Thread: Fusion 360 vs vCarve

Hi All, Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts on which they prefer, Fusion 360 or vCarve?

I'm a relative newbie at CNC machining, I use the hobby version of Fusion for my 3D printing but don't really know any thing about VCarve - looking at their web site it looks to be aimed at users with CNC timber routers, for me Fusion is good in that it offers 3D design and CNC gcode output in the one package - not so good is that the 4th A axis (if you need it) is not available in the hobby version. Autodesk have been using the hobby community as beta testers for some time, however this can come to an end and Autodesk can pull the limited free hobby use rug at any time, forcing one to either pay for the subscription or go looking elsewhere - in using Fusion this is always hanging over your head, I'd be ok with an ongoing yearly payment of a few hundred dollars for hobby use but can't justify the current asking amount for a yearly subscription.

Very different software.

VCarve - great for decorative designing. Slow for functional design.
Quite quick and easy for CAM - toolpath generation.
Really designed for wood routers. Would not use for metal generally (toolpaths not ideal)
Vcarve is 2D design software.

Fusion360
Much better for designing parts where dimensions matter. This is because you actually use dimensions for design - this line is X distance from that line. Rather than absolute world coordinates.
Fusion360 is 3D design software.

Thanks for that. We're trying to see if we can find something that will provide a bit more control over the toolpath creation, so we'll give the demo version of Fusion a try and see how we go. Thanks again.