Drill Depth by Object Width

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Bharris
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 8:01 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Shopbot Alpha

Drill Depth by Object Width

Post by Bharris »

I would love to have a gadget that loops through all selected objects, creating a drill toolpath where the depth of each drill object is defined by the width of its respective object. The selection may contain several hundred objects, so it would ideally result in a single toolpath in the list, rather than separate toolpaths for each object. The bit may be a Vbit or ball nose, so I would need to be able to control the depth based on that geometry.

Note: None of the objects' widths will be larger than the diameter of the selected bit (which may be VBit or ball nose). The depth of each cut should equal the width of the object.

Unfortunately, when using a VCarve toolpath, the bit tends to dwell in many of the objects (presumably to clear out, which is completely unnecessary for my needs.) I've tried my hand at re-engineering the Drill and Dado Lua example files from the SDK, but I'm no programmer.

Thanks so much for any help or tips you might offer!

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FixitMike
Vectric Wizard
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Model of CNC Machine: Shark Pro Plus (retired)
Location: Burien, WA USA

Re: Drill Depth by Object Width

Post by FixitMike »

With a 60 degree V bit and using the VCarve toolpath, the depth will be equal to the width of the cut.

"Dwelling" during a VCarve toolpath may be caused by setting the flat depth to less than the depth required to reach both sides in a single pass.

You can use the Vector Selection: Selector at the bottom of the toolpath window to associate certain features with a toolpath. All features meeting the filters selected will be calculated when you Recalculate Toolpath. For example, selecting Closed Vectors, checking the Selected layers, and Associate with toolpath, then putting all of the circles in a single layer, one toolpath will be applied to all of those circles when you recalculate. This is very handy for applying toolpaths to a design that is going to be arrayed.
Selector.JPG
Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement.

Bharris
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 8:01 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Shopbot Alpha

Re: Drill Depth by Object Width

Post by Bharris »

Thanks for your input! I'm currently using VCarve toolpaths for these projects, but it is far from optimal. Unfortunately, when I apply a VCarve toolpath to a selection of overlapping shapes, it creates a group of anomalous paths that ruin the cut (See attached). From what I understand, this is simply how VCarve path calculation works and is to be expected. Drill paths, on the other hand, do not suffer this problem. My work-around is to manually select all non-overlapping objects to set as one toolpath, then the rest are applied as a second toolpath. It's very time consuming, both in V-Carve and during the actual cut. Furthermore, it seems like applying a VCarve toolpath will trigger far more calculations than are necessary, considering I only need a single drill motion at the center of each object. VCarve toolpaths result in huge files compared to the relatively simple drill toolpaths. I just need something to tell each drill the correct depth.

I hope I'm explaining this clearly.
Attachments
Overlapping V-Carve.jpg

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adze_cnc
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Model of CNC Machine: AXYZ 4008
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Re: Drill Depth by Object Width

Post by adze_cnc »

Cross-referencing can be useful.

A gadget has been written to solve this problem: Stipple (Half-tone) Drilling.

The latest version of the gadget is at this post.

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