Corel X3?

[wayne_webb]

Hi everyone,
I'm a signmaker in Florida and have been doing the sandblasted stuff for about 15 years but
I'm new to the board and to the router world.
Just bought my first router(Shopbot) last week. I see a few familiar names here from another board so I feel at home already.(Hi Ray, Joe, and Ernie!!)

My second hand router came with a bunch of accessories including the control software, but no design program. What do you guys recommend?
Can Corel x3 be used or do I need something else entirely.

For design, I currently use SignWizard 6.0 and Corel 9.
Thanks!

[fleinbach]

Welcome Wayne,

Corel will work for your designs but you will need Part wizard or something else to make your tool paths. I'm not familiar with Signwizard but if it exports dxf or dwg files it also will work. There are other programs out ther to make tool paths like Artcam, Vacrve and several others. I'm sure someone else will mention some of the others but these seem to be the most common.

[ed_lang]

I use Corel X3 and love it! I also use V-carve Pro for some drawing and all of my tool paths.

Look at the vectric website and get v-carve pro.

[edcoleman]

Corel X3 and V-carve pro are all I use and are an excellent combination

[wayne_webb]

Thanks guys!

Frank,
SignWizard does export dwg and dxf but I'm not sure if it creates anything 3D. I'll check with tech support and see if the upgrade does. I know it has "router support" or drivers but don't know what that means.

Ed and Ed
Does V-Carve pro handle all kinds of 3D shapes or just V carved letter?

Can PartWizard make 3D toolpaths from the 3D bitmap effects in Corel?

[fleinbach]

Wayne,


You need to add Cut 3d to V-carve pro to do 3D cutting.

Partwizard does not do 3D cutting but it does do V-bit carving.

Artcam does 3D cutting but is rather expensive. There are other ways to cut 3D but I do not have any knowledge of them. Other who see this post will most likely tell you what they are.

[gene]

can you do 3 d work with corel x3 ? and do the cut paths with cut 3 d?

[fleinbach]

Gene,

I'm not sure but here is a link to Vectric's Cut 3d Site. They list these files that can be imposted into Cut 3D STL, 3D DXF, 3DS, OBJ, WRL, LWO, V3M
http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/cut3d/c3d_process.htm

[ed_lang]

Corel is not a 3D drawing package.

[wayne_webb]

Thanks all,
I'll check out the Vectric software.

[ernie_balch]

Hi Wayne,

I'm a big supporter of Vectric sofware. I have V-carve pro, Photo V-carve and Cut 3D. I would start out with V-carve pro. You can design in your favorite program then export to V-carve. I normally use .ai format. To avoid frustration, the first thing you should do is "select duplicate vectors" then delete them. This feature alone is worth the price of the program.

Another program to get is the free Vector art 3D machinist. Run the sample files to learn about 3D. You can buy 3D files them as needed from the big library of 3D files.

ernie

[wayne_webb]

Thanks Ernie!

[knedert]

Hi Wayne,
Glad you found us. There is a wealth of knowledge to be found here and some awfully nice people too.
Congrats again on your purchase.

Rose

[wayne_webb]

Thanks Rose!
Can't wait to get my Shopbot cranked up!
My first challenge is where to put it!

See ya in Letterville!

[gskinner]

Does anyone know when X3 exports to DXF if it exports curves as circles and arcs or line segments?

Thanks