# AutoCAD to VCarve Pro on a 5x10 flatbed - what part of the handoff do you automate?

**URL:** <https://cnc-routers.org/t/autocad-to-vcarve-pro-on-a-5x10-flatbed-what-part-of-the-handoff-do-you-automate/91>\
**Category:** Troubleshooting & Support\
**Created:** [October 15, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://cnc-routers.org/t/autocad-to-vcarve-pro-on-a-5x10-flatbed-what-part-of-the-handoff-do-you-automate/91 "2026-10-15T12:32:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pete](https://cnc-routers.org/user_avatar/cnc-routers.org/pete/32/61_2.png) [@pete](https://cnc-routers.org/u/pete)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://cnc-routers.org/t/autocad-to-vcarve-pro-on-a-5x10-flatbed-what-part-of-the-handoff-do-you-automate/91/1 "2026-10-15T12:32:53Z")

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I’m picking up a new machine at work and want to get ahead of the software side before it lands. It’s a 5’x10’ flatbed on an LNC m2200 control, 20-position ATC, 9 kW spindle, vacuum table running three centrifugal pumps and a fixed auto tool setter. Geometry comes out of AutoCAD, toolpathing goes through VCarve Pro, and most of the work is cabinets in MDF and plywood. Mouldings and a bit of carving come later.

What I’d like input on is the AutoCAD to VCarve handoff specifically. What has actually worked for you? I keep going back and forth on whether to assign tooling to geometry through layers, and whether machining templates should live in the file or be rebuilt per job.

I’m not walking in cold. I spent years on an old Morbidelli 430s driven by AutoCAD with Genio and Xilog, so I know roughly what a nested cabinet workflow should feel like. That setup was a different animal though - twenty-year-old software, tool lengths measured by hand with a height gauge, and a pad positioning system that had been dead for years before I got there.

Two things I want sorted from day one: nesting that respects grain direction on veneered MDF and prefinished ply, and a repeatable tool library plus machining template setup so programming stops being a manual chore every batch. If you run this combo daily I’d rather hear what you settled on than what the documentation claims. My AutoCAD side is solid - VCarve is the part I’m starting from zero on.