Hi! I’m helping a friend with his new Shapeoko 5 Pro. He’s in his 70’s and I’m jealous of his new toy, lol!
Since I have a Shapeoko 3 XL and love it, he’s asked me to help him learn the ropes of Carbide Create and Carbide Motion and get familiar with CNC stuff in general. It’s fun and I know he’s excited to learn.
Anyway, today I was showing him some things and he asked about doing text and V-bits so I guided him on how to do a basic v-carve with a word. We selected our text, selected the v-carving toolpath and selected the 60-degree v-bit. For some reason Carbide Create kept showing “empty toolpath”. I changed the font, thinking maybe the 60-degree bit was too big for the text but changing to heavier font didn’t work. So I changed it to a super fat and very big font and still no toolpath. I do these all the time at home on my machine so I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out why it kept giving me an empty toolpath.
Any thoughts?? I’m pretty sure he’s running the most recent software since he just set up his machine 2 weeks ago. In fact, when I click around on his machine, I think he’s running a newer version of Carbide Create than I am. I just can’t figure out if there’s something I’m missing or forgetting for some reason. Any help is appreciated!
Not sure if this is whats going with your situation but on my computer (MacBook) it always shows “Empty Tool Path” until I hover over those words or click “Show Simulation”
If he is using CC v8 they have eliminated simple vcarve and replaced it with advanced vcarve. I seldom do simple vcarves so you can uncheck use end mill to do pocketing but not sure about functionality of just vcarving. So in the past with a simple vcarve you needed to use bottom of material to get a good carve. If you limited the depth of a simple vcarve the results were odd. Depending on the width of the fonts a 60 and/or 90 may barely scratch the surface of the wood. I typically use 15/20 degree vee bits for vcarves. Not sure if in v8 with out an end mill if you get a simple vcarve like in v7 and below or still get an advance vcarve without an end mill. The reason you select bottom of material for a simple vcarve is the bit goes down the center of the line until the vee bit touches both sides of the line. So for thin lines you barely get the surface scratched with 60/90 and that is why I use a 15/20 degree vee bit with fine lines. If the characters are bigger than a 60 degree would work but it will go down as far as necessary to touch both sides of the character in a simple vcarve in v7 and below. On really thin material the vee bit can go all the way through the bottom. Usually an empty tool path means that what you are requesting is not possible with the tool selected. Try an advanced vcarve with a small flat end mill. If areas are too small for the end mill the vee bit will be used to carve out an area not wide enough for the end mill .
Can someone tell me if in CC v8 is a simple vcarve possible or is it always an advanced vcarve going around the perimeter of the characters or does it go down the center as in previous simple vcarve versions.
In CC v8 I put some .5" font up and tried a vcarve tool path with a #302 and a 15 degree vee bit and it was empty. However I deleted that and tried a contour with no offset at .1" and a #302 vee bit and it worked.
It’s weird. I did notice with other toolpaths we were doing, we’d set the toolpath parameters and say “okay” but the cutting duration wasn’t changing. But then we clicked within the toolpath list area and “boop” the cut duration updated. That’s weird because on my machine (and I’m using a 2015 MacBook Pro) that updates almost instantly unless it’s a complex toolpath, and even that only takes a few seconds at most. But with this issue we tried clicking away, going back to the design, quitting/restarting…nothing! Can’t figure it out.
Yeah, I noticed the V-Carve and Advanced V-Carve settings were in the same window now and I set it up to do a basic V-carve. And yeah, I undestand the depth stuff about the V-bit and the edge lines of the font I was explaining that to my friend today in fact. I sat there scratching my head today and tried several adjustments but could not get a toolpath generated or a simulation.
There’s now just V-carve (previously Advanced V-carve). If you load an existing file that has a basic V-carve toolpath from V7, it will be converted to the new V-carve without a pocketing toolpath.
If geometry is sufficiently narrow that it would match that cut by the original V carving then the result should be the same.
I have both the 7 and 8 versions.
What I’ve noticed is that if the toolpath settings see an open vector I’ll get that alert.
Don’t know if it’s the same issue. I would think fonts in V-carve would all be closed.
Whether or no a font is closed is governed by how well it was created — type creation tools will report an unclosed curve as an error, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was corrected, and to some degree, type rasterizers will work with fonts which are not technically correct rather than failing.
i was at my friend’s house today and we were going to try to figure out this v-carving toolpath issue.
I opened Carbide Create and hoped it would “just work” this time. It did not and was still not creating a toolpath even though the font was fine and we had the 60-degree V bit selected…everything was just like when I do it at home.
So I said, let’s just delete that toolpath and make a new one. BINGO. Deleting the first v-carve toolpath and simply making a new one (using the same text vector, same font, same size, same tool selected, same settings, same everything) and amazingly, it worked. So we cut it and played with that a little while.
Then we wanted to run some tests for another project he wants to do, so we created a new project and typed in some text to do a new v-carving toolpath. Same problem. Ugghh. So I was about to try deleting the toolpath and making a new one when I caught something…as the cursor hovered past the v-carving toolpath I caught a glimpse that said: “Tool: #102 1/8” Default" and i was like “wait, what?” I hovered over it again and yeah, it was showing as if I had selected the 1/8" end mill, which I 100% did NOT. I double/triple checked and the 60-degree V bit is indeed what is selected when I go into edit the toolpath, BUT when I hover over the toolpath it still says “Tool: #102 1/8” Default" and the toolpath itself still says “epmty toolpath”. Sooooo, I delete it again, create a whole new V-carving toolpath and again it works.
SO. It seems like there are 2 problems. First problem is that the hover-over is not showing the tool that has actually been selected.
Second problem is that I’m needing to delete the v-carve toolpath and then make a new one in order for it to work. What the heck.
More update. I just opened Carbide Create here at home and made a text vector and set up a v-carve for it. My settings worked on the first try however, the hover-over still says “Tool: #102 1/8” Default", but mine does show a toolpath. So I think that’s a glitch that should be looked into.
I did NOT have this hover-over issue before I posted this topic, and I was running Build 778. The day I posted this topic I updated to Build 815 at home, and my friend has Build 813 on his.
Update to build 815 — if you still have the difficulty in that, upload the file here, or send it in to support@carbide3d.com and we will look into it with you.
well, I am on Build 815 and I’m still getting the incorrect end mill showing when I hover over the toolpath, so I think that still needs to be resolved.
I’ll update my friend’s system to 815 next week when I’m there.
I was explaining that to my friend today in fact. I sat there scratching my head today and tried several adjustments but could not get a toolpath generated or a simulation.