I am making a flag and its probably way out of may current skill set but a challenge is all ways good. I have a Flag with all the tool paths done, I need to make the flag be the outline of America with a Unit crest in the middle I have figured out the crest but the rest is kicking my butt. Ive been doing this about 2 months. Here is the concept, any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
Your toolpaths are probably confused by the mix of open and closed geometry — if you’ll upload your file (or send it in to support@carbide3d.com) we can walk through this with you.
I will build them again as I deleted them and started over.
usa shape flag.c2d (1.4 MB)
How do you mean to cut this? It looks like multi-level. Which parts are meant to be at which level?
And how will it be finished / colored? V-carve into a darker stained wood to reveal a lighter color? for example the stripes & stars, and the interior of the crest? How you design the vectors depends on what you’re cutting and at which depth.
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If you have difficulties in the rebuilding or after, let us know and upload the file in that state and we will look into this with you.
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The file as provided has each separate element in its original state:
first, we import the above screengrab as a reference:
Then we roughly scale and position the elements:
It is then a matter of trimming down and combining the various pieces of geometry to create geometry which is suitable to assign toolpaths to — usually this is easiest if the regions are closed.
This may be done using either Boolean operations or Trim Vectors. The latter affords the most control and does not result in conversion to polylines.
Since Trim Vectors consumes the geometry used in it, anything which one wishes to make use of in its original state will need to be copied, so for the stars and country outline, select:
d
and duplicate that latter geometry:
And move it to the Flag - Stars layer and activate that:
Then shift-click on the stars which overlap this geometry to add them to the selection:
(after ungrouping)
Then use Trim Vectors to remove what is not wanted:
until one arrives at:
OK
OK
Join Vectors
Yes
Remove the elements from this layer which are not wanted:
Repeat this process for the stripes
Ungroup
select and duplicate in place the outline:
Then select it and the stripes:
and again, use Trim Vectors to remove what is not wanted:
Until one arrives at:
OK
OK
Join Vectors
Repeat this for the field around the stars:
Trim Vectors
OK
OK
Join Vectors
Will I sent you a PM
Lastly, repeat this for the central area around the design — in this case the offset will not be used save to separate the design from the surrounding stripes, so no need to duplicate.
Trim Vectors
until one arrives at:
OK
OK
Join Vectors
Yes
Then, it is simply a matter of selecting things and applying a suitable toolpath (or toolpaths)
The stars which were overlapping the edge of the map may then be cut as a V carving toolpath with the same settings, or all the stars removed from this selection:
and then a separate toolpath assigned to the stars:
Attached as a v8 file.
usa shape flag_v8.c2d (1.3 MB)
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Im working through the screen shots and will compare the files to make sure im tracking how to do this. thank you so much for your help.
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