Profile with project toolpath and tabs

[mishafarms]

Sorry if this question has been answered already. And hello to all the forum members,
I have just joined the forum, but have been lurking for a while. You guys all seem
very supportive and generally respectful, Not like some other forums I have seen.

Anyway here is the question.

I have create an aspire part and done all the roughing and finishing and created a profile
But when I cut the profile it cut a lot of air due to the fact that the roughing removed
about half of the material to get to the level it needed to. I like to have tabs in my
cutout profiles so that I can keep the part in the wood to cut a keyhole for hanging on the
back.

I figured I could go back to Aspire and set the project the toolpath onto 3D model
and the Aspire software would remove the air time by going to the level that the roughing left.
Aspire did this just fine. But it seems that the tabs are no longer there. I can see this
in the preview and also the G-code.

Has anyone else seen this? Or tried to use tabs and project toolpath to 3D model?

Anyway, Hopefully Vectric staff or someone on the forum can help figure this out.
for now I just skip the G-code that would not cut anything and the world is a
happy place

Michael.

[JamesB]

Michael,
I am not sure about projected toolpaths with tabs, my instinct would be that they would be counter intuitive to each other. However you can do what you need with a regular profile cut. You just need to set both the Start Depth and the Cut Depth. Lets assume your part is 1 inch thick and you have already roughed away enough material to remover the first 3/4 inch of material. You would enter a Start Depth of 0.75" (so the first pass will be 3/4 inch into the material). Then a cut depth of 0.25 inches to tell it to cut an additional 0.25" deeper - total cut depth 1". Assuming your tabs are less than 0.25 inches thick you should be able to add them as normal to this toolpath. Hope I understood what you needed and this works for you?
Thanks,
James

[mishafarms]

James,

You are correct. I just tried that and it works fine.

I understand what you are saying about project toolpaths and tabs
being counter intuitive. My project just had me cutting in an area that
was flat.

Thanks again. And also thank you for making the model's available early for me
The person I made the piece for loved it. I will post some pictures in the Gallery
of the finished project.

Michael

[johnnydoughey]

I may have misunderstood your "tab" scenario, but if you want to keep it for hanging, couldn't you just put it down as a shape, which would be part of your work, rather than an addition to it?

[mishafarms]

John,

The tabs are to keep the carved piece held within the original hunk of wood,
I cut a keyhole on the back of the carved piece so that it can be hung on the wall.
To do this I use a keyhole bit and a small amount of G-code, But it is easier to clamp the
hunk of wood rather then the carved piece. (tabs from the profile toolpath dialog).

Michael