3D Machinist

Post by **dmidkiff** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:27 am

I have some of the animal models and have been trying to enlarge them. The trouble starts when saving the toolpath file. I can save the roughing cut and part of the finish cut on a floppy. All of the finish cut will not fit on one floppy. I tried saving to CD and my design PC won't do that. So I then tried to save to a traveldrive and the shop PC won't do that. I ran recovery CD and that did not find a driver for this device, so I then downloaded a driver from the traveldrive MFG.web site and there is a file in the shop PC but it will not open the traveldrive.

I should add that the design PC is Dell pentium 4 with XP and the shop PC is HP Pavillion pentium 3 with 98, and has been repaired. It runs the shopbot just fine. The traveldrive is Memorex 256MB. The traveldrive is my first choice or the CD my 2nd choice. I just as soon not buy new PC or go to network. I hope I am just missing some step or small (thang) that someone could just point me down the right path.

I did not see any other post for 3D Machinist on this forum and I hope this is in the right place. If not, I appologize, and could someone direct me to the right spot. Thanks for any advice.

Dave

Post by **BrianM** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:04 am

Hi Dave,

No problem asking questions about 3D Machinist here, if there is enough interest we will create a new forum section for it.

Have you tried 'zipping' the file up on your XP machine, copying it via floppy and then unzipping on the Windows 98 machine. I've just done a quick test and using the free '7 Zip' zip file creater (similar to WinZip etc) the shopbot files compress by a factor of about 3 so you should be able to get a file up to about 4.2Mb onto a floppy.

Regards

Brian

Post by **dmidkiff** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:13 pm

Brian,

Thanks so much for the reply. I have winzip but it does not recognize the sbp. code, or I don't know how to use. I downloaded 7-Zip and could not get that to work either. I have some time for making samples and learning the software (which is great). I think all of your products are top notch. Any other help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Dave

Post by **BrianM** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:22 pm

Hi Dave,

If you have installed 7-Zip, simply right click on your .sbp file in Windows Explorer and from the pop-up menu select

7-Zip -> Add to Archive ...

this will create a .zip file from your sbp file.

Copy this file onto your floppy and transfer it to your Windows98 machine.

Again in Windows explorer right click on the .zip file and from the pop up menu select

7-Zip -> Extract Here and it will recreate your .sbp file.

Regards

Brian

Post by **dmidkiff** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:38 pm

Brian,

Thanks again for the quick reply. I wish that all things were as easy to learn as your products but I am only half way there. I was able to zip file but have not gotten it unzipped yet. Will keep trying.

Dave

Post by **dmidkiff** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:48 am

Brian,

Thanks for the help! I finally was able to cut the model the size I wanted. Will try to attach pic. It is only in 3/4" foam from Lowes,but it looks great. You guys are awesome!!!

Dave

Post by **Paul_n** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:20 pm

Brian....

A couple items for the "wish list" .

(1) delete 'waste' on the Preview. Great plus for customer reviews.

and

(2) 'tabs' for the profile cutouts.

Paul N

Post by **CRFultz** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:04 pm

Paul_n wrote:Brian....

A couple items for the "wish list" .

(1) delete 'waste' on the Preview. Great plus for customer reviews.

and

(2) 'tabs' for the profile cutouts.

Paul N

Paul you can delete the waste material by clicking on the delete waste material button on the toolpath window.
once you click preview or generate a toolpath it will be the 3rd icon down.

Tabs are available from the "create profile toolpath" button.
check the add tabs to toolpath then edit tabs

Chuck

Post by **BrianM** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:46 pm

Chuck,

I think Pauls feature requests are for the Vector Art 3D Machinist rather than VCarve Pro. However if you take the toolpaths into VCarve Pro the delete waste material option should work, but adding tabs will not.

[EDITED]
Ooops

- You can create the cutout profile toolpath in VCarve Pro with tabs - see below

Brian

Post by **mark296** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:13 am

BrianM wrote:Hi Dave,

No problem asking questions about 3D Machinist here, if there is enough interest we will create a new forum section for it.

I am all for the forum for the 3D Machinist files. I got a couple of them and there are great. I do have a problem that maybe someone can help me with. I bought the eagle "A" file to machine. It cuts fine but I can not get it to surface the wood to the level of the bottom of the eagle as shown in the picture. It always cuts and looks like the eagle "C" file. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to pocket the rest with Vcarve Pro and if so how is that done.

Post by **CRFultz** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:18 am

mark296 wrote:
BrianM wrote:Hi Dave,

No problem asking questions about 3D Machinist here, if there is enough interest we will create a new forum section for it.
I am all for the forum for the 3D Machinist files. I got a couple of them and there are great. I do have a problem that maybe someone can help me with. I bought the eagle "A" file to machine. It cuts fine but I can not get it to surface the wood to the level of the bottom of the eagle as shown in the picture. It always cuts and looks like the eagle "C" file. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to pocket the rest with Vcarve Pro and if so how is that done.

I think maybe the A series was meant to have a outside profile cut...

Post by **mark296** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:49 am

I think maybe the A series was meant to have a outside profile cut...

I thought that the C series meant to have the outside profile cut.

Post by **BrianM** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:53 am

Hi Mark,

The A style is meant to have the outside profile cut. The B and C styles are meant to be cut recessed into the surfaface.

Brian

Post by **mark296** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:02 am

BrianM wrote:Hi Mark,

The A style is meant to have the outside profile cut. The B and C styles are meant to be cut recessed into the surfaface.

Brian

I guess I should have asked before I bought them.

Post by **mark296** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:45 am

Wow, the new VCarve update will pocket around the 3D Machinist files.