Can I whine a little? I have had a shapeoko for over a year, but have used it very little, simply because I mess up and am not finding it enjoyable anymore. Mostly because I find it so difficult to find the right fonts that will work properly. I love the V-bits, but a font like Lucida Calligraphy at 1.5 inches height still won’t do, even for the 60 degree bit that I have. The suggestion has been made to download single line fonts, but even the single line fonts show up in outline form. I am so frustrated.
I would be glad if someone could connect with me on my computer and walk me through a couple of projects so I can learn this to the point where it becomes enjoyable. This was supposed to be my retirement hobby!
In what way does Lucida Calligraphy (or any other font) not cut well with a V-carving toolpath?
Well, maybe I am wrong and just too chicken to commit,
Here is my design. I had AI draw me a vector image for the athlete. How would you advise me to engrave that? Does it need cleaning up? Can I just contour with a Vee bit?
And btw, that isn’t Lucida Calligraphy.
And I think I need to enlarge the athlete.
Relative size of elements is a classic graphic design consideration — for that I’d suggest a book such as:
For the text, Brush Script should carve as well as any font, though you’ll need to convert to paths and join together as discussed in:
https://carbide3d.com/blog/merging-script-fonts-in-carbide-create/
(though I’d suggest using Trim Vectors rather than a Boolean operation).
If the V-carving toolpath preview is not as you wish, please upload the file and a screengrab of it and explain in what way it does not suit.
Yes you can. I do contour cuts using a 60° Vbit when I’m cutting small letters and designs on coasters. The result is more like a pencil line than a flat endmill cut.
For folks who are curious, Lucida Calligraphy is available in a wide variety of weights:
which work well in Carbide Create:
and which when a V-carve toolpath is applied:
Yields a preview as expected:
Practice, Practice, Practice.
Lots of Youtube videos.
Start with Easy projects and work you way up.
Here are some Easy files for you to practice on.
Level 1 Project:
heart bear rattle.c2d (60 KB)
Heart_Tray.c2d (216 KB)
Level 2 Project:
ELK NAME AND EST.c2d (1.0 MB)
Heart tray with Text at bottom of pocket.c2d (308 KB)
America Shaped Flag.c2d (360 KB)
Level 3 Project:
wavy flag base 1-1.c2d (4.0 MB)
3d Flag.c2d (3.3 MB)
Bear with moon.c2d (2.9 MB)
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If you post the SVG for this file, I am happy to help walk you through designing it.
So run.c2d (424 KB)
Here it is.
Thank you very much!
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I had to make a few changes. I used an Advanced V carve and applied it to your original ART. The issue is you have some “holes” in the vector graphic. By holes, I mean you have an outlined Vector that you want to use, but in some parts of the Vector the V-Carve is going to go “too deep”. See highlights below:
So solve that, I measured the distance between the inner art and the outter outline.
I got .0575 as the distance. I then selected the Running Man Vector and did an inside offset.
This inside offset Vector will “fill in” the Holes in the Art. See the Black vectors inside the Running Man vector.
Then I grouped the Original Vector with the New Offset Vector and updated the Toolpath to include the new Vectors. I didn’t have your Font in my library so I had to redo the text. I included just the New Running Man SVG so you can input that into your original File. Also for the toolpath I used .125" for the DOC.
So Run with SDguy edits.c2d (380 KB)
6 Likes
@SDGuy WOW! you just taught me something I did not know, and I still do not understand!
I totally understand why these vectors needed to be in the running man image. What I do not understand is how the inside offset worked… I downloaded the original running man, grouped all vectors and then created the .0575 inside offset. It turned out exactly as yours only placing the inside vectors where needed. That is not what I expected it to do and that is where my confusion set in. What I expected to see was EVERY vector being offset inward by 0.0575 not just the regions in the hair, shorts and shoes.
Could you by chance explain why the inside offset function did not offset EVERY vector and why it chose to only offset those particular areas?
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It worked that way because of how the vectors are selected.
If you only select the outermost vector and do an offset vector it will behave how you expected, but since both the outter and inner vectors are selected the software treat it like one vector and therefore fills in the area.
I may not be explaining that correctly, maybe someone with a higher pay grade can jump in and elaborate. @WillAdams
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The file has a Contour toolpath associated with the graphic:
which previews as:
As noted, a V-carving with a depth limit should work well:
but cuts rather deeply:
so insetting a bit:
affords one a bit of control over how things cut:
and one can adjust the inset for a reasonable representation:
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Hi Werner,
I’ve been through it all. Hit me up at andy@gcrafter.com. I know it’s frustrating. So was learning algebra and geometry. It’s a little bit of math and science. I’ve built amazing things with my v5. I’ve also had some horrible failures.