Software help: autocad => x-carve ( riceCNC ? )

Hey Guys, i’m planning of buying the x-carve in december 2015.
I like the software that inventables provides. I’m a Autocad person and i don’t seem to find a (free) way to convert my cad files to the software for inventables. I went looking around on the good old interweb and came around to ricecnc software.

Does anybody have experience with this software?
Or is anybody there that can help me a bit so i can send my auto cad drawings to my future x-carve.

Bit of extra info. I’m a all apple user, so all software need to be running on mac osx, and no i’m not installing a windows platform on my mac (hate it) lol.

Thanx already to all that rep lie

Greetz Bensh all the way from Belgium (you now the little dot in europe :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: )

Do you have a CAM package you prefer?

Bit lost in translation as i’m dutch.

This is the software i use to draw:
AUTOCAD 2015

I’m not yet home in all the software you need so i ask the general question.

How to get from my auto cad 2015 drawing to the X-carve?

What file formats can you export from Autocad 2015?

@PatrickRainsberry Do you know?

That’s about it:

Draw a square and export it as .bmp

Then try to open easel (www.easel.com) and import the .bmp in the image vectorizer and see if that works.

You get to the image vectorizer by clicking the 9 squares icon in the toolbar at the top.

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OK the process goes like this. AutoCAD or what ever CAD software you use to product the part you want to machine on you XC. Export the drawing to a CAM program (Computer Aided Machining) In the CAM program you tell it what you want to do to machine the part. Once you have all the operations figured out you tell the CAM program to generate a Gcode file of the operations for the CNC machine you have be it a CNC milling machine or CNC lathe or in your case a CNC router aka X-Carve.
Gcode is just a text file of all the information that the control software for the CNC machine needs to produce the part. Some control software that is used with the XC is UGS (universal gcode sender) chillipeper another sender. LinuxCNC and Mach3 or 4 that are control programs that run on a standalone computer hooked up to your XC.
You load the Gcode into the control software and set your XC up so it knows where the spindle is and where the piece of material is. You install a milling tool and tell the software to start the operation.
If every thing is set up correctly then the machine works at cutting your part and when it stops you have what you have designed.

The program that Inventables has designed is Easel. It is a 2D drawing program with a CAM program that lets you design and machine your part from one program. A lot of XC owners are having good luck with it as it grows.

Hope this helps

Dave

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If you use the process @DavidSohlstrom Has described by December you should be able to import that gcode into Easel.

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cool, thx guys, helps me a lot. There’s a lot of explanations and video’s about x-carve vs software. But no dutch people lol. Gonna have a go @ what you guys gave me for info.
just tought about it, i also have a license for fusion 360, think that’s a big step forward to use that.

Greetz bensh all the way from Belgium, the future 1st dutch guy to own a x-carve lol

We are working on a way to go from Fusion 360-> Easel → X-Carve

You can read about it here:

I know you can export .eps from AutoCAD too, but I seem to always have an issue with scaling once I import it into Illustrator or Graphic (formally iDraw). Importing .dxf into Easel would be great and I think it’s been mentioned on the forum before.

I’ve been using AutoCAD for over 10 years, so I’m pretty comfortable with it, but a guy has to move with the times so I’m attempting to learn other software. Plus from my last experience with it AutoCAD for Mac isn’t that great. I use Windows based computers at work, but Mac at home.

Nee hoor :yum:

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ik ben afgelopen weekend bezig geweest met estlcam, hier kun je een dxf inladen. Dit programma is vrij simpel en goedkoop, maar er zitten vrij uitgebreide functies op. Maar het is wat minder visueel als V carve pro, maar dat prijs verschil is €630,-. En er is een mogelijkheid om via dit programma rechtstreeks je xcarve aan te sturen, maar hier heb ik me nog niet in verdiept. Dit zou een mooie functie zijn, dan heb je geen aparte g-code sender nodig, zoals chillipeppr of ugs.

translation for the rest of the world:
last weekend i have looked in to estlcam, in this programm you can load .dxf files. The program is quite simple and cheap to buy, but there are some features other programs don’t offer. It is less visual as V carve pro, but the price differance is € 630,-. There is allso an option to send g code and controll the xcarve wit estl cam, but i have to look into that. I think that would be a nice feature, so you dont have to use chillipeppr of ugs.

(@ChristianKnull Maybe it would be nice if you could make a preset to controll the x-carve. and also a post processor. )

I’m almost 100% sure you can import DXF into Inkscape, translate into SVG and import into Easel. Am I wrong?

You can import it. Where to go from there, I have no idea. :slight_smile:

List of opensource and free CAM options: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable

Commercial: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable

I’m drawing in Draftsight (free CAD drawing package), saving as a DXF. Loading the DXF in to Inkscape (free image drawing package) saving as a SVG and then loading that in to Easel. Not finished building my Xcarve so we will see how well that all works. I’m having a little trouble getting Easel to cut either inside the line or outside the line. It seems to get confused.

I use draftsight in combination with a demo of estlcam. you can safe you drawing as a dxf an load it directly in estlcam to make the cnc program.

then you can use chillipeppr of ugs or estlcam’s own gcode sender.