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.
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.
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 )
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.
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.
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)
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)
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.
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
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.