Modeling Plane Z problem and I can't figure this out

[Ton80]

Hi.

I have been absolutely beating my head against the wall for days.. looking at tutorials, playing with settings and generally spinning my wheels wondering if I made a mistake deciding to move away from the old software I used to use.

Here is what I found today. I have a project which I created but everytime I have tried to place my 3D model on the bottom side of the board, it is not looking the way I want it to. Instead of rambling on about my issues, I just took a screen shot which illustrates what I think is wrong.. but I have absolutely no idea what I did, if I did anything or if it can be fixed without remaking my file.

The left half of the SS shows a newly created file which contains only the model that I want to use. It renders in the 3D view as I would expect. The toolpaths also looked good.

The right half of the SS shows the model but as it is appearing on the bottom side of my project file. You can see the MODELING PLANE Z is much different and the Material Block rendering also shows that the model is being placed almost at the full depth of my material( .75 ). My toolpaths also confirm this as it is taking many passes to carve it deeply into the board.

Ultimately, I want this to carve out at roughly the .25 it is designed to carve at.

So what is happening on the project file version to cause that modeling Z plane to be so low? I am out of energy and time to keep beating my head on this one.

I can post the file if someone needs to see it but it does have a custom made model that I paid for and the author keeps to resell so I didn't think it was appropriate to post the file openly. If you think you can figure this out and help me, please let me know if you need to see the file.

Thank you!!
~John

[martin54]

If the file contains copyright material then you might be best sending it to Vectric support & asking them for help, if it were me then that is what I would do

support@vectric.com

If your zero plane is on the top of your material then it will be greater on the bottom, unless you have added a zero plane to each side of the material, you seem to have your x y datum set differently for each side.
The model thickness is showing as 2.48 which appears to be about the size you want it to be, do you want the model to be machined in the centre of the stock or close to one side ? if you want it in the centre then move the model position in the set up form

[Ton80]

Will do.. Does that look weird to you thought that I have Modeling plane Z of -0.74 inches when the model is only .2481 and the MODEL POSITION in Material shows the model should be placed just barely below the surface and I should have a gap of .4919 left of material under the model?

[martin54]

Just edited my post with a bit more info

[Ton80]

The size of that model is larger than intended ATM. I deleted it an imported again hoping to fix the situation. There is that mysterious ZERO plane thing again.. uh oh. Yes. I want that to machine closest to the BOTTOM face of the material. The TOP face has a V-Carve design so I want the center of the material to remain since this is one of a set of doors.

I was thinking this might be something I caused since this is a two-sided job. At this time, maybe I am just better off creating a front and back file instead of a two-sided file. Too much to absorb with so many different variables on a job that I probably have no business trying to run with software I can barely understand right now...

[martin54]

I always advise people to start with the basics & build from there so if you are fairly new to the software then it can be a pretty steep learning curve, even though you have used other software it doesn't always follow that you can jump straight from one to another
I had a bit of trouble getting my head round the 2 sided machining function when it was introduced, there are posts on the forum I made about my problems I had got used to doing 2 sided machining where the front & back were treated as 2 separate jobs & because I knew it worked well for me just kept going back to the old way to get the job done, only fairly recently that I decided I needed to find the time to learn how to use it properly
There are a few good tutorials but for me like most things it was a case of then just sitting down at the design computer & practising

I just noticed your screenshots are from 2 different files, the left screenshot is a single sided job set up & the right hand screenshot is a 2 sided set up.
Is the model suppose to sit near the surface of the material on both sides or just the one side?

[Ton80]

Martin,

There are two files open. The one on the Left is a throw away that I only opened to see what was going on with my model. The way you see it rendered in the left side IS the way I want the model to carve on the BOTTOM side of the right file - although it will be resized and moved to the left.

The file on the right is basically set up to create a cabinet door. On the exterior ( TOP ) side I have a Vcarved design. On the interior ( BOTTOM ) side is where I want to place the model. The desire is to have it carve with a max depth of .25, just like you see on the LEFT side of the screenshot.

It sounds like my two sided jobs are maybe the same type you run.. each side has different elements. 99% of the jobs I run with two sides are NOT using any through carves or cutouts. So for now, It would be easy enough for me to just create 2 files for my jobs that have a top/bottom design requirement.

I find the Vectric tutorials are excellent but the one with the Golf ball award where they talk about the zero plane left me not quite sure how it would apply to my needs. I have to hunt around for some additional sources of tutorials. I love the Tips and Tricks versions because they get to the point quickly and don't go off topic.

[garylmast]

Two things to check: make sure the zero planes has a zero or negative value and lower the thickness of any tabs. Either one with cause the problem you're having.

Gary