Newbie In the house!

[kurt_rose]

OK guys. I just hit another wall and was hoping I could get a bail out. As stated before I have bought a used Shopbot running Artcam and Parts Wizard. I plan on taking the advise from the masses to go the Aspire route, but for now I'm just trying to use what I have. I'm also going to get someone to give me a little training as soon as I can afford his services, but for now I had Shopbot send me their "Get carving quickly" CD. When I try to import the sample stable sign Artcam says it does not recognize .V3m or .crv. Do I need to convert it? I hope this isn't to dumb a question, but I'm as newbie as they come. I'm just trying to cut something to justify the purchase to the LOML! LOL! Can someone give me some advice on this? Thanks in advance, Kurt

[hh_woodworking]

For Art cam you will have to have an STL or RFL file extention. the ones in the quick start cd and for vertic programs only. You can go to the vertic web site and get the free 3d machinist program to uses those 3d models

[bleeth]

Kurt: According to a friend at SB many of those files were originally done in Artcam and are available in the reliefs folder in your Artcam files.
Not taking away from Vectric at all (The same people there did the development work at Artcam for many years) it is less powerful than Artcam Pro. Not too many pro users have bought Aspire for that reason. It is also true that for most SB owners the tools in Aspire, which are continually improved, are plenty sufficient for their needs.

[michael_schwartz]

If you have art cam pro I would stick with it, that is if you can justify the cost of updates, etc...

Otherwise Aspire has proven to be just fine for many of us..

[myxpykalix]

Like Edward says you can go get the free 3d machinist program however it will only carve the model itself and not your whole project (if the model is only a part of it).

However a way around that is to make a "placeholder" the size of your carving within your project.