Grouping toolpaths?

[jfhammond@kwic.com]

I am new to this program and have written and placed an arched set of letters. I now want to write a v-carved toolpath for these letters. They are Times NewRoman and are ok for this purpose. I've tried to group the letters and write a toolpath but the only way it will work is if I follow the outline of the letter or inside etc.
I have also tried to write for each letter seperately. If I do that will it save as one file?
Any suggestions would be welcome.

Jim Hammond

[jcrumley1@cox.net]

V Carve letters in Times Roman are very attractive especially if a program such as Art Cam or Casmate is used.

I don't understand exactly what you mean by writing a program or grouping letters.

When I send a file out to the router, it is ready to go. No grouping is necessary. Perhaps you could let us know more about the process you are going through.

Joe

[jfhammond@kwic.com]

Ok,
I write a word with TimesNewRoman and and then I re-arrange the letters to fit on the inside of an imported rope circle. This logo now needs a toolpath...so, I hold the shift key down to select all the letters (that are now re-oriented on my screen) and then choose the v-carve icon. The next menu comes up and I choose a 60' v-bit and ask the program to find "centre-line" for the 'chosen' letters.

The program responds by saying only a few fonts can be used to v-carve etc....bla lbla,,, upgrade..bla...bla.

1)Now, this would seem to indicate that the letters cannot be manipulated and grouped after the manipulation and then ....v-carved as one word. .......Any thoughts?

2)I would like to know if I should write the toolpath for the word right away before moving each letter or .....?


3)The "rope" circle that I imported into the drawing would have to be selected and toolpathed after the words were v-carved wouldnn't they?

This brings me to a version of my original question.
4) When I do all these toolpaths, will they be grouped as one set of toolpaths on one file?


Thanks for the help. Jim innerbayboats

[bill.young]

Hi Jim,

I'm no Part Wizard whiz but I think that it only allows you a limited number of changes to V-carvable text and then it stops recognizing it as v-carvable... my guess is that you exceeded that limit.

I don't know what that limit is, but I did the word "Willis" in Times New Roman, ungrouped it, moved and rotated each letter a couple of times, and then grouped it back together. At least 20 changes in all. It did the centreline trace and created the toolpath fine, so you get at least that many.

Hopefully one of the more Part Wizard savvy ShopBotters will have a more definitive answer. (Now if I can only get this image thing to work!)



4579


Bill

[jfhammond@kwic.com]

Bill,

I can get a center-line for each letter if I select each letter seperately. The only thing is...do I write a toolpath for each letter and then save it to disk and will it recognize the whole mess as one toolpath or as many toolpaths in a group or many seperate toolpaths?

Selecting each while holding the shift key down enables me to group the letters but, that is when I get the message about only choosing the proper fonts for the job.

Keep it comming.

Jim

[bill.young]

Hi Jim,

With the sample that I did I just selected the individual letters after moving them around, clicked the "group" icon, and then did the centerline trace stuff...it created it as one tool path. How many letters are in your sign?

If you need to you can create a toolpath for each letter (with a unique name) and then combine them when you save the toolpath. When you get to the "save toolpath" dialog screen, drag the individual letter toolpaths from the frame on the left ("calculated toopaths") to the frame on the right ("toolpaths to save to a single file"), in the order you want to cut them.

It will save them as one toolpath, but the tool will go back to your "home position" between letters. If it's a one-time sign it's probably not worth messing with, but if you're doing a bunch of the same sign you might want to edit the extra movements out.

Hope this helps,
Bill

[jfhammond@kwic.com]

Sounds good!

I'll try this procedure Bill. I think the toolpathing window is the answer to most of my problems.

I'll let you know.

Jim