So I was trying to make a simple drink coasters with a initials in the middle.
From a 6”x6” .5” tall block of wood making a 4”x4” square cut out pocket.
So I was planning flattening a 4x4” area down by .1” with a pocket. Now I want to create a tool path to cut out the initials in the middle of the 4x4 area at a depth of .1”.
So now that area is .4” high. So for the initials should I be manually setting the “top” of the initials to start at .1 instead of 0? Or should I be leaving the top of it a 0.00 and set the bottom of the initials to be .200 inches?
I think it’s really just up to you and how you prefer to think about it.
Though if you start it at 0 and go down to -0.2", I think it will assume there is material in the top .1" (where you’ve already removed it) and just be cutting air at your feed rate…doesn’t hurt anything but it’s probably a waste of time.
I’d probably start my cut with the starting point just above your pocket depth. So maybe start it at -0.105" and set the bottom to 0.2" gives it some slack so it doesn’t crash into your wood and saves a good amount of air cutting time.
As always, there are lot’s of ways to do the same thing. You’ll figure out how you prefer to handle things with time.
(Note that the + and - are going to be relative to your zero so don’t take my numbers at face value)
Thanks! So there is no automated way of handling it with the cut order based on layer?
If not, feature request :). First layer would be from top of workpiece to the depth you want. Layer two could have a drop down to start at the bottom of layer 1 and go to depth you want.
I’d be surprised if something like that were implemented. I think the program would have to take in a lot of context from all of your other operations to make sure it wasn’t crashing into any material.
Not impossible but also not trivial, the kind of thing humans are way better at reasoning though (in my humble opinion)
You can run multiple tool paths, first the leveling and then your other toolpaths. Start at the top of the material for the flattening pass and then start all the other tool paths with .1" from the top. Personally I would make two files, one for the flattening, rezero for the second job to do the carving. Either way would work but make life simple.
gives it some slack so it doesn’t crash into your wood and saves a good amount of air cutting time.