Community Cut Settings
Dial in your feeds and speeds using real data from the Easel community.
Choosing the right feed rate, depth per pass, and spindle speed can be the difference between a clean cut and a ruined workpiece. This new feature shows you what other makers using a similar machine with the same material & bit combination actually use, so you can start from a setting that's already working for others.
Powered by real carve data
Easel records anonymized cut-settings data for every carve. Community Cut Settings aggregates that data and determines the most popular, proven settings for your exact configuration:
- Your machine — settings are grouped by machine work-area size, so a desktop CNC sees desktop-CNC data.
- Your material — matched to the material you've selected.
- Your bit — matched by bit size (or tip angle for V-bits).
The result is a recommendation grounded in thousands of real, recent carves.
How to find it
- Open the Cut Settings panel for your project.
- Choose the bit you want to set up — Roughing, Detail, or Outlines.
- Next to the Automatic and Manual tabs, select the new Community tab.
Using the most-used setting
When you open the Community tab, you'll see the Most-Used Setting card. This highlights the single most popular combination of feed rate, depth per pass, and spindle speed for your current material and bit.
- Click Apply these settings to use them in one tap.
- If your current values already match, you'll see "You're using this setting" instead.
Exploring all settings
Want to see the full picture? Click Explore all settings to open the heatmap.
The heatmap plots feed rate against depth per pass for a given spindle speed, with each tile representing a combination other makers have used:
- Brighter tiles = more popular. Settings used in more carves glow green-to-yellow, while less-used settings stay a darker purple-blue.
- ⭐ The star marks the most-used setting for the selected spindle speed.
- Spindle speed selector at the top lets you switch RPM ranges and see how the community's choices shift. It also shows how many carves fall in each range.
- Hover a tile to see how many community carves used that exact setting.
- Tap any tile to preview its exact feed rate and depth per pass, then click Apply selected setting to use it.
Helpful tips
Spindle speed on manual machines. If your machine doesn't control spindle speed automatically, Easel still recommends an RPM — you'll see a reminder to set it by hand.
No data yet? Some material-and-bit combinations don't have enough community carves to recommend a setting. When that happens, you'll see a "No community cut settings available" message — fall back to Automatic or Manual settings for now. As more makers carve, coverage keeps growing.
You're always in control. Applied community settings are just a starting point. Tweak any value and the setting becomes your own custom value — nothing is locked.
FAQ
Where does the data come from? Anonymized, aggregated cut-setting data from Easel carves across the community. No project or personal information is shared.
Why don't I see settings for my bit/material? There may not be enough community carves yet for that exact combination. Coverage improves over time.
Will this overwrite my saved cut settings? Only when you choose to apply a community setting. Until then, your existing settings are untouched.
Does it work for every bit in a multi-bit carve? Yes — open the Community tab on each bit (Roughing, Detail, Outlines) to get a recommendation tailored to that operation.