Having trouble with a 3D model

[MogulTx]

Guys:

I am having heck with a 3D model that I want to cut. I have a free form shape that I am importing as an STL into Aspire 4.5. Because of the thickness of the model, I am having to slice it to be able to cut two different segments to achieve my shape. When I slice it, it increases the thickness of the model and I don't know why... And I am not sure how to handle that. How many of you work with STL's and are you familiar with this problem? I have to admit, I do almost exclusively 2D stuff, so this has me a bit stumped...

Thanks,

Monty

[MogulTx]

Oh... material is 3" thick foam. The model is approximately 4.8" thick. When I slice it, it appears to increase to over 7".... I can create a path to machine the 1st layer, but ... not Layer 2 and it exceeds the material thickness... gives me the pop up warning about material thickness.

[Studio-N]

When you have your original model (let's say 0.12"), and you slice it into two slices. It creates a total of 3 components which it adds together (0.12 + 0.06 +0.06) for 0.24".
Turn off the original layer and select all components. Check the height using the Scale Z height of model it will now be 0.12 as expected. Turn off one of the slice layers and check
the z height again - it will be 0.06. So bottom line, turn off the unwanted layers before creating the tool path. Took me a while to figure this out as well.
Cheers!

[MogulTx]

DOH! Excellent! Thanks so much! I will go take a look at that!!!

Much appreciated. I hadn't thought of it!