I’ve been working on a 3D design for a while now and it’s quite large and detailed. The rough pass is estimated at 391 minutes so thats day 1. The first finishing pass with a 1/8th ballnose is 671 minutes…day 2. Day 3 is the 2nd finishing pass with a 1/16 ballnose is about the same at 675 minutes.
Other than the using the restart feature is there another way to divide the longer finishing passes into shorter segments?
I haven’t used the restart yet so I’m hoping that I’ll have time to run a few tests today to make sure I know what I’m doing if thats the only way to split up the job.
I updated to CC 853 yesterday so I have the latest and greatest version.
Physical dimensions of the part?
Material being cut?
Feeds and speeds?
There’s a lot of headroom the stock Carbide 3D feeds and speeds — since my preference is to do a finishing pass in a single operation I’d prefer not to sub-divide that.
Maybe increase stepover? That previews, so should allow for suitable adjustment and iteration as shown at:
It’s more of a “can it be done” question than anything. Doing an 11hr-ish pass got me wondering if there was a way.
I agree with the preference to do each pass as a single operation. I like to do it that way too.
The design is 12" wide x 15" long.
It will be carved into a 1.25" thick white ash live edge slab.
I used the default F&S for all 3 passes.
Stock to leave on the roughing pass is .0098".
The finishing pass stepover with the 1/8 ballnose is .006" and .008" with the 1/16 ballnose. I wont be able to do any finishing sanding so 10-13% stepover gives me a good final finish.
Typically I bump up the feedrate as I’m cutting esp on the roughing pass.
You can create more than one boundary for the finish paths and output them separately.
Overlap them just a small amount.
Another strategy is to isolate the areas that truly need the smaller tools and only cut those areas for the fine detail.
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I think you may be a bit too fine on the step-over and stock to leave.
If you are doing a very fine step-over on the finish pass, you can leave more stock in the roughing pass. Think about how little the finish pass is cutting at 0.006 step-over so if the cut is a little taller that should be fine. The rough can be sped up by not having to take such fine passes.
Also, your step-overs seem a lot smaller than 10-12%
1/8 inch is 0.125 inch 10% is 0.0125 inch (0.006 is about 4.8%)
1/16 inch is 0.0625 inch 10% is 0.00625 inch (closer to your value)
Do you need to do the 1/8 ball nose pass? Or do it at such a fine step-over?
I just have been exploring 3D carves lately, but others may have more experience.
John
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Yes, it can be done, just sub-divide the geometry — the problem then becomes what is known in Fine Art as giornata, “the work of the day”, where there is a clear dividing line between where one day’s work ends and the next begins…
It is best-practice to complete an entire region’s 3D Finishing for a given tool in a given direction in a single operation.
That material size and feeds and speeds and appropriate stepovers settings should result in cycle times far shorter than the timeframes stated — if one adjusts the feeds and speeds, see:
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Good advice all… I’m doing the manual pencil layout on the material and it looks like I’ll be resizing the image to a slightly smaller scale than originally planned to get the correct fit.
@Stankus thanks for the math lesson 
My 1/8 stepover was way off and the updated value has dropped that time in half.
I’ve always been a CC default conservative F&S user but a revisit to the link from Will is likely a good idea as well
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As an aside to this convo…I’m hoping to get the design wrapped up today since we are hooking up the 5th wheel on Friday and heading out for a week of camping, relaxation and visiting old friends. There might even be a few beverages consumed along the way. 
I’ll get to carving it when I get back and post the result
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Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone.
I worked the design in CC and by making a few project size and F&S adjustments now have the times down significantly.
Roughing is at 42 minutes, 1st finishing pass is 251 minutes and the 2nd finishing pass is 560 minutes. When I get back next week I may try @Tod1d suggestion and isolate areas for the 2nd finishing pass, look for impacts to the quality of the carve and see how much more that brings the time down.
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