I'm a newbie and I'm really liking CarbideCreate! feedback..

[stioc]

I just downloaded 313 and really liking it after watching the tutorial videos, thanks for making it available to us non-Shapeoko owners, though I will likely consider one in the future (I prefer leadscrews to belt driven, so I have an inexpensive/small Chinese one I put together, apologies!). I've dabbled in Fusion 360, Sketchup etc in the past but it seemed way too complicated to me. Partly because I didn't have much motivation to draw in CAD, for my metal-fab/woodworking (DIYer here) I used the other CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) because it was simpler, quicker. However, after putting together the said CNC just for fun I quickly realized I needed to learn CAD. I'm still intimidated by Fusion360 but Easel was way too basic (although I like its library of icons/pictures etc). So between those two I find Carbide Create a happy medium so far.

There are a couple of things that don't work quite how I want them to but probably because I'm not doing things correctly...like I was trying to follow the example of Tom's Shop push-stick and draw it out in CarbideCreate using Polys and rectangles but I couldn't get the rounded edges (using Boolean) to work right. It'd be great to see a video tutorial of building some real world examples that get a little more complex than the basic rectangles and circles.

Another thing was if I want to have for example two or three shapes exactly a set distance apart from each other- say two circles from center to center have to be 4 inches apart, there's no easy way to do this because the (x,y) distance I specify for both circles is from the 0,0 mark and not from a specific point. It'd be great to be able to do that so there's less math involved. Or perhaps there's an easier way and I don't know it.

Lastly, tool changes. If I have one toolpath for .125" bit and another for .25" the only way I've figured out how to do this is to disable one toolpath, export the G-code of the remaining one. Run that. Then repeat the process for the other. The key being not to move the stock and it's 0,0 between tool changes.

EDIT: OOPS I meant Carbide Create not Carbide 3D

[WillAdams]

For Booleans please see: http://docs.carbide3d.com/assembly/carb ... operations and https://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php ... Operations and http://community.carbide3d.com/t/lets-m ... aster/4203

To line things up at a given distance I just make a temporary rectangle and snap to a node, or do the math.

For tool changes see: http://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/tool-change/

[stioc]

Thanks for the helpful links Will, sounds like there are ways to get around my issues, I'll be reading up on these links soon.

As a side note, I haven't been able to make CarbideMotion work (keeps saying connect error, and I can't find the settings where to select the COM port etc). Having said that, I haven't had any problems exporting the G code from CC and into UGS or GRBL Controller (no encryption issues that I read about somewhere).

[WillAdams]

Carbide Motion only works with a Carbide 3D board.