hi I’m trying the free trail of vcarve 12
to install the post- processors giving me a hard time i have a pic but cant show it here
Installing or selecting?
The built in Carbide post for Vectric works.
The trial version of the software may not allow you to define a different post though as I think you can’t actually extract the file to cut.
You should be able to use the Carbide post processor. However, Vectric has limited what you can cut to some of their trial design projects. You can design your own projects, but not cut them.
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For those thinking about moving to Vectric Vcarve or VCPro. I started with the trial version, V12, recently and just purchased V12 Pro. When setting up my machine support had me choose “Shapeoko” and 4X4. Then the Carbide Motion latest version for the Post Processor. I have the 5 Pro 4X4. This worked perfectly. I received tool change prompts just as I did when using files from Carbide Create. There are differences in behavior with Vcarve as apposed to Carbide Create. One is that when the job starts the Z axis drops down to a Z1 height as the Z move to the cutting starting point. Vectric tells you to set a Z1 height to avoid hitting a clamp or obstacle as Z travels to the start coordinates. This is done in the tool path setup dialog. There are a couple of other behavior differences but they are not issues just differences. Now its back to school on Vcarve Pro.
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Vectric V12 also features “Keep Out Zones” to prevent hitting clamps. It’s a nice feature.
One weird thing is that on the initial path it starts the router at the bit change location and then rapids to the right starting point. But on bit changes it moves to the correct XY after the change before starting the router.
In my case when the job start icon is clicked and the spindle moves into tool change position, then to the bit setter, then off of the bit setter at measuring height and then the spindle drops down to the Z1 level, moves to the proper XY just above my clamps as the spindle travels and drops to the Z zero start point. I believe that’s why Vectric support tells the user to set a Z1 to a clearance height above Z so that ample clearance is expected as the spindle travels to the material. After the initial tool change and travel to XY this doesn’t happen again. The next tool change behaves like a Carbide Create file and the spindle remains high as it travels back to start the second tool path. I haven’t talked to Vectric about this because setting Z1 should prevent any collisions, I hope! This does make you have to consider any collision points as you set up tools paths for gcode output. One more thing to think about.
Or use the keep out zones as @cheu mentioned.
I played with them a little on one project and they are a great idea, but I couldn’t use them on my project as it was double sided and the keep out zones seem to be defined for both sides in the same place. I didn’t look to see if there was a way to have them turned on for one side and off for another.
I started with V12 trial and emailed support about Carbide Motion and compatibility. It does work in the trial version just fine but as far as generating gcode you can only do so from a sample file that you can download from the Vectric site. It’s in the form of a video with a link in the video to the sample files. The samples are basic signs that you can edit tool paths and vectors then generate the gcode file called “.gcode” with the name of the file, ie" Simple Sign.gcode. I cut the file and it turned out like I expected. To get the correct post process to work as I was told by support select Shapeoko for the machine in Machine setup. Then choose (in my case) 4X4. After that for the Post Processor choose Carbide Motion (Latest Version mm or in.). Then when you edit the tool paths this info will be populated there. I found you can also do all of this from the tool path edit menu structure but you have to go through the above process for each new sample file you download if done there. You can access the sample files from the Demo Versions main screen as I recall. I just purchased V12 and got it set up with my Shapeoko 5 Pro and had no issues at all. Good luck, hope this helps.
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