Just got a subscription to Carveco Maker. It seems there is more information for Carveco on the Onefinity forums and more about Vectric here. Anyone else using Carveco? Any reason not to be using it?
I have a Shapeoko Pro XXL (for a little over a year) and a Jtech 7w laser.
Previously I was using CC and it has improved quite a bit over the last year, but still missing some of the nice features that make creating some items a bit easier.
How would you say it compares to the 3D/relief functionality and training materials in CC?
After some less-than-satisfactory 3D results I’m somewhat frustrated with CC in both of those areas, which has led to a mental blockage in trying to get it figured out. I like the CC/CM combo, but with my Pro subscription seemingly up it’s a good time to look around probably.
As time has passed, I’m a bit fuzzy on this, but I believe Carveco Maker and Vectric software were the same software at one time. They do both have the same look and feel in places.
Like I said, I’m a bit fuzzy about that.
There’s a couple of different people that do great videos for Carveco Maker including the 3d relief. I haven’t personally messed with it too much but seems easy to follow the in depth videos. I did try CC pro and found the same as you, not enough tutorials for me.
You are correct, one of the founders of Carveco actually got on the Onefinity site and gave lots of good background information, including that the people that started Carveco and Vectric all used to work together and seem to get along.
I looked at it some time back, because I wanted something that I could manipulate 3D models with. I wasn’t planning to create a bunch of 3D content, just be able to change something; like text.
With Vectric, you have to upgrade to their most expensive Aspire version to get that capability. With Carveco Maker, you can get that capability with a subscription.
ADDED: I should also have said that I think the Vectric model is still the best way to go long term, but it is also more expensive than Carbide Create Pro.
My experience with carveco was related to 3d relief carving:
For 3d relief, carveco was the best i could find. While the program is not intuitive, it does work surprisingly well and the tutorials are fairly comprehensive.
If you are going to get into reliefs eventually, I’d say it’s worth the learning curve. (And it is quite a curve…)
If you’re wanting to stay in the premade reliefs or other simpler things (like text and such) there are cheaper options which are much faster to spin up on.
If you have more specific questions I’ll try to answer, though I’m still firmly in the “newbie” category as it relates to Carveco.
I got really excited about this until I saw that much like Vectric, they’re windows only. 
I wish I could get something comparable on MacOS.
At this time, that would be Carbide Create. Pretty much the only other commercial CAM software which runs on Mac OS is MeshCAM.
The opensource stuff works for the most part, but there really isn’t anything which competes w/ these programs in terms of doing decorative design and V carving and textures.
What sort of work do you wish to do that Carbide Create isn’t suitable for? How do you wish to approach the projects?
I am just using Carveco Maker, not the full blown Carveco. I am interested in what other programs you are referring to for simpler projects. I would like to get into some reliefs eventually, but most of my projects are fairly simple right now.
It feels like the programs like Vcarve (and assumedly Carveco) offers the user more flexibility when it comes to 3D machining and CAM. I do wish CCreate had more tool operation options like adaptive clearing or being able to choose raster patterns for pocketing operations.
One thing I’m familiar with in Vcarve but unsure about in CC is if there’s a way to lay a vector down on a 3d shape, like this.
Hopefully there will be more toolpath options in the future.
Yes, you can subtract a vector from a 3D model in Carbide Create Pro.
When it comes to subtracting the vector, can you cut it like a contour, or will the tool attempt to include it into the greater 3D roughing and finishing cuts?
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