I would to see opinions on software selection and their ease of use.
Fusion 360
VCarve Desktop
Any other software.
V carve Desktop does everything that I need.
I’m toying with the idea of upgrading to Aspire.
You wont be disappointed with Desktop.
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You do not mention the type of work you are planning to use the software for e.g.: sign making, mechanical parts, etc. Each software has advantages and disadvantages. I am relatively new but I have used Easel, Carbon Create and V-Carve Pro to cut pieces but also played with F360. I found F360 confusing while the other 3 were fairly straightforward but others who had experience with CAD design did not have any issue with the software. Easel, Carbon Create and VCarve are limited to designing 2 to 2.5D parts while F360 will provide a full 3D design. There are many other software for doing the CAD portion like MeshCam that you could also consider, the list is fairly long. Price is also an issue as these go from free to thousands of dollars. V-Carve is a very powerful software with many features, I have found the instructional series VCarve for complete beginners from Mark Linsay on YouTube to be the best to learn how to use the software. You can listen to the video and work along at the same time. I hope this helps.
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I had exactly zero knowledge about CAD Design, Milling or whatsoever when I got my X-Carve. I’m using F360 and I am quite happy with it. They provide a ton of learning material and it is free to use (within the 100k $ limit).
I’m a software engineer and F360 was build in a way, it really fits my way of thinking (that’s the best way I can put it).
I think your best bet is: check the available tools (the usual suspects can be found in the forum) and take your time to play with them a bit. I would bet one of them fits your way of thinking / designing and that would be the winner.
I use Fusion 360 daily for 3D modeling, animation, and stress testing of parts. If I think a 2D/3D model is worth carving, I’ll use Fusion 360 to make a setup and g-code file.
I have used both UGS and Easel to run the g-code with the file generated off the post processing in Fusion. I haven’t messed around with V-carve due to the pricing, so I personally recommend Fusion 360, especially if you run a 3D printer.
The catch with Fusion 360 is it has a steep learning curve if you’re not familiar with CAD/CAM or it’s animations/simulations.
Im running F360 on a 2013-vintage 27" iMac with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M. I tried to turn a photo into a 3D model following an Instructable by Jonathan Odom. After the first couple of steps everything slowed down to a crawl, with the screen updates taking up to 5 minutes to repaint. Is this typical of F360 or is it the design I am working with?
What computer specs are recommended for F360? Should I be thinking about a new computer? I’m just a hobbyist, messing around with a 3018 class cnc, Easel, Candle, and my computer is fine for everything else I do, so $2K for a new iMac isn’t really in the cards.
Thoughts?