Ultimate Beginners Guide to CARVECO MAKER - Intro Into Maker

hey guys Jason here owner of Timber

Falls a CNC Rider woodworking business

that specializes in creating unique and

custom pieces for our clients as a

business owner I understand the

importance of using the right tools and

software to create professional and high

quality projects I've been in the

industry for a few years now and I've

gained a lot of knowledge and experience

with CNC routing that's why I'm excited

to share my expertise with you and

welcome you to my ultimate beginner's

guide to carvoco maker Carver Co maker

is a very powerful design software and

can help Elevate everything you do with

your CNC in this series we'll be

breaking down the software into four

videos introduction to the software

Vector creation 3D modeling and Tool

pathing each video will be broken up

into chapters in the description below

for easy referencing whether you're new

to CNC routing or you're just new to the

software this series will provide you

with a step-by-step instructions and

helpful tips from a CNC business owner

so join me as we dive into the world of

carvico maker and explore the endless

possibilities of CNC routing and with

that said guys

when we open our software up we're going

to start off on the starting splash page

one of the most important things that I

wanted to show is the reference help

especially the keyboard shortcuts and

these can be really helpful especially

when doing stuff like node editing this

will save you a lot of time so this is a

good reference to come back here find

those shortcuts to help you navigate

around the software faster in the

options tab you're going to find all the

different options for changing the

settings in the software most of these

will be fine by default there are a

couple of settings that you do want to

make sure is enabled like auto recovery

and check updates on launch and this

will help just keep you up to date we

have our recent models tab will contain

all of your recent projects your open

existing models and then we have our new

model tab where we're going to start our

first project now the first thing that

you need to know is that new model

actually is talking about the material

and this is the setup for the material

that you're going to be cutting out this

is not the dimensions of your cutting

area this is not the dimensions of the

piece that you're trying to make it's

the dimensions of the material that

you're going to be cutting out of so in

this example we're selecting inches and

you could put millimeters whichever part

of the world you're from and you just

put in the width and height of the

material that you're going to start with

the Box on the right is your starting

reference point most of the time when

you probe a piece of material you're

going to probe it from the bottom left

hand corner and so that's usually where

your starting point will start at

however there are times like if the

piece is round where you may want to

reference your starting point in the

middle of the project and so you would

select this to start the project in the

the middle of the material but for the

most part if you're probing from the

bottom left corner this is the corner

you're going to use to reference your

starting point from you also have the

option to do the upper left upper right

and lower right Corners if the

circumstance comes up in the middle here

you have your resolution slider this

assigns how many points of resolution

the model is going to have the main

impact of this slider is how much

computing power or CP usage that your

computer is going to use to render the

model so if you have this really high

it's going to take a lot of CPU power to

render your model if you put this lower

it takes less power it will also affect

the detail or the amount of detail

that's in your project so if you have a

low detail project and you don't need a

lot of resolution you can keep this low

if your project has a lot of detail and

you have a lot of computing power you

can leave this resolution on high once

we start our project the software is

going to open up to our model or our

material and that's the first thing that

you see everything that's on the screen

we have a a bar of tools over here a bar

of tools at the top a bar of tools at

the right we have our project section

and our model information section all of

these tools can also be found in the

menu bar at the top

these are all just quick references for

the most common tools

this section over here is all about

vectors these are all the different

kinds of vectors that you create and

when you hover over these boxes it will

give you a tool tip or tell you what it

is so that one is create the polyline or

create a line or create a vector create

a rectangle Circle this one is the text

tool and then these are used for editing

those vectors whether you're cutting or

splicing selecting the vectors a vector

is another word for a line every time

you draw a line that's a vector it has a

start and a stop point or a point on

each end of the line each one of those

points is called a node those nodes

connect the different vectors together

to form either a closed loop or an open

loop and that's what we'll talk about in

the vector section will be closed and

open vectors and what that means at the

top section you have your simple toolbar

starting with save and undo when you

start a project for the first time it's

a good idea to start and press save as

and go ahead and title your project that

way when you press the save button it

will automatically save all of your

progress the next two buttons over are

your vector library and your relief

clipart library now these are

pre-installed Vector artwork that you

can download you only need to press this

get more Vector artwork button and it'll

take you to the website where you can

download more

same thing with the relief clipart

Library relief clipart is 3D so anything

that is a relief is considered 3D

everything that is a vector is 2D our

next section over is our bitmap to

Vector tool and this is a tool that uses

a picture and turns it into Vector lines

it's an automated tool this tool will

have to go over this the vector video

and I'll get into that more the vector

doctor allows you to help find problems

with vectors and fix vectors these two

tools go hand in hand we'll cover this

in our Vector video and we'll go into

that more in depth there the block and

rotate button allows you to copy and

create a grid of a particular Vector

like say you had a box or a circle and

you wanted to make 20 of them this is a

way to block copy and paste take one of

something and make it into a bunch of

columns and rows as many as you need the

next one along is paste along a curve

and what that used for is if you had a

vector line here and you wanted to paste

say a relief and wanted to make it fall

on that line you would use this tool the

next section is our relief section this

whole section has to do with 3D stuff

reset relief will remove any material

that's there and completely erase the

material so anytime you've started a 3D

project and you need to race your

material that's this button

the smooth relief will take any sharp

edges that is on your relief model again

relief being 3D and we'll smooth those

over automatically and you can do that

with different intensities

the scale relief model will take any

relief that you have on the material and

you can change the size with this we

also have the invert relief tool which

if you press this will flip the relief

over

if you see this button has a little

white corner to it anytime you have a

tool that has the white corner

that means that you can hold your mouse

button over it and it will open up more

functions

so in this one you can invert the relief

the male and the female or you can just

invert the Z the next section here is

tool paths the first button is your

create triangle mesh what create

triangle mesh does is anytime you have a

relief or something that is on top of

the material this is how you create your

own

stls objects or how you create your own

relief models very powerful tool and we

will cover that more in our relief video

the next section is your tool paths and

this gives you your profile tool path

your V bit carving tool path the inlay

tool path a fluting tool path and the

Machine relief tool path now as I

mentioned before all of these buttons

are just the most common tool paths they

are not all of the tool paths if you go

to the tool paths bar and you select new

2D toolpath you can see that there's

also an area clearance tool path a

drilling tool path and a bevel carving

tool path the easiest way to get to Tool

paths is actually over here on your

project bar this project is where I

would recommend controlling most of your

tool paths this is the easiest way to

access all of them they have all the

tool D tool paths here all of the 3D and

the laser tool path here at the bottom

you have the simulation once you create

a tool path you can simulate out what

it's going to look like if you were to

cut it and that's what the simulation

button is we have bitmap layers the

bitmap is a picture we also have a tab

for that

anytime you import a bitmap or a picture

if you right click it and you click

import it will allow you to import a

picture as a bitmap we open that up it

will bring it into our 2D view screen

and this is if we were to use our bitmap

to Vector tool we then could turn this

into vectors if we go back to our 3D

view you can also see that you can work

with anything 2D in the 3D view going to

the buttons on the right the one at the

very bottom is our material View and if

we click that button it brings us back

to our base material

now because a picture or a bitmap is in

two Dimensions there's nothing

three-dimensional to show you in the 3D

view it's just in the 2D view but you

can see that picture in the 3D view by

going back to the display material and

it has the little white box the one of

the options is displayed the bitmap and

so if we click that then we get our

bitmap back

so that's a good way to look at the

bitmap or if you just want to look at

the material if you're working with 3D

stuff all of the tools in this bar on

the right hand side have to do with the

3D View and how you view this there's

also the mouse wheel if you roll the

mouse wheel up and down you can zoom in

and out if you hold the middle Mouse

button down you can rotate around your

material and if you hold both buttons

down you can grab and move your material

wherever you need if you get off the

screen and you can't see your material

anymore the button at the top is the

center top view so you can press that

anytime and it'll bring your view back

into view the next button down is for

the 2D view if you were to get this out

of the screen because the top down view

has to deal with the 3D model the next

button down is scale to fit model it

will automatically bring your 2 2D view

back into Center when we click back to

the 3D view tabs you see it gives you

those options for the top view this

allows you to turn that material

completely on and off this button is

very important this is your toggle

vectors if you have a vector and I'm

going to just draw a line here with the

tool if you have a vector you can turn

them on and off with this button the

next button down is the toggle clipart

visibility and then the one under that

is the toggle front relief you very

rarely will use these two and they are

just to toggle the visibility there are

some things I'm going to go over very

quickly and maybe even skip over so if I

do and you have questions about that

again feel free to leave that in the

comments below the next tab up on our

project screen is the vectors button if

you right click this you can import any

vectors that's an SVG that you may have

downloaded safe from Etsy or from one of

the free places you can find online this

is how you would import that SVG again

you can also do that up here in the

import button going back to our 2D tab

when I imported that picture it also

gave us all the different colors that

are in this picture

now if you zoom in each one of these

pixels may have a different color

and all those colors are represented in

this bar below and you can actually

click through and see all the different

colors that make up this photo and

that's what the color palette at the

bottom is for you have a primary and a

secondary color you can link colors

together using this link button and you

can reverse which one's primary and

which one secondary with this button

we're going to go over this a lot more

in depth when we do our vectors video

because we'll be creating vectors from

the colors going back to our 3D view I

wanted to show you in the view tab

there's a couple of really helpful tools

that I suggest enabling when you first

open your software and that's show grid

and that will give you this little dot

grid over your material

this really can help you when trying to

draw straight lines or line things out

the other one is show rulers

and this will give you the measurements

of your material which also helps when

lining things out

and the last one is show cursor

information

what that does is wherever your cursor

is hovering over it will give you the

coordinates in x y and if you have a 3D

relief it will also show you the

thickness in Z height snapping is where

your cursor locks on to certain points

on the material and you can have it snap

to grid lines and snap to objects going

back up to our tabs at the top the next

tab over is the model tab this is where

you can adjust the size of your model

after you've already started it

however do note that when you change the

width of your model it's automatically

going to change the height and that's

because it's trying to keep the aspect

ratio the same

if you want a different model of a

different size you can either start over

or you can add a border

the Border will allow you to add

material all the way in every direction

you can add it just to the top or the

Bottom by you know selecting whichever

one you wish to get and you can just put

in how many inches of material that you

want to add and press OK there's also a

really powerful measure tool down here

at the bottom of the model tab this will

allow you to measure from two different

points this is a really helpful tool if

you're trying to get something pretty

precise our next tab over is our Vector

Tab and we're going to get really in

depth in the next video on vectors and

everything about vectors so make sure

and check that out but very quickly you

can import vectors from here or access

your vector Library you also have more

Vector options here than you do on the

sidebar you see there's star and very

important the relief boundary Vector

what this button does is create a vector

around any existing relief let's say

you've imported a 3D relief and you want

to create a line to go around that

relief to make a boundary around it this

is the button you would use very helpful

very powerful tool our next tab over is

our bitmap Tab and this has all of your

basic drawing and painting and it's very

similar to Windows paint where you can

draw and paint in the 2D mode the next

tab over is the relief Tab and this is

where you'll import your 3D models or

your stls you also can import a picture

as a 3D model if you select it will come

in really big because of the size and

then you would just change that size

over here to fit your material you would

want this since it's a picture and it's

flat you don't want to give it any Z

height or very much we would give it

like .04 and then it's way off the

screen if you press F9 this

automatically centers whatever you have

highlighted that's a very important

function to memorize F9 will always

Center whatever you have highlighted so

if something gets way off and you have

it highlighted you can always Center

that with the F9 button a relief when it

comes in it is blue and the reason it's

blue is because it has not been paste

now right now we can set up the size how

thick it is we can rotate it put it

where we want in our material and then

once we have our relief ready where we

want it then we would paste it down

then once it's pasted down that relief

would have given it some height we're

gonna go over this more in depth in our

relief videos so make sure and check

that out our next tab over is our tool

paths tab it's easier to access them

from the projects tab over here we have

all of our tool D tool paths the first

one is the profiling tool path profile

is anytime you want to go along a vector

are you using a vector as a guideline

and you can cut along that Vector inside

the vector or outside the vector so if

you had a box and you wanted to cut

along the lines of the Box you would

select along and the bit would follow on

top of the vector you also could have it

follow inside the vector or outside the

vector the software is automatically set

up to offset the diameter of whatever

bit you have selected so if you pick

inside Vector it's automatically going

to step up inside whatever bit diameter

you have selected the profile tool path

allows you to have a starting depth

which would be zero if you're just

starting from the top of the material

and then how deep you want that cut to

actually be and that's your finished

step the profiling tool this is where

you would actually select which bit

you're going to use by default it comes

pre-loaded with metric inch tools and a

few others you can go to the different

manufacturing websites and download

their tool databases and upload those

into the software and that will give you

access to more pre-setup bits one thing

to note is that your bits are not set up

machine specific so whatever these

values that it gives you by default is

not optimal for your CNC machine you

need to use a chip load chart in order

to determine the best chip load for your

machine I have a video on that that I

will link up above if you are interested

in that topic once you select your

profiling tool and we'll just say a

quarter inch end meal you would need to

select a profile or a vector to cut from

and we don't have any vectors here in

this example so there's nothing to cut

this is a 3D model and not a vectorized

model however we can go to vector

create

relief boundary and we're just going to

create a boundary and it'll

automatically create vectors starting at

the base level and anything up so we can

now select this line your cutting

direction is climb or conventional I

recommend climb unless it's a finishing

pass we'll get into that more in the

machine tooling video if we come down to

the bottom of our tool path we have to

set up our material this can also be

found up here in the top of the tool

path material setup but it also can be

found in each one of the different tool

paths at the bottom you can click this

to Define your material and it's going

to open up this material setup box the

material thickness this is how thick

your actual material is if we had a

three-quarter inch piece of lumber then

that's where we would put in the

thickness of our lumber if we have the

model thickness will be shown above that

and this model was .04 inches tall the

slider shows you the position of that

.04 inch model in the 0.75 inch material

so right now we have the model sitting

on top of the material and so that's

there's .71 inches of material below the

relief if we wanted to we could drop the

model into the middle of the piece of

wood it would remove the material on top

before carving the model and then leave

0.40 material at the bottom the material

z0 is where you are probing your

material if you are probing from the top

of your material you want to have this

selected if you're probing from your

waste board you would want to have this

selected I normally use the top of the

material you can do it either way

whichever your preference is above the

material thickness is your safe Z and

home Z safe Z is how far the router will

retract in between each one of its moves

the larger this number the further it

has to travel and so you can save

yourself some time by creating getting a

small safe Z I normally use around zero

two inches however if you have clamps or

anything on top of your material the bit

is only going to go .02 inches above the

material to move over to the next place

so if you have a clamp on top of the

material the bit's going to run into the

clamp home Z is where the router is

going to return or the spindle is going

to return When the job is completed or

in between tool paths

so if you're running a clearance tool

path and the next tool path is a profile

tool path when the clearance tool path

ends the router is going to return to

the home Z position which is 1.5 inches

this needs to be enough room for you to

be able to change the bits in between

tool paths now if we hit our calculate

now it creates a profile tool path

which can be seen and if we click our

simulation button which is the button

down here it will simulate what that cut

looks like and you can see that we've

made a profile cut into that piece now

if we delete our simulation go back to

our tool paths this time I'm going to do

the 3D tool path we can use the entire

relief use all of the material

we also can select automatic boundaries

and an automatic boundary will attempt

to make a boundary around your 3D relief

and then only cut inside that area this

really can save you some time so that

you're you're not Machining a bunch of

waste material

you can set an offset in inches of how

far you want the bit to come from the

outside of the relief or how far that

boundary is going to be and that's where

you would set that up here and you can

select inside or outside of boundary you

also can use a selected Vector as a

boundary this is really useful if say

you wanted to just cut out say the word

surf you could draw a box around the

word Surf use selected vector and then

everything that's inside of that box is

what it will carve you have two

different tool paths that are run during

the machine relief one is a roughing

tool path where most of your material

will be removed and then a finishing

tool path where you use a finer bit to

go back in to get the details for our

roughing tool path on this we'll just

use a quarter inch End Mill and for our

finishing tool path we'll use a 1 8 End

Mill now there are different types of

strategies the rasta strategy moves left

and right and just goes back and forth

across the project until it finished

carving the whole thing when you have

the whole relief selected you have more

options spiral in the Box spiral classic

when you select automatic boundary or

you select selected Vector it only gives

you the rasta classic option so just

know that when you select whole relief

you have a few more strategies that you

can use cutting it out in a spiral

roster X and Y goes back and forth left

left and right and up and down and you

can also do the same strategies for your

end meals or your clearance tool path

when you click these drop down boxes

this gives your amount of step over and

step down the amount of feed rate and

you can change each of those for this

particular cut if you go to the bottom

you have again your material thickness

and your safe Z and home Z when doing a

machine release you can have lead-in

moves like ramping which is very

important when you're roughing using a

roughing tool path this allows the bit

instead of plunging straight down it

allows the bit to come in at an angle

which is better for your bits we'll

cover more of this in our Machining

video but for now I just wanted to go

over this briefly

and if we hit calculate now it will

generate both of those tool paths both

the roughing tool path and the finishing

toolpath now when I finished my tool

path it let me know that some of these

plunges could not be ramped and if you

just press yes it will just continue on

and you don't have to do anything one

thing I wanted to mention real quick was

these little light bulbs on the side of

the tool pass this toggles the

visibility you can turn those on and off

this helps if you've got a whole bunch

of tool paths on your screen and you

only want to see the ones that you're

working with we can simulate this Relief

by pressing the simulate relief button

and it will simulate what that 3D relief

looks like

the last thing I wanted to go over guys

was the the window Tab and really the

only thing that's important here is this

reset layout button if for some reason

you close the projects bar and you lose

that you just need to go to Windows and

reset layout and it will reset your

layout guys that's it that's it for our

overview video If you stuck around

and you enjoyed this content Please

Subscribe ring the bell and hit the like

button that kind of lets us know we're

doing okay and stay tuned for that next

video on vectors have a good one

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