I am not sure if this is in the right place so if it needs moving, my apologies. I have a Shapeoko 3 which is happily running a PwnCNC 2.2 air cooled spindle and VFD. I also use the V7 dustboot which is easy to use and very versatile.
I understand that Carveco Maker (the $18 per month version which I use) has just added a 4th Axis capability to the software. My first thought was I wonder if PwnCNC would consider manufacturing a 4th axis and the plumbing required. My baseboard is aluminium and comprises a sea of 823 x 6mm threaded holes to affix the modular vices so arranging to hold down a 4th axis should be easy enough.
Thank you for a rapid and honest response, Chris. It will help me to plan my next upgrade, if any. It potentially will work for me because your spindle/vfd can use the Masso controller, which I know has numerous IO capabilities. I have to see whether the required adjustment surgery makes sense in effort and cost because at this time, I could just opt to improve my skills with two sided milling.
I was examining the issue from as many sides as possible before making a decision. Carveco Maker is really nice software and I was hoping to try and use the new fourth axis feature, which is a surprising addition at this low price point. I am unaware of any other CAM software that gives the user a fourth axis capability with their lowest price basic software.
I absolutely hate subscriptions, and personally prefer to own the license in perpetuity. My cnc computer is also off network, which a lot of software doesn’t like. I found a really cool perpetual auxiliary software for 3d model creation but that internet check in is a deal breaker for me, even with a perpetual license. I have a year of carveco that i got with my 1f, if your interested in it send a message and we’ll talk
All that to say, I haven’t investigated other software capabilities, not to mention I already invested in Aspire. But vcarve pro can do rotary as well, but it’ll take shy of 4 years to pay off compared up carveco maker.
Yes me too. I could not find any reasonable software that offered a perpetual licence at the time and Carveco Maker was a cheap route into using capable software. Higher specifications (Maker + and Carveco) offer the perpetual option of $1,200 ($600 annual sub) for Maker + and $7,995 ($3,000 annual sub) respectively, for the top of the line Carveco. Which perpetual version of the Carveco software do you own? Potentially I could be interested. Please DM me and we can discuss it further.
I recently purchased a perpetual copy of Plasticity which was quite affordable and it is really nice to use and permits drawing in an art focussed manner. I have found the learning curve to be much less steep than Fusion 360.
For parametric design, I found a FREE and superbly competent piece of software in Solid Edge Community Edition by Siemens and it uses the same Parasolid 3D engine as Siemens NX.
