Carbide Create Now supports gcode

Software
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From here: http://carbide3d.com/blog/2017/big-carbide-create-update-its-now-free/

Big Carbide Create Update- It’s now free!

Jul 19, 2017 by Rob

Today is a big day here at Carbide 3D, we’ve got a huge update to Carbide Create, our 2D CAD/CAM software and a big announcement about it’s future.

First, a little background.

The Start
Two years ago we started Carbide Create from nothing. We wanted to make sure our customers had a way to complete a project from start to finish when they bought a machine from us without having to buy extra software.

Trying to compete with competitors that make machines overseas, we couldn’t afford to license an exsiting package. We had to keep our costs low so writing our own software was the only approach. It was a massive amount of work but it was what we needed to do to compete.

Users of other machines immediately got in touch to see if they could use Carbide Create. We thanked them for their interest but we wanted to keep it for our customers only. We thought of it as our competitive advantage.

Carbide Create grew slowly over the last two years until it became a fairly capable program and along the way we realized another thing:

Our machines are the best in their respective classes. They come with everything you need and they have a great workflow. We make them here in the US and we provide excellent customer service. We don’t compete on CAD/CAM software alone.

So we made another decision.

Carbide Create is Now Free for Everyone
As of today’s release, Carbide Create is free for everyone to use, not just our customers. We’ve removed our proprietary gcode format so it outputs “normal” gcode now.

It’s not cloud-based and it doesn’t require activation, registration or license codes. This is not a trick to lock you in or control you. Once you download it, we cannot take it back. (Can you tell that we’re not a fan of “The Cloud” for CAD/CAM?)

We also added a bunch of features
New Features:

Vector offsets
Added Help link to header
Removed gcode encryption
Support for open vectors in contour toolpaths
Object grouping
“Starting Depth” option for contour and pocket toolpaths
Corner options for rectangles (fillet, inverted fillet, dogbone and tee)
Improvements:

Join command now can close a spline
Better pocket linking behavior
Better V-Carving linking
Improved dragging logic
Hide toolpaths in design mode
Better zoom/pan behavior
What’s next?
Where we go next depends on you. We assume that we’ll get a lot of feedback in the next few days and weeks so we’ll take a look at that feedback and update our todo list. If you have any thoughts, email us. If you love or hate some part of the program, let us know.

Go see more about Carbide Create CAD/CAM here.

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Been wanting an offline solution for awhile now (school setting) and just downloaded and trying this out. got the same email earlier today and posted in the school section. So far I think this is a very good program as it seems to do V-Carve as well as using the system fonts, this has been something that a lot of people have wanted in Easel. Very pleased that they opened it up for everyone with the new export G-Code as *.nc file, so we can use whatever sender (UGS etc) we want.

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If an (bad) internet connection is a problem for you Estlcam might be a solution. I migrated a week ago and love it. My main advantage is that it imports a drawing and that the rest is handled by Estlcam. So toolpath, machine setup, and execution is in one single piece of software. That makes life very easy. My toolchain has become a lot less complicated. You can try it out for free for some time and it will notice when a license is needed. I does not alter anything to your system so there is always a possibility to go back to the original startingpoint.

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Your main disadvantage is that it imports a drawing. this program is for design by creating the drawing or importing the drawing. as well as creating the tool path. this program also has system fonts as well as V-Carve capability. This topic was about Carbide Create and to inform users that there is another choice out there for their needs. I am not affiliated in any way with any company but if I wanted to let people know of Estlcam I would post in a new topic for that specific program, that way everyone that posted could talk about that specific program and not confuse others with what was available.

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this program is listed by the developers as free to everyone unlimited use. no fee ever yours to keep and use.

Carbide Create is Now Free for Everyone
As of today’s release, Carbide Create is free for everyone to use, not just our customers. We’ve removed our proprietary gcode format so it outputs “normal” gcode now.

It’s not cloud-based and it doesn’t require activation, registration or license codes. This is not a trick to lock you in or control you. Once you download it, we cannot take it back. (Can you tell that we’re not a fan of “The Cloud” for CAD/CAM?)

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If it were free, it would be open source…

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I don’t think it’s open source.

I’m running it on my machine to see what it can do.

I didn’t pay them any money.

I did have to give them an e-mail address to download it.

I unsubscribed after downloading.

I guess that means it wasn’t free, but cheap.

How’s that?

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not true these are two different and distinct things. I can make something and give it away without giving you the source code, (still free to you) as you did not have to code it or compile it. you can have it to do with as you please. this makes it yours. or I can release the entire program with source code and it is free to use and modify as you see fit. Just because you do not have the source code to modify means nothing as far as free. Just means that you do not control it.

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There is a difference between “free as in beer” and “free as in speech,” but BOTH are free.

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@KennethConnell1, @LarryM, I agree with each of your points. @NAM37 linked to an article that explains the degrees of freedom. I intended free to mean the highest degree of expression possible, including modifying the software.

While the software is given away as free as-in-beer, it is still not as free as it could possibly be, like free as-in-speech.

I am not attempting to complain, only to point out that I believe Carbide and Inventables ought to make their CAM software open source, the way that GRBL did.

I do want to make one point. The EULA which is displayed when installing carbide clearly says that you own nothing. You are licensed to use something they own.

The license is free, but the software isn’t yours. It’s theirs.

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true but in their press release (hope they just have not updated the EULA) they are inferring that they give it away freely now. As in “we cannot take it back”. to me this is a very good thing as I was looking for an offline solution that was not cost prohibitive to use that was easy to understand and simple for new users (students) this seem to fit the need in all areas. I know there are better most costly options but they are also require more time to learn to use and therefor less time spent on getting results. When you are teaching the practical use of the CNC you don’t want to spend all your time teaching the software aspects of it. this gets the students interested and on the road to learn new things.

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So do you use only open sourced software on your X-Carve? If so can I ask what are they, and do they stand up to the task of use and are they easy to use and understand? I am always looking for something better to use in a learning environment.

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no. I use VCarve Pro, from vectric. I have zero issue paying for commercial software offerings. I’m a software developer by trade.

I’m fully supportive of carbide in this effort. I’m also not going to stop being vocal that both Inventables and Carbide should open source their software. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

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Is all of your software open source?

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Even if Inventables open sourced Easel, since it’s a client/server system it would be beyond most users to try to install it (I could do it, but I’m weird that way). Carbide Create would be a much better candidate for that and it could be quite a good move for them IF they managed to attract developers to the project - then they might get a lot of free extra horsepower to help implement new features. Done right that could really take off.

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I can’t think of anything I’ve made that I give away for free (as in beer) that is not also under an open source license, or would be unwilling to give away under such license.

What’s your line of reasoning in asking?

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The client code module that creates the ui and gcode is what would be beneficial. I don’t need or want their proprietary back end

I’d like to save my project files to google drive or another cloud storage engine.

I’d like to disable training wheel features.

I’d like easel to run locally inside an electron app, and save to disk.

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I’m pretty sure the client code is pretty well tied into their back end. For example I looked at the Easel Local code and it seems to retrieve on startup the list of gcodes it will support from the mothership. So the good side is that if they add a new supported gcode command you don’t need to update Easel Local to support it, but it does mean more entanglements with their backend.

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Just curious.