Software for Laser AND CNC?

[David Somers]

Hey everyone!

This is a bit of a hypothetical question that might even go into philosophy?

I had just responded to chris szlachetka (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/member.php?129582-chris-szlachetka)'s post where he asked about what software to use for his newly ordered Epilog laser!! (congrats again Chris). He mentioned how he had CNC's but felt the software he was using was overkill for use on a laser.

My thought was that if you have CNC's and everyone in your shop already knows the software why learn something new?

So that is my question for everyone. If you have a shop that has both CNC(s) and laser(s) why wouldn't you design your stuff for both devices on one piece of software? Vectric Vcarve Pro for example might have capabilities that a laser can not go near, but Vcarve's CAD side is still a very capable CAD program and will do what Corel will do with some exceptions. You just don't need to take it any further than the CAD side if you will be using the file on the laser. Is the job bound for the CNC? Well....continue with that file on through the CAM side and lay out your tool paths and other CAMmy settings and send it off to the spindle?

What are your thoughts on this?

Discuss amongst your selves! <grin>

Dave

[Bill George]

I have VCarvePro 5 and a couple of CAD programs they all work great for creating a vector shape or scaled job, But does nothing for creating a Raster. That is where Corel Draw shines. Sure I guess I could learn to use CD as a CAD program but why??

[Nicolas Silva]

I use corel draw for all my laser work. At least until now. I'm going to go the cnc route very soon and so have been learning both VcarvePro and Aspire (thanks to thier free trial downloads). I'm getting ready to buy Aspire and when I do I will probably do everything in Aspire, save it to an AI file and use corel simply to send it to the laser. A lot of the vector generation is really great on aspire. Things like curving text is much easier (especially under the curve where corel bends the hell out of it). Extruding the text will be a breeze as well. But of course, I am mostly getting this for woodworking. Aspire is $2k so I'm not going into this lightly.

So to answer your question - YES because I'll have the new software, I will use it for both machines. If I was only doing laser work, I'd stick with Corel and keep the $1500 difference in my pocket. Cheers!

[Kim McIntosh]

I have been using VCarve Pro to do all the design work and adjustment for my CNC machine. I've had my laser for three months now and just bring the drawing in DXF format from VCarve into Corel change the line weight to hairline and good to go.
Kim in Oz

[Jerome Stanek]

I do have both laser and cnc and use Aspire to design for both. I get some AI and also DXF files that I open in Aspire and make cut files for the CNC and convert to metric and exporting as a DXF for the laser.

[Doug Griffith]

In my CAD world, I work directly in solids and surfaces, not 2D that is then "converted" to 3D by extruding, lathing, sweeping, etc... I can only only guess that I'm not alone. For me to create 2D geometry, it takes more work because I have to go backwards. For that work, my choice is to use software that specializes in 2D and is more feature rich (ie. Illustrator). In a nutshell, 3D CAD and 2D laser are 2 completely different animals. Maybe using the same software for 2D CAD and laser makes sense from a learning curve point of view.

[Scott Shepherd]

I'm the other way around from a couple of you. I've never drawn anything more than a square, rectangle or circle in Vectric. I draw everything in Illustrator or CorelDraw, save it to an eps and open that eps in Vectric, assign tool paths and be done.

I don't think the CAD tools in either Vectric product approach the user friendliness of CorelDraw.

[Ernie Balch]

I do all my vectorizing and drawing in Aspire, it is much easier to use and generates clean closed vectors. I export files as .eps to corel for the laser. I export to sign lab for the edge printer and vinyl cutters.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm the other way around from a couple of you. I've never drawn anything more than a square, rectangle or circle in Vectric. I draw everything in Illustrator or CorelDraw, save it to an eps and open that eps in Vectric, assign tool paths and be done.

I don't think the CAD tools in either Vectric product approach the user friendliness of CorelDraw.A very strong +1. It would never even occur to me to go the other direction for my own work. (Although I've been known to steal/adapt CAD files for laser use.)

And more to the point, for actually running the job, the laser is vastly more user-friendly than the CNC.

(And yes, I do have a CNC. But I designed it in CD and cut most of the parts for it on the laser.)

[Clark Pace]

I use corel or inkscape to design. For my laser i use the software that came with my machine. On my cnc i use cambam ,vectric aspire or artcam for tool paths and then use mach 3 to run the machine