There are many occasions where specific defined geometry is required on a project. While CC is good at artistic expression, it is very lacking in the defined geometry department. I know it is not intended to be a CAD program but a bit of basic CAD in the Pro version would really be nice and eliminate the need to go to outside CAD software and export DXF files, which has it’s own set of problems, like open vectors when a CAD closed profile is imported via DXF. This happens every time I import a DXF which was fully closed in the CAD software but shows up open in CCP. Using the join feature then costs you accuracy because CCP is moving lines around to mate them, which is out of your control and you don’t even know what was moved. Here are a few tools worth considering.
Constraint tools for parallelism, perpendicularity, tangent, horizontal, vertical
Constraints for line lengths
Constraints for defining distance between geometry, line to line, circle center location x-y
These are just basics that would make a huge difference in CC-Pro
Add corner round cnc bits to tool library (Ones that come to a point, no bearing)
Ability to tell CC where you want a plunge to occur for pockets, contours etc, especially useful for surfacing bits that don’t like to plunge in hardwood well. We could define a larger pocket off the stock and tell bit to plunge outboard of wood.
Better support (including simulation) for Bowl bits. Making trays and platters is something lots of people do, a bowl bit it the go-to way for getting nice rounded inside corners.
Will someone move these to the “Features” list for the products??? There are now a few of these feature threads floating around for both create and motion - and it would be great to see it all in one place.
It would be great to add a feature to auto-organize pieces for the least amount of waste of your stock. I am a newbie but I just finished modifying the cut files for a large parametric wall. The file was provided with 67+ pieces to cut. I manually placed files .3" apart from each other to allow for the 1/4" bit allowance.
Also, constraints would be amazing!
I am pretty sure that if Carbide3D had an optimal solution for auto organizing items on a piece of stock while minimizing waste they would be looking at winning a Nobel Prize. If I am not mistaken it is a NP-Hard packing problem and the best solution is to brute force the pieces in different positions and orientations till you are “good enough” . It might be a good problem for an AI solution.
I have used “nesting” software to maximize cuts in plywood before and the places I have work have used the technology extensively to minimize waste.
A quick search returned this:
Maybe you can use something like this to nest in an external package and then copy the layout to CC. Keep grain direction in mind if that is important to your end project though. The software I used before would allow you to define grain direction and minimum spacing between parts. Not sure about this one though.
I’ve used Cutlist Optimizer - optiCutter which is a free sheet-goods optimizer and it’s terrific and truly free…but it only works with rectangular objects. Probably not good enough for shapes, but I put it out here for anyone who’s got the need for it.
I just watched a video of new features in the 11.55 version of Vectric products. The Pro versions of Cut2D and Vcarve as well as Aspire have added the nesting feature it appears.
Looks like it is based off SVGnest which is Open Source under the MIT License:
so it could be included into Carbide Create. Looks like it is still a highly optimized brute force solution. They have a demo page you can upload SVGs to: