Big Change to Carbide Create 7 Free Version! NO More GCode export. Plus some other new features. 

I am in Dallas, its been a while since I was in Hurst. How are you liking the Shapeoko?

@@D.E.Hammer I made a couple of trays and was very happy. Then I tried to make book markers out of 1/8” birch and I couldn’t get the vcarver to cut wording or the logo. I then took 3/4” stock and the logo and wording was carved into the wood. I think I will glue some thin material to a 3/4” stock to trick the CNC into thinking the material is thick enough to get cut. Do you have any ideas on what I could do to avoid glueing the thin stock to the thick stock? If you are in the area could we talk on the phone. I’m retired so any time is good for me.

So to raise the piece, you can put painters tape on the back side of your top piece and top side of your thicker piece, then super glue the painters tape. So on the thin material is it showing in your CAM it will cut? If not and using a v bit, it may be going to deep to get the width of the lettering. Or is it that it's to low for your z axis to reach?

@@D.E.Hammer I used the painter’s tape/super glue process to hold down the thin stock to my table. I didn’t understand why the v-bit wouldn’t deep enough to cut. I even paused the router, lowered the bit, reset the bit on my bitsitter and it still wouldn’t cut. Tomorrow I’ll get more stock and tape it to the 3/4” stock to see if I can fool the router. I’ll let you know what happens.

@vtellez01 you can comment here or email me at deepellumhammer@yahoo.com

not sure I understand how non-paying users (not customers) are getting free support out of the product. It's a simple business philosophy really; you as a company do not support the freebie version only the paid version, it's not rocket science. If the end user does not have a valid license for software (and you ask for that when they are calling or emailing in) then they get zero support other than the FB groups, plain and simple. IMO, this is just another ploy by C3D to support the salaries of all these new people they've brought on over the past 2 years

@@Todd-W Well, personally as an employee I'd appreciate getting a salarie from a company I work for. Just sayin!

If you stay on v6, it will not effect you. I am working on a list of free alternatives and will update once I can test them all.

I hate those moments when you feel like you lost all that work. Glad to hear your back up and running.

I have been looking, just did a video on Estlcam. While it does not have a CAD, inkscape or something paired with it could be an option. Still trying out different CAMs to see which way I'm going to go.

So the cc6 free version will still generate gcode. It just will not have any of the new features. So I would get a copy and hang onto it, if that just in case moment happens and you need to generate some gcode until we all find something else to replace it.

Shapeoko are saying on their forum they will have a web page that we can upload v7 c2d files to and it will decrypt the gcode for use. This apparently is in response to huge push back from their user base.

I did go look for that, and they are saying they will offer that feature to anyone who purchased one of their machines.

@@D.E.Hammer downloaded 652 installer and saved on the NAS.

@@D.E.Hammer Unless they make one better than the Longmill before I can buy my MK2, I'm not buying one.

For a newb it was a cheap and easy entry point. Before I jump on the vcarve/carveco band wagon, I am trying out some other CAM programs. Working on ESTLCAM right now.

Yes, and it will be intresting to see if anyone attempts to extract it. Yes there were simpler options available, but I have noticed when a company makes a move like this, they are more likely to dig in to that position than finding an easier solution.

First thanks for watching, and tottaly understand on the sub part. Yeah they caught me off gaurd with this announcement, so did think to hard on it. I am trying out other CAMs and seeing where it takes me.

I looked at Vetric when first starting out, but as I use illustrator and already pay for it for my day job, did not need a powerful CAD. Have a few on my list to look into, just need the time to sit down and try them out.

I have the version just before the MK2. Watch out for their glitch! Bit every now and then crashes into the aluminum block. I got to where I used paper instead. I still like to hit the "Go to z" button just because I like to see the accuracy. I get a kick out of it. every now and than it still crashes into the wood. Then I got to where I went off the wood and test the z height. It has gone past the start depth of the wood and would have crashed if I wouldn't have tested off the work area. Currently I have a broken nut that cracked during the last crash. didn't fully realize what it was till I loosened them to align it with the table. Now I have to send in a video of me trying to tighten it showing it is broke in half from their glitch that they do mention. Their solution is to change to millimeters from inches when setting zero. I am not completely buying this. I believe it is not converting correctly and their variables aren't resetting to zero so the variable accumulates and makes the bit crash. They call themselves continuously giving updates but I am not seeing it happen. Gsender doesn't even tell you when the update is over and they won't even fix that. However, once hoops are jumped through with video they do follow through unless you are out of warranty.

VCARVE works perfectly on any MAC

@@Todd-W with parallels or on its own?

Here is the link to v6: carbide3d.com/carbidecreate/download6

So I have been searching for new CAM software (free), and it's coming along, just slowly. Version 6 free still allows export of gcode, but who knows how long that will last. (Them making it available for down load)

@@D.E.Hammer That is my worry. Even if it doesn't go away it's going to get out dated and support is going to go away. What other software are you looking at? I am very interested in what options are available. Maybe a review of all the free software you are looking at would make a good video? Pro/cons of each one, etc.

I also have a recently purchased Genmitsu 3020-Pro Max. I started with the free version of Easel mostly because it was a simple place to start and they have native driver support for Genmitsu products. Unfortunately, my projects are designed around small scale super fine details in thin sheet metal stock (0.016") requiring micro bit sizes (1/64"). Once the Easel free trial is up I wont be able to use it any more since only the paid Pro version supports custom bit sizes smaller than 1/32. I was going to try CC since I have already downloaded V6 but would have to generate gcode since there is no native driver support. Candle is what comes with the 3020 and has a driver for native support so I'll probably experiment with that next. I'll also have to play around with the Fusion360 CAM features but there is a bit of a learning curve there as apposed to the easy to use click and go interface of Easel. In general my 3020 CNC is going to require a lot of learning and experimenting to find the best/easiest workflow path with whatever software tools happen to be available. Good luck with your 3020. Edit: I was mistaken about Candle. I don't know why I assumed it was a basic CAM software instead of a GRBL interface. So I guess the workflow for that would be using CC v6 to generate the gcode and then open it in Candle for sending to the 3020. If CC ever stops working for me there is also freeware at OpenBuilds.com for generating gcode.

@@D.E.Hammer have you come up with any other options? I lead a very basic set of classes for using the cnc router at a local makerspace - I had just moved from easel to carbide v6 (the limited free features and the changing of easels gcode export to be less useful on our mach 4 machine (non standard eof syntax makes you either manually fix the file or manually hit stop at the control panel side) and found out about the v7 limitation when he had to download this software to a new machine. I've advocated for this space to get a makerspace license to vcarve pro, but they're being cheap about it.

I just did my first video 9n an alternative, EstlCAM. It is CAM Only. So you could do CAD in Inkscape, then import that to EstlCAM. Now EstlCAM is not free, it has a 1 time cost for the most current version of $60.00 that gives you tool path for basic and complex cuts. 3 different photo engravings, and 2.5D (import stl) tool path creation. I have not tried the photo or 2.5d yet. So far this is the most cost effective and robust CAM software, besides some web based ones. Once I get done going thru EstlCAM, I am going to try out PixelCNC, price jumps up to $250 on that