Vectric Customer

OK so I have this basic sketchup model. I want to import it and have it carved. I brought it in with a material setting of .5" but I cannot figure out how to set the toolpaths to cut it out. I get small pieces of the model but not the entire thing. Can anyone help?

Any chance you could post the file or is it copyright protected ? The experts on the forum will be able to give you a much better answer if they can see what you mean by just getting small parts

It could just be something as simple as where you have positioned the model within your material block when you imported it but I don't import a lot of 3D files so am just guessing really

Did you rescale the stl to your material size? Try setting Z to material thickness and hit "Apply".

The above is the model. It's simple enough. I want to carve this out of .75" oak. I set the material thickness, imported this, and set the model to the "center" of the material. When I try to use any tools, it cannot select the vectors. What am I doing wrong?

That is a 3d model, there are no vectors for you to select. The other file contains the vectors

Hi,

It seems it is a 2,5D job (if there is no draft, I don't have time to look at it in detail). If you import a 3D model, you'll have to use 3D features.

If you retrace it in Vcarve, you'll be able to use 2D toolpaths, much faster and more efficient.

There are two ways of importing a sketchup model. If you import it via the modelling tab then you will get a 3D model that has to be machined using 3D toolpaths. There are no vectors in that type of model.

If you import it from the Drawing tab or use the Import vectors command on the file menu then you will get 2D vectors from the Sketchup model and you can use those to create 2D toolpaths which is what you want for that type of job.

Adrian,

Thanks for pointing that out. Didn't notice the vector import ability.

Did you try importing this file? I didn't succeed importing it directly as Aspire told me the file was faulty. Strangely, when I dragged and dropped it from the Mac Finder window to the working area of Aspire in the virtual PC, it imported the vectors without a glitch.

Yes, it imported fine for me in 2D and 3D.

Thanks for the direction about importing as vectors. Worked for me but still painful to create a 3-d model then import it a d2 just to make it 3-d again.

What about a model like this? There is a ramp on the model so it's not a consistent 2d profile. How would I import this?

There are multiple ways of doing that. You could import it as a pure 3D but it would be very wasteful on machining time. I'd still do that as 2D but use a fluting toolpath/chamfer gadget/chamfer tool for the slope part only.

Can you (or someone) elaborate on the fluting/chamfer/gadget method?