will partworks 3d do...?

[wowhuh.mike]

will pw3d engrave a 3d line? I want to put a kreg style pocket in parts, but want to be able to just select line vectors quick and simple. Its an extra few thousand bucks for my visualMILL to be able to do that. ridiculous.

I'm sure some of you guys do this, heck I think i got the idea here a long time ago, anybody got any suggestions?

[tmerrill]

Hi Mike,

It would be hard in Partworks 3D but a breeze in Partworks/V-Carve Pro/Aspire using the Fluting tool. All you need to have is a single vector line for it to follow.

I assume you have one of them programs? If so, take a look in the Help Contents at the Fluting toolpath and ask if you have questions.

Tim

[srwtlc]

To go along with Tim's method, you can then save the toolpath as a template to quickly and easily load next time to apply to a new layout

[shoeshine]

wow, cool trick with the fluting toolpath (never would have thought to use it that way).

I learn something new everyday from this forum.

[knight_toolworks]

if you are using a smaller bit then it is easy to do with a pocket and a 3d tab at the start of it. say you want a 3/8" wide slot so make a pocket that wide and I think 1" long (been awhile) with a tab at the start fo the cut on each side of the pocket. You want a 1" long tab and as tall as you want it deep.

[tmerrill]

Just use pairs of lines - much easier.

[jTr]

To finalize pocket, are any of you following up by drilling 3/16 passage for screw, or does it work fine to just blow the screw through?

[wowhuh.mike]

I was just gonna use self drillers. Though I like the kreg screws I do not like the square drives.

[wowhuh.mike]

Hi Mike,

It would be hard in Partworks 3D but a breeze in Partworks/V-Carve Pro/Aspire using the Fluting tool. All you need to have is a single vector line for it to follow.

I assume you have one of them programs? If so, take a look in the Help Contents at the Fluting toolpath and ask if you have questions.

Tim

I'm not seeing what you are talking about in Partworks. Is there a specific "fluting" operation in the right toolpathing sidebar? or is it an option like "ramping" or "tabs" within another operation?

It seems like such a simple request, I can very very simply create exactly the 3d line I want in Rhino - I know that I could program each line manually, but on a fully nested sheet there could be a 100 of these. Wish I had more programming skills to automate this.

In VisualMills highest dollar package you can get a toolpath option called pencil trace, that is what I would really like to be able to do. Get the tool to follow exactly the three dimensional line I give it. It would be great for engraving on three dimensional surfaces and cleaning up radius on some of my mold patterns.

[tmerrill]

Mike,

Unless you are using a very old version of Partworks, there should be an icon in the Toolpath section (see red circle). When you select this the second picture shows the setup window that will open.

There are also ways to create the arrays of vectors you would use for this. Once the lines are all created, you can select them all and just set up one Fluting toolpath.

If this is something you would be doing frequently, then setting it up as a Tool Template as Scott describes would make the process almost automatic.

Tim

[jerry_stanek]

He may have the Artcam version of partworks.

[wowhuh.mike]

Yeah, that looks like exactly what I want to do, but that is not the version of partworks I have.

Just looked and I have version 1.1 released Dec 07

wonder if I can I update version for free?

[tmerrill]

Best thing to do is contact ShopBot directly.

Probably won't be free but definitely a lot less than what you said about visualMILL.

Let us know how it goes.

Tim

[knight_toolworks]

Yeah, that looks like exactly what I want to do, but that is not the version of partworks I have.

Just looked and I have version 1.1 released Dec 07

wonder if I can I update version for free?
no it will cost. I think 150.00 bit it may be more. so if you can't afford it use the tab method it works well too.

[wowhuh.mike]

yep, 150 bucks. I will take a look at vectrics 30 day trial and compare that to tabbing method. Luckily it isn't something I need to do right now, that's my usual MO.

[wowhuh.mike]

wow!

I haven't even tried the ramped pocket yet, I'm too happy to find that the newer version of partworks has nesting (and a good one at that!).

most, if not all, of my complaints about partworks seem to be resolved in the newer versions. very exciting! 150 bucks to update is beginning to look like a no-brainer.

and finally I'd have the ability to look down the y or x axis to look at relative depths of each path!