? about how a cnc operates with s/w

[kec-10238]

Using Vcareve pro for the 1'st time AND never seeing or operating a cnc before in-person, I perhaps have a stupid ? or maybe not so stupid.?.lol

Say you are removing the background of a design with 2 letters. Let's say the 2 letters are "HH". The letters are 3" high and set 1/8" apart from each other. If I am using a 1/4" bit to remove the background around and between the 2 letters (pocket cut) - will the cnc know that the 2 letters are only 1/8" apart and take it as far as the bit can go and NOT plow through that 1/8" area - or it will recognize and concern itself with only the background and it's duty to remove it and just cut a swath between the 2 letters ruining the design which will either require a tool change to use a smaller tool or a design change where the 2 letters are at least 1/4" apart before cuttin. Inquiring minds want to know.

[andrew]

It will know not to plow through the 1/8" part. The software takes into account your bit size when creating the tool paths. In a situation like that you would use the 1/4" bit to do a fast "roughing" pass that will hog out loads of material much faster than using a small diameter bit. Then you would do a tool change and run a "finishing" pass with a smaller bit and it will take into account what's already been cut via the roughing and go back to clean up all the spots the larger bits wouldn't fit.. I've never used Vcarve so not sure how to set up the separate passes with that software but there no doubt is a way, it's a pretty standard thing..

[Derek the Admin]

Andrew nailed it.

[kec-10238]

Thanks Andrew - That's what Vcarve was showing as a preview. Wish my plotters and printers would catch my design errors like that. Thanks again.

[andrew]

No problem You might want to look up some tutorials on using Vcarve and doing roughing and finishing passes. It seems it's not as simple as some other software packages, but i'm not familiar with Vcarve at all so maybe it's more straight forward that it seems. People have varying strategies for doing it but I on a quick look, I can't really find a straight forward "this is how you do it, here's a video" type tutorial. Here's one thread on the Vetric forums where they are talking about it, there are many more: forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8763

Maybe someone here who uses Vetric stuff can chime in with exactly how to accomplish two stage milling in Vcarve. There's got to be an easy way, even Easel can do roughing and finishing passes with a click of a button pretty much...

[kec-10238]

Jul 19, 2017 15:59:05 GMT andrew said:

No problem You might want to look up some tutorials on using Vcarve and doing roughing and finishing passes. It seems it's not as simple as some other software packages, but i'm not familiar with Vcarve at all so maybe it's more straight forward that it seems. People have varying strategies for doing it but I on a quick look, I can't really find a straight forward "this is how you do it, here's a video" type tutorial. Here's one thread on the Vetric forums where they are talking about it, there are many more: forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8763

Maybe someone here who uses Vetric stuff can chime in with exactly how to accomplish two stage milling in Vcarve. There's got to be an easy way, even Easel can do roughing and finishing passes with a click of a button pretty much...

I downloaded it yesterday. Spent about 40 minutes to figure how it worked and duplicated one of my golf sponsor signs that I blasted out of HDU. This is why I asked as my 1st attempt I was missing the golf club shaft (very thin as you can see and there was no cuts between the letters). Then did another pass (cleanup if you will) with a smaller tool. Looks like a pretty easy program. I might have a little advantage over other new to CNC because I am a signmaker and most of my stuff I design has to be vector images - So the hardest part seems to me will be picking the right bits for what I want to achieve.