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. For every tool in detail, see Design tools; for the rest of the screen, Design workspace.

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.

Same as VCarve

Job setup covers what VCarve’s does: size, thickness, Z zero and the XY datum.

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.

Key	Tool	Key	Tool
L	Line	T	Trim
R	Rectangle	E	Extend
C	Circle	O	Offset
A	Arc	F	Fillet, dog-bone or T-bone (click a rounded corner to make it sharp again)
P	Polygon	D	Dimension
K	Text	I	Measure
X	Construction line	M	Copy
N	Edit nodes	Shift+M	Mirror
Y	Array	Shift+R	Rotate
		Shift+D	Show or hide the dimensions

Same as Fusion

The letter keys match Fusion’s sketch shortcuts where Fusion has one. Mirror and Offset open a small panel: pick the shapes, pick the line or distance, preview, OK.

• 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. One drawn from a shape’s centre, corner, end or midpoint stays attached to it: move the shape, resize it or change its dimension, and the line’s end follows. Drag the construction line itself and it lets go.
• Lost the drawing? Press Home to fit everything back in view.

Sizes that change together: parameters

When several sizes depend on one number, such as the plywood’s real thickness, give that number a name and use the name in your dimensions. Change it once, and everything that uses it follows.

1. Press fx (beside Dimension) and add a parameter: the name thickness, the value 18.
2. Use it in a dimension. Press D, click a dado’s side twice for its width, and type thickness instead of a number (your parameters are listed under the box as you type: click one, or press Tab). The dimension shows 18.00; point at it to see = thickness.
3. Use arithmetic where you need it. A shelf between two sides of a 600 mm cabinet is 600 - 2 * thickness.
4. Change the number. The sheet measures 17.5? Press fx, change thickness to 17.5, and the dado narrows and the shelf grows to fit. One Ctrl+Z takes it all back.

The dado is as wide as thickness, and the shelf is width - 2 * thickness long. Change thickness, and both follow.

• material is always there: the material’s thickness from Job setup.
• Toolpaths can use them too. A pocket’s depth can be material / 2 or dado_depth, and it’s recalculated when the number changes. Design warns if that ever takes a cut past the bottom of the material.
• Only what’s dimensioned follows. A shape with no dimension on it stays the size you drew it.

Same as Fusion

Parameters work like Fusion’s user parameters: named values, arithmetic between them, and dimensions that follow. They are saved with the drawing.

See Parameters for units, renaming and what’s refused.

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.

Same as VCarve

Lines, arcs, circles and VCarve’s smooth Bézier curves all import as the shapes you drew.

Different from VCarve

VCarve’s toolpaths show here as a read-only list. 454 Design doesn’t run them; use VCarve or your saved G-code for that, and 454 Control to cut.

Open a Carbide Create project

Open a .c2d file. The shapes come across as you drew them, on their layers, with the material’s size and thickness, and Design switches to the units the project shows (inches or millimetres). Projects from current Carbide Create and from older versions both open.

• Toolpaths come in as 454 toolpaths you can edit, reorder and save as G-code: contours (outside and inside), pockets and V-carves, with their depths, passes, feeds and speeds, on the shapes Carbide Create had them on. One that was switched off there is left out of the G-code here. Your Carbide Create file isn’t changed.
• Check every one before cutting. They are 454’s own toolpaths made from Carbide Create’s settings, not copies of its cuts. Bits come as sizes, not tools from your library; tabs are spread evenly round each shape, not where Carbide Create had them; a V-carve that Carbide Create clears with a second bit is carved with the V bit alone. The window after opening lists each of these by name.
• What can’t be converted for certain is left out and named, with why. For now that includes contours from current Carbide Create (build 8xx), because the file doesn’t say clearly which side of the line they cut, and drilling, texture and 3D toolpaths. Make those again in the Toolpaths panel.
• Big projects take time. The drawing shows first, then the toolpaths are calculated one at a time. A V-carve over hundreds of shapes can take half a minute, and Design won’t respond while it works one out.
• Circles and plain rectangles stay circles and rectangles. Other curves become many short straight lines, within 0.02 mm of the curve.
• Text comes in as its letters’ outlines, as one group. It can be moved and cut, but not retyped.
• XY zero at a corner or the centre is taken from the project, and the message says so. Anywhere else, it’s put at the lower-left corner and the message says where the project had it.
• Z zero is set to the top of the material. If the project has it elsewhere, the message says so: set it in Job setup before cutting.
• Stray points (shapes with no size, which some projects are full of) are left out, and counted in the message.
• Save asks where to save, since a 454 drawing is a different file (.454.json).

If one won’t open, export it from Carbide Create as SVG or DXF, which open here, and tell us.

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.

Same as VCarve

Hiding a layer is only for seeing: toolpaths still cut the shapes on it.

Caution

Start with a clean image. Tracing follows what’s there: a sharp, high-contrast logo at a decent size traces well; a small, blurry or heavily compressed one gives lumpy outlines.

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, but that isn’t a file: closing Design with a drawing that isn’t saved to a file asks first. Don’t save puts it aside, and Recover last drawing in the File group brings it back.
• 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.

Caution

Browser storage belongs to this browser. Clearing site data or switching computers loses it. Save important drawings to a file.