Meshcam .egc wont open

I understand that now. I was just saying that it seems that I got the Nomad offer of Meshcam rather than the Shapeoko offer for Alibre. I attached the image to show, that i did in fact, have the Carbide 3D License of Meshcam, despite the fact that it was only intended for Nomads. When I have the opportunity to add a Nomad to my workshop, I will look forward to using it.

I promise, I am really not trying to be difficult or weasel my way into free stuff.

I am just trying to make the most of my machine with the resources that I have available to me. Up until I attempted to create a topographic design I was using a combination of Carbide Create(not pro) and InkScape. I had watched a video by Winston Moy who recommended using MeshCAM for carving topography. As I was under the impression that I had a working copy, I attempted it.

When I tried the design in Carbide Create (not pro) it created random holes in the topography that weren’t present in Meshcam. I will go through the steps you emailed me to setup Carbide Create Pro, and see if I can get the job done that way.

Thanks for all of your help so far.

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if you’re trying to carve landscape/heightmaps then CC gets you quite reasonable results

(I tend to create the gcode for landscapes with a custom tool I created (it’s on github)… but that’s not for the faint of heart)

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Did you see this particular video where Winston uses CC Pro for terrain carving?

My goto solution for this kind of things is to use @fenrus’s nitfy online tool that will generate a grayscale heightmap from any STL, and then import that in CC Pro (see this thread for example), done

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I did thank you.This is the method I ended up using.My issue with CC was that for some reason when I cropped the image down, one of the lakes turned into a complete void in the design. I was able to crop it at close enough and not get the void. Unfortunately, all of my free time was spent troubleshooting and tweaking. So, I have yet to be able to attempt the cut. By the time I get any free time during the week, my little one is in bed. Since the CNC is in the basement, my wife frowns on me firing it up after that.

I do have some STLs I woudn’t mind trying the Fenrus’ tool on. I found it on GitHub. It looks like something that will take a bit of time to get situated so I will hold off on those for now.

Thank you, I found your tool. I see what you mean by not for the faint of heart. I am interested in trying it out, I will just need to set aside some time to go over it all in depth.

I feel you. Replace “little one” with “neighbor” and “basement” with “garage” and that’s where I am.
Anyway, I just wanted to highlight that the reason I mentioned the online version of @fenrus’s tool is precisely because it’s a major shortcut to avoid having to understand and deploy the other goodness he put up on github: it literally takes a few seconds to upload an STL, save the generated heightmap, and import that in CC. I remember doing exactly that in this little project of mine, picking up an STL from thingiverse.

I wish @robgrz would integrate his (or similar) code in CC Pro as an “import STL” feature, it’s a killer feature in terms of productivity.

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I know I should turn the STL-to-gcode tool as a javascript app as well… it’s a bit more complicated than just writing out PNGs… (but not all THAT much… just needs time, and I am wrapping up a house move which hasn’t allowed me to have time to play lately… on the good side, the basement is a great space for my XL :slight_smile: )

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I just wanted to report that using Carbide Pro was mostly successful. I say mostly, because I had a couple of issues.

The first was that one of the lakes in the view appeared as a void in the carving. I was able to solve this by using paint and lightening up the grey in that area.

The second, is that the mountain top carves flat. I considered it was also a gradient problem. However it shows correctly in Carbide Create. My retract height is greater than my stock surface height.

Once I get this carving completed, I am totally gonna try Fenrus’s tool on one of the STLs I downloaded.

for landscapes I use the tool like this

./toolpath -t 201 -t 27 --cutout 0.5in foo.stl

tool 27 is my 1mm tapered ballnoe. the cutout sets the depth and creates a “cut out around the edge” toolpath

(I’ve also started the work to port the tool to javascript running in a web page, but this is going to be some non-trivial amount of work)

I need to order some bits. RIght now I am using my 201, .25" that came with the machine. I tried the 60 degree V bit, however, it failed to compensate for the width of the actual point. so when it was running the finish pass it consistently stepped up too soon and stepped down late, leaving the rough edges.

I totally understand the programming issue. I don’t know javascript, but I’ve done enough coding to know that simple is hardly ever a reality. No matter how simple the idea is.

this is how I’m learning javascript :wink:

also for 3D carving, a tapered ball nose bit (like https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B015C61XX4) are the way to go.
(unfortunately I managed to drive mine vertically deep into the bitsetter top and snap it, so Amazon will bring me a new one soon)

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I just ordered 2, they will be here on Thursday. That sucks.

I did something similar when I forgot to connect the lead for the probe. I had a #201 Flat tip in. So now I have a nice gouge in my shiny probe.

I made some progress on the javascript port of the tool:
https://fenrus75.github.io/FenrusCNCtools/stl2nc/stl2nc.html

it’s still early, and a few hours of coding to go before I’m going to actually cut some wood with it… but the basics work and the gcode looks ok for the functionality that is implemented.
(performance is… not great yet)

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Nice, In order to actually run your tool, I will need to convert my PNG to STL, correct?

When I ran my code through CC it didn’t recognize the taper on my V bit, so I think with the tapered ball nose, I am going to try your method out.

Carbide Create doesn’t support tooling with ball-tips and V angles at this time — you won’t be able to get a correct preview.

you would want an STL yes… but if it’s a geographical area, use https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/?DEM_name=USGS%2FNED and the like to just go from the satellite data straight to STL…

the PNG intermediate loses you resolution/detail to be honest. For many cases that does not matter, but I’ve managed to carve with so much detail that I could see my own house on a 5x5" cut.

http://www.thingiverse.com and etsy are also great sources for pre-made STL files…

for example, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3718965 comes out like

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to be fair, neither does my javacript tool currently…

but it should be a dozen or so lines of code, plus the GUI gunk for the user to specify it

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If your tool doesn’t compensate, then how are you able to get such detail with a tapered ball end? I switched to the flat end for a finish pass, because my V bit skipped entire sections of the cut when the software failed to recognize the difference. I had to choose between an unfinished carving and a carving that required a little extra sanding.

the software supports the ball geometry, but not the tapered part.

as long as you don’t have steep walls it doesn’t matter :wink:

I am wrapping up some other changes into the online version, and then will probably just add support for the tapered part; it’s not complicated or hard, just a tiny bit of trig math.
(I could also add V bit support but… not sure one would do 3D carving with that normally)

That would be cool. I can see that. I only used the V Bit because I only had it and the flat. I have been doing my best to not just buy all the bits that I see and stick to the ones I need as I go. The ball ends that you recommended will be here tomorrow.