Views and output reference: 2D view controls, the View Toolbar, exporting a PDF of your design, and what every file type is

2D view navigation

Pan: click-drag with the tool active (Esc cancels), or just middle-mouse drag / Ctrl+right-drag any time. Zoom Interactive: mouse wheel (or Shift + right-button push/pull). Zoom Box: drag a rectangle to fill the view with it (Shift+click zooms out). Zoom Extents: fit the material to the window. Zoom Selected: fit the selection's bounding box. In multi-sheet jobs the 2D view outlines every sheet with the active one highlighted. Double-click a sheet outline to activate it.

View Toolbar

The strip above the drawing window: tile 2D & 3D windows vertically/horizontally, Pan/Zoom to Box/Zoom to All/Zoom to Selection buttons, toggles for component preview, bitmap visibility, and 2D/solid toolpath drawing, plus Sheet, Layer, and Level dropdowns kept permanently in reach. Snapping has three one-click toggles: geometry snapping, smart snapping, grid snapping. Two-sided jobs add side-switching buttons (orange rulers = bottom side); rotary jobs add a wrapped/flat display toggle.

PDF export

File ► Export ► PDF opens the PDF Export dialog: choose Export All or Export Selected Only, tick which sheets (each sheet becomes its own PDF page) and which layers to include, and optionally Export Job Bounds to draw the job outline. Then Export and name the file. You get full-size paper patterns and client proofs straight from the design. (For a picture of the 3D view instead, use View ► Save Shaded Image.)

File types cheat sheet

• .crv: the VCarve job file, with the 2D design plus all calculated toolpaths.
• .crv3d: the Aspire job file, which adds 3D modeling data. This format is compatible only with Aspire. See the entry on whether VCarve can open Aspire files and Aspire can open VCarve files (.crv vs .crv3d) for cross-compatibility.
• .crvt / .crv3dt: job template versions of the above.
• Imports: DXF/DWG (opens at drawn size, Job Setup pops up), EPS and AI (placed at X0 Y0), PDF (text and vectors extracted, one layer per page), SKP (SketchUp), plus bitmaps and 3D models.
• Exports: EPS, DXF (keeps layers), AI, SVG, PDF.

Pro tips

• Middle-mouse pan and wheel zoom work with any tool open. There is no need to leave the form.
• PDF import is a sleeper: vector PDFs from customers open as editable geometry, one page per layer.
• Official documentation: 2D View Controls
• Official documentation: View Toolbar
• Official documentation: PDF Export
• Official documentation: File Types