More Partworks Questions

[brock_poling]

Thanks again for everyone's help with my beyond basic questions.

Here is my latest.

I want to create the insert and the pocket for inlaying my logo into a guitar headplate.

I didn't have a vector file of my logo handy but I did have a high res .jpg. I imported it into Partworks as a bitmapped file, did a "fit vectors to bitmap" fundtion which did a pretty good job of finding the edges of my logo.

When I v-carve it it looks great, but when I try to run the "create inlay toolpath" functions it only seems to run little pieces of the logo (and not even the right ones for that matter.

I guess I am unsure about what I need to do to get this to work correctly. I presume that I must somehow tell the software what pockets to cut and which not to (for instace leave the space in the upper part of the L and the lower part of the G, and to esseentially pocket everything else.

I haven't found a tutorial on this yet. If anybody knows of one that sure would be helpful.

Just so you can see what I am working toward I have attached a small copy of my logo.

Thanks again for all your help. I am really addicted to this. :-)


7799

[john_how]

Brock, make sure you have all the vectors in the pocket selected including the inside of the L and the G when you run the toolpath and it should work. You may also have to use the allowances feature on the pocket to get the inlay to fit in. What material are you using for the inlay?

[brock_poling]

.05 MOP will be the inlay material, and most of my headplates are BRW.

After playing with it it looks like I will need a .01 bit. that seems nutty small, but Custom Inlay has been cutting them this small for me for a while, so it must be possible.

[brock_poling]

So you would think after 5 years I would have my act together and be way past this very simple question... not so.

I lost access to my shopbot and I have just recently joined a maker community where I once again have access and I'm still struggling with the same issue.

I am trying to figure out how to cut the pocket of my inlay and have selected a very small bit (.01" ... which I think might be way to small to be practical) and I am still getting just little "specs"

Any thoughts? I really am a noob about this stuff. Even pointing me toward something to read would be helpful.

[Bob Eustace]

Brock the V-carve inlay method would work brilliantly with your signature. Is also a very, very forgiving system. Superb tutorial on the Aspire site plus a brilliant PDF by the guy that invented it.

[brock_poling]

Ok, so with some more messing around I have PW appearing to cut the pocket when I preview the toolpaths.

I'm not sure how I did it though makes much sense. I was adjusting the Pocket Allowance to give it a bit more breathing room and I noticed that as I made the numbers larger (for instance adjusting from .01" to .02") the problem got worse.

As soon as I made the Pocket Allowance numbers negative (-0.01") the problem seemed to go away (at least according to the preview toolpaths function).

Does that make sense?

[brock_poling]

Brock the V-carve inlay method would work brilliantly with your signature. Is also a very, very forgiving system. Superb tutorial on the Aspire site plus a brilliant PDF by the guy that invented it.

Thanks Bob. I was wondering about that. I only have PW and PW3D, but I was looking at the Aspire software and thought that might be a good solution for this application.

[myxpykalix]

Are you sure you have all your vectors connected? group your vectors and weld them together.

[brock_poling]

Hey Jack.

Yes, there all connected. When I do a "Select All Open Vectors" I get a "No Open Vectors In Design" message returned.

As I say, I got it to draw the pocket by making the pocket allowance a negative number... I'm not sure that's the right way to do it.

Thoughts?

[adrianm]

Ok, so with some more messing around I have PW appearing to cut the pocket when I preview the toolpaths.

I'm not sure how I did it though makes much sense. I was adjusting the Pocket Allowance to give it a bit more breathing room and I noticed that as I made the numbers larger (for instance adjusting from .01" to .02") the problem got worse.

As soon as I made the Pocket Allowance numbers negative (-0.01") the problem seemed to go away (at least according to the preview toolpaths function).

Does that make sense?

That's correct. A negative allowance makes the pocket bigger.

Your basic problem is that the tool you're using is too big to fit between the vectors.

If you turn on the Solid option next to the Show 2D Previews on the toolpath tab the places where the tool can actually reach are then shown in blue on the 2D window.

You can either add an allowance, use a smaller tool, or use node editing to adjust the vectors to get it to fit.

As has been said though a VCarve inlay would work really well for this sort of job. You don't need Aspire to do it it works fine in PartWorks/VCarve.

Watch video D07 on this page - http://support.vectric.com/tut-vcp-2d-techniques - and download the associated PDF that goes with it here - http://www.vectric.org/video/aspire4-vcp7/2d-25d-techniques/D07/VCarve_Inlay_Description_and_Procedure.pdf

[Bob Eustace]

Thanks Bob. I was wondering about that. I only have PW and PW3D, but I was looking at the Aspire software and thought that might be a good solution for this application.

Brock the method works brillianly with Partworks as its identical to V-carve Pro.

[brock_poling]

Awesome. Thanks guys!