A Daah Moment!

[chiloquinruss]

OK, so a lot of what I do on Da Bot is parallel lines cut with a 90. On the scale buildings I build this simulates many kinds of sidings. In the past and right up to my Daah moment this made the Bot cut a line from left to right, then return in the air back to the left and then cut the next line from left to right, Well I always knew the toolpath would be created in the order the part was drawn, it just never occured to me that it would also be created in the DIRECTION it was created. Daah! So I created another part and this time I alternated the drawing of the lines, left to right, right to left, and so on. Wah Lah, the Bot went back and forth this time doing meaningful work, not just air time! :) So there you have it Bot Fans, my Daah Moment for today! :) Russ

[myxpykalix]

Not that i had paid close attention to that but i have seen in the past where in cutting vcarved letters it might cut one letter from the top line drop down and cut a letter from another line and i figured it was optimizing the cutting path and i would have thought when cutting something as simple as lines it would optimize its cutting path by doing like you now describe it does however in thinking about it, it is mixing cutting strategies by cutting one line conventional then the next climb. Do you notice a difference in the cut from line to line?

[chiloquinruss]

My test was done using the same 90 vcarve bit and a very shallow .05 pass. With a 90 bit there is virtually no deflection. Tomorrow I have another project that has similar design characteristics except that it uses a 1/8th end mill so that should show if coming and going changes any of the cutting. I'll post the results here tomorrow either way. Anyhow between Aspire, the Bot and my doing wood work, the Daah moments are always alot of fun! :) Russ

[garyb]

Russ just to add to your Daah moment, you can also change the start point on the lines alternating each one and depending on your software select the cut order, line by line, left to right, top to bottom etc

food for thought:)

[dlcw]

Jack,

I've noticed the same thing with vcarving text. A couple of the firefighter plaques I've done had lots of text spread out all over. Aspire somehow calculates the toolpath and it makes no sense whatsoever. It will cut a couple of letters toward the top, then jump to the bottom, then in the middle. Just all over the place. I can't figure out the algorithm it is using to come up with the seemingly random pattern. I know it takes a long time to vcarve a lot of text because of the excessive air time jumping all over the place.

[chiloquinruss]

I used 1/8th end mill on 1/2 inch HD ply, and some 3/4 and also a sign piece of 2x12 pine. I could see no difference in the cutting by making the toolpath cut from left to right and then back from right to left. I've also have noticed the seemingly randomness of doing vcarving text so I can't figure that one out either! :)Russ