HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
The files for every exercise and project in this
book are available from the book’s website
(http://www.designforcnc.com).
3D Design Files
The AtFAB furniture collection was designed in
SketchUp and the 3D files are provided in
SketchUp’s .skp format. Each 3D file contains a
three-dimensional model, as well as 2D part
profiles that are ready for CAM import and CNC
fabrication setup.
Chapter 3 explains the process of producing a
similar file, walking you through the steps of
flattening a 3D model and laying it out in prepa-
ration for CNC fabrication.
2D Cut Files
If you are not using SketchUp, we provide two-
dimensional CNC cut layouts in DXF file for-
mats. That way, whatever your CNC software
toolchain, you’ll avoid messy file conversion
issues.
SketchUp
You’ll need to download and install SketchUp
(http://www.sketchup.com) if you want to com-
plete the design exercises in this book exactly
as depicted. At the time of this writing,
SketchUp Pro is available for a month-long trial
period and SketchUp Make is available for free.
This book doesn’t provide an introduction to
SketchUp basics; it only covers features and
controls relevant to the design exercises. We
feel that SketchUp is very easy to learn, but to
avoid frustration, it’s best to get acquainted
with it first. If SketchUp is new to you, we highly
recommend reviewing the SketchUp website’s
learning section (http://www.sketchup.com/
learn) before starting this book’s design exerci-
ses.
SketchUp files are only backward compatible to
the version used to create the file. This book’s
project files were created in SketchUp 2015, so
you’ll need SketchUp 2015 or greater to open
them.
VCarve Pro
This book uses Vectric’s VCarve Pro v8 to set
up files for CNC fabrication. You can download
a trial version at http://www.vectric.com/prod-
ucts/vcarve.htm.
VCarve Pro smoothly imports SketchUp files
and easily exports toolpaths to a ShopBot CNC
router. While VCarve Pro has CAD features, we
prefer using SketchUp for all CAD operations.
The exercises in this book walk you through
VCarve’s key steps in setting up a file for fabri-
cation. We recommend that you also review
VCarve’s learning resources at http://
support.vectric.com/training-material.
CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS
BOOK
Italic Indicates new terms, URLs, email
addresses, filenames, and file extensions.
This element indicates a warning or caution.
This element provides a tip.
This element signifies a suggestion, or general
note.
Units of Measure
Units are expressed in feet and inches with
metric units in parentheses.
Software and Hardware
We reference CAD software, CAM software, and
CNC tools that we actually used to test and
produce the projects presented in this book.
We used SketchUp Pro 2015 for Mac to model
the furniture and VCarve Pro to generate the G-
Code. We fabricated all projects with a ShopBot
xxii
DESIGN FOR CNC
