Hey gang, total newbie here - first post. I’ve yet to get a CNC machine, but I’m hoping to get a side hustle going here soon. As such, I’m working in Carbide Create at present and I have an SVG file of a Celtic knot.
I know you can’t join the end of a vector with the middle of another, but that just begs the question - what’s the best way to close these open vectors? I’m trying to avoid recreating the whole thing.
Perhaps slightly off topic, and possibly getting ahead of myself, does it make more sense for a design like this to use layers? I foresee it being a challenge to identify which areas to carve for something like this. Perhaps the solution to the first issue will render this one moot.
(Admin, please feel free to move this post if this subforum isn’t the correct location for it.)
The issue is that lines are drawn so that they are involved with more than one region. It will be necessary to duplicate such elements and edit them down so that a selection may be made which encloses a given area…
A side question for Will: for this Celtic knot there are only three unique elements arranged in a circular array. Would it be possible to model these three elements in Pro maintaining the correct 3D height profile for each element and then combine them in a circular array for carving? This might make a great demo. Thanks.
@WillAdams Thanks so much for the thorough explanation - and for an updated source file. It was really helpful. I was able to use that file and your instructions to figure out how to get this looking like I wanted it to.
I ended up creating a new layer for the negative space in the design and created the shapes for that. I simulated a pocket cut for those shapes. Then created a contour cut for the positive space/default design (no offset). Finally, I made a third layer for the perimeter (contour; bottom of stock) to cut the design out.
At this point it’d just be a bit of tweaking to get everything just exactly perfect, but the whole exercise was really helpful as I’m starting to get the hang of 2D editing in Carbide Create. It took me a bit to understand how to edit nodes, and there are still some UX things I don’t love/need to figure out, but by and large I consider this a success given I just downloaded the software for the first time earlier this week.
The immediate thing that came to mind is that it would be helpful when editing nodes if you could select a 2+ nodes and either have a command to return them to their original position (e.g., manipulating a curve/arc), and/or to have them align in a straight line. I saw there is potentially a keyboard nudge command coming, and that would be awesome. But sometimes a line looks straight when really it isn’t.
Another thing, it’d be nice to have the ability to copy elements to a new layer, not just move them.
Those are “Week 1” UI/UX elements from me. Maybe there’s a way to do these things already?
¯_(ツ)_/¯
