VCarve Pro Texturing Toolpath

Discussion/questions about software used with your CNC Shark and programming issues

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NewAgent45
Posts: 230
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:29 am
Location: Edgewater, Florida, USA

VCarve Pro Texturing Toolpath

Post by NewAgent45 »

I’m trying the texturing toolpath for the first time today and I’m the estimated run time for the program is way off from the actual run time. I have never seen it of this much before. With an estimated 18 minutes it looks like the actual will be something like 6 hours using the control panel information.

I have edited the program a couple times now to get the estimate down to the current 18 minutes. But I’m not seeing much change on the machine.

One thing I’m observing is that the bit is being raised at least 1” above the material between each carving element. I tried decreasing the rapid Z Gap and home/Start values to 0.25/0.25 and 0.5 and this didn’t make any difference. The new values are displayed in the Texture Toolpath page

I’m attaching some screen captures that show Texturing Toolpath settings and the VCP drawing and carving simulation. Texture 1 is for the Stars in the Flag. I like the effect I’m seeing in the real carving in progress as it makes the Stars kind of sparkle.
Flag Texturing 1 settings screen capture.jpg
Texturing Drawing and Simulation Picture.jpg
I hope someone can pinpoint what I might be doing wrong or give me a better understanding of the texturing toolpath parameters.

…….. Rod

4DThinker
Posts: 951
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:00 am

Re: VCarve Pro Texturing Toolpath

Post by 4DThinker »

The more randomized and wavy you make the texture the longer the cut time will be, and even the estimate value you put into VCarve for conventional Pocket and Profile cuts will get farther and farther off. It's because with short choppy vectors the feed speed never gets a chance to get up to what is spec'd, and with the add up and down (if used) it will mix plunge speed with feed speed for an even longer cut time.

Such is the nature of more and more complex cuts. Longer to cut, and harder to estimate by VCarve as it doesn't know the accelerate/decelerate values used by the Shark controller.

4D

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NewAgent45
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Location: Edgewater, Florida, USA

Re: VCarve Pro Texturing Toolpath

Post by NewAgent45 »

4D,

Thanks for your input. I completed running the texture 1 run last night and I'm satisfied with the effect as the stars sparkle. It did take ~6 hours. I'm modifying the texture 2 program which is for the white stripes. In texture 2 I'm using a larger bit 0.0625" Ball Nose bit and increased cut lengths. I also increased the overlap and decreased the variation from 50% to 10%. I'll run a trial run a little later to see the effect on time.

In your post you mentioned "add up and down (if used)" I'm not sure what you are referring to here. I don't see anything in the texture toolpath setup or in the help document. You should know that I'm still using VCP 7.5 and have not upgraded yet. I don't know if there might be differences in the new version. I also still don't understand why the controller is lifting the bit higher (> 1 inch) when my rapid Z Gap values are 0.25/0.25 and home/Start value is 0.5.

Thanks again for entering the discussion.

..... Rod

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NewAgent45
Posts: 230
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:29 am
Location: Edgewater, Florida, USA

Re: VCarve Pro Texturing Toolpath

Post by NewAgent45 »

4D,
Just a little update! Texture 2 (Stripes) cut a quite a bit faster ( ~ 2 hr) than Texture 1. One thing that I noticed is a big difference in the sequence in cutting the textures. In the texture for the Stars the sequence was star by star. For the stripes it worked from the lower right hand corner of the Flag towards the upper left.
Stars).
I finished the Flag by cutting a profile using a 60 Deg. V-Bit on the same Vectors to give the closed Vectors a clean boundary. Then I cut out the Complete Flag.

I think it turned out pretty good for a trial project. See the attached picture. I decided to mount this one in in the back window of my pickup truck using some 3M Clear mounting tape.
American Flag 1.jpg
Have a great day!
……. Rod

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