Help designing cutout letters

[hinddee29 (Shane Hines)]

Hello,

I thought this would be fairly simple, but I can’t seem to get it to work like I want. Could someone help me figure out the tool paths please?

I’m trying to completely cut out the rectangle and circle, but want to leave the H and C the material height but want to cut down .25 in between the space of the H and center of the C. I need to leave some material of the letters so they can be screwed to something. The material depth is .4850.

I tired to do a rough path, but it wants to do the letters also. I tried doing a contour but then there is still material left. Hope this makes sense? Thanks
H&C.c2d (52 KB)

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

When I open your file I get:

If I understand correctly, you want to add an 0.25" deep pocket toolpath between the uprights of the H and for the counter (enclosed area) of the C — if that was all that was needed, in order to do this, you will need to create geometry which describes those regions. This is most easily done by drawing geometry which intersects so as to fill in the requisite spaces, duplicating the geometry of the letters, and using node editing or trim vectors to arrive at a set of lines and curves which may then be closed using Join Vectors to describe the regions in question.

However, if the letters are to be cut out, then a far more expedient thing would be to add offset geometry for the geometry with the tabs:

Offsetting to the outside by tool diameter plus 10% or so.

Apply

Then, select the letters and the offset geometry and create a pocket to the desired depth:

Ok

Then select the added geometry and the offset:

and assign a pocket to Stock Thickness less tab height starting at the bottom of the previous pocket:

Then the geometry which describes the surrounding space may be selected and an Outside Contour toolpath finishing the cut be applied:

which all previews as:

Probably the tab width should be adjusted:

Attached as a v8 (currently beta) file:

H&C_v8.c2d (92 KB)

[hinddee29 (Shane Hines)]

Ok. That makes sense. Thank you very much.