Doing 3D designs in Carbide Create

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

This is in response to @stra04 's post at:

CC Pro - What do you want to make in 3D?

Before seeing this forum this morning, I emailed the support team asking for help understanding a few features within the Modeling Tab pertaining to importing and working with STL files (I will post the email with pics below). Although I am a fairly accomplished woodworker, I am considered to be an extreme novice in CNC. I have always realized the value of using them for my projects, but I never had the money or the time to purchase one before. Finally, I purchased my first machine, a Shapeoko X…

I wrote up a bit on this at:

3D Modeling from 2D Geometry | Design into 3D

The difficulty here is that one needs the underlying 2D geometry, and it needs to usually represent a region in multiple ways — here are the basics of this:

https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/2d-drawing

and also see:

Figure ground reversal

This came in from support difficulty in getting a purchased image: [image] to cut as desired. We will review the specifics here.

and:

3D model/render/2D drawing/V carving (was Importing Jpeg Model for Vcarve)

The big thing to understand here is that there are a couple of different ways for a design to be represented, and each may be machined in a different fashion, or used in a different way. To begin, the original pixel image: https://community.carbide3d.com/uploads/default/original/3X/7/4/749d74faf400923a5cf931ee2d4f55aaf50b93ea.jpeg is a pixel image rendering of a bas-relief 3D design which is available commercially: https://www.etsy.com/listing/662739335/3d-stl-models-for-cnc-router-dove und…

I see in your recent e-mail to support that you have an STL — that of course greatly simplifies things, see:

https://my.carbide3d.com/gswccpro/07/

and also see

Instructions on How To 3D Carve using CC V7 Pro

First, configure the stock: [image] Draw in the geometry for the bowl and place as desired: [image] Inset by the desired width of the rim of the bowl: [image] [image] Offset to the outside of the bowl by endmill diameter plus 10%: [image] [image] Draw in geometry to define the stock (since we’ll be working subtractively): [image] Go to the 3D model tab and model the stock: [image] Select the geometry for the inner curve of the bowl and model it: [image] [image] Then im…

and

Creating a project from an STL file

as requested on support… Given an STL file: [image] which one wants to cut out as: [image] one first loads it into Carbide Create Pro: [image] which previews in 3D as expected: [image] When an STL is imported, the perimeter will be traced: [image] Assuming one wants to cut around the 3D object, one offsets from this by endmill diameter plus 10% or so: [image] [image] It is then possible to assign a 3D roughing toolpath using this offset geometry: [image] [image] Then a 3…

We should be able to work through this with you on support.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Given the STL file:

after repairing it:

we can then get the dimensions:

and import it into Carbide Create:

which shows us the 3D model thus made:

To cut the file out select the auto-traced geometry:

and offset to the outside by the endmill diameter plus 10%:

and then apply 3D Roughing and 3D Finishing toolpaths:

Going down to the smallest tool sold by Carbide 3D and increasing the stepover we arrive at:

[stra04 (Sean Gorham)]

Thank you. I think I understand. I have been reading the articles you recommended and am gaining a better grasp of things. The problem is that I mostly only have weekends to reply or study up on the art of CNC. However, from reading through this reply, I do see a few things I did wrong. I will try to adjust and see if I can’t replicate your results working with the file. Thank you so much for the incite.