Vectric 10.0 is available

Greetings. Vectric has released their latest versions of Aspire and Vcarve today. I didn’t specifically see anything about a makerspace version but that’s more licencing than product, and I use Aspire so wasn’t looking that hard. There are a few good new features. If you want to try the trial versions they are on the Vectric.com website. My upgrade price was $400 so I don’t know what the makerspace version would be. Of course if you paid for an upgraded within a year it’s free. cheers!

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@nicksilva it looks like the vcarve pro version allows for a 3d model imports…since we don’t currently have a class in 3d fusion to multicam…it would be useful.

I entered the Makerspace code into a fresh download of 10 and it now announces itself as a v10 Makerspace Client.

When Vectric talks about 3D models they mean either an STL file or OBJ file not real CAD like a STEP file. whatever you do in fusion now, you can export as and STL. the current vcarve pro should have allowed you to import a single STL and cut it. The STL is seen as a big blob and you simply are removing all the material to reveal that blob.

Within Fusion - you’re dealing with a solid body for which you create toolpaths for planes. real 3D toolpathing is available in F360 but aren’t as straight forward as 2D toolpathing. The reverse is not true - F360 does not ‘see’ an imported STL file as a solid body so it doesn’t allow you to select it for cutting. You can trick F360 by creating a solid extruded body (a brick) and then moving the STL form into that brick. Guess what? It then lets you select it. I don’t think it currently will convert an STL to a solid body. Yeah, yeah, yeah - they claim it does: so long as it is under 5000 faces. That’s about the size of your thumbnail so pretty much worthless. cheers!

@nicksilva

Well that’s a bummer…I setup my first F360 on multicam tool path…I just need some time to get to the space and give it a try.

Just curious – do you know if the CAM plug-in in Solidworks (that we have on the jump server) is any better than Fusion 360 in this respect?

They may be the same HSM that Autodesk uses

Solidworks is much better about doing a conversion from an STL to a solid body, in my experience.

I once did some toolpaths for a part of a 3D printer (source was STL), and decided to go stl->step in solidworks and then bring the step into fusion for the CAM.

Autodesk does provide an HSM plugin for solidworks. I’ve noticed it’s a bit harder to use but has more of the higher end features than F360.

Interesting. I know there’s a Solidworks version of CAM software as part of the “maker license” that we now get, and I don’t know how that compares to HSM. Also, there’s supposed to be a feature recognition module that’s either a plug-in or basic feature of Solidworks that will interpret STLs as Solidworks features. (e.g., a cylindrical shape will be understood as a circle of a certain size extruded over a given length instead of a mess of small triangles forming a cylinder-shaped shell, which is how it’s described in the STL format).

Well, I suppose if I have a need for that, I could evaluate its merits as I use it. Thanks for answering, though. It was just idle curiosity on my part, and I appreciate your response.