Carbide Create vs Vectric Vcarve vs Fusion 360: a quick beginner comparison.
I’ve noticed super excited new folks can sometimes pop into a facebook group and start asking “What should I get? Fusion 360 or Vcarve?!” and while i always admire enthusiasm, I might suggest pumping the brakes a quick second.
First, you might not need either! Second, Vcarve and Fusion 360 is kind of an apples/oranges type deal; sure, they both output gcode, but that’s about where the similarities end. So in this post, I’m going to start by doing a quick overview of each application- what it’s good for, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Then we’ll dive a little deeper and see why someone might want to spend $350/$700 on vcarve as opposed to using free software.
A quick caveat- for the sake of this article, we’re going to be talking about regular Carbide Create and Vcarve Desktop/Pro- not Carbide Create Pro or Aspire. Those are more expensive and sophisticated 3D carving tools beyond the scope of this comparison.
Totally serviceable, with everything a beginner needs to start carving up some projects.
CARBIDE CREATE
Who it’s for: Everyone, but particularly well suited for crafters and other users just getting started in the world of hobby CNC machining.
Availability: Mac and PC (awesome!), no internet/cloud connection required.
Price: Free (also awesome!)
Carbide Create is a great introduction to the CAD/CAM world you’re wading into with your hobby CNC. Much like Easel for the X Carve or Cricut Design Space for the Cricut machines, Carbide Create was engineered to be an approachable, accessible design tool for everyday hobbyists. It’s freely available- you don’t need to own a Carbide 3d machine- and is frequently updated.
While a bit utilitarian, there’s a surprising amount of functionality lurking below the fairly simple interface, at least on the design side. You can crank out some nice boxes, words on walls, plaques- a lot really, there are tons of examples of awesome things people have made using imported SVGs and basic shape manipulations. Don’t think you can’t make some “real” projects just because it happens to be beginner friendly!
There are some quirks that pop up though, some of which might be limitations of whatever framework let’s them release Mac and PC versions in lockstep. For instance, you can’t open up two documents at once to copy and paste from one document to another, which makes iterating and experimenting a little more cumbersome than I enjoy. There is an overall feeling of clunkiness that is hard to articulate , but I know you’ll understand what i mean the first time you have a few things selected and try to add one more thing to the selection and miss by just a hair and have to do it all again. Clunky.
The toolpath tab is pretty bare bones, and the default feeds and speeds are extremely conservative. That’s not such a big deal and is easily over-ridden, but it would be nice to have some of the more more advanced tool pathings operations the competition has. And while the tool library is being overhauled to better support customization, it too… well, wait till we get to the vectric section, and you’ll see what I mean. Finally, the preview engine is a bit janky, but generally works ok enough to be passable.
Having said that, it’s free, and available on the mac! And it’s totally capable, it just has it’s particular charms. You might not need to buy v-carve, especially if you’re just having some fun carving stuff up casually.
Besides Winston Moy and Carbide 3D’s official stuff, John Clark and Chris Powell make good CC content.
This is not even close to a fair fight, and the price tag reflects as much.
VECTRIC VCARVE
Who it’s for: Sign makers, wood workers, engravers, hobbyists that want a lot more control over their tool paths, production shops, maker spaces
Availability: PC (runs great on a modern Mac via Parallels ), cloud-enabled features
Price: $350 Desktop / $700 Pro
I don’t think it’s too much a stretch to say that Vectric’s Vcarve software is the industry standard/leader in the 2.5D CAD/CAM space. Like, the Microsoft Word of word processors, or the Adobe Photoshop of image editing apps. Commercial sign shops use it. Maker spaces do training with it. Heavier duty CNC machine manufacturers like ShopBot bundle it. It’s stable, feature rich and well supported.
Pricing wise, it’s not cheap for home users, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to app store style race to the bottom pricing. Given the capabilities of the software, as well as all of the supporting training materials and community/ support that comes along with it, it’s fair, especially considering that anything you spend can basically be applied to a higher end version without penalty. (ie: You don’t need to jump right into the Pro version for $700; you can start with the desktop edition for $350, and pay the other $350down the road when you want that additional Pro functionality.) You may also be just fine with the Desktop version, which has the exact same core feature set, just limited to 25x25 inch working area (which is both kinda brilliant and extra infuriating for those with 32x32 beds). If you don’t want to upgrade you can either tile your work pieces, or, a trick i have done in a pinch- export out your design as an SVG and do the tool paths in Carbide Create. The Pro upgrade also includes support for add on gadgets and some production centric things like job sheets, shape nesting, and toolpath templates.
The design options are quite a bit more robust than Carbide Creates. It supports many more file import types, and there are internal tools for converting bitmaps to outlines. You have more options when working with and styling text, and general object handling and manipulation is vastly enhanced. It looks and feels like a professional graphics program, and any designer should have no problems picking it up quickly.
The toolpathing side of things is where Vcarve’s star really begins to shine. You can take far more control of simple profile cuts, adding lead ins, ramps, and a separate last pass for smoother, cleaner cuts. You can specify separate tools for clearing large areas when doing pocketing operations. You can set the depths of vcarves. That’s just stuff that isn’t in Carbide Create. The previews look excellent as well, btw.
Perhaps one of the most awesome features is the Tool Database. Not only is it more descriptive and populated with a good set of stock tools by default, the big names in endmills- Amana and Whiteside- both publish .tool files for their bits so that you can import them by part number and add them to your library with all the specs input by the manufacturer. And once you set it up on one computer, you can use the vectric cloud to copy and share your personal database to all the other machines you use the software on (you are permitted to install it on three computers). It’s super dope.
Even as a Mac user, I recommend Vcarve Desktop, despite needing to run it in Windows 10 via Parallels, both of which add to the substantial cost of the software. It’s just that good, and with fair upgrade policies and lifetime support, an investment worth making if you want to do more than casual work with your CNC.
In addition to vectric’s official stuff, I’ve learned alot from Mark Lindsey’s YouTube Channel.
A screen grab of one of the sample files the program came with. You see what I’m saying right?
Fusion 360
Who it’s for: Engineers, Product Designers, Part Fabricators
Availability: Mac or PC
Price: $0 for personal hobby use, $495/year subscription for commercial use
Like I said in the intro, I don’t think it’s really fair or reasonable to ask if Fusion 360 is “better” than vcarve- they are wildly different beasts. Fusion 360 is a 3D Design / Engineering toolbox. It is for product designers and fabricators and people that need to machine parts, and design, I dunno, airplane seats and bike frames and other complex 3D objects. It’s just as capable of making .STLs for your 3D printer as it is for making gcode for your shapeoko. You could make a sign with it I suppose, but in my opinion it’s overkill, and a tool like vcarve would serve your purpose much more efficiently.
Having said that, there are definitely people in the Shapeoko community using it for projects, and interest is growing . I’ve heard someone estimate that it takes about 10-12 hours of tutorials to get the hang of the basics. I’m interested in taking the plunge myself, but more for making 3D parts and not so much Shapeoko work, which i just personally enjoy doing with Vcarve and to a lesser extent Carbide Create. But it is super awesome that this much power is available for free to hobbyists, and for those interested in learning more, I’ve heard good stuff about Paul McWhorter’s YouTube Channel.
