454 Design: quick start

Drawing parts to cut, opening VCarve projects, and getting your tool library in. If you know Fusion’s sketch tools, most of this will feel familiar on purpose.

1. Open it and set up the job

1. Open 454 Design in any modern browser. Nothing to install, no account.
2. Job setup (the material icon, top right, and it opens by itself for a new drawing): set millimetres or inches, the material’s width and height, its thickness, where Z zero will be (the top of the material or the spoilboard), and where X0 Y0 will be: any corner, or the centre.
3. Match those to the machine. Set zero in 454 Control at the same corner and height. Changing XY zero later keeps your parts where they are on the material.
4. Settings (the gear) holds appearance: light or dark, and an accent colour shared with 454 Control.

Seeing the machine’s cutting area

Job setup’s Machine section says how big the machine’s cutting area is (read from 454 Control’s work area when both run from the same place, or pick your machine) and where the material sits on the bed: a corner, optionally some distance in from it, or the centre. Then Guides → Machine area shows the cutting area as a dashed outline you can’t select or move. It turns orange when shapes fall outside it, and red when the material itself doesn’t fit.

2. Draw

Pick a tool from the panel on the left, or press its key. Click to place points; type a value and press Enter for an exact size.

• Lengths accept any units: type 25, 1/2", 12 1/2 or 3mm regardless of the document’s units.
• Dimensions drive the drawing. Press D, click two things, and type the distance you want: the first thing you clicked moves. Double-click a dimension to change it.
• Construction lines (X) are for reference and alignment. They are never cut.
• Lost the drawing? Press Home to fit everything back in view.

3. Open a VCarve project

1. Open a .crv file (or a .dxf). The drawing, the material size, its thickness and where Z zero is all come across.
2. Its toolpaths are listed in the Toolpaths panel on the right: names, tools, depths and settings, in VCarve’s order.

Trace an image

For logos and black-and-white artwork: drop the image on the drawing (PNG, JPG and most other image types), or open it like any other file. The Trace image panel shows the outlines live over the picture:

• Threshold — where grey becomes black. Auto picks it from the image, and for clean artwork it lands exactly on the edges.
• Invert — for light artwork on a dark background.
• Smoothing — Sharp follows every pixel; Smooth gives cleaner outlines with fewer points.
• Ignore specks — dust and noise smaller than this are left out.
• Fit curves (on by default) — fits true arcs and straight lines to the outlines, within the smoothing tolerance: smooth curves and far fewer nodes, with sharp corners kept. The hint shows how many pieces that makes, against the points it would take without.
• Width — the real size; the height follows the image’s proportions.

Trace adds the outlines as one group, centred on the material, on the active layer. Holes stay holes, so the inside of an “O” is its own outline. Tick Keep the image behind the drawing to leave it faintly visible for drawing over by hand: it goes on a layer of its own, at the bottom, which you can hide or delete like any other.

Layers

The left panel has two tabs down its edge: Tools and Layers. The Layers tab lists every layer. Click one to make it active: new shapes go there. On each row:

• Eye — show or hide the layer. Hidden shapes can’t be picked or snapped to.
• Padlock — lock it: still visible, but can’t be selected or changed.
• Name — double-click to rename.
• Arrow — with shapes selected, moves them onto this layer.
• Bin — deletes the layer and what’s on it, after asking. Undo brings it back.

4. Bring in your tool library

1. Open the tool library (the end-mill icon, top right) and import VCarve’s tools.vtdb. On Windows it lives under C:\ProgramData\Vectric\VCarve Pro\…\ToolDatabase.
2. Choose your machine and material at the top; feeds and speeds follow them.

The library is kept in this browser and shared with 454 Control. Your VCarve file isn’t changed.

5. Nest parts on the material

Select the parts, open Nest, set how many of each, spacing and margin, and press Nest. Parts are rotated to whatever angle fits best; holes travel with their outlines. One undo puts everything back.

6. Save your work

• It saves itself in this browser as you work.
• Save writes the drawing to a .454.json file: keep it with your G-code, back it up, or open it on another computer. It keeps everything, but only 454 Design opens it.
• Export DXF writes a .dxf that VCarve, Fusion, laser software and most CAD programs open: circles and arcs stay true curves, your layers become DXF layers, and the units are millimetres. Construction lines go on a “Construction” layer; dimensions, guides and toolpaths stay in 454.

Opening a DXF brings its layers in as Design layers, keeping which were hidden or locked.