Post processor for Vectric

Software Vectric
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Hello all,

First of all I really enjoy my shapeoko pro. Did some mods on it like a 2 kW liquid cooled spindel with VFD drive controlled from Carbide Motion. I do have the carbide create pro version but really would like to give Vectric software a try. But from my understanding shapeoko does not provide a proper post processor to perform a tools change and use the VFD control. How come Carbide3d does not develop this post processor for their customers to use on Vectric. I think this will expand their business as it is more likely people will eventually purchase a shapeoko or A nomad if the can expand their software package towards Vectric.

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Well @neilferreri did develop a post processor for Vectric products that supports everything the Shapeoko can do, it’s available here:

I believe that at least at some point Vectric pointed their customers to it when they requested a Shapeoko-compatible PP.

I’m using it as I write (working on a project using Vectric VCarve right now), with a BitSetter and VFD/spindle and it works perfectly

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Hello Julien,
thanks for your reply.

Just wondering what version of Vectric are you using and which PP are you using?

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I am (still) using Vectric VCarve 10.5, and Neil’s PP linked above.
I don’t know for sure whether VCarve/Aspire 11.x have introduced any break in compatibility in PP format, but I suspect from the forum posts that it doesn’t (there is a different way to install the PP in v11 though, as far as I can tell)

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Julien, thanks again for your reply just one question left are u using the HDZ z-axis carriage?

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Yes indeed I have a HDZ on my machine

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Julien,

are you willing to share your PP you are using because the one on Neil’s github gives a lot of errors.

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I added Vectric v.10 earlier this year and they provide a functional PP with the software [or downloadable]: Carbide Motion ATC (mm) (!.nc).pp is what I use. I’ve tried to attach the file in use–by no means expert, but made a couple edits to simply comment out a couple lines that made it function more like the CC/CM environment I was accustomed to.

Carbide Motion ATC (mm) (!.nc).zip (1.1 KB)

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I used exactly the one from @neilferreri’s github.
How did you save it locally, maybe open it in a text editor to be sure content looks ok? Typical pitfall is to save the HTML not the raw file

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@Hoogmolen As @Julien stated, you may be downloading the webpage rather than the post processor files.
GitHub does not allow for an intuitive way to download single files. The typical way for something like this is to download the entire directory as a zip file.
I made an animation to help a while ago for those not familiar with GitHub.

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Click the button that says “RAW” and then right click in the blank area of the text and choose “Save As”.

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As an old CNC’er with an old shapeoko XL, but still going strong, I would like to ask for some help and direction. I continue to run the PP of shapeoko, but use Vectric 11.05 for the creative source. I have read often that the PP from neiferreri works well and allows the use of the bit setter. This is tremendous, but I need instructions as to how to add this to the shapeoko. Is there a step by step procedure listed some where? I don’t want to jump into this without expertise to avoid a total disaster. Tom

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I don’t have Vectric VCarve v11 but I seem to remember they have now integrated a Shapeoko PP (which may just be Neil’s) in the list that ships with the product, do you see it in the dropdown selection list?
If not it’s a matter of copying the PP file in the appropriate directory, I’m just not sure which it is for v11 now

Edit : Vectric has a dedicated support page for this , see “Install a custom post-processor from file” section

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