Beginners guide to desktop CNC software

unsure where to start with cnc software then you're in the right place so keep watching [Music] hey everyone and welcome to another episode of james dean designs if you're new to the channel and love cnc make sure you hit that subscribe button to get all the latest videos in today's episode we're going to be talking about how we get ideas from our head into a final output from the cnc machine and the various pieces of software we need in order to achieve that now this video has been on my to-do list for quite a while and i've been putting it off the reason for that is other than physically purchasing a cnc machine the software setup is the most personal choice somebody has when it comes to the cnc world and if you say bad things or negative things about somebody else's software they start to get a little bit grumpy so let's just be clear everything we're going to cover in today's video and my opinions based on my experience since i started cnc they may not be the same as yours but that's okay because we're all adults in saying that if i do mention anything factually incorrect then let me know in the comments section below i can't use all the software all the time so updates do happen to them that i may not be aware of now i will put timestamps to everything we're going to go through in today's video in case you want to jump ahead and links to any software that we're going to use do check out the description area it's where i put lots of useful information such as links and files that you may need so let's start by talking about how we get ideas from our head to a final product now there are essentially three stages to achieve this and we're going to start with design also known as cad or computer aided design this is where we start to visualize the ideas on screen that we already have in our head we start to draw them out using lines shapes text that sort of thing until we can get the design that we're after on screen the middle phase is where we're going to create a set of instructions that we expect the machine to follow this is known as cam or computer aided manufacturing in essence what we do in this phase is we're going to try and tell the machine to so you know cut out that area machine out that area use a certain bit going at a certain feed and speed so this really is where most of your detail goes into it to ensure your job comes out how you expect it now the final stage is the controller or the g-code sender and in essence this piece of software tells your machine to execute the set of instructions that we've created in the middle phase now to make this a little bit more confusing some pieces of software we're about to talk about cover all three of these stages some only focus on one or two so as i say earlier it really is personal preference as to what setup you use to get from start to finish so we're going to start by looking at the software that covers the cad and cam phases of our process we'll move on to gcode senders a little bit later in the video we're also going to start with the free software because typically that's what most beginners are looking for when they get into the cnc world so when we're talking about free cnc design software two names will come up regularly carbide create and easel both of them give free offerings as part of their broader paid for service and what i mean by this is they give you so many tools functions and features for free but to use all of the software you need to upgrade or pay for their pro service now that shouldn't put you up using it because a lot of the tools they give you for free are enough to get most people started and stuck in with getting their first projects done in terms of both of the pieces of software cardboard crate is a standalone installation program what this basically means is any computer you want to use it on you need to install it on on the opposite side easel is a cloud-based software basically it runs over the internet through your browser such as chrome or internet explorer the brilliant thing about that is you can literally open it up on any computer that can access the internet do some work do some designs you know it doesn't need to be a specific computer because nothing needs to be installed to run it the downside to that is if your workshop or something doesn't have a great internet connection it can be a bit slow so for example my workshop is a bit away from the house so the internet connection isn't always as great out here so there are trade-offs between the two of them and that then applies to the software itself as well cardboard crate probably a more traditional approach in that it aligns with some of the more advanced software that we talk about later on where you build tool databases and things like that easel kind of starts to push you in the right direction although the feeds and speeds and tool databases may not be correct for the machine you're using with but everything is a little bit more friendly in terms of the user interface the offerings between them again they kind of compete for example you can do v-carves as standard in carbohydrate but you can't do roughing and roughing and detail cuts without a bit of a workaround on the opposite side easel will do roughing and detail cuts as standard but the v-carve is part of the pro package that you need to upgrade for my personal opinion is i always advise people to start with easel because i think it's a bit more user friendly and simpler to begin with that's why i do my beginners tutorial in easel link in the corner if you haven't seen it before now what i would say is even though both of these software do a pro and upgraded versions of them i wouldn't pay for those and i'll cover this a little bit later in the video i think they're great for free piece of software but i wouldn't use the paid four versions so i should mention at this point easel is one of only two pieces of software that can do all three stages it can't be your g code sender or your controller however i don't recommend you use it for that bugs have been found in this final stage when easily is controlling your machine and it changes some settings on your machine that can cause jobs to fail so my personal advice is to use a standalone g-code sender which we'll get onto a little bit later in the video now another free piece of popular software is fusion 360. this is made by a company called autodesk who are one of the world's leading makers of cad based software you may have heard of something called autocad this is their parametric modeling software i have no idea what that means but it sounded cool and i wanted to get it in the video now when i talk about it being free this is on a personal use license if you plan to make a fair bit of money from your cnc machine and set up then you will need to look at their commercial license in order to do so i should also mention that they are taking some features from the personal license and keeping them in the commercial license but for now everything we need to get started with cnc is still available in the free license so we're good to continue with it now listen to this next bit very carefully the great thing about fusion 360 is that it's so powerful the worst thing about fusion 360 is that it's so powerful and what i mean by this is the learning curve for fusion 360 is considerably steeper than some of the other programs that i've already mentioned so in something like easel you can watch a quick tutorial maybe 20 minutes be up and running and get your first job done fairly quickly with fusion 360 because there's a fair bit more to learn in order to initially get set up and started you're probably going to have to spend a bit more time doing a few extra tutorials in order to start to understand the basics and how you work in that 3d environment now if you are already into that 3d world such as 3d modeling 3d printing it may be something that comes a little bit quicker to you but as i said there are lots of functions and features that you need to start to get your head around before you can really start doing anything in it if you are new to cnc and not entirely you know confident on using computers it's probably not the best place to be starting for you however if you want to challenge and you want to push yourself to learn new things then it's definitely worth the time to get stuck into because as i say it is a great piece of software and it is free so let's move on and talk about paid for software now when we're talking about the pinnacle of software and you're getting to the top you expect better functions better features better tools because we're spending our money on it now the two pieces of software we're going to be talking about today is vcarved by vetric and make about carve comb and what these put to the market are very similar offerings i should stress both companies do offer a higher level of cnc software above these but for cnc beginners vcarve and carter maker are going to cover everything we need and do all the projects we expect to achieve now just to give you some background both of these companies originated from the same place many years ago and just went off in slightly different directions the thing that really defines them for me is their approach to licensing vcarve went down the traditional perpetual license which is where you pay an upfront cost for your license and you can use it for as long as you want the downside to this is the fact that once you need if you want to use their upgraded features that come out later in the year or something like that or they release a new version you've got to pay another fee on top to get those functions and features the opposite side kavco went with the subscription model which is where a lot of companies are doing them you pay a continual fee every month and included in that is all the updates and features that come so you know every time they release a new function you get it automatically without having to pay any extra the downside to the subscription model is once you stop paying you no longer have access to the software so there is a trade-off between both of them obviously i won't advise which one works best for you financially but we can talk about some of the functions and features within them and that may help your decision now both of them offer on a basic level everything we are going to want as i've already said they do multiple cutting options such as profile cuts pocket cuts v carbs um detailing and roughing cuts they also both do 3d reliefs which for me is one of the things i love about cnc work is doing a good 3d relief carving because they look brilliant they also both come with an inbuilt art library of 3d reliefs as well so you know if you think they're a bit complicated to do yourself you can just use the clipart and build brilliant designs obviously you can also edit and manipulate all the 3d reliefs as well in both pieces of software now carveco can edit multiple reliefs at one time whereas vcarve can only do one relief its time so there is a slight difference there equally v calf can deal with fourth axis so if that is something that you're after from a piece of software it's naturally going to steer you in that direction now i'm going to talk about the reasons why i went down the carve co route because that is the piece of software that i use and this is probably where those opinions start to get a little bit ruffled up as i mentioned earlier now for me i've got a pro recell 6060 and that's a work area of 640 millimeters by 640 millimeters calf co can handle any work area size that you need to whether you have a small machine or a large machine v-carve on the other hand they limit their work area to 24 inches square so for example i can't use the maximum work area on my in if i had v-carve so straight away that pushed it to one side for me also if you've watched my previous videos you know i do cnc rotary as well as laser work carveco has the laser laser features inbuilt automatically with it for the fit monthly fee that you're paying vcarve doesn't if you want to use their laser module again it's another upgrade fee to get that so it just pushes me more into the kafka corner the final thing was the interface for me as well now you know as well as vcarve having the traditional perpetual license approach i also think their layout looks quite traditional as well whereas kafka is much more modern looks user-friendly just draws me into it a little bit more so again just swung me that way to kafka if i'm honest i think no matter which piece of software you go with you're going to be happy because they both are brilliant to use and i have personally used both of them there are trial periods for both of them as well vcarve has an unlimited trial period but limited functions within it so what that means is you can do you can use the software do everything you want to do with it see all the functionality play about with it you just can't export the file at the end in order to output it via your cnc machine karvko you have a 90 day unlimited trial so what that means is you get 90 days to use every function and feature within it you can even export your jobs in order to machine on your um cnc setup but after the 90 days you have to make a decision so yeah as i say i think you're going to be happy with either one if you do go do it down the carve co route check out my links in the description area if you use more links on my discount code you will get five percent off which obviously just helps a bit of saving and keeps the money in our pockets now earlier on i referenced easel and you know if you start paying for software why i personally wouldn't pay for easel over another piece of software and it's this simple is really easel charges i think it's twenty dollars per month for their advanced pro features kafko charge 15 per month for all of theirs and you get so much more with the carvco package so that is the main reason i said earlier that i wouldn't pay for the upgrades on the uh on the easel features because for less money you can get a lot more features functions tools that type of thing in to be honest in my opinion what is a better quality software so with that out the way let's move on and start to talk about g code senders so let's start with candle or grbl control commonly known as candle the reason i'm starting here is because it is probably the most popular one it's given away with all the desktop cnc machines on a little usb stick that you get to set your machine up so you have it straight away it's also very easy to get going with it doesn't require installation and you literally just have to change one setting to get your machine to connect so you're good to go really quickly now with all that being said it makes it sound like it's a great piece of software but i found it a little bit buggy when i got started in cnc and i was quickly introduced to another piece of software called ugs or universal g-code sender now if i'm honest i didn't look back when i first started using ugs because it had features in it that candle didn't i can understand why people get started with candle but universal g code sender for me was just a much better program to get going with it's open source it's tested across multiple platforms and operates on multiple platforms so for example you can use it on windows macs linux poise you know all the different types of systems you're going to use to run a cnc machine it's cross-platform so again it's just brilliant depending on who you are and where you're using it the other thing i found it had features that candle didn't have features that i found really useful such as being able to operate your z-axis on a different basis than the x and y-axis what i mean by that is if for example i jogged my x-axis across at 300 millimeters type 300 millimeters in click right and it would jog it across now if i click down on the z-axis by accident or even on purpose it would then jam the z-axis into the bed and just keep running for 300 millimeters of travel obviously it would jam the stepper motor up but it would keep going until i either clicked abort or did something to stop it now with ugs you can control the measurements in different settings so you can have your x and y run at one place while your z axis runs at a different rate so for example you may jog your x and y at i don't know 40 millimeters at a time but you may only want to move your x your z axis at five millimeters of time and as i say for me it's a safety feature and it is brilliant and stops making a lot of mistakes or jamming your axis up there are other things in it as well such as being able to calibrate your access which i find really useful to get your machine dialed in so as i say i think it's a brilliant piece of software and i would definitely recommend people checking it out now the third piece of software i'm going to talk about is getting more popular recently it's called open builds or open build control you may have heard of open builds before from their cnc machines and this is their program they released to run their cnc machine however even if you don't have an open builds machine you can still use it to run 3018s and other pieces other desktop cnc machines now i've had a play about with this the user the user face is quite colorful and fun to use it has some features that are great such as being able to surface your spoil board from the g-code sender itself it still does lack one or two features for me but as i say i haven't fully used it yet however i know seth hoops who's another youtuber check out his uh channel link in the corner he really loves it so maybe that i haven't you know used all the features with it yet but if i had to put them in an order for me it would be ugs first open build second and candle third so if you've been using candle and not finding it great then definitely take a look at one of the other options that we've just gone through so we've gone through this software covering all three stages of the process but we've primarily focused on cnc rotary what if you're into laser in as well or even just lazarin on its own well i'm going to cover that now earlier on i mentioned there was two pieces of software that can do all three stages one of them being easel although i didn't recommend it as the g-code sender the second one is light burn which is a laser-based piece of software it can do all the design work that you need it can then translate that into the tool path it needs to be able to output the the laser profiles and it can also send those over to the machine itself all in the same piece of software so it really is a great powerful piece of software it's not free it does have a small charge of 60 dollars but for how much it cost versus the powerfulness of the software itself it is well worth the investment if you're into laser work so i'm going to quickly reference two additional pieces of software firstly so that you actually know what they are if you hear about them but also why they can be of benefit now it is inkscape and adobe illustrator they're essentially two pieces of software that do very similar things vector based design and editing platform except one is free one is paid for with the adobe being the paid for version now the reason that they can be important is because they are dedicated vector based design software that have lots of powerful tools and features within them now the design software that we've already gone through today again is vector-based but it can be quite simplistic in it in its approach to how it handles some of those vectors so for example if you're doing much more complex design work it may be easier to create the initial outline in something like illustrator or inkscape and then transfer that over so it's just something to bear in mind the other thing it can be useful for is avoiding some of the pro features in some of the free software that we touched on earlier perfect example in easel you can only use a limited amount of fonts without paying for the pro version what you can do is a way around that use inkscape to do your design which can use any fonts on your computer you can then transfer that design over into easel as an svg in order to do the tool path work so you get the fonts that you want within easel and you can still export the g-code to be able to machine it out so as i say they do have some advantages i rarely use them as part of my design process but i do have them installed just in case so if you've made it through the video this far then well done because i've done an awful lot of talking and it's the first cnc video i've done where i've not actually touched a single cnc machine now just to recap it is personal choice on how you get through those different stages of the process and it really is up to you to figure out what works and what doesn't don't be afraid to switch between softwares if you find something isn't working for you my personal preference is i use carvco to do the first two stages to do the design and get all the tool pass generated into a g code file i'll then use ugs universal g-code sender to operate the machine and get it output via the cnc now that's not going to be everyone's preference but let's keep the conversation going and chat down below because i'm sure you've got different opinions and i'm sure some people can tell me bits about the software that i may not have covered in this video also remember if you are interested in carveco check out the link in the description area below to get five percent off and get signed up if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up and thank you to everyone for watching final thanks as always goes to my patrons for keeping the channel going i'll see you all on the next video you

Channel: James Dean Designs

Views: 23,789

Keywords: 3018PRO, 3018 pro, 3018 pro CNC, 3018, 3018pro build, 3018 pro assembly, small cnc, desktop cnc, laser cnc, woodworking cnc, CNC software, Using 3018, 3018 beginner, 3018pro beginner, cnc tips tricks, cnc help, cnc laser, Laser engraving, cnc beginner, cnc review, 3018 review, 3018 pro review, 3018 prover review, Sainsmart, Sainsmart Genmitsu, FoxAlien, Vevor, CNC issue, CNC problems, 3018 problem, 3018 tips, what cnc software, best cnc software, desktop cnc software

Id: EMI97Rcb0bQ

Length: 21min 33sec (1293 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021