Inside of a bowl - what am I missing?

[hiddejan]

I'm a Cut3D newbie; absolutely loving the interface and excited about the possibilities!

As an exercise, I designed myself a "bowl" shape in Sketchup, which appears just as I expected in the Cut3D interface.
Then when I've put in all my settings, and calculated toolpaths, the final product doesn't have the "inside" of the bowl cut out.

I've attached screenshots of both before and after the toolpath calculations.

What am I doing wrong?

[CharlieP]

Have you run both the Roughing and the Finish toolpaths on that preview?

[JamesB]

Looking at the image it looks like your cut plane may be stopping the toolpath from getting to the bottom part of your bowl so its not including the base in the toolpaths. You can set this during stage two as you work through Cut3D, try adjusting that to see if it changes the toolpath and consequently the preview.
Thanks,
James

[hiddejan]

Thanks for thinking with me guys.

Charlie: Yes, the preview is after roughing and finishing.

James: That was it! By moving the cut plan all the way to the bottom, it works well.

Much obliged!

HJ

[hiddejan]

Having made some progress, I now get stuck a little further down the line...

By playing around with the cutting plane, I can now get part of the model ok, but not the whole thing. I have a very strong suspicion that I am missing the simplest of things, but just can't seem to get my head around it.
I have attached images of the 2nd screen, views from both top and bottom, as well as the final previews (after roughing and finishing). Note that I now have two "bowls" that, eventually, should fit into eachother, but that's for another time!

In the 2nd screen (material size and margins) I have set the cut plane so that it goes to the bottom of the bowl.
The previews of the final product looks just fine from the top (although the sides are very rough, but that is a worry for, here we go again, another time ).

The preview of the final product from the bottom however, shows my issue: I assume because of where I set the cut plane, it only does the first part of the final shape and then stops, which results in a clunky final product.

I have tried a variety of things, which I'm just listing here for future reference, and perhaps they help inform your advice:
- I've tried swapping which side to machine as the top, but that results in the same effect
- I've tried moving the cut-plane all the way down, or all the way up, but that never results in the right effect either.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[eph210]

In the Material size and margins screen (#2) just below the cut plane position selector is a section for Overcut distance below cut plane. On a double sided model it usually works well to put the cut plane in the centre and the overcut distance at just less (about .002 less will work) than the depth below surface.
Euan

[hiddejan]

Thanks Euan,

the problem with putting the cutting plane in the middle; it gives the result that I showed in my very first post (the "inside of the bowl") is not being cut out. The only way to make sure that it does, is to lower the plane all the way to the bottom of my model (which is 3mm above the "floor", in case that is important...).

[eph210]

In your example, if you put the cut plane in the centre and your overcut distance at 7.73 it will cut both the top and bottom sides fully.
Euan