I realize there may be better ways of doing this but I'm still learning and wanted to see if I could make this work and learn some of the less explored areas (for me) of Sprutcam. I have imported a 3D model and now I want to add a hole through it. I go to 2D geometery and create a point in either the default XY plane or a new plane that I create at at the surface of the part (get same result either way). I then go to machining and select the hole drilling operation. I ask it to create a hole at the point I have created and it seems to. Setting the tool parameters and hitting run, I appear to have a tool path showing the hole location and going through the entire model when I select a depth greater than the height of the model. But when I run the simulation the drill comes down only to the surface of the model and then retracts, drilling only workpiece material and not the model. I seem to get the same results whether I set the depth explicitly or Zmin and zmax. Again, assuming I'm trying something legitimate can you see where I'm going wrong? The workpiece type for the operation is 'Do not check."

Terry

Terry, check to see if you have the 'Bottom level' option selected (ticked) on the Parameters tab. If this is selected, then whatever value is displayed there will be the maximum depth that the drilling operation will be allowed to do.
If you always want to use the maximum depth defined in the 'Holes' list then make sure you take the tick out of the 'Bottom level' option.

I use the 'Bottom level' option if I want to restrict the depth for hole machining so that I can do a spot (centre) drilling operation without having to reset the depth of the hole(s) in the Holes list.

HTH.

Dave

Dave,
I e-mailed the project to you. Setting the bottom level in the parameters of the machining operation doesn't seem to fix the problem. Nor does setting the height value in the holes parameter section. But, setting the Zmin value in the holes parameter section does get it drilled. Maybe I'm misunderstanding which "bottom level" parameter you're referring to above - the one in the machining operation or the one in the holes model.

Hi Terry, OK, I'll take a look at it. How long ago did you send it? Could you try re-sending it again, my anti-spam software has been getting a little 'hormonal' lately.........

Dave

Hi Terry,
Because there is no hole in the model that you are using, the 'Auto' option will only allow you to drill down to the model.
I have set the Zmax (top of hole) and Zmin (bottom of hole) values and deselected the 'Bottom level' option and everything appears to work ok.

http://www.download.sprut.co.uk/Forum_Images/drill.jpg

HTH.

Dave

Thanks that makes sense