V Carve pro? satisfied? dissatisfied?

I'm very new to both cad and cam software and I'm trying to make a decision between vcarvepro and visual mill and just wanted to get some feedback from some users. I've downloaded both demos and they both appear to have strengths and weaknesses. I think visual mill is a little easier to draw from scratch but it appears that v carve has other useful features that maybe visual mill does not. To begin with I'm sure I'll only be doing simple drawings and cuts but don't want to limit myself in the future either. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I've been pondering over this for the last couple weeks.

I don't use it very often, but when I need it, VCarve Pro works great. It is fairly simple to learn. Great user interface. Pretty powerful as well. I do not have any experience with VM.

You're kind of comparing apples to oranges here. V Carve Pro is mainly targeted at woodworkers and signmakers, while Visual Mill is a more general purpose CAM package.
Visual Mill has a lot more features than V-Carve Pro, but V-Carve Pro has some features that VM does not.

What version of Visual mill are you looking at?

VM Standard cost twice as much as VCP. It has 3D machining, which VCP does not. VCP has nesting, which VM does not. Adding nesting to VM will bring the cost up to 3x that of VCP. But the nesting is probably better than VCP's nesting.

If you're just doing basic cuts, you might want to look at something like SheetCAM, along with an inexpensive or free CAD program like Draftsight. That can get you started for 1/3 the cost of V-Carve Pro, with many of the same features.

A huge number of router users are using V-Carve Pro, and love it. They have an excellent user forum filled with satisfied users.
I don't see a lot of VM users. Part of that has to do with the cost, especially for hobby users. I have a friend that uses VM for Solidworks, and from what I've seen of it, it's very powerful.

In the end, I always say to get what you like the best. The easiest to use FOR YOU is usually the better choice.

I was looking at the basic version of visual mill. Mechsoft states their cad software inside of visual mill is fairly basic and it appears you need more powerful cad software to really unlock its potential. I can see what your seeing about comparing apples to oranges. On the flip side of things I would be hard pressed to believe that stepping up to aspire in the future wouldn't give me the flexibility to do what I'm looking for but I've been so focused on vcarve I haven't really evaluated aspire. I'm glad you mentioned the nesting feature. That's something I was interested in and wasn't sure if visual mill offered it. I also really like the inlay feature of vcarve but haven't been able to determine if visual mill has something similar?

Aspire is basically V Carve Pro + 3D relief modeling and 3D relief machining. Note that you can always upgrade from VCP to Aspire for the difference in price between them, so if you buy VCP now, and upgrade to aspire in a year or two, the price to get to Aspire is the same as if you buy Aspire now.

Imo, if you're using this for woodworking, then I'd lean toward VCP. My personal preference is to use a separate CAD program, as they tend to be more powerful, and faster if you're familiar with them. That said, there are some things that are easier to do (design wise) in VCP when compared to a CAD program. If you have no prior CAD experience, then just learning and doing everything in VCP may be a better option, as you'll learn all the tricks of VCP that someone doing their design work in a separate program may not know.

I do 100% of the CAM for my fly fishing reel kits and reels in VCarvePro. I started with CamBam and needed a more robust production-capable solution. (DOn't get me wrong, CamBam is excellent for what it does). VCarvePro has literally saved me 100s of hours and has paid for itself many times over. I run it on Windows 7 in Fusion on my Mac. If I have a few quick part edits, I'll often make them in VCarvePro, but I usually do my CAD in Rhino.

cheers,
Michael

I think that the 'satisfied/dissatisfied' of the title is somewhat misleading, and the apples and oranges is probably better. It really is a case I think that even aspire is probably not the best solution for every situation - if you can afford it. But the Vectric family does have support throughout the range starting with Cut2D for simple profiling which can be augmented with the tools to add 'shop bought' 3D elements to it, and for many is more than adequate. Cut3D provides surface modelling if that is more your area. I classify vCarve as and engraving suite and if you want to add fine engraving detail to 2D profiling then it's the next logical step after Cut2D.
I've not had much time playing with Aspire, but I'm going to the UK user meeting next week with a view to rectifying that. I probably don't need the full capability of Aspire myself, since Cut3D scratches that particular itch quite nicely and I have a tame pro-engineer user who does the modelling for me, but I can see that it may fill a gap if that particular help dries up.
Of cause all of this is reliant on having a suitable machine control package to actually move the machine, and while Mach3 fits the bill reasonably well at the moment, many customers have been asking for 'USB' and rather than adding that expense to Mach3, I've been using the USBCNC route, which comes with an alternative to Cut2D built in. You only pay for the USBCNC hardware you need so you can download and use the software without any restriction. But probably not what I should be saying on the Vectric list ... except the vCarve runs perfectly with USBCNC ...

Dan3676,

What kind of machine do you have?

Do you have an idea of the type of products you want to create on that machine?

I used VCarve Pro from its inception (Vcarve Wizard) and have been fully satisfied with its functionality.

I do a lot of sign work along with plywood and solid wood cutting. VCarve Pro has never failed me.

With my CNC router we do the following:

Sign Work - Sign foam, Solid Surface, Solid Wood, Perpex.

Plywood/MDF/Sign foam - Speaker panels(soon), any kind of 2d shape, road tennis racquets, full sheet decorative panels.

Solid wood - Cutting louvre slots for doors and windows in Greenheart, Purpleheart, Pine, Cedar, bed post vcarvings as well as line designs.

Jason