I just upgraded to a 4XL and now my Vcarve Desktop will only do tool paths for 25" without tiling. I can upgrade to Vcarve Pro for like $350 or just do Create Pro for the same basic price. Been using Desktop for a couple of years, and went to it because I found Create very limiting.
I mostly make signs but like playing with 3D, and like the flexibility.
I think that if I am tiling, even if I don’t have to move the material, I will still have to reset the origin for the second tile. I suppose to save $350 I could do that, but am lazy.
That’s really easy though as you can just send the machine to that new zero. If you’re doing a 14" tile just send the machine to Y14 (inch) minus any programmed overlap and set your Y zero there.
The other additional feature that I use occasionally in Vcarve Pro, is the True Shape Nesting. If you don’t have to be concerned with grain direction, if you have to cut out a bunch of letters, or shapes, it does a decent job of saving material. If I had to spend 350 dollars, with the choice between the two, It would be Vcarve Pro because you’ll get the most bang for your buck.
And besides, not one piece of software does everything well. I use Fusion, Meshcam, Sheetcam, and Vcarve Pro. It’s all about which one is the least frustrating to work with, depending on the project.
I’m with CrookedWoodTex and find using Carbide Create after using vcarve is like using a Mac computer after using Windows for many years. Both are very capable, but they just require a different design process. Vcarve used to have a lot of advanced features that were not in carbide create, but recently carbide3d have been doing a great job of adding features and making it much easier to design in. Make sure to download the beta version and not the released version since many of these feature are not in the stable branch yet.
I would recommend trying the base version of carbide Create and see if it will work for you. That version is free and has almost everything except the 3d tools. Keep in mind you can always use both on a project since most 3d items are not greater then 25"x25" due to machining time so just use Vcarve for the 3d portion and carbide create to cut everything out.
I too would say Vectrics VCarve. On the (rare) occasion that I need to exceed the 25" limit, tiling was not a problem. I ended up upgrading anyway in the end, but not really because of the tiling issue.
Like others, I turn to Fusion 360 for 3D/Complex parts, but operating F360 is much more complex than Vectric have achieved.
I took a look at C/Create again recently, but I couldn’t go back, free or not. Vectrics is vastly superior.