Hello everyone,
I am in the market to purchase better software for my x-carve being that I feel very limited to what easel offers in way of designing my projects. I am a 1 man band working out of my garage and was looking for direction on whether or not to buy the VCarve or the VCarve Pro software. My background is Architectural Engineering and am very fluent with AutoCAD and am looking for more ways to design as well as carve in 3d. Again, I’m not looking to spend a fortune, just get my small business off the ground. Any and all influence would be greatly appreciated.
I guess it all depends on what you want to do with your machine.
I bought desktop instead of pro because it does everything that I wanted.
I’m kind of looking to upgrade to Aspire but still not sure.
You get a lot for your money with Desktop.
You can download a full version and try it out for free.
What are you looking to do?
With your experience, you should give Fusion 360 a look.
Chris,
I’m in the same boat as you are. I purchased an X-Carve and used Easel for a while. It’s great for getting started in CNC, but I quickly realized that I wanted more.
I just bought V-Carve Desktop, and have played with it a bit, paired with Universal G-Code Sender. I like it a lot.
My understanding is that if you want the Pro version, it’s and easy upgrade from Desktop, for the cost difference between the two. So you have nothing to lose by starting with the Desktop version.
The Pro version allows you to cut pieces larger than 24” square, and also adds additional features via apps called Gadgets. I’ll continue using Desktop for now, and upgrade to Pro if I feel the need. Suggest you do the same.
Good luck.
Mike
I have V carve desktop. However, desktop has limitations such as 20 inch by 20 inch max so if you have a one meter by one meter x carve your could end up missing out. desktop also lacks rotary axis support which vcarve pro supports. vcarve will do 2 sided designs but not 4 sided. Vectric has other products that will support 4 sided carving.
Actually the size limitation is 25" x 25"…but still not the entire cut area of the 1000mm machine.
If V-carve is the way you want to go, if you buy the desktop version and find you want to get the Pro version, the cost to upgrade is the difference in the cost of programs. So go with desktop and if you feel the need to upgrade…no loss.