Engrave Feature Option

[aussiegazza]

I want to engrave using a V Carve tool, but I only get the following options:



I cannot save the V Carve into these tool options as the angle is not allowed to be entered.

Any way I can get more tool options associated with Engrave?

I know I could input the tool as if it was a 'thin', straight bit (as a workaround?) and just set the depth, but I want to understand what is going on and see if there is a system setting I can change.

I am assuming that 'Engrave' ignores the V Carve tool's angle settings and therefore they are not offered as options.

Garry

[BurrMan]

Hi Gary,
The engrave feature doesnt do any lifting and diving.. It is only a depth setting.. You can see this by doing a 3d engrave on 3d geometry and setting the tooling to various sizes.. The path does not change (Like it would for 3d surface geometry.. The toolpath for a 1 inch bit is the same as a .125 setting...

If you have open 3d geometry, you can just do the engrave and put your Vbit in.. If you want to backplot it, you can change the toolsetting in the predator header to reflect a V-bit in the cut and depth..

If it is a closed planar geometry, You can create an offset of the geometry and use a V-carve toolpath to act as an Engrave, which allows you to specify the V Plunge at the feature.

Here is an example of using the V-carve toolpath to "engrave" a profile.. (Not 3d) The inner profile is the original geometry. I could get the plunging and lifting effect by doing an offset in both directions of the original and then doing some slight deforms to increase or decrease the width of the gap, causeing the V-tool to do it's thing..

But on an engrave, what are you looking for??? Is it just the verify thats missing? or are you looking for the V-Carve plunging and lifting effect out of engrave?

[adel_acameron]

Hi, I know that this is an old post, but I am running V24 of BobCad and it is still a problem. I have a piece that I am milling, and all I want to do is engrave it with the date I created the piece.

The problem is exactly as the original post specified, there appears to be no way to select an engraving v-bit when you select the engraving feature, and I thought that was the purpose of engraving. Now if you look at the list of available tools, the v-bits are clearly there, however when choosing the engraving option you can't select them.

So the question is, how do you select the v-tools for any work at all?

Thanks

I want to engrave using a V Carve tool, but I only get the following options:



I cannot save the V Carve into these tool options as the angle is not allowed to be entered.

Any way I can get more tool options associated with Engrave?

I know I could input the tool as if it was a 'thin', straight bit (as a workaround?) and just set the depth, but I want to understand what is going on and see if there is a system setting I can change.

I am assuming that 'Engrave' ignores the V Carve tool's angle settings and therefore they are not offered as options.

Garry

[BurrMan]

The vbit in BobCad is used for V-carve, which does manipulation of the toolpath with regard to the geometry and parameters of the feature, taking into account the Shape of the tool.

The Engrave does none of this... There is no V bit available to the engrave feature.

Its just a single line depth definition...

[adel_acameron]

Thanks Burrman. I think I get it now, so essentially the endmill will cut the text profile. Surely this places a limit on the size of the text, unless you disregard the tools setting and just place a v bit into the mill in place of the end mill that is specified. Just appears to be a bit of a Kludge. If you look at Aspire 3, etc they have a wonderful ability to select all manner of V bits to do intricate carving.

Looks like I may have to use BobCad for the main piece and then run the engraving using Aspire or 3dCut.

Thanks very much

[aussiegazza]

Thanks Burrman. I think I get it now, so essentially the endmill will cut the text profile. Surely this places a limit on the size of the text, unless you disregard the tools setting and just place a v bit into the mill in place of the end mill that is specified. Just appears to be a bit of a Kludge. If you look at Aspire 3, etc they have a wonderful ability to select all manner of V bits to do intricate carving.

Looks like I may have to use BobCad for the main piece and then run the engraving using Aspire or 3dCut.

Thanks very much

Essentially my workaround. Use a V bit and work out the depth required/needed. Maybe do a test cut and adjust.

Garry

[BurrMan]

Thanks Burrman. I think I get it now, so essentially the endmill will cut the text profile. Surely this places a limit on the size of the text, unless you disregard the tools setting and just place a v bit into the mill in place of the end mill that is specified. Just appears to be a bit of a Kludge. If you look at Aspire 3, etc they have a wonderful ability to select all manner of V bits to do intricate carving.

Looks like I may have to use BobCad for the main piece and then run the engraving using Aspire or 3dCut.

Thanks very much

I dont know aspire, but I think it is an engraving program??? It most likely is doing what BobCads V-Carve is doing...

The tool setting in the engrave doesnt change the path at all, unlike "profiling" does... So like in a profile feature, the tool entered will alter the path with it's dimensions... The engrave feature doesnt do this.. It just programs a depth.. So just put your Vbit (or whatever bit) in it for the engrave... You can toolpath a .125 inch letter "D" with a 2 foot tool and the path will not change.

I suppose the limitation of this, is you have to just figure the depth vs V tooling to know the depth you need to set for the engrave... Where something like aspire may have a setting like "I want the v cut in the stock to be 1/4 inch wide at the surface and I'm using this type of tool" and then it will figure the depth to set for the engrave....BobCad doesnt do this.

[BurrMan]

I just went and looked a the Vectric site... So they are not just an engraving specialty software...

so essentially the endmill will cut the text profile. Surely this places a limit on the size of the text, unless you disregard the tools setting and just place a v bit into the mill in place of the end mill that is specified.

Maybe there is a misunderstanding by me with the discussion, but this quote touches on it...

BobCads engrave feature just follows the geometry.. It doesnt "pocket out" the inside of a letter.. Basically the tool setting is nothing to the cut.. and it wont limit anything about the text or geometry being toolpathed.. The vbit in the place of the endmill listed in the feature is correct. Just put your Vbit in the machine and engrave. I suppose the only bummer would be if you are utilizing a machine with an auto toolchanger, you would have to jump through some kind of hoop to get your tooling listed in the code output

If you want to utilize a V-bit to do the "inside of text", you will use V-Carve toolpath for this...

[adel_acameron]

Yes, thanks again Burrman. I was expecting too much I was assuming it would pocket out the text and now I realise that the only way to do this is to switch to 3 Mill axis and then use a V-Bit to pocket out the letters, or more correctly carve out the letters - now that I understand this I can probably make it work, however it will not come close to Aspire when the main task is engraving, where there is a need to specify a wide variety of v type bits shapes.

But I think I can make BobCad do most of the things I need to now that I have moved up a notch on the learning curve.

[adel_acameron]

Agree Gazza - I have just finished a few test pieces using your technique.

Essentially my workaround. Use a V bit and work out the depth required/needed. Maybe do a test cut and adjust.

Garry

[BurrMan]

however it will not come close to Aspire when the main task is engraving, where there is a need to specify a wide variety of v type bits shapes..

So does Vectric alter the toopath per a tools profile/shape for engraving???

[adel_acameron]

So does Vectric alter the toopath per a tools profile/shape for engraving???

Yes, with Aspire, you can specify different flat bottom type v-bits, so effectively, you just specify the tool-bit and it will give you a simulation of how that bit will perform (and this is extremely accurate), you ajdust for the type of bits you have, and it will then "engrave", "carve" or "pocket" the text - it is very intricate and fascinating to watch.

As hinted above, the best part is the simulation - if the simulation does not render the text, then you are wasting your time sending it to the CNC machine. This is very useful for very fine text etc.