@Grendel - I got VCarve Desktop and have been tinkering with it for hours & hours.
I used a 20 degree single flute bit and it works on wood but does go much deeper than I need as I can't seem to control the cutting depth . I used a vcarve toolpath.
My aim is to vcarve in metal and am wondering if you could advise if I should use another toolpath or vbit?
The effect I'm going for is this:
VCarve didn't have the font Bookman Old Style but I added it easily.. so the font's there, I just can't get it to cut a nice v section.
In the vcarve toolpath, if I enter a small flat depth but still use an engraving bit (v), it mills alright but the depth is flat not v-shaped.
The depth in vectric vcarve will be controlled by the space in the font allowing the bit to drive down to its depth.
So closing the fonts 2 walls down will limit the bits depth. Also changing the angle of the bit can have it hot the walls sooner a d limit the depth...
To do what you are thinking, you should have/use a centerline, or a stick font, then do an engrave to depth with a v bit...
We can look at adjusting your font to do what you want.
I'll look at the first file you posted...
We need the text you want and the dimensions of the bit you will use...
Here is an example of a text with a 5mm recess.
The letters "Tw" have walls with a 20 degree inclination, milling on the contour with an angular cutter and selecting an island.
The letter "in" has to be modeled and engraved according to the model with the selection of the appropriate milling cutter as each wall has its own slope.
@BurrMan - Thank you so much for your help!
I attached the file with the text in Bookman Old Style.
I'm open to any bit you suggest but I'm currently using a single flute 20 degree V bit.
The height of the letters is 4mm and I'm open to the depth as long as it is clearly a vcarve.
Gunter, Burrman is correct...the bit geometry is determining the depth so it can accomplish the run. That goes back to what I first mentioned about centerlines (stick fonts) rather than offset/uneven fonts. The use of flat depth will restrict as you mentioned but if you do not want a flat bottom that doesn't help you here. You could modify the font to be performed in different mill runs
@Grendel - thank you very much. Would you mind explaining how I would go about making the correct
stick fonts for this particular font - Bookman Old Style. Attached is the file I'm working on.
You have a picture of "this is the effect i am after"
So zoom in on the "T"....
That is not "a depth". That is a variable depth controlled by how far the 20° bit can drop into the pocket of the font at any given point.
For this, we need to adjust the actual geometry of the font/letters and then determine what you want to call "depth".
The other option mentioned is a stick font, or a centerline path on your letters. This can be an engrave with your vbit at a set, controlled depth. (I don't know vectric well enough to know whether a centerline engrave path can also be 3d (z values), to have a variable depth to the engrave.
But anyway, an easy way to achieve the centerline path, without modeling it, can be to generate a vcarve as is now, then you can run the gcode through something like gcode2dxf. This will give you the vcarve toolpath as centerline geometry. Now you can run your engrave at the desired depth on your imported centerline
I completely get what you mean by "For this, we need to adjust the actual geometry of the font/letters and then determine what you want to call "depth"."
So if I were to use Moi3d, choose the Bookman Old Style font from 'Draw Solid', and I use say a 20 degree V bit, how would I go about creating the geometry?
Also, "But anyway, an easy way to achieve the centerline path,"
Could you please explain how to create a centerline path from text in Moi3d?
Hi Gunter,
I'll try to explain here, as a video may be too involved.
So I started by taking the text you posted then vcarving it.... (With no worries of depth)
Here is what it looks like from a top view:
And here in a 3d view: (Note the depth is all over the place)
Then I post the gcode for that toolpath. I run it through a system to create a dxf out of the gcode toolpath, then bring that dxf into MoI:
I did some cleanup. Rebuilding and joining etc.... (The dxf comes out as line segments, so I rebuild them into smoother splines. Maybe somemore time could be spent here)
In this file, I left the dxf line segments in as other colored styles, for reference
So why do this?
I can now use "Engrave" on the path. Engrave allows me to set a depth at the spline level.
I can also use MoI's Edit Frame and "Flatten" the geometry. An just do a flat engrave at a single depth with a Vbit...
Note,
If you are going to "Flatten" the toolpath geometry, you will want to EXCLUDE the little "V" tails on all the letters... Those are Z level entries and exits per a "VCarve" toolpath. They wont translate into a flat engrave (Unless you are doing the "3D Spline Engrave" I mentioned first. Then you want to use those...
"""""""""""I completely get what you mean by "For this, we need to adjust the actual geometry of the font/letters and then determine what you want to call "depth"."
So if I were to use Moi3d, choose the Bookman Old Style font from 'Draw Solid', and I use say a 20 degree V bit, how would I go about creating the geometry?"""""""""""
You want to model the font to control the depth "You want"...
I would model my tool (You said 20 degree, but didn't include the diameter of the tool)
With the model of the tool, you can determine the width at the various depths of the VCutter. Then you would go to each letter in your font text, and do the modeling to constrain your desired depth.
A combination of separation, offsetting\drawing and rejoining things at the proper widths to stop the VBit at the depths you want
We can get into this if you want\need to. It would probably be a great exercise for me and others to see various techniques to do this.
Also, Still want to see Grendel's Input here..... Monster!
Another fast way to set the fonts offset, is to use the extrude command, with the tapered option... This can shrink the font face down uniformly with the desired angles..
MoI's geometry library just wont allow you to go to "Stick font"...
But you can go pretty close. And that would make it pretty easy to just draw the final centerlines by hand...
I'll look and see if i can make a video doing this...
Here is a quick video off using the extrude-tapered command to generate an offset for the font to be Vcarved..
In this video though, I "eyeballed" the distance. I have to think about how to get a snap point to generate an "Exact distance" to get an "Exact depth" from the bit.
Also to note with this method, I picked a place on the font to use as my "get depth from here" value... Any other areas where the walls are wider, or narrower, would do the VCarve Variation. But the variable depth is what makes "Vcarve" look so cool...
I guess you just have to determine if any of this works for what you want...
So I made a mistake in the video. When I created a new "Depth" line on my vurtual tool geometry, I then used that for the offset value. I was supposed to create a new "CROSS SECTION" at the depth line, then use that value...
You should be able to see the error and figure that part out. I'll look at generating a new video in a bit to correct that.
I also was confused thinking the file was MM and saw it was inches... So the numbers for "Tool size" may seem odd... And I am not a MM guy. But the theory is presented I think...
2022.01.05-10.31.24-[3D].png
