Grid Import into VCarve Pro

[truckeemaker]

Hello - I am a very new user to VCarvePro. I was wondering if anyone is aware of anything like this gadget for Aspire that imports regular grids:
http://gadgets.vectric.com/regular_grid_importer.html

I would love to be able to do the same in VCarve Pro.

If not, if I am able to find a colleague with Aspire and I import the grid, what format should I save it in so that I can work with it in VCarve Pro and get it to my CNC machine for toolpath creation and cutting with Mach3?

Thanks!

[mtylerfl]

STL or OBJ would be fine. If you are going to be doing a lot of this sort of thing, might as well upgrade to Aspire!

[sailfl]

Post Processor to use with Mach3 is Mach 2/3 Arcs (inch)(*.Txt). Change inch to mm if you do not use inches.

Hope that helps.

[truckeemaker]

Thanks guys.

I was able to find a workaround, and now I have a VERY large STL file (13 GB). Vcarve Pro does not like it and will not import it as it is too large. Does anyone know what would be a good solution to cut a STL file into many tiles?

Grant

[LittleGreyMan]

Grant,

Open your stl with Meshlab (free).

Select from the menu Filters>Remeshing, simplification and reconstruction>Quadratic edge collapse and decimation

You'll probably be able to reduce the number of edges in a huge factor before seeing a noticeable effect on your model.

HTH

[truckeemaker]

Thank you HTH. I've done some experimenting and I think the size limit is around the 2GB single-file limit size that Windows used to have. STL files up to that size mport fine and larger ones do not. Maybe someone from Vectric can confirm? I will write support and reply back here if and when I hear from them.

[Adrian]

Are you running the 32 bit or 64 bit version?

13gb is a huge STL file. What dimensions is it and what's the tolerance?

[truckeemaker]

I'm experimenting with various terrain models of varying resolutions and size. This large one is about about 1m square and 10 cm tall. I'm not sure about the tolerance or the machining side of things yet, that's what I get to learn next, and I plan to do so by cutting very small portions of these models and varying the tools, feed rates, and tolerances until I learn our machine a bit more. I'm experimenting mostly in the software now to see what it's capable of handling in terms of larger pieces that I one day hope to cut.

[martin54]

If you are looking to cut these on a cnc machine then this thread might interest you, there are a few others if you try a search. Not something I have any personal experience with but have read quite a few of the posts

http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php? ... po#p183874

[LittleGreyMan]

Even if it works with a 2GB file, it's still a huge file. You may encounter speed issues using it in Vcarve. I write may as I run it into a virtual machine, so I do not know if it is noticeable on an actual PC.

You probably can decimate much more your file before seeing any noticeable effect. If your are searching for a lot of details, remember you'll need to machine them, which leads to very long machining time.

For a map a little greater than 1 sqm, I used a 30 Mbyte stl. It was machined with a 10mm ball mill, and 6 an 4 mm ball mills for a few details details (I used a CAM software which handles rest machining).

Looks very detailed. Of course, it could be better using a higher resolution source file (I mean the terrain map, not the stl itself), but without comparing both, no one can tell.

Hope this helps.