A good, personalized toolchain should meet your:
You’ll see below that many of our go-to software picks tend to be available for free and can range from beginner-friendly to more advanced. We also tend to more highly recommend software that is both Design-and-CAM-in-one since that helps to streamline the process of making projects on your CNC.
Remember that the design step in CNCing can be completely optional. If you’d like to browse a list of sites we put together where people share their CNC project designs either for free or for a price, click the button below. Half of the projects we’ve made ourselves have been off designs we’ve found online; feel free to leverage these resources in your own work with the right permissions.
If you’re looking for software that takes advantage of most CNC features while remaining easy to pick up, we recommend checking out these software options:
Name | Type | Difficulty (1-4) |
I want to… |
Compatibility | Price |
Vectr | 2D Design | 1 | Use an online tool to design simple signs and other 2D projects | Online | Free |
Easel | 2D Design, 2D CAM, Int | 2 | Make signs, carve simple images, and other 2D projects | Online | Free & paid |
Carbide Create | 2D Design, 2D CAM | 2 | Make signs, v-carvings, and other 2D projects | PC & Mac | Free & paid |
Inkscape | 2D Design, 2D CAM | 3 | Stick with something that’s open-source with lots of features for 2D project design | All desktops | Free |
F-Engrave | 2D CAM | 1 | Use a simple 2D CAM program for engraving and v-carving signs | Windows/PC | Free |
Halftoner | 2D CAM | 1 | Make halftone carvings of normal pictures onto my projects | Windows/PC | Free |
Kiri:Moto | 3D CAM | 2 | Create 3D reliefs, trays, and other parts from 3D models | Online | Free |
CAMLab | 3D CAM | 2 | Create 3D reliefs, trays, and other parts from 3D models | Online | Free |
https://carbide3d.com/carbidecreate/
Carbide Create is an awesome free (with paid pro features) program that works great for 2D and 2.5D carvings, if you want to work with SVGs and DXFs, or if you’re looking to do V-carving. With a much larger list of presets for common bits and materials, as well as a simple user interface and some additional features, it manages to outperform Easel in many aspects: though these advantages come with some additional complexity. Still, it’s an awesome program for getting started with CNCing and similar to Easel there are tons of guides on Youtube to check out.https://www.scorchworks.com/Fengrave/fengrave.html
F-Engrave is a free and open-source software which provides several useful features if you are looking to do engraving work. This includes v-carving, b-carving, importing DXF and bitmap files, and more. To learn about how it works, check out the documentation online or watch the YouTube tutorial videos.https://jasondorie.com/page_cnc.html
The halftoner program is quite old but very simple. By importing images, you’re able to chose from a selection of patterns which will enable you generate black-and-white halftone v-carves from that photo. Its use case is very limited but it’s good at what it does.
Name | Type | Difficulty (1-4) |
I want to… |
Compatibility | Price |
Carveco Maker | 2D Design | 2 | Design baseline and reasonably advanced 2D and 3D carvings | Windows/PC | 15USD/mo |
Vectric VCarve Desktop | 2D Design, 2D CAM, Int | 2 | Design baseline and reasonably advanced 2D and 3D carvings | Windows/PC | 349USD |
Onshape | 2D Design, 2D CAM | 3 | Model in 2D or lay out complex, 3D parts with lots of granular control and plug-ins | Online | Free & paid |
Fusion 360 | 2D Design, 2D CAM | 3 | Model in 2D or lay out complex, 3D parts with lots of granular control and plug-ins | PC & Mac | Free & paid |
https://carveco.com/carveco-software-range/carveco-maker/
Carveco Maker is Carvecos entry-level product yet it comes with quite a bit of power. It has a lot of features similar to Vectrics Vcarve software such as standard toolpaths, 2D drawing, V-carving, and 3D importing but it can also create reliefs from 3D models and images and allows you to perform manual relief smoothing. This is a highly featured software that’s built for semi-professional CNC use and its capabilities reflect that. It’s also impressive how clean the user interface is when factoring in all the features it has. If you’re interested, check out this comparison we did between Carveco Maker and Vectric Vcarve Desktop:Vectric VCarve Desktop vs Carveco Maker – Which Should You Choosehttps://www.vectric.com/products/vcarve-desktop
Vectric Vcarve Desktop is one of Vectrics mid-level products, with products like Cut2D and PhotoVCarve being more entry-level. It has quite a lot of features similar to Carveco Maker such as standard toolpaths, 2D drawing, V-carving, and 3D importing but it’s limited in that it can’t modify 3D models and all projects are limited to a 24″x24″ cutting size. It still has unique CAM toolpaths and has also been built for semi-professional CNC use so its capabilities reflect that. If you’re interested, check out this comparison we did between Vectric Vcarve Desktop and Carveco Maker:Vectric VCarve Desktop vs Carveco Maker – Which Should You Choosehttps://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview
Fusion 360 is one of the most popular 3D modelling and CAM combination programs used by hobbyists. It has powerful, industry-level features with the most complete CAM package for 2D and 3D cutting operations. It’s free for makers and hobbyists (with some restrictions) and they offer great training resources as well as a full playlist which teaches every step in learning how to use the CAM part of Fusion. Fusion 360 is a great option if you’re wanting to take the deep dive on CNC programming.
Name | Type | Difficulty (1-4) |
Notes | Compatibility | Price |
UGS | Interface | 2 | A good default machine interface that’s lightweight but has good functionality | All desktops | Free |
CNCjs | Interface | 2 | Another great interface option that can be more reliable on certain systems since it’s not Java-based | All desktops & Online | Free |
OpenBuilds Control | Interface | 2 | A newer software that seems to be promising in it’s reliability and additional features | All desktops | Free |
Easel | 2D Design, 2D CAM, Int | 1 | Works directly through Easel in your browser. Quite minimal but can get the job done | Online | Free |
VTransfer | Interface | 1 | Only packaged with Vectric products. Has almost no features so it’s pretty limited | Windows | Free |
bCNC | CAM, Int | 3 | The go-to by many when setting up their CNC to run off a Raspberry Pi. Reliable and python-based | All desktops | Free |
Source Rabbit | Interface | 1 | Based off UGS Classic, it has some additional features while remaining lightweight | All desktops | Free |
https://winder.github.io/ugs_website/
This Java-based program comes in two forms: classic and platform. Classic is easier to use and pick up, Platform has many more features and is more configurable. The software is lightweight and reliable with a pendant available, and Platform additionally has customizable windows, a good spread of plugins, and easy macros.https://software.openbuilds.com/
Designed to work with Openbuilds CAM, it can still be used independently. Although it’s not as established as the other software on this list, it’s packed with some good features and is simple and colour-coordinated for improved ease of use. Pendant available.https://easel.inventables.com/
Extends through the Easel online software, allowing you to connect to your machine directly through your browser. It doesn’t have a lot going for it as it’s purposely limited to cater towards new users, but it’s usable and convenient if you’re already using Easel for design and CAM. The interface aspect has no difference between the Free and Pro versions of Easel.https://docs.vectric.com/docs/
VTransfers barebones layout means that it’s dead easy to use and understand. The downsides to this is that it offers no gcode visualization, keyboard jogging, or other common interface features.https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC
A python-based interface software and CAM utility. The main downside is that the software interface is very un-intuitiive and the getting the software installed isn’t beginner-friendly.https://www.sourcerabbit.com/GCode-Sender/
This program is a modified version of UGS Classic with similar functionality and a modified layout, but with some of the added features that UGS Platform has. In some areas it’s been too far simplified that it reduces functionality, for instance the visualizer will only show g-code in the positive axes instead of showing the entire file.