This thread is extremely critical and that sits poorly with me.
Constructive criticism, honest questions, and suggestions are all great. Just take a step back before your next post and think about how it sounds.
We have been told since before this was public that V-carving was not the priority, we have known the pricing since then as well. There is no point in repeatedly bringing it up. LightBurn is amazing I trust this team to do the right thing. Let’s take a step back and do what we can to help them out…and selfishly make sure it works great with our machines.
This has a HUGE team behind it. I am dying for this to come out. Let’s show a little more support please.
@vicious1 , thanks again for keeping the tone of this forum positive and respectful. In contrast with so many other Internet sites, this place is a welcoming and friendly place where respect and openness are common. That’s largely due to the fact that you monitor the conversations, and step in with polite but firm guidance when things start to go off the rails.
Thanks for all that you do.
I am just so excited that we have been able to see behind the curtain as all this happens and get some sort of tiny input on such a huge project. Then I see so much negativity and it is a bummer.
I am going to start making a few threads here to show people what they are missing. Maybe that will set the tone for others.
This software is ALREADY amazing.
Nice, didn’t know that was already part of millmage, now to wait the nesting. (With nesting, it would be intresting to see if you could use templates for autogenerated tollpath by layers. That’s a function i really use a lot from vectric.)
I seem to recall that it already has basic nesting that uses the minimum rectangle a shape fits in.
Im not part of the testing team, i would like a lot of functions already working with Vectric Aspire because its part (a huge one) of my software work flow with what i do..
Want to try millmage mostly because im used to lightburn interface and i find myself opening lb to do some stuff and exporting it to dxf then importing it to V-ASPIRE.
I know my use case isn’t special but also is not the usual thing to do.
-3-4 layers parts cut out (inside-outside) and over the line toolpath with a flat bottom v bit for edge folding. Nesting multiple sheets with the ease of a templates toolpath to apply after nesting saves me A LOT of time.
Millmage is new, i understand it needs time so it can be the software for general use (for everyone)
VCarving is absolutely a priority, it’s just Really Damn Hard ™.
I want it for myself as badly as anyone else does, and already have enough of the UI done to test against the medial axis functionality that we have to verify that the data structure gives me what I need.
We have builds internally with it working, but there are too many failure cases yet to release it.
One of my biggest peeves so far has been the number of people repeating “well it doesn’t VCarve and that’s all I do.” (and to be clear, this is everywhere, not just here) Say it once, great - noted. Say it half a dozen times or more and it’s just noise and distraction for us.
We watch these threads for feedback, and we know VCarving is wanted and have said it’s being worked on, so we’d love feedback about the other things now. 
I am getting tired of seeing it I can’t imagine how it feels for you.
I used to get asked about 8’ ballscrews all the dam time. I said “never going to happen” It took years to quit getting bugged about it.
I would love to give more feedback myself but I have not cut daily like I used to in a while. So far everything else I need is in there, finding my way around and finding the right way to do things did not take too long. I like it.
I will be adding some more V1 specific stuff in our docs shortly after the release. Kinda like the test crown but for MM and a little more in-depth for an actual cut.
To torture you / prove to you that it’s being worked on, these are VCarves produced by MillMage.
This one has depth limit and clearing using the V-bit (I know it’ll need end mill clearing later with the rest done with the V) :
And text + a weird shape used for max depth testing:
And here’s one of the failure cases - Note the very large slash across the cut:
I haven’t put any effort into optimizing the retracts, and next to nothing in the path ordering, but the point of this is to be able to test the output of the medial axis code. Once that’s working and solid, I’ll finish the work on V-carving and start doing the follow-on tasks, like V-carved inlays.
Oh, you did it now!!! Feeding the fire. 
It’s a calculated risk - I’m sure there are people reading this thinking “oh man, no V-carve…” and might never come back, so this is proof that we’re actually doing it, and pretty far along - like, I’m not just blowing smoke (feeding the fire indeed).
That depends a lot on what you mean by that.
From what you followed with (shapes in different operations), it sounds like you might just mean ‘Un-group.’ What Joe showed above is ‘Break Apart’, which will break shapes into all the little line and curve segments that make them - IE, a rectangle becomes 4 discrete lines.
You can do either/both. To put shapes in multiple operations would only need them to be ungrouped, or grouped into “op 1”, “shared”, and “op 2”.
So, when is 3D Relief carving coming? 
JK. You guys are doing an awesome job. Can’t wait for the pro version to drop. Keep up the great work!
Yeah, understood, but you kind of never commented on the Inlay function and never even bothered to at least say “no, thanks, we don’t need any help or input with it” when offered. 
The dev working on the medial axis code (the underlying math for V-carving) will probably be the one doing relief carving immediately thereafter, or a tag team between he & I.
Let me know if you need some relief 
Just remember this is our CNC forums, just great we are even getting talked to about anything here about their product. I do not go to other forums to answer questions about my stuff. Even if you are offer assistance, surely our forums are not top priority for the busy team.
It’s not functional yet or at a point where we can take feedback, really. I started with CNC myself, over a decade before I had a laser, and did a lot of V-carving and inlays, so I have a good understanding of those features and what they should do, at least to start with.
The roadmap / feature set for V-carving is:
- Depth per pass + maximum depth
- Area clear for passes done with V-bit
- Area clear for max depth done either with V-bit or an optional clearing bit as a linked operation
After that’s done then I plan to have V-carved inlay pockets + “pyramid” positives. For the positive, you’ll be able to specify an area around the shape to clear (or will just have to provide the geometry for the boundary), and be able to specify a little extra depth. If I understand it right, generating the positive will be pretty trivial.
Once we’re at the point where we can do V-carved inlays I’ll start working through the options needed, but it’s pointless to ask for help now when we’re not at the point of even starting the feature.
And, for the record, I have this post bookmarked for when I am ready: Millmage public release candidate? - #119 by Tokoloshe
Is there any more openings into the beta test? I would like to try it for my work, im planning a couple more seats in the design team and price will add up fast with vectric.