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    Default Cut3D Perceptions.

    So I've been using Cut3d for a few weeks now and have a couple of perceptions that could probably be considered "complaints" or "opportunities for improvement" :-)..

    So first, the good parts:.. The program is fast and smooth in its operation and has yet to run up against something it can't handle programatically.

    And for the opportunities:

    "wasted effort": in the Rough Cut output, The code seems to spend an inordinate amount of time smoothing the edges of the material that is being thrown away ?? eg: cutting a doughnut with profile... it carefully smoothes out the doughnut hole.. about 16 passes round and round so I have a perfectly shaped piece of metal to throw away :-).. Doesn't the program know what is waste and what is the part?

    With parts having a lot of detail, I find it incredibly inefficient.. eg: I was doing a 1" diameter, 1/8" wide ring with 16 evenly spaced holes with chamfered bottoms and a through hole of 1/6" inch at the bottom of each. To get < 0.001" accuracy on the holes, this seems to require about 1000 passes across the piece in the finishing mode. With my little mill this is about half a day effort.. It would seem to me that it would be far more efficient to have a 3D finishing algorithm that did curve following rather than raster traversal..

    Cutout: So since I've already cut down to the top of the part in the material, why does the Coutout pattern start at the top of the material?? it seems to spend half it's time carving out "air"..

    I should note that I am a newbie and my mill is a little MaxNC driven by Mach3

    --marcel

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    It would seem to me that it would be far more efficient to have a 3D finishing algorithm that did curve following rather than raster traversal..
    It is. But you get what you pay for. Programs like Cut3D and MeshCAM load files consisting of polygonal models. There are no curves in the models to follow.

    What you're seeing, is just the way these inexpensive 3D programs work.

    To get a 3D program with feature recognition, you typically need to spend at least $2000, and usually more. Much more.

    Gerry

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    JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
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    (Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)


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    Hello Marcel,

    Thanks for taking the time to post your views about Cut3D. Below I've
    tried to answer your questions.

    Quote Originally Posted by nanoplane View Post
    "wasted effort": in the Rough Cut output, The code seems to spend an inordinate amount of time smoothing the edges of the material that is being thrown away ?? eg: cutting a doughnut with profile... it carefully smoothes out the doughnut hole.. about 16 passes round and round so I have a perfectly shaped piece of metal to throw away :-).. Doesn't the program know what is waste and what is the part?
    --marcel
    Have you tried using the option - Use Model Silhouette
    This option detects the boundary of the model and limits the toolpath
    to only cut inside this region.

    Also, try using - Z Level Roughing
    This creates planer 2D roughing toolpaths that do not run over the
    3D regions of the model. Being 2D XY moves the roughing toolpaths
    typically run faster on the CNC machine, but may leave more material
    on the part than the 3D Raster strategy.

    Quote Originally Posted by nanoplane View Post
    With parts having a lot of detail, I find it incredibly inefficient.. eg: I was doing a 1" diameter, 1/8" wide ring with 16 evenly spaced holes with chamfered bottoms and a through hole of 1/6" inch at the bottom of each. To get < 0.001" accuracy on the holes, this seems to require about 1000 passes across the piece in the finishing mode. With my little mill this is about half a day effort.. It would seem to me that it would be far more efficient to have a 3D finishing algorithm that did curve following rather than raster traversal..
    I'm guessing that your part might be a 2D machining project that would
    be more efficiently cut using Profile and Pocketing toolpaths. If you can
    post some images or the actual file it would be helpful in pointing you in
    the right direction.

    Quote Originally Posted by nanoplane View Post
    Cutout: So since I've already cut down to the top of the part in the material, why does the Coutout pattern start at the top of the material?? it seems to spend half it's time carving out "air"..
    If the Silhouette boundary option has been used and a larger diameter
    cutter is used to cutout the part, there is a requirement to profile at
    multiple Z levels into the material. We could try to enhance this operation
    but it's worth noting again that Cut3D has been developed for quick, easy
    and affordable 3D Model machining and not really for production / time
    critical projects.

    I hope this makes sense and please let me know if you have any further questions or we can help in any way.

    Tony



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    Tony,
    Thanks for responding.. A couple more notes..



    Quote Originally Posted by Tony Mac View Post
    Hello Marcel,

    Thanks for taking the time to post your views about Cut3D. Below I've
    tried to answer your questions.

    Have you tried using the option - Use Model Silhouette
    This option detects the boundary of the model and limits the toolpath
    to only cut inside this region.
    I am using the silhouette option - works great!. For roughing, my pain was more on the inside of the donut where it spent about a third of the total time carefully smoothing the edge of the material that was going to drop out of the middle.. just seemed wastfull.

    Also, try using - Z Level Roughing
    This creates planer 2D roughing toolpaths that do not run over the
    3D regions of the model. Being 2D XY moves the roughing toolpaths
    typically run faster on the CNC machine, but may leave more material
    on the part than the 3D Raster strategy.


    I'm guessing that your part might be a 2D machining project that would
    be more efficiently cut using Profile and Pocketing toolpaths. If you can
    post some images or the actual file it would be helpful in pointing you in
    the right direction.
    I'll post a pic soon..


    If the Silhouette boundary option has been used and a larger diameter
    cutter is used to cutout the part, there is a requirement to profile at
    multiple Z levels into the material. We could try to enhance this operation
    but it's worth noting again that Cut3D has been developed for quick, easy
    and affordable 3D Model machining and not really for production / time
    critical projects.
    In my example, the tool for cutout was much smaller than that used for roughing so there would have been no chance for erroneous interaction..

    And yep, I realize that and for my purposes (hobby, FIRST Robotics mentor) We mostly are ok.. although with teenagers there's always a tendency to do things last minute :-).

    I thank you for your consideration and am getting a lot of use out of the product.



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    Default perceptions

    So I'm attaching a picture of the part I'm trying to build. it basically consists of a ring with spaces for ball bearings. the "holes" have rounded bottoms and a hole at the bottom Ring diamter is about 1.5", round bottomed holes are 0.1" diameter hole at the bottom is .060 in diameter.

    If there was one thing I could ask for in Vectric Cut3d, it would be for an option to cut the Profile Only on both the rough and finish cuts.. it would have made the tasks easy..

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Cut3D Perceptions.-upperbearingrace-jpg  


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    That looks more like a 2.5 D job to me. If this is a bearing carrier, there is no need for the bottom holes to be curved since they aren't a bearing surface. All they need to do is keep the bearings from falling out while you assemble whatever it is you are building with it.

    bob



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    It certainly could be a 2.5D job but I didn't see in Cut2D the ability to import a 3D representation of the part.

    And you're right the bottom doesn't need to be rounded but that does provide the most material and the strongest part..

    I guess the point behind my post was that: "Hey, got the product, like most of the things but here's something I was trying to do and failed due to some specific limitations... Am I missing something or is there a chance to have the capabilities expanded slightly to help me get what I wanted?? "..

    Based on the toolpath generated for Roughing, Cut3d seems to have all the information it needed to cut the way I would have liked.. so this is really a matter of maybe providing a few extra options.. maybe like:

    For the Finishing code:
    - let me select whether I want Profile, Raster or both
    - let me select whether I want the top surface milled or not.

    That would pretty much do it for me. :-)



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