Hi, Is there a way to Vcarve lines onto a Round 3D (not flat or angle)?
For example, in the library use the Fish>koi_fish_1 drawing.
If you import them in 3D as a ‘Flat’, then you can Vcarve (in a separate toolpath) all the lines on the fins.
If you import them as a round, the fins are no longer flat, or level but rounded… so the depth can not really be calculated to make the same Vcarves into the fins.
What I have tried:
Close all the pink fin lines by making them a closed vector, so they are now black lines (or pockets) … basically I made long ovals in place of the pink lines. Now create a round from the image and not a flat. This seems like it would work but only if the fish are carved much bigger, I am making less than 1" sizes. Its possible that could still work but I cant see any of these lines at all in the preview… so I think they are just too small…My smallest bit size is a 0.5mm ball for the finish pass, and still the fin lines (or now oval pockets) are not visible in preview.
I can see where using a Vcarve for lines in a design would come in handy on a rounded 3D, but cant figure out how to do it. I also tried taking them into photoshop and then take that image and create an STL file for import (using a free online web page to make it). Still no real luck. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Hopefully I explained it good enough…
thanks
draw in additional geometry so as to be able to close them
subtract them from the 3D model so that they are included in the toolpaths — you may want to save a duplicate of the file and do this as a later step
If you’ll post your file we can walk through this with you — easiest way to do it is to cheat the design by having a flat rectangle to enable/disable as the first element.
Thanks, I think I already did the first 3 steps you mention, but I do not understand what you mean by
“easiest way to do it is to cheat the design by having a flat rectangle to enable/disable as the first element.” … you can see in the lower fish where I created the fin lines (or oval pockets)
I think I see where I was going wrong, I was trying to do it all in one step… subtracting the fins in a later step is having some results now…(the preview is horrible for smaller sizes but you can the the fins now) and I believe they will carve correctly (depth wise) into the rounded first step (onto the fin and eye). THANKS!
Ahh… OK. The red painting being talked about was throwing me off.
What I am doing is carving into sterling silver… I usually test first on wood or copper, but silver (fine, sterling, or Argentium is the final step… thanks again. I am pretty sure making the extra step (carving out, subtract, on top of a previous rounded carve) will work for me.
There shouldn’t be an extra step if you’re not finishing in-between.
Also, the red in your model indicates you are modeling higher than the stock thickness — either increase that, or decrease the model.
If you’re working in metal you may want to consider using a 3D CAD program such as Alibre Atom 3D, then doing the CAM with MeshCAM — it will afford a lot more options and may facilitate better results.
My main goal in all this is to have a Vcarve line follow the depth curves of a rounded image. Creating the pocket instead of a line works, (just make the pocket really thin…keep the lines very close together, just enough to make a pocket)
By extra step, I am talking about another component. So I am subtracting the fin lines (ovals I made) from the original rounded image. If I try to do it in one step by just creating the round 3D (while having the oval fin lines I made selected with the entire fish) I do not see any of those fin lines in the preview. I think thats because I am working with a small image. But, if I just select the fish to create the round, then later create the new component to subtract the fin lines (ovals I made) they are now visible in preview. Yes, I am aware of the red and going over size, I just snapped that pic to show the fin lines as another component worked. Thanks again!
