I understand that the AV toolpath allows one (with a bitsetter) to carve an area to a max depth and use a flat bit to clear out the middle. This sounds very useful!
I couldn’t find any documentation about how to use this (the CC manual on the website is V5)
My question is what is the difference between this toolpath a regular VCarve if we do NOT “Enable Area Pocket Tool”?
A regular vcarve touches both sides of a line. The wider the line the deeper the vcarve goes. With advanced vcarve the end mill cuts out to a depth limit and then the vee bit cuts along the perimeter also limiting depth to defined limit. Vee bits are lousy at pocketing large areas. You could end up with a deep trench in a regular vcarve. The bottom of the trench will be a vee but can ruin a carve by cutting through a shallow box top.
Regular vcarve looks good on thin lines but not so good on wide lines.
You need to pick an end mill that will fit inside areas to be pocketed or those areas will not be pocketed. Even if end mill fits in area corners or tapering areas are not pocketed out and vee bit will cut those areas not cut by end mill. The areas not reached by end mill are still depth limited.
Understood, Guy - and that is great. I’ve been surprised at the depth of some VCarves.
However, with AV the first bit is optional. So my question is what is different if the first bit is NOT selected? Is it identical to VC? Or perhaps it just runs around the outside of the letters (on path with no offset?). That could be useful.
I guess I could try!
I can’t find any CC documentation that describes this feature.
As @gdon_2003 noted, Advanced V carving cuts along the perimeter of a shape, while normal V carving runs along the center line.
The difference can easily be seen by:
Advanced V carving w/ pocket clearing:
Advanced V carving w/o pocket clearing:
Normal V carving, depth-limited to the same depth:
which may be used w/ good effect w/ a square for a decorative effect:
This explains it perfectly, @WillAdams - thanks. The AV without pocket cut adds a really useful feature!
Great example Will! Put it in the documentation!!!
I have a bit on this at:
and will expand it a bit when I get a chance.
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