Hello

If you are a Mach3 User, you can also have a look on this.

http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2376.0

http://www.atelier-des-fougeres.fr/Cambam/Aide/Plugins/Digitizer.html

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David

Re

Another trick that can be of some interest for you, is the way to fill the text (or other shapes) ; you can use a "regular" pocket operation to generate the toolpath for a given tool, then create a new layer and use the context menu of the pocket MOP and hit "Toolpaths to geometry" ; the result is a bunch of polylines that excatly match the toolpath of the pocket operation. This new polylines can be now projected on the surface and used with the engrave MOP. (and the pocket mop is no longer useful)

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David

[tool diameter]

Hello

The tool diameter is set to 0 in your engraving MOP, so CB can't calculate if it must do a Z move or cut laterally to go from a toolpath to another because it use Max Crossover Distance * tool diameter to determine that, so with a tool = 0, the result is always 0 and you get always a Z move.

Max Crossover Distance    

Maximum distance as a fraction (0-1) of the tool diameter to cut in horizontal transitions.

If the distance to the next toolpath exceeds MaxCrossoverDistance, a retract, rapid and plunge to the next position, via the clearance plane, is inserted.

http://www.cambam.info/doc/dw/0.9.8/cam/Engrave.htm

you can play with the value of Max Crossover Distance, to remove Z moves, but be careful, it's a good idea to simulate to avoid unwanted horizontal move, especially on a curved surface, you must also take this problem in account, when the tool will move from a path to another, he will not follow the curvature on the 3D object but cut a "flat" line.

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David

Hello Ralf  

It works OK with exactly the same settings on 0.98 (the arc fit = 0.08) so I guess it's a bug.

the arc fit tolerance, I use it for waterline, so toolpaths uses arcs instead of a bunch of small strait lines (it's my default settings) ... but with scanline, this setting must have no effect, there is never arcs in scanline toolpath.

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David

Hello,

By playing with the STL of this topic http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6773.0 I fall on a bug that appears in V1.0 and not in V0.98.

Strange bubble toolpath with shape outline setting.   

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David

Will it try to do the holes when it is doing the 3d surface?

Hello

Yes.

To avoid that you can use 3 methods.

1) generate another STL without the hole and use it for the 3D machining, those with the hole is only used to extract the holes edges.

2) creates disks, and move them on the hole to do 'covers', then for your 3D mop, select the STL and the cover as source objects

you can use this plugin to create the 'covers' (check draw solids as surface if you want to be able to copy/paste them, because copy/paste is not working with solid objects)

http://www.atelier-des-fougeres.fr/Cambam/Aide/Plugins/Solids.html

3) make a region with the polylines that define the contour of the STL and the contour of the holes, then use it as a boundary in your 3D mop

I attach an example with the 2 last methods.

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David

Hello Dave

- it's a little better for texts size in horizontal direction but too few space in vertical direction ;(space between the objects)

- selected style (and library) say: (optional), but if select no style or no library the plugin won't.

- if you select a style library, then change for another (without closing the plugin window), each time you change the library, each time the styles of the library are added to the style list ; that cause an error if you select a style that do not match the selected library. (no pb with the tool lib)

- after the plugin as been run, the selected shape ID is not added to the created MOP

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David

Hello Dave

Thanks I'll have a look tomorrow .. now it's bed time (Exceeded by 5 or 6 hours  )

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David

[Spiral Toolpath from Profile]

Spiral Toolpath from Profile updated (V7.1)

Area & Perimeter calculation updated (V1.3)

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David

Hello Dave

I just try the plugin for the first time and I get an error if no style is selected.

Also, maybe because I use 120% for text size in Windows settings (W7), I get a bad display in the plugin. (and the list of tools is not sorted by tool number)

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David

Hello Eddy

I just see another little bug (exist in previous version), the polyline # is missing in the perimeter line. (maybe it's not needed to write the ID twice ?)



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David

Updated version attached, should work with CamBam 0.9.8 and 1.0

1. Translation code fixed

Ok, thank Eddy ; works ok on both versions.

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David

Hello

Cambam also has a handy feature where you can change the opacity of it to trace over an image ( I just save the image and load it as wall paper with Cambam on top ) and using the available tools within Cambam to smooth out and flow the lines.

Try the V1, certainly you'll like it for this job, because the problem of the transparency is that you can't change the zoom or pan anything during the job (and in my case, it works correctly only with the GDI mode)

With an imported image in the V1, the image is zoomed and/or moved at the same time of the rest of the drawing, and, in addition, the ability to draw and edit splines is a very useful addition.

Often, I prefer to redraw on a picture than digitize, because digitized polylines needs a lot of cleaning job, especially when the picture used as source has a poor resolution.

Some usefull tricks to use this Bitmap object:

move the Bitmap object (a little) below the 0 (in Z), so the lines that you draw are not on the same plane that the picture and that make them more visible.

use a different layer to draw your lines, and move the layer that contain the bitmap objet to the top of the layers list in the tree, so the lines are drawn after the image. (objects are drawn in the same order than the layers in the list)

lock the layer that contain the bitmap (ctrl + space when the layer name is selected)  to make the selection of others objects more easy, and to avoid selection of the image (if selected, the image will cover the lines)

Also, if you do not already know it, have a look on this plugin by EddyCurrent ; it give a nice way to clean polylines with "stairs" that you get with digitized images.

http://www.atelier-des-fougeres.fr/Cambam/Aide/Plugins/PolylineSmooth.html

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David

Hello

I have removed you mail address from the post ; it's the better way to be infected by a ton of SPAM in your mail box !! 

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David

Hello,

Converting JPG images to vectors isn't something CB does.  You might want to investigate Inkscape or some other software.  For rounded edges on profiles a corner rounding bit is what I'd use.  For aluminum it's possible to use router bits.

The alpha version in progress (V1.0) do it

http://www.cambam.info/doc/dw/1.0.0/cad/Bitmaps.htm

It can also be used as a 'blue print' as background, then you can draw splines, polylines or other shapes on top of the picture that is used as a guide.

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David