Trouble Modeling Round Shapes in Carbide Create Pro 530

Software Carbide Create
1

Hi All,

I seem to be having issues modeling round shapes either as what I’d think of as grooves or speed bumps. I’m having the same issue whether I’m adding or substracting material.

The problem comes in at the edge of material, seemingly only at the top edge of the piece as it sits in the design window. The top end of the shape will taper up (or down) to the surface of the material while the bottom is cut off flat. I know I’m not describing it well, so maybe some pictures will help. (Well… A picture… new users can only upload one media piece on a post)

My test design has 3 rectangles to show 3 different examples… the left rectangle is full length of the material, the middle one is inside the material and the right one is extended an inch over each end of the material.

There’s a square encompassing the entire workpiece that I modeled as a flat surface to create the 3d block.

When I model the 3 rectangles as round shapes, this is what I get:

carbide_create_pro_model_1
carbide_create_pro_model_12736×1824 704 KB

You’ll notice that the top end of the left and right grooves don’t go all the way through the edge of the material, they’re tapered off and end at that edge. I suppose that’s not super surprising, but what’s odd is the bottom end of the grooves go all the way through the edge of the material. This is actually what I started out trying to achieve… I was trying to make grooves in the sides of a cigar ash tray.

If I do the same exercise except with the add merge type I get the same results.

Oddly, if I do the grooves horizontally on the work piece they go all the way through the edge of the material like what happens with the bottom edge in the vertical orientation. It just seems like the top edge is acting differently… I’m not sure if that’s right or wrong behavior, just different.

I have found that I can artificially extend the material work piece dimensions vertically to overcome the taper, the tool path just cuts air and I’ve essentially just tricked the job into doing what I want it to do.

I’m sure I’m missing something or not doing something correctly, but I’ve not been able to find what it is… any (relevant) ideas what I’m doing wrong? (I’m fine with sarcastic ideas, too of course)

c2d file attached as well.

Sorry for the length of post and thanks for any help!
cc_3d_model_test_1.c2d (210.9 KB)

2

3D models and their geometry need to be inset from the stock area, or project unambiguously and clearly past it.

3

Will is the expert, but he’s described what I’ve found.

The Round 3D type fits a rounded surface to every line segment of the original 2d surface.

You can ‘trick’ the 3D model function to produce different behaviors. Extending off the stock is one. Another is overlaying one 3D shape on another to add or subtract.

I’ve used this technique to create a rounded guitar neck with abrupt transitions from rounded to flat at the head- and body-joints. You could use it to create fluted shapes with no curved shapes on the ends of the flutes.

There is a lot of trial and error needed albeit just in CC. Would be really nice if CC allowed editing all the variables of ‘Done’d 3d components, not just e.g Base offset.

-Mark

4

For an example of extending geometry past the model please see:

5

Thanks Will and Mark,

And that makes sense on the geometry needing to be extended beyond margins to get the desired shape result.

I guess it’s the inconsistency that’s hung me up. It’s only on that top margin that the model appears to be working as would be expected. Running the shape just to the margin on any of the other margin (bottom, left or right) ends up with no taper. If that makes sense…

Thanks!

1 Like
6

It makes sense when you think in terms of the underlying grid used for the 3D model — if it doesn’t line up exactly with the stock area, odd things happen, so always extend unambiguously past the margins.

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