V-Carve Desktop To Shapeoko 3 Carbide Motion

Super newbie question here. I am using V-Carve desktop and using the drop down for Shapeoko 3 when saving the toolpaths (which converts to “.gcode”), and that works in cutting out my projects, but I do lose some fidelity in Carbide motion with respect to tool selection (i.e., it does not display). I’ve noted that Carbide create generates a “.nc” file for CM and I wondered whether I should be choosing one of the other platform selections that generates the “.nc” version of machine code. It’s also not currently an issue for me because I’m using only one tool to carve several toolpaths, but wondering whether it will make a difference once I move to multiple tools (of course, I will then be separating each tool path in a separate file, but still). Thanks!

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Gcode and nc files will be read by Carbide Motion. There are Shapeoko in and mm post processors available to select in VCarve, these will do one tool at a time but it can include several toolpaths in the same file, in the order they are set in VCarve. If you get a BitSetter, there is a multi tool post processor available for download and Carbide Motion will guide you through the process of changing the tools.

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I’m doing the exact same thing. Vcarve Pro, use the Sahpeoko Post Processor and then to Carbide Motion. I have the bitsetter, but haven’t installed it yet, so I save a separate file for each tool. I name them according to what they do and what tool it is using – “11 x 21 flag Stars 60 vee”; “11 x 21 flag stripes .25 em” and so on. Haven’t had an issue yet.

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Thanks @luc.onthego!

Thanks Stan. Appreciate the tip!

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