Do you use Vectrics VCarve Pro to cut piece or do you use Easel to do the job
I’m not sure what your asking but here goes lol.
You use VCarve to design your project and to create the toolpath. Then you save the toolpath using the Easle post-processor. VCarve will not control your machine. It only creates the gcode need for your machine control program to send to the xcarve.
Easel will design your project and send it to the xcarve. It’s an all in one program. It is great for simpler designs. VCarve is feature rich and user friendly. But expensive.
I have vcarve pro. what do I do after i create a project. do I save it as gcode and when I try to take it into easel it says I need a post processor. I don’t know what “FILE” to open to do what it says.
You can use v carve to make the g-code file. When you have your design the way you want it then create your file using the x-carve post processor choosing metric (MM) or imperial (inch) when your file is saved then you can use a cam program to send it and control your machine. I have used UGS and Bcnc with great success. You can also use easel but I have seen others in this forum complain that it gives errors when trying to import g-code (to large of a file, post-processor errors, etc.). search the forum and you can read a lot about this topic.
my trouble is that I do not know how to load UGS. The instructions do not sense. It says open “FILE” what file are they talking about.
After you unzip the UGS file you will want to run the file that ends in “.JAR”
Be sure you have installed the latest version of Java on your computer first
If you use windows you can click on the start-windows.bat which should start the program with all needed parameters. If you use mac or a Linux variant you can make that start.sh executable and that will start in a bash shell with all the needed parameters. or as AllenMassey stated you can always just click the UniversalGcodeSender.jar and start it. for example the start-windows.bat will execute the following (java -jar -Xmx256m UniversalGcodeSender.jar).
What Robert said
I pretty much use Universal GCode sender as Kenneth suggests. Its far more reliable as a GCode sender than Easel (IMHO). As suggested, you need to make sure you have JAVA installed (www.java.com).
My windows shortcut for using UGS is:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath\java.exe -jar -Xmx256m “C:\CNC\UniversalGcodeSender\UniversalGcodeSender.jar”
Where I have unzipped UGS to the C:\CNC\UniversalGcodeSender folder.
Hope this helps.
When I try to send very large file to easel or any other browser based cam (ie Chillipeppr Cheton_cnc etc.) it always gives an error because the file size is to large. this is due to a security feature in the browsers themselves, I have found no easy way around this. I have never had a problem sending files large or small with UGS as it is very stable (given that you use a stable build) If you have used a beta version that is listed as unstable then of course you will have some problems. I also like to use easel for the ease of use. but I have found that it has limitations that are not necessarily it’s fault. I would like to know if anyone has found a workaround for easel on large files then I would probably change over to easel only.
P.S. when I say large files it is for Laser engraving with over a million lines of code and a file size of over 5 megabyte.