CAM 2.0D VCarve Pro - Features

1. 3D Toolpath Preview Support

One of the most important productivity tools available in VCarve Pro is the realistic 3D toolpath preview support. The results of all toolpaths can be previewed cutting into a 3D model.

The high quality rendering and ability to use real world material textures and fill colors is a very valuable sales tool.

2. V-Carving

V-Carving uses a constant angled cutter that's moved at flowing variable depth to create a 3D carved effect on the job, similar to the way a craftsman would work by hand.

As well as 'simple' VCarving, VCarve Pro supports many advanced VCarving strategies, such as 'Flat Bottomed' v-carving, optionally using a second flat bottom tool to optimally clear out the flat areas. Another advanced capability is the support for v-carving areas wider than the tool by making multiple clearance passes to achieve the required depth.

3. Import 3D Designs from Vector Art 3D Machinist

3D elements from the Vector Art 3D Clip Art Collection can be incorporated into your designs to create jobs that are even more interesting and profitable.

Imported designs and toolpaths can be Rotated and Mirrored for symmetrical designs etc. When the composite design is finished all the toolpaths can be output from VCarve Pro.

4. Import designs from PhotoVCarve

PhotoVCarve designs can now be incorporated into V-Carved projects to make more interesting products. It is now very easy to add decorative carved borders and text to PhotoVCarve projects, enhancing their attractiveness and value.

This functionality is perfect for enhancing,

• Lithophanes
• 3D grayscale machining
• Engraved PhotoVCarve designs
   

5. Text

VCarve Pro can create single lines or blocks of text using any True Type font installed on your computer. The advanced 'Auto Layout' feature allows you to constrain a block of text to a rectangular area of the design. This is a massive time saver when laying out designs where it is not the size of the text that matters, but that the text fits in with the design.

6. 2D Profiling

Using the profiling toolpath strategy, objects can be cut out quickly and efficiently. VCarve Pro automatically offsets for the tool radius and sorts nested shapes to ensure that inner shapes such as the center of a letter 'O' are cut before the outer shape. Full control of cut direction is offered along with either automatic or manual control of tool entry point for each shape.

Cutouts can be done in multiple passes depending on the maximum cutting depth of the tool used and a positive or negative allowance can be specified to either 'under cut' or 'overcut' the shape if required.

7. Interactive Tabs / Bridges

The tabs / bridging feature in VCarve Pro is both very powerful and easy to use. When cutting out jobs from sheet material, small 'tabs' or 'bridges' can be inserted along the final profile cut to hold the pieces in place.

After machining is finished, the tabs can be easily cut or broken to free the part. The tabs in VCarve Pro can be specified either automatically by entering a minimum and maximum number of tabs to insert along with a distance between tabs, or manually, by clicking on the profile with the mouse

Yet another advanced feature is the ability to specify 3D Tabs. With this style of tab, instead of the tool stopping at the start of the tab, retracting to the tab thickness, moving at the tab thickness for the length of the tab and then plunging back to the cut depth, the tool makes a smooth 3d move up to the tab thickness at the center of the tab and back down again over the remaining tab length.

8. Pocketing

VCarve Pro makes creating pocketing toolpaths quick and easy. Just select all the vectors defining your geometry and the program will sort the vectors to identify islands automatically and offset the boundaries for the selected tool radius.

9. Drilling

VCarve Pro includes an easy to use drilling toolpath strategy. Whether you are drilling a single hole or hundreds, just select the vectors representing the holes and VCarve Pro will drill the center of each vector to the specified depth. The grouping feature in VCarve Pro makes it easy to associate all vectors for a particular toolpath strategy together. The tool database includes a dedicated drill tool type so that the true tool geometry can be seen in the toolpath previews.

10. Beveled Letters

A feature many of our customers had asked us for was the ability to created attractive 'beveled letters' with both sharp inside and outside corners. With VCarve Pro this is now both possible and easy!

To produce these letters, a V-Bit tool is used to create the 'beveled' edge and VCarve Pro automatically calculates the 3D moves required to create the sharp corners in the inside of the shapes. For the outside corners, VCarve Pro offers the option of either rounded or square corners, with most people preferring the look of the square corners.

As these letters are often cut out with a straight sided tool after the beveling is done, VCarve Pro automatically calculates the offset required for the cut out tool. Remember, the Tabs feature can be used on the profile cut out feature to ensure your beautiful letters don't break loose during the cut out process and become damaged by the cutter.

11. Texturing

VCarve Pro includes a unique feature for creating efficient 3D textures using the tool geometry. Typically up until now, creating a 3D texture on a job required access to an expensive modeling program to create the 3D texture. However, once you had your 3D model, your problems were only just beginning, as these textures usually had to be machined with a small 'ball nose' tool to reproduce the 3d form accurately, resulting in extremely long machining times.

VCarve Pro adopts a unique approach to solving this problem, by generating the texture directly using the shape of the cutter. In addition the texture toolpath generator can 'randomize' a number of key parameters to generate unique 'hand carved' looking textures which still machine extremely efficiently.

Textures can also 'trimmed' to a vector boundary allowing the creation of stunning jobs with unique textures in the background. This approach not only creates a unique hand carved look to your projects, but also almost eliminates tedious sanding which may be required in a flat background of a pocketed recess.

12. File Import / Export

VCarve Pro can import data from a huge range of other design programs using a variety of industry standard file formats. These include DXF, EPS, AI as well as PDF files if they contain vector data. Once imported into VCarve Pro the program has a wide range of tools to make working with this data as efficient as possible. These tools allow you to group vectors together, edit nodes, cut and join vectors, resize vectors, mirror vectors, align vectors etc.

A very important set of tools are those used to identify duplicate vectors and identify and rejoin open vectors. These tool can save an enormous amount of time when working with poor quality data. We have had customers creating toolpaths on imported data in minutes which they had spent hours trying to fix up in other programs. Download the trial version and see for yourself.

As well as importing data from other programs, VCarve Pro offers the ability to export your data in either DXF, EPS or AI file formats. This feature can often be a life saver if a customer requests say some drawings for a sign in order to plan a layout.

13. Molding Cutters

VCarve Pro allows you to add your own custom tools shapes to the tool library and generate toolpaths and simulate the finished result!

Now you can simulate the effects of complex Roman Ogee cutters, Round Over bits and any other custom tool shape you desire.