to M3 torch on and add a feed rate Fxxx.xx. Oh, yeah you have to remove the comment line. I also add a M30 at the end just so the code resets itself but this is not needed to run the code.

6

Thank for your reply. I will try this next time I use the machine. I did investigate the possibility of either editing an existing or creating a new post-processor but gave up for other projects. Typical for me…