Good auto level workflow?

My spoilboard is leveled, and the router is trammed. But it’s still not good enough if my carves are going over a few cm’s. Enter auto level, but I’m not getting great results with my current workflow:

  1. create art in inkscape
  2. import SVG into carbideCreate
  3. define vcarve paths
  4. Save gcode
  5. In the nc file, remove the line after “Move to safe Z to avoid workholding” because for whatever reason, it crashes the bit into the work piece if I don’t when using bCNC
  6. open gcode in bCNC
  7. run auto level
  8. apply it
  9. Run it.

My text looks like garbage. If do the same steps as above, and don’t run autolevel, it looks fine, except of course the variance in the work piece’s height causes it’s own issues.

I’ve tried to avoid carbideCreate altogether, but bCNC makes a mess of importing SVG’s. Half of the artwork usually ends up missing. How are people getting good results with auto leveling? Different software? Different flow?

Could you post a .c2d file which you’ve had difficulty with and notes on how you secured your stock (and what it was) and how you set zero relative to it, and manage all tool changes and a photo of how it cut?

Most auto level software touches on the surface in only a few places. Then the gcode is altered to give an average of the differences. Not sure how many places your bCNC samples but auto level is usually not very effective unless they are taking a lot of samples.

You might try just surfacing your work with a 1" bit first to ensure a level surface.

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was the spoilboard flattened after you trammed the router? how did you tram it? it doesn’t matter if anything is actually level, what matteres is if the spoilboard and the cnc are parallel on both x and y axis.

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