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VCARVE PRO
FIGURE 7-3
The Lazy and Lively
Rotational Stools and
vectors
you create to a physical machine. That’s com-
pletely fine for the purposes of this book,
because if you already have your own CNC—or
have access to one in a shared shop—that
machine will already have a CAM software tool-
chain in place. The toolpath creation principles
will remain the same, regardless of software.
CAM WORKAROUNDS FOR MAC OS
VCarve is only available for Windows machines, and
although times are changing, this is typical for CAM
software. If you are running Mac OS and you have
the hard disk space to install a copy of Windows, I
highly recommend Parallels (https://www.paral-
lels.com). In addition to creating CNC toolpaths, I
use it whenever I need to run CNC machines using
Windows- or Unix-flavored control software
machines from my Mac. You can also use Mac’s
built-in Boot Camp, Virtual Box, or another Windows
emulation program.
—Anna Kaziunas France
DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL
1A: If you don’t already have Vectric’s VCarve
CAD/CAM software, download and install a free
trial from the Vectric site (http://
www.vectric.com). For this project, you’ll need
the Rotational Stools (Figure 7-3) SketchUp file
(ATFAB_STL_D4CNC.skp), which can be found
on the book’s website (http://design-
forcnc.com).
This file, like all project files for this book, was
organized and saved as SketchUp 2014 using
the same process you followed in Chapter 3.
When you open the file in SketchUp, you’ll find
the 2D part profiles placed onto toolpathing lay-
ers, with individual parts and the overall cut file
grouped into SketchUp components. You’ll also
find a fully modeled version of the Rotational
Stools on 3D modeling layers.
Chapter 8 will walk you through the process of
fabricating the stool parts from your finished
CAM file. If you already have your material—
and want to fabricate the stools after complet-
ing this CAM setup exercise—you’ll need to
scale your CAD file to match your material’s
thickness (TMAX). Refer to “Measure Your
Materials” on page 132 and “Scale Your CAD
168
DESIGN FOR CNC
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