Vcarve tool

[sdumond]

I am trying to vcarve on a plaque and everytime i go to use the vcarve toolpath, it trys to carve around the dang clipart and words instead of V carving the object and words. Very, very, frustrating. Then when I try to change some things, it says I am going to carve through the wood. Then when I go back to the original settings, it still says it's going through and doesn't change the figures. The original settings didn't show it going through, but when I change the figures and then go back to the original settings, it doesn't change and still says it is going through with the original figures.

It also says that it has 75 open vectors and are being ignored.Some or all the open vectors are in groups. Grouping open vectors does not join them, to use these vectors you need to ungroup them and join them. There are 33 remaining vectors.

I can find no open vectors and the ungroup selection in the menu when you right click is not available! I think this program has a serious glich to it!


Please anyone that can help. I am trying to make a birthday present for a lady for Saturday evening and I guess it is not going to happen.

Thanks for any help

[MarkJohnston]

You say you're trying to VCarve an object, what is it? If it's a line drawing you may want to use the profile toolpath and set it to profile on the line and set the depth to .01 and using a Vbit see what it looks like, you can always do deeper. I usually end up about .05 depending on the drawing.

The VCarve toolpath is set to carve down between two lines so the farther apart the lines are the deeper the cut. The error about cutting through the material is probably trying to cut between 2 line that are too far apart. The VCarve toolpath is setup to carve letters and even then if the letters are to large it may cut to deep. It also depends on the Vbit angle your using if it's 30 degree angle it will cut deeper than a 60, 90 or 120 angle Vbit.

If you post the CRV file we can help you more but there can't be any copyright on the object your posting.

Good Luck,
Mark

[sdumond]

That is the problem. It has to have 2 lines to carve between! I am trying to get it to follow a single line. I will send the crv file and there is no copyright here.

[MarkJohnston]

The candle can be setup as a profile toolpath and set it around .03 deep and profile on then check the preview. The duplicate vectors on the words are because you selected a single line font. Change it to a true type font and it will be OK. Set the words up as a VCarve toolpath.

See my example.
Mark

[Adrian]

The candle will VCarve ok as long as you select it separately from the existing text and the outside border. As has been said the text is single line format which isn't the correct type of text for vcarving.

[martin54]

You might also want to spend some time cleaning up the vectors on that candle, doesn't look great as it is.

[sdumond]

I hate to ask, but can somebody fix this for me this time and send the file as a link, as I am desperately in a time crunch. I have been trying to get this to work and I kind of understand what I need to do, but I am out of time to correct this. If anybody can help me with this, Thank you.

[Adrian]

The file Mark attached to his post has what you need in it. If you want the candle VCarved as well just add to the VCarve toolpath he has already defined.

[MarkJohnston]

I don't know if you trying to get this project done for tonight or a week from now but I think you need to not be in a big hurry if you are really new to this program. You will get a much nicer plaque if you put a boarder around the outside and if you have a hand router maybe a round over on the edge or even use a decorative ogee bit. If you're going to paint the VCarved areas you should first spray the plaque with a sealer, let it dry and then paint the carving and sand off the over paint. That way you don't need to try and paint in the lines.

There are some really good tutorials to look at which explains a lot of what you need to do when you have time and a bunch of great forum threads on the subject.

One last comment, it's probably not a great idea to say the program has serious glitches until you get a good handle on it. This is a fantastic program and a great company to work with. I'm not saying it's prefect but then nothing is but it's got tons of features and I run into things all the time that I didn't even know they were there and I've been using it for over 5 years.

The people on this forum are fantastic and will want to give you a hand when they can.

Sorry if you can't get this done when you need it but keep at it and you will learn fast. The node editing is something that you will need to learn and not that hard to pick up but it does take time and a bit of studying.

Good luck,
Mark

[sdumond]

I don't want you to get the wrong idea that I was blaming the company or the software. I really think the service they have given me has been great. I just don't understand why a program no matter what I do or set on it still has the same figures for going through the wood.I have watched the videos and they imported the vectored clip art and chose the vcarve toolpath and it just happened. I changed the fonts to true type and it still won't carve the fonts. It still tries to carve the inside and leave the fonts proud with the vcarve toolpath. As far as Mark's file, when I tried to use it, it said it can not because it is an Aspire file.

I have sent this to the vectric support and am awaiting a reply.

I have done considerable amount of woodwork and am going to rout the edge and finish it, but I wanted to carve it first, as I didn't want to put in the work if it messed up the board with the carving. I bought and put together this CNC machine to compliment my woodworking

Thank you again for your help. I appreciate you getting back with me.

[sdumond]

I have figured the problem out!!! I needed to put a double border instead of a single border. No matter what I did to the text or candle, it would not vcarve them because there was only a single border line around it! I put a double border line up and bingo, it previewed as a vcarve. With a single border line, no matter what I did to the text or candle it was showing that I was going through the board. It was trying to grind the border off!

Thanks again for your help, as you guys really helped me find the problem. I pieced each vector off and selected either just the candle or the text and it showed the tool path correct.then I did the same to the border and that's when I found the problem.

Thanks again

[Adrian]

I did say that you need to select the text and candle separately from the border. With a single border you're basically telling the software to VCarve the area between the outside of the candle/letters and the inside of the border.