Hello, I have a design to carve with end mill and there are some tiny path that I need to use a 1/16 bit and for the rest a 1/8 bit. Is there an option were I can set some part to be carved with 1/8 bit and the rest with 1/16bit? If I only use a 1/16 bit will take forever…
Here a screenshot of the 1/8 bit path
This is known as “rest” machining.
At this time, Carbide Create does not support this feature — one can do it manually by insetting by the endmill diameter, then outsetting by the diameter:
resulting in:
resulting in:
Draw in geometry which defines the area you wish to work with and duplicate the original:
drag the original back into alignment and select it and the drawn in geometry and do a Boolean intersection:
then select the offset geometry as the key object and Boolean subtract it from the region you are interested in:
EDIT: You would further want to offset to the outside by the radius (or diameter?) of the tool in question, then do a Boolean intersection w/ a copy of the original geometry.
resulting in an area one can separately assign toolpaths to:
One can get even better detailing though by using a V carve for detailing instead.
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Thank you very much, I just saw a similar post about it! Best solution is to create 2 different design and let Shapeoko run them with separate bits. I enjoy a lot the XXL! ciao!
Here’s how I do this. This example cuts a pocket in ebony to inlay a “snag”. The overall pocket looks like this:
But when I first cut with a larger bit, for speed, wear and duribility, the finer branches are not yet pocketed. To cut them, I use a second svg which appears like this:
This svg was created by editing out the portion of the original which would have been cut in the first pass. To find out what yet needs to be cut with the fine bit, I make a circle corresponding to the diameter of the larger bit and move it around the original drawing to determine the regions too narrow for that bit to have cut. I also use this concept to fabricate the original drawing such that all regions can actually be cut with the bits at hand.
This method was also used to cut the snag which has branches ranging down to 1 mm in width.
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Very nice! Thank you, I’m just working to do same thing! Were machine doesn’t arrive we will put our hands and brain! We will wait for the “REST” on Carbide Create!
Another thing I do for these is do one Gcode with the 1/8 pocket and another Gcode with 1/16 inside cut. It is a little slower cutting that defining each 1/16 part, but way less design time.
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for 1/8 -> 1/16 all you need to do is an inside contour, not a whole pocket… saves tons of time 
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