Vectric crazy pocket strategies..

[routercnc]

I switched from Vectric Cut2D to Fusion 360 some time ago, meaning to do a gradual transition.

But the first time I used F360 I got some nice toolpaths and cut the part out successfully. I've never looked back or even fired up Vectric since and have explored quite a lot of F360 now. It's free for non-commercial use, and with plenty of YouTube demo videos (e.g. NYCCNC).

[Washout]

Same here - I used Cut2D and Cut3D extensively when I started out machining and whilst they get you going quickly, there are some quirks, which to my mind are down right ruinous to cutters and work pieces.

The 3D finishing passes using ballnose cutters are a prime example, where it will take plunge cuts on a whim on steep edges and then mill out at whatever depth that plunge goes to. You can get away with such things in wood mostly, but aluminium results in snapped or welded tools.

Fusion 360's CAM whilst not quite as good as Solidworks and iMachining (OK quite a long way off in terms of adaptive/trochoidal clearing configuration) does at least have enough strategies and "intelligence" to get most jobs done quickly.

That said I still use Cut2D to convert PDF guitar plans into .dxf before importing into Fusion, so that still has a place in my software "toolbox".

Oh another CAM package I still use for intricate 3D carving is DeskProto, as it can handle high polygon stl files and Fusion just refuses to do those properly with anything approaching 8-9000 polygons (it doesn't like the triangle format, which is a bit bizarre as triangle polys are the lowest common denominator in computer 3D rendering...).