I have the Shapeoko 3XXL and use Carbide 3D and vectric software, does anyone know of a 3D printer and a vinyl cutter (cricut or similar) that would all work off of the same design software?
A specific brand of printer wouldn’t address this — this is a problem of file formats.
Carbide Create imports DXFs and SVGs (and STLs or pixel images if one has a Pro license) and pixel images for background re-drawing — presumably Vectric is similar.
Only STLs are inherently 3D, and there isn’t an easy way to get them from the 3D previews in Carbide Create.
Similarly, vinyl cutters are inherently 2D, working with 2D file formats such as .ai, .pdf, .dxf, and .svg.
For a 3D printer, one pretty much needs 3D CAD software. There is a list of suggestions at:
We do sell:
and have a section on it here:
What sort of 3D projects do you wish to make? Approaching the design in what fashion?
Sounds like you are pretty knowledgeable in this area. Quick answer is I am learning it all now and I am pretty handy and a quick learner. End game is to add a branch to my construction company. I have a cabinet shop already so I have all the woodworking tools and computers there to run everything. I want to make custom wood stuff, table top designs, funny dumb signs, 3D printer basically to make all kinds of stuff from organization to funny things as well. Get comfortable with everything and eventually take from making custom stuff for local customers to possibly expanding online. Just don’t want to learn like 3 different software programs. I understand and already have knowledge of like file types and what most of the tools do on the design software, tool paths and what not. I have estimating software that I learned quite a few years ago that has similarities, I’ve also used the cricut design space. I guess in a perfect world is there a software to create the actual image/file, that could then be sent to for instance what I have now would be Bambu studio for the slicer/3D printer, and Vectric for the CNC. I haven’t set it up yet or know what it uses but my last part of my puzzle is a silhouette 4 I believe. So same for that. Kinda get where I am going with this?
I am not aware of a multi-purpose 2D/3D program suited to making designs for both CNC and 3D printing. Fusion 360 and programs like to it are the closest option.
If you want to make 3D things, then you will need a 3D tool, which usually is a 3D CAD program such as Alibre Atom3D — an STL will be exported from it, then loaded into a “Slicer” (which is the 3D printing equivalent of a CAM program for CNC).
You may find it helpful to review the Glossary at:
FWIW, if you did work up a 3D design in Carbide Create which you were satisfied with, then you could export G-code from it, generate a 3D preview using some 3rd party tool, then export an STL from that 3rd party tool to 3D print the 3D design from Carbide Create — that would be just as awkward as it sounds.
For using the 3D printer you may want to look into things such as:
and perhaps designs such as:
Note that many of the customizable designs for 3D printing are either done with Fusion 360:
or OpenSCAD (which is a programming environment/tool):
That said, there are enough shared 3D designs that maybe you would never need to do anything other than download an STL, slice, and then print.
I’m using Fusion for designing for my CNC (5 pro) and my 3d printer (bambu p1p). Theoretically I could use it for designing for my vinyl cutter as well (uscutter SC2 28") but that is much easier in illustrator (which is what I use) or inkscape or other vector software.
I do also use carbide create for designing depending on what it is I’m doing, mainly quick simple things, but the image trace works very well when I need that stuff.
1 Like
You could also try TinkerCAD, it’s free and web based. I use it for STL creation…and now you’ve got me thinking whether I could use it for CNC…hmmm
You can, just export an STL from it, then import the STL into a 3D CAM tool such as Carbide Create Pro or MeshCAM.
Thank you all for your answers so far. BorgDog (Dan Howard) sounds like you are on the right track with what I am trying to do. I am hoping to skip downloading and trying a bunch of different software to gget what works. I understand the difference in the 2D and 3D programs. I may be way wrong and totally off base here, but if the software is capable (design/import/create only)of 3D, as long as it has an option to make it into 2D, wouldn’t that be the answer? End game being whatever I wanted to make, lets just say a matchbox car for example, as long as I had the 3D image of it, in theory I would think I could convert to 2D on it’s side/top whatever and either kick out the G-code or a file to either export to a CNC or or vinyl cutter software, or keep it in 3D and send it to slicer? Thoughts on that? I’m pretty sure the software from that point would be specific to your equipment. Right now the guy who kind of coached me in startup would be Bambu Studio for 3D printer, Vectric for CNC and again I didn’t hook up silhoutte vinyl cutter yet so not sure what I need for that.