Your Craft Robo comes will all necessary software included. This includes Robo Master which is the basic design software, Controller software which allows you to set the cutting parameters, and the necessary drivers.

Robomaster is quite adequate to do most things you want (welding may have to be done by hand and will take a little longer but some people prefer to work this way...) If you're finding it does what you want, then stick with it. Robomaster can't directly weld like DM or Inkscape, you have to (hand) trace round overlapped shapes to get the effect. You can do (more or less) everthing you need but some things can be harder work!

UK owners can register and download Craft Robo software (including plugins and drivers) from both the Graphtec UK website, and the Graphtec Crafty Club.

Software updates and downloads are available from Craft Robo Stare (USA) for both the Craft Robo and the Craft Robo Pro. Please make sure you read and agree to their terms of use.

If you want to try other software and you've got Design Master, then have a go with it. It was commissioned by Graphtec UK last Autumn specifically to make things like welding easier for us to do, but it also has some other very useful functions too. It will have the advantage over other software such as Inkscape and Corel in that it is dedicated cutting package - the others are "general" graphics ones. There is an excellent downloadable manual and a number of video tutorials to help you. Some of these are available for sale and a few for free download. It's currently bundled with the Robo in the UK and I've seen it also included with some Australian Robos.

It is compatible also with the Silhouette, but as of April 2008, there is no Pro version yet available.

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics program used as an add-on to the Robo Master software, and can be downloaded from the Inkscape site; make sure you download the currentstable version for you operating system: Windows or MacOS.

Inkscape (and other suitable software) has been used prior to the advent of DM to do welding, etc, that can be done more easily or automatically. Inkscape is free but is more of a general purpose vector package. It's well used by a number of designers on the forum and there are some tutorials in our Tutorials section.

People use Inkscape because it was around well before DM came along and it enables us to do some things more easily than with the Robo. But you can't cut directly from it, you can't edit the dxf files in the RM software, and the files sometimes cut badly. It has the advantages of being free, well known/used by many Robo users on this forum, and there a number of good tutorials, both general ones in Inkscape itself, and Robo specific ones in our tutorials section.

Other software, e.g. Adobe Illustrator and Corel, have plugins that allow you to design then cut directly with your machine via the plugin. They are both vector graphics programs, which is the type of graphics that the Robo uses. Graphtec supply the plugin on the software disk that comes with your machine. Illustrator was one of the earliest alternative pieces of software used with the Robo because of its abilities to automatically trace and "weld", and it is popular with graphics designers. Disadvantages are that it's expensive, and complex, so harder to learn, but there are some Robo tutorials available and many more general ones if you search the web. Corel will be used for similiar reasons, is less expensive than Illustrator, but I don't believe we have any Corel specific tutorials.

KNK Studio GE

KNK Studio

Funtime

Owners of the original Wishblade and Craft Robo (CC100-20) machines with the original software may like to download the Wishaway program which will allow them to convert files made with the later software into a format they can read and use.