2D software for newbe

**martin54** · 08-11-2012

Not sure I understand it either Wilfy, my understanding was that if something was flat say like a circle drawn on a piece of paper it was 2D because it had length & height but no depth, 3D was something that had both length, height & depth so the same circle cut from a solid block of material was 3D.
2.5D was something that had width & height & the illusion of depth as used in computer games when flat objects appeared to have depth.
Problem with that is people talk about 2D machining but I can't understand how it can be 2D when you are creating a 3D shape lol

**Ricardoco** · 09-11-2012

Originally Posted by martin54

Not sure I understand it either Wilfy, my understanding was that if something was flat say like a circle drawn on a piece of paper it was 2D because it had length & height but no depth, 3D was something that had both length, height & depth so the same circle cut from a solid block of material was 3D.
2.5D was something that had width & height & the illusion of depth as used in computer games when flat objects appeared to have depth.
Problem with that is people talk about 2D machining but I can't understand how it can be 2D when you are creating a 3D shape lol

From what I understand you cannot cut true 3d with a conventional 3 axis machine without repositioning the material after an inital cut. Only 2.5D and some 3D IE: a 3 Axis machine can cut a cube that sits flat on one of its planes, it cannot however cut the same cube sitting on one of its corners and it cannot cut a sphere without a special tool ( a partail 4th axis..)

Rick

**martin54** · 10-11-2012

Originally Posted by Ricardoco

From what I understand you cannot cut true 3d with a conventional 3 axis machine without repositioning the material after an inital cut. Only 2.5D and some 3D IE: a 3 Axis machine can cut a cube that sits flat on one of its planes, it cannot however cut the same cube sitting on one of its corners and it cannot cut a sphere without a special tool ( a partail 4th axis..)

Rick

That's why it is confusing Rick because the cube you have just said you could cut is 3D so a 3 axis machine can cut 3D shapes BUT it is obviously limited in what 3D objects it can cut so how would you define it, or perhaps you can't.

Anyway moving on from that I have now purchased cut 2D, having watched the tutorials & had a play about with it I can do everything I need to with it for now so don't see the point in paying a lot of extra money for vcarve which doesn't have any features that would be of benefit to me just now.
I have the option to upgrade at a latter date if I need to so it won't be money wasted. Very impressed with just how use friendly it is.
I had downloaded both lazycam & cambam to have a look at & although I hadn't actually spent a lot of time looking at them neither of them seemed to be particularly easy to learn.

**Ricardoco** · 10-11-2012

Originally Posted by martin54

That's why it is confusing Rick because the cube you have just said you could cut is 3D so a 3 axis machine can cut 3D shapes BUT it is obviously limited in what 3D objects it can cut so how would you define it, or perhaps you can't..

3 axis machines Cut 2.5D Not true 3D although some would argue as tool changes and work piece re-orientation make it seem possible..

Originally Posted by martin54

Anyway moving on from that I have now purchased cut 2D, having watched the tutorials & had a play about with it I can do everything I need to with it for now so don't see the point in paying a lot of extra money for vcarve which doesn't have any features that would be of benefit to me just now.
I have the option to upgrade at a latter date if I need to so it won't be money wasted. Very impressed with just how use friendly it is.
I had downloaded both lazycam & cambam to have a look at & although I hadn't actually spent a lot of time looking at them neither of them seemed to be particularly easy to learn.

Being an Ex-Software engineer i find it difficult to put my name to much software as most of it is bloated with features that i would never use nor would most, but i found the range of software offered by vectric both Concise and easy to learn.

As with you i started with cut 2d, i then migrated to cut 3D then V-carve and finaly i saved enough for Aspire and although it hurt my pocket big time, i found in a very short time i was producing commercial quality products that other people wanted to buy from me, it soon payed for itself, and i didnt know much about the workings of CNC at all, bar what i had gleened from the helpfull people i found on this site, now i spend my time here trying to learn as much as i can and help as many people as i can...

Rick

**Musht** · 12-11-2012

Originally Posted by martin54

I had downloaded both lazycam & cambam to have a look at & although I hadn't actually spent a lot of time looking at them neither of them seemed to be particularly easy to learn.

To be fair Lazycam is virtually abandonware bundled with Mach3 but no longer officially supported or developed.

Cambam ,personally not finding hard to pick up at all, it does allow you to cut parts before spending money with 40 trial uses.

**Jonathan** · 12-11-2012

I don't see the point of getting Cut2D when the completely free version of Cambam does the vast majority of things that Cut2D does.

**Musht** · 12-11-2012

Cambam functions like some dawing programs and once get used to where things are in menus find it`s been reasonably intuitive.

Cut2D shows its roots in software for the sign market and it has nicer 3d visualisations ;-)

2d design likely to have been done outside of CAM program and its ease of depth setting , nesting and tabbing ,guess, are bits going to use most.