Did I just waste $700?

[matt_raymond60]

Bringing my Shopbot back to life after a few years and my old ArtCam program was obviously dead to the world so I bought VCarve Pro thinking that was a good move with the intention of upgrading to Aspire a little ways down the road. Now I am seeing threads about VCarve Pro not being compatible with Shopbots? Am I out of luck? I assumed if Shopbot has it for sale on their website that it would work with their product...

Matt

[chiloquinruss]

These guys appear to do aftermarket for many machines. Might be worth a look. Russ

https://jtechphotonics.com/?p=3851

[steve_g]

Vectric products work with ShopBots as well as ever! HOWEVER, there is no longer a ShopBot OEM version. The deeply discounted SB version would only work with SB products and upgrades were handled through SB. Now, any purchases, updates or upgrades are handled directly through Vectric. The sticker shock has made me less of a Vectric fan… and for that matter, less of a ShopBot fan! Someone somewhere fumbled the relationship.

On the plus side, if you have multiple brand machines in your shop, the non ShopBot versions have post processors for most of them!

SG

[tlempicke]

[QUOTE=steve_g;207063]Vectric products work with ShopBots as well as ever! HOWEVER, there is no longer a ShopBot OEM version. The deeply discounted SB version would only work with SB products and upgrades were handled through SB.


First off does anyone out there think that a piece of software should include updates and support forever? We all like the enhancements and support, but in fact it does cost money to produce. The folks at Vectric have always been great about responding to their customers and making sure that their products work as advertised. They can not afford to give their stuff away any more than you can afford to give away the stuff you make with that software.

The only thing that you need to make Vectric software work on any machine at all is the proper post processor. Look in the help section of the software and you should find a tutorial on how to write a post processor and instructions on how to install it in your program. If you can't write your own try on the forum here or at Vectric and you should be able to get either a post processor or some help in modifying an existing one.

[Rob Gunn]

Personaly I have had VCarve for 8+ years and have never had any issue. Its worked on my old ShopBot, my Bob's CNC and my Bridgeport CNC. Vectric has supplied me any post processor that I needed for any machine free of charge.

[srwtlc]

Your only problem (if it is an issue) is that your old Artcam files will not be able to be opened in Vectric's products.

[jTr]

Matt,

Now I am seeing threads about VCarve Pro not being compatible with Shopbots?

Preposterous.
Compatibility is there.

I did exactly as you plan, start with VCarve Pro, Upgrade to Aspire. Did this in December, a few hours of video tutorials and I'm now producing original 3D carvings for furniture grade cabinetry. Couldn't do it without, and at $2000, it's a screaming bargain for my one person shop.
(Have you checked out KCD or similar high-production software pricing? You could buy a new pickup for what it costs, plus annual maintenance fees equal to or exceeding $2,000...)

Now you need to invest time in watching/learning from their tutorials. (As you would with any software purchase) Here's where you find the key to unlocking it's full potential.

Can't sign off here without noting, when I bought my machine about 8 years ago, Partworks was pretty rudimentary compared to what VCPro has become. Vectric continually updated/upgraded it over the years, adding more features and functionality, morphing into VCarve Pro. By the time I bought Aspire upgrade, they'd already released numerous features from it down to the VCarve Pro level already, and I can only recall about 1 upgrade charge of maybe $150 - $200 over 8 years. I just finally grew to the point where it was essential to generate and significantly modify my own creations in 3D.

No, I don't think you wasted $700, but it is up to you to make the time to practice and you'll get the most out of what we are all saying here is wise investment.

Jeff

[matt_raymond60]

Thank you for all the replies. First and foremost, I think that VCarve Pro was a bargain at $700. I really want Aspire and will upgrade within a year I am guessing. When I was looking at upgrading my very old version of ArtCam many years ago it was several thousand dollars to upgrade as I recall. And I also own Cabinet Vision which would have cost me $14,000 but I was a current owner of Cabnetware so they made me a deal when they were going to stop supporting Cabnetware and I only had to pay something over $4,000 for it. I still have not been able to get that program useful, it is very involved (to me anyways) for the setup. So the price for VCP and Aspire were a welcome surprise to me. I downloaded the trial version and I think that I can pick up the basics pretty easily and at least get started then begin building on that knowledge.

My main worry when I started seeing that VCP may not have come with the correct post processor for the Shopbot was what to do as I am not too terribly computer literate. I like to have a box to check to select the correct post processor for instance and go about my work. I am currently working on restarting my cabinet shop and am buried right now with new programs to learn, catching up the books from a couple of years of light work, getting machinery running again plus doing my full time job. I was very disheartened to think that I may have bought something that won't work for me. I will get into it this weekend and try to sort out the post processors, I have never had to do that before. For what it is worth my machine is a 2002 PRT Standard with the 4G board update, everything else is standard on it as far as I know so I hope that it is an easy selection to pick the correct one. Hopefully a PRS Alpha is in my future at some point in time but not just yet.

Matt

[waynelocke]

Matt,
When you go to save a tool path there is a dropdown and you should find the SB post processor there. Use the Shopbot (arcs)(inch). You can also go to File-open Application Data Folder and then open Post Processors and verify the SP Post Processor is there.

[matt_raymond60]

Thank you Wayne! That helps a lot!