Texturing Toolpath

[gsmith]

Hello,

I am working on making a sign for my work in Aspire. I have a 4'x8' ShopBot Alpha. The sign is going to be 4'x10', so I am having to tile the project, with 2-4'x5'. I am getting some stray marks in my ShopBot Preview but not in my Apsire Preview. If you look in the pictures, around the leaf and the word Geneseo, there are a number of stray marks. Is there a glitch in the software?

I am wondering if anyone has had this problem.

I recently made a sign 13"x48"x1 1/4" with a 30 degree angle and had no problems.

The bit being used is a .50" Ball Nose Bit.

The project will be cut using 15 lb, 1 1/2" Sign Foam, 5'x10'.

Thank you,

Greg

[bob_s]

I am guessing that this is the "aspire getting lost" problem. it offen happens at the edge of a 3d shape and "no shape" areas. The way this is normally solved is to put in a zero plane for the entire shape. That prevents Aspire from looking for some unknown depth. I would use your outer shape, offset it .25 larger and in the modeling tab use that vector with the bottom shape type of the 3 listed and a height of 0. Set the zero shape combine mode to merge, and your other shape to get the recess. This seems to prevent Aspire from getting lost. A lot of people use slightly different variations of this technique.

this is a probably much clearer explanation on the Vectric board:
http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=6474

[srwtlc]

Greg,

It might help to see the outline that you're using in case there are some problems with the vectors. Are you actually creating a model from some vectors or are you just applying a texture toolpath to an area?

If you are doing the later, try placing a "Boundry Vector Offset" around the selected design by the radius of your bit. That will keep it from crashing into the walls of the design. That setting is right in the texturing toolpath dialog.

Take a look at the 2D & 2.5D machining tutorial video on texturing.

Scott

[gsmith]

I found the reason why the stray toolpath. The safe Z travel was too low. I adjusted it and it fixed the problem. We finished cutting out the practice and I think has turned out alright.