Toolpaths

[tysmall]

Good day to all,this here is my first posted since i am now getting my teeth into the world of ShopBot,just a question to the more season people here.i have being asked to do 12 of the picture attached however,my toolpaths that are being generated is the taken away the material i want to leave in,have tried looking thru the help section as well googling it but no luck so far,i have gotten thru with importing and tracing the bitmap.

[guitarwes]

Try putting a box around the entire layout then choose all the vectors when creating a pocket toolpath. OR, if you did that, try taking the box away and then create the pocket toolpath.

[scottp55]

Add a Boundary Box, and select VCarve Toolpath with flat depth...select all components like Wes said.
Joining Vectric forum and posting the file is great for tips and relevant tutorials as well.
VERY helpful members there as well, when it comes to design work!

[myxpykalix]

First trace bitmap- that then should make a vector boundry around each of those objects in the picture.
Make a square vector boundry around the outside of the object
select all the vector boundries inside and the square boundry outside
what that does is exclude cutting what is inside the individual vector boundries and the square is the outside boundry.

[tysmall]

Hello to all,sorry about not getting back to those who chime in with help, i was cutting the router bit holders for the guys in the shop,i did do it as was instructed and it work,the attached picture isn't the actually work but was practicing with this one.Thanks,i am about to cut some 1/4" aluminium plate this week for our dovetail jig.29898

[robtown]

Hello to all,sorry about not getting back to those who chime in with help, i was cutting the router bit holders for the guys in the shop,i did do it as was instructed and it work,the attached picture isn't the actually work but was practicing with this one.Thanks,i am about to cut some 1/4" aluminium plate this week for our dovetail jig.http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=29898&stc=1
That look reversed from the example you showed previously?

[myxpykalix]

You want the opposite of this. You want to cut the space around these objects. I would be interested in seeing pictures of your dovetail jig setup.

[tysmall]

That look reversed from the example you showed previously?

Yes i know,but the picture i was working shows different ,going to do a tracing layout on Wednesday of the picture i sent, since the pictures being sent by the customer is of poor quality.See the attached of what is working with.29901

[tysmall]

You want the opposite of this. You want to cut the space around these objects. I would be interested in seeing pictures of your dovetail jig setup.

29902Here is just a preview of the toolpaths.

[robtown]

Yes i know,but the picture i was working shows different ,going to do a tracing layout on Wednesday of the picture i sent, since the pictures being sent by the customer is of poor quality.See the attached of what is working with.http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=29901&stc=1
This is neither what you showed originally or what your preview shows. This is a carved piece that is simply cut out.

[tysmall]

This is neither what you showed originally or what your preview shows. This is a carved piece that is simply cut out.

Sir in my haste to show that i am making progress,i understand that toolpath isn't showing what i wanted in the first picture,but i was getting difficulty in actually producing the toolpath show,i am new to this so bare with me if possible,thanks.

[scottp55]

Don't worry about it:)
Sounds like you jumped in the deep end of the pool, and we're nit-picking on your technique of keeping your head above water:)
The Vectric Forum is a great place to post the actual files you're having problems with, and usually somebody will actually work your file for the desired results fast as people are world wide, and it's more of the software place anyways.
When it comes to problems with the machine actually cutting the piece...THIS is where you want to be! :)
Welcome...and feel free to e-mail me under my contact info.
scott

[robtown]

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=29903&stc=1
This is what you want.
I have this in illustrator format, but the blog doesn't allow .ai files. If you want to email me, I can send you the vectors.

[tysmall]

Don't worry about it:)
Sounds like you jumped in the deep end of the pool, and we're nit-picking on your technique of keeping your head above water:)
The Vectric Forum is a great place to post the actual files you're having problems with, and usually somebody will actually work your file for the desired results fast as people are world wide, and it's more of the software place anyways.
When it comes to problems with the machine actually cutting the piece...THIS is where you want to be! :)
Welcome...and feel free to e-mail me under my contact info.
scott

Yes i am in the deep end concerning this project,watching as many tutorials as i can,to get my head around working with ShopBot,just got some new cutters as well,1/4" spiral-up and 1/8" ball nose,well get others as i go along.

[robtown]

Yes i am in the deep end concerning this project,watching as many tutorials as i can,to get my head around working with ShopBot,just got some new cutters as well,1/4" spiral-up and 1/8" ball nose,well get others as i go along.
I got your message. Sent you an email with the .ai file attached. Let me know if you can't open it.
If you can open it, let us know and we can discuss your toolpath strategy...

[chiloquinruss]

I don't know what software you have but I took Rob's pix and ran Aspire trace function and then let it preview the toolpath. Here it is. Russ

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=29904&stc=1

[robtown]

Tyrone contacted me via email. Here's what I did to help. I sent him the .ai file directly, but I wanted to post my little write up to him here (with pictures) to hopefully share with everybody.
I took your image and traced it in CorelDraw. Corel has some pretty good tracing tools, but you really need good contrast in the image to get the automatic tracing tools to give you good results. Your source image doesn't have very good contrast.


If you look at your image, you'll see that it's basically a repeating pattern in 4 quadrants.

So the first thing I did was to crop out one of the quadrants.


Then I just spent a few minutes hand tracing the shapes using bezier curves.


Then when I was happy with the one quadrant, I just copied and mirrored 3 more copies and welded it all together.


I still needed to tweak a few vertices after the weld operation, but this looks good for what you need.


I'm going to post this little write up on the ShoBot blog in the thread you started with some additional pictures. If you have any questions ask there so we can share this info with everybody.


R

[robtown]

It wouldn't let me attach two of my images...
Here's the single quadrant traced with the source image deleted.
And the final outlines.

Also, please note I did not include the circle in the middle in any of my copy and mirror operations.

[tysmall]

Good day to everyone,want to thank Rob for his help in getting a decent vector to work with,however i said i would do a section of the work to shown the client,ran a preview of the toolpath,yet to my horror,on the second passed the machine like it lose part of the file,it cut thru part of the job and did a different toolpath for the second,i stopped it,told it to JH and that was about an inch away from what i had set the original JH to be.What gives?29972

[robtown]

Good day to everyone,want to thank Rob for his help in getting a decent vector to work with,however i said i would do a section of the work to shown the client,ran a preview of the toolpath,yet to my horror,on the second passed the machine like it lose part of the file,it cut thru part of the job and did a different toolpath for the second,i stopped it,told it to JH and that was about an inch away from what i had set the original JH to be.What gives?http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=29972&stc=1
Looks like you "lost steps"...
Were you pushing it too hard? (cutting too deep, too fast can cause you to lose steps).

[tysmall]

Found the problem,it had jump off the rollers,the dust extractor as it came down to do the second cut was hitting a hold down clamp,will re-cut and posted picture,thanks.

[tysmall]

Looks like you "lost steps"...
Were you pushing it too hard? (cutting too deep, too fast can cause you to lose steps).

Here is the info for the cutter :

Using a 1/4" up-cut spiral,pass depth is 0.125" ,step over is 0.105"@ 42.0%, spindle speed is 12000, feed rate is 100 and plunge is 30 "/min.Here looking to queak it because although the finish at the surface for depth passed is great,it is leaving a wave pattern at the sides of the cut.

[tysmall]

See picture of the a small section.29983

[scottp55]

Tyrone,
In the Vectric program, when You press "N"(N ode edit) and select a vector, does it show up in like the first picture(a Ton of nodes)?
If so, then maybe that is causing the uneven cut?
Maybe try "Curve Fit Vectors" after saving the file as something else(or saving on a different layer), and using the Bezier curves at different tolerances/angles etc. to get nodes manageable, try to smooth it out and then try "D"eleting the offending nodes.
Beki's "Tips and Tricks" under Node Editing are short and VERY helpful...Took a bit for me to learn, BUT absolutely worth it;
http://support.vectric.com/tips-and-tricks/select.php
It may just be a cutting thing, but zip foam cutting experience here:(

[tysmall]

Scottp55,you are correct,click on the 'n' to go to node editing and they was alot,have edited and ran an other cut file,much better,thanks.

[scottp55]

I'm glad Ty.
Using Nodes can be Very useful!
Stick with it:)
scott