VCarve Pro

VCarve Pro

Upon a strong recommendation by Seth in early July, I decided to transition away from Inkscape and towards a more advanced and powerful software package called VCarve Pro. VCarve Pro is an all -purpose CNC Routing 2D and 3D job creation package that can also export as DXF, which is perfect for RDWorks. Moreover, Seth is claiming that the DXF export/import process has higher fidelity with VCarve Pro then with Inkscape.

So today I finished reading and practicing through all of the reference manual chapters on 2D job creation and general main menu and right click menu usage.

Seth is correct; the complexity of the stencil designs I can create in a relatively convenient fashion far exceeds what can be easily accomplished in Inkscape.

Save time on color assignments: If you are planning to export your design as DXF for importing into RDWorks, use the layer drop down menu in VCarve Pro to set customized colors for each layer. Put each object (or grouping of similar objects) into a layer by itself. The DXF format will respect that, and so will RDworks when you open the DXF of your design there. Conveniently, all of your color designations and layers will automatically populate into the Work Tab. Then all you have to do is set layer properties of speed/rep rate/power/priority. You are saved the time of assigning colors.

Warning: Sometimes, without any notice, VCarve Pro will save redundant and exactly superimposed shapes upon DXF export.  This has happened to me with VCarve ellipses in particular. This will make color assignments, as mentioned above, not be respected visually on the RDWorks Canvas. Typically, all such shapes will appear as black. If you suspect this is happening, just go to the Layers Work Tab, set the Hide property to "yes" and see if any other exact shape/object is underneath with the color expected. Then just delete the redundant shape/object.

F9 will center a selected object to the material space. You can also use the Align transform tool for this. Don't F9 a group, unless the group is already centered or in the orientation you want. For Groups, F9 will center the central point of the group - not the same thing.

Weld and Intersect: You can't do it to members of a group against each other; VCarve Pro considers the group to be one object. First ungroup, apply the transform with left click selects, then regroup. 

VCarve Pro Makerspace version

Tips, Workarounds and Usage Alerts

Rounding Corners of Stars: Use the Fillet tool under the Edit Object too grouping. The editing must be done one star corner at a time. Look for the check mark to appear on the fillet tool cursor to know when to apply the change.


Shearing a Group of Objects: Rubber band select the objects, then use the Transform Objects Distort tool and edit the envelope by interacting with any of the envelope boundary nodes.


Importing multipage PDFs puts each PDF page into a separate layer.


Guidelines do NOT snap to grid lines and hovering a cursor over the guideline does NOT show the position coordinates. The documentation is incorrect on this. A locked guideline will appear very dim.

When working in calculation boxes, you must have the cursor to the far right position before pressing the equal sign = to perform the calculation.

Text on a Curve: If the text is upside down or backward, use the the check box for "text on other side" to correct it. It is best if you use the tool on an open curve; a closed curve will produce unpredictable results.


Dimensioning tool: First open the tool, the select the object to annotate.


When selecting a radiused corner type in the rectangle tool, choosing a radius that is too large such that the circles at adjacent corners will overlap, ... that forces the tool to ignore your controls and reverts the corners to normal right angles.


Arcs: radius and height are NOT changeable independently.


Editing Nodes: first select the curve, then right mouse click and choose "Node Edit Node" (key press N). The actually choose a node and right mouse click to select more actions. "Make Start Point" is an example.

On page 103 of the Reference Manual, the "Blue Corner Boxes" that do dynamic rotation are solid blue boxes that are flared out more the the open white boxes. You will know that you are engaged with the blue corner rotation box when you see a curved arrow with a plus sign in the middle.

The Pivot Point discussed on page 104 is shaped as two concentric circles and it acts as an absolute orbit point. It disappears after on rotation; bring it back into view by selecting exactly on the center hollow point, then re-drag.

Distort Tool with curved envelopes: Select both curves and the object to distort first. The curved envelopes MUST EXTEND WIDER (beyond) the longest length of the object.


Distort Tool with "above a single curve option": When the longest dimensions are vertical, means use the curve to the RIGHT.

Alignment tools are best used when the all of the objects to be aligned are first grouped together.. Be careful that the order of alignment actions can affect the final result.


When working in node editing mode (Left mouse click - N), choosing the "Cut Vector" option from a Right mouse button click context popup menu places an "arrowhead" pointing along a trace "away" from the cut node referenced. Cutting the vector is tricky.



Using the Interactive Selection tool in the Edit Tools grouping: Use the Alt key depressed to constrain movement in a straight or rotational axis. Works best when the mouse cursor is free and clear of the original object's position. The original position is maintained as a dotted magenta outline, and not erased (moved) until you finish the drag and release of the mouse button.


The Interactive Trim tool is very sensitive to any discontinuities; it may look curved smoothly to the human eye, but the tool says otherwise.

Array Copy Tool: The 2 by 2 pattern repeats in both the X and y directions. If either dimension is not a multiple of 2 then the pattern is only partially repeated.


If you want the the series of objects to touch each other, with no gap or overlap, set the "Distance between Copies" field to the diameter of the circle, and not zero. Even if "Force even spacing" is NOT checked, the first object will be at one end of the vector path.

Nesting Tool: The clearance must be greater than the tool diameter, or else the borders of the objects will not remain intact after cutting. This because the two adjacent objects will have the tool path done once for each object, and will have tool paths running alongside each other.

Save time on color assignments: If you are planning to export your design as DXF for importing into RDWorks, use the layer drop down menu in VCarve Pro to set customized colors for each layer. Put each object (or grouping of similar objects) into a layer by itself. The DXF format will respect that, and so will RDworks when you open the DXF of your design there. Conveniently, all of your color designations and layers will automatically populate into the Work Tab. Then all you have to do is set layer properties of speed/rep rate/power/priority. You are saved the time of assigning colors.

Warning: Sometimes, without any notice, VCarve Pro will save redundant and exactly superimposed shapes upon DXF export.  This has happened to me with VCarve ellipses in particular. This will make color assignments, as mentioned above, not be respected visually on the RDWorks Canvas. Typically, all such shapes will appear as black. If you suspect this is happening, just go to the Layers Work Tab, set the Hide property to "yes" and see if any other exact shape/object is underneath with the color expected. Then just delete the redundant shape/object.

Intersection checks: Always remember to zoom in on intersection points in VCarve Pro that have been manually connected using the Validity tool and look for the square with + icon at the intersection points as verification.

Guidelines: In order to be able to drag vertical and horizontal guidelines, make sure that you toggle that capability in the upper left hand corner of the VCarve Pro working canvas.

Trim: When using the the interactive or box trim tools, it really only trims to no overlap or intersection if object A is crossing only another disjoint object B, If you are trying to trim an object A against two disjoint Objects B and C, the trim will either cut too much or not enough. Either Trim A to B and then A to C separately or else do highly zoomed in manual trims and hope for the best.