new guy with CNC questions

[bradleyheathhays]

Hey everybody. Hope this winter is treating you well. Now that I've been frozen out of my shop for a while I've been nosing around the net for some new ideas and came across what was probably a more popular art form in the 70s, but is still quite captivating....parametric wall art design (pic below)...which of course led quickly to studying the gorgeous CNC machines that produce these designs and their associated software.

I like the tiling feature the X Carve Pro offers but I haven't read about it being offered on any other CNC machine. What Inventables calls 'tiling' is where you can cut pieces larger than your CNC table by sliding your wood/material through and let it do one section at a time.

1) Is there any way to make the AVID PRO 510 do this tiling function or is this something only Xcarve has right now?

2) V Carve Pro is SO expensive! Is there ANY way to get it cheaper than it's retail price? I've seen where you can get an activation code if you're part of an educational group, so wonder if that could be cheaper. Also, would be nice to be able to split a subscription with someone.

3) I believe I've seen where Fusion 360 was suggested as a good program to use if you're working with parametric designs. Any opinions on this?

4) And last, I'm still searching for the best forum to ask these kinds of CNC and software questions. If there's a more appropriate place than here please do let me know.

Thanks

 

[Herman]

You must consider relation cost / benefit. Fusion is free for personal use and relatively easy to learn. Vcarve from Vectric offer a lot of easy to use resources, but it is not free, a bit expensive. For my hobby use I'm satisfied with Fusion. Here the biggest part of pen makers uses a simple wood lathe and manual operations, but you can find some people with previous CNC experience.
* Just to complete, CNC machines for wood and light material is relativelly easy to assemble if you can manage mechatronics tasks and details. I have my CNC router made from aluminum profiles, servo motors and electronics purchased individually or reused from other projects and it works very well for my needs.
DeskProto is another option, good resources at relatively low cost:

Download the DeskProto CAM software

Download your free copy of the DeskProto 3D CAM software. It offers 3D CNC machining for non-machinists: test on your own machine how this works for you.

www.deskproto.com

 

[pssherman]

I use an xcarve cnc router and vcarve software to make a variety of products that I sell at the local farmers market and online. Examples are shown below. These are easy to use and have good functionality. I recommend them.

 

[gimpy]

We have the yorahome silverback
This is one hell of a machine