Okay new to 514 I am setting up a cut in CC 514 went into advanced v carve and picked v bit 302.Noticed it also allows to pick area pocket tool 102. I did and preview looks great. My question is since i now have two bits to do the one cut i am assuming the first bit i put in will be 102. Once the 102 does its cut is the machine going to stop so i can do a tool change?
The first bit should be the 102 for the pocket cutting, Carbide Motion will prompt you after the pocket cutting is finished to swap the bits, and then proceed to cut the v-carve.
assuming you have a bitsetter and have everything set up well… then yes.
(if you don’t have a bitsetter, you can still use advanced vcarve but you need to split the gcode into two separate files using GcodeSplit - Split gcode files by toolpath and then cut both as you’d do any other multi-bit project)
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Is g code split new in 514 or do you just do it like in the old version make to different tool paths and save each one as a g code.
Stopping to change bits is new in cc514 then. Even if you do not have the bit setter?
I have the bit setter so I can’t really answer that for sure. I would guess whether you have it or not motion should stop and prompt you to swap bits anyway. Carbide create sets it as a single toolpath.
If you don’t have a BitSetter you need to either not use the pocket clearing option, use the utility @fenrus wrote, or manually modify the file so that there is geometry for separate toolpaths:
https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Carbide_Create_Basics#Clearing_area_around_drawing
and write out separate files:
it’s not a feature in 514; the advanced vcarve toolpath is 2 tools in 1 path so you can’t just do the normal “disable the rest and save” stuff… so I wrote a browser based tool to help you split the file
Thank you all for the help. Since I do not have the bet setter just my probe I will make it two different too paths and save them as separate g codes like I normally do when using multiple bits. Thanks everyone for the help.
Okay another question. I just ordered the bit setter so my question now is. With the bit setter if I have multiple tool paths is there a need to save multiple g codes or can I just save one g code and CM will stop for a tool change then once changed will,just use the bit setter to adjust the z height
this indeed is what the bitsetter is for. When used correctly (rule 1: always always use the GUI button in CM to change bits, never ever do that behind the softwares back) you can just make 1 gcode file, it’ll prompt for a new bit, and it will do all tool length stuff so that the zero stays true even after you change the bit…
it does this by measuring the relative difference in bit lengths and adjusting the Z zero based on that.
(this is why you need to use the GUI button if you change bits when not in the middle of a carve; the software can only do the adjustments correctly if it knows about all bit changes)
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What is GUI stand for?
GUI == Graphical User Interface
In the before days of BitSetter you had to save each tool in a separate toolpath by disabling all tool paths but one at a time and saving the gcode with unique names. With a BitSetter you create separate tool paths for each tool but you only have to save one gcode file and that file has all the tool paths inside it. During the cutting the Shapeoko will stop, bring the router to the front center and prompt you to change the tool. Then the tool is presented to the BitSetter and the new is set to the previously set Z Zero.
So with a BitSetter you do not need to disable any tool paths with different tools. You just save all your tool paths to one file. Now you need to arrange your tool paths in order of magnitude. That means that you dont want the first cut to be a cut out of a part with tabs. This would make the part too delicate to do other operations. Always start with the least invasive cutting and proceed with more and more invasive operations until the last tool path is to cut the part out with tabs.
Hope this makes sense to you, if not ask away.
Edit: Someone further up mentioned one drawback of the BitSetter and Advanced Vcarving. If you have a BitSetter you can use the pocketing end mill in advanced Vcarving. However if you do not have a BitSetter you cannot use Advanced Vcarving because the tool paths are combined and Carbide3d does not allow you to split them up. In this case
Has a web application that will split an Advanced Vcarving Bitsetter file into two files. I have not personally used the web based app but he says it works.
Thank you that clears up all my questions for now. What you provided is what I was thinking but just wanted to make sure. Thank you again and thanks to everyone else who helped.
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