GearHeads Corner

I've been using my Sherline CNC mill for 10 years now and am just finishing a DIY CNC router design / build with a cutting envelope of about 16" x 20". I would like to make a few more clocks & mechanical things out of wood, aluminum & brass; the wood part is new to my CNC work.

I think I saw somewhere here that Art uses V-Carve and I presume others here do as well. I looked at Vectric's web site but they have a few different flavours of their products. I'm inclined to spend a few extra dollars and buy one of their premium products so I don't get locked out of features that I may want / need in the future. I could really use a bit of guidance from some like minded users.

I use VCarve Pro alot, between Gearotic and VCarve, I find 99.9% of my cad and cam needs are met..

Art

I'm very poor at learning new software. I purchased Vcarve Pro
about 5 or 6 years ago and it was easy for me to learn and
produce product. As a matter of fact it is fun!!
olf20 / Bob

Take a look at Vectric's "upgrade" path.  I started with Cut2D, then licensed V-Carve Pro at basically the incremental cost of V-Carve over Cut2D.  And, if/when I "upgrade" to Vectric's Aspire, same - basically only the incremental cost.

Disclaimer: Although I am certain there are plenty of other packages out there -- I am only familiar with Cut2D/V-Carve Pro only because the person who got me started on CNC used it.

I upgrasded my VCarve-Pro recently as well, its a fine product, very usefull. Their quite reasonable
on upgrades typically, thats usually a sign of a good company to deal with.

Art

The upgrade cost of Gearotic sure makes this company great!

Considering that sites like these are a goldmine for potential customers, I'm surprised companies such as Vectric don't post Extremely aggressive offers for first time customers.  A $99.00 initial sale would spawn a ton of new customers (and future upgrades) and you just can't buy advertising that cheap.

I'd go for a hundred dollar hobbyist special.  While $700 is cheap if you're using it professionally, it's a big chunk out of an always too small hobby budget.

Kirk

I've been reading their website for a bit now and I still can't figure out exactly what the difference between VCarve and Aspire is.

I use Aspire and I find that it is quite a bit more than I need - The modelling stuff is really quite powerful however if I want an animal head that's nicely modelled I will buy one already to go rather than trying to do it myself.  As well the weave function is great but Gearotic is also headed that way.

I use my Aspire a lot but only because I have it and not because I "need" it.

John