Hey y'all.
Welcome to Part 4 of my mini-series on v-carving for the absolute beginner.
Before we get started, let me remind everyone that I am neither sponsored...
...nor endorsed by Vectric Ltd., nor any other company.
I'm doing this video series to help the person who has never done anything like this before...
...get into their CAD/CAM software...
...and successfully create and finish a project within the CAD/CAM software.
Also, for the Vectric users...
...I'll remind you that I'm using VCarve Pro version 9.509...
...but everything I'm going to show you works exactly the same way in VCarve Desktop, VCarve Pro, and Aspire.
As I alluded to in Part 3 of this series...
...we're going to get into a little bit more of an advanced project this time.
This is the project we're going to create.
It's a 3D clip art file from the Vectric clipart library...
...and we're going to v-carve a name into it to personalize it.
Now it's a fairly simple project that looks a lot more complicated than it actually is.
We're going to apply the v-carved text to conform to the contours of that 3D model...
...and that seems to be a major sticking point in this type of a project, for some people.
So, to get started, let's go into a new session of VCarve, and we'll create a new file.
Now since I'm not exactly sure what size I want to make this project...
...we'll make a piece that's a little bit oversize, and we'll size it from there.
So, starting at the top, this is a single-sided job.
I'm going to make a piece of material that's 12 inches wide in X...
...12 inches high in Y...
...with a thickness of 3/4 of an inch, nominal.
I'm using inches for my unit of measure.
I want my Z zero position to be on the material surface...
...and for layout purposes, I'm going to put my X Y datum position in the center of the material.
We'll go ahead and accept everything else as it is...
...and there's our piece of material.
The first thing we want to do is, we want to import a piece of clip art from the Vectric Clipart Library.
Now this is not a tutorial on how to import a 3D model into VCarve.
That's well outside of the scope of this video, and a subject for another video at a later date.
So with our job setup completed, we're ready to go ahead and import.
The way we'll do that is, we'll come down here to the bottom, to the Clipart tab.
Click that tab, and that brings us into our library.
We have a couple of different folders here that...
...come with VCarve and Aspire when you purchase the software.
One is the Clipart folder. If I click on the name Clipart up here...
...it opens up this folder here, and lists the categories of clip art...
...that are included with the software.
There are 2D vectors, there are 3D tabs, and then these are 3D clipart designs.
We also have the Design and Make folder.
These are the patterns and clipart files from the Design and Make website...
...that can be purchased for import into your Vectric software.
We'll go back over here to my clipart folder, and I want to find the football clipart file.
I could just scroll down and search for it...
...they're all arranged here in alphabetical order...
...but instead, I'm going to click on Objects and People...
...and we'll look down... and there is our football file.
We have three different versions of the same football.
One is this stand alone model here.
Another is the football modeled in a dish.
And the other is a football with a decorative trim around it.
I'm going to import this one here...
...and I'll do that simply by clicking on it and holding my left mouse button...
...and drag it up onto my material, right about the center...
...and let go.
We see here it is selected in the Move and Transform mode...
...and we can tell that it's active because it's deep black around to the edges...
...and you can see the detail of the file.
If I click off out here, it transforms into this representation of the file.
You can still see it, but you can see it's not highlighted...
...it's grayed out, more or less.
To select the file, I'll just bring my cursor down into it anywhere, click on it, and that activates the model.
That selects the model.
If I click on it again, we go into Move and Transform mode.
From here, I can go back over to my drawing tab...
...click on it, and that brings us back over into our drawing toolbox.
Now I want to see how big this is, so I'll come over here under Transform Objects...
...to Set Selected Object Size.
Click on that icon...
...and I can see here that the entire model...
...is just under 5 3/4 inches wide and just under 5 1/2 inches tall...
...and we have the Auto-Scale Z checked.
I want to make it a little bit bigger because I think 5x5 is a little bit small.
So I'm going to place my cursor over one of these white corner boxes...
...hold down the shift key so we expand from the center...
...hold down the shift key and click the left mouse button, and drag outward...
...to increase the size to something that just looks good to me.
That's about it right there. Now I'll release the mouse button...
...and we see the size has updated here in our Set Size form.
Now we're about 9.397 x 8...
...just to make things even I'm going to make that 9.5...
...make sure I have Link X Y checked. This readout also updated when I typed in up here.
We'll click Apply...
...and Close.
So now we have our football filling up that 12 x 12 piece of material...
...with a little bit of space around it. I don't want to be so big we wouldn't want to hang it up.
With the football still selected, and we can tell it's still selected because we can see all the details in it...
I want to come over here and click on the Modeling tab.
When I click on the Modeling tab, I get a list of the components currently in our project.
The only component we have so far is this football.
If I double click the title of the football...
...it brings me into the Component Properties.
This is something that we do want to check because of...
...our material thickness and the thickness of the model.
This model has contour. It has a height.
We want to make sure that our model isn't thicker than the material we're cutting it out of.
We do that by looking right here under Shape Height.
We see here that this shape's height is .5204...
...so this model is a little bit thicker than 1/2 inch.
That's fine. Our material is 3/4 of an inch thick...
...so we're okay.
If, for example, this model was 0.9 inches high...
...we could adjust that shape height right here.
We would drag this slider down to make the model a little bit thinner.
We don't need to do that in this case.
We're just fine, so we can go ahead and close that form.
Since I want to cut this out of the piece of material...
I'm going to need to create a vector around this model for my Profile toolpath to follow.
So with the model still selected...
...in the Modeling tab, I'll come up here to this third icon right here...
Create a Vector Boundary Around the Selected Component.
I'll click on that icon, and at first glance it appears that nothing happened.
But if we come over here and zoom in just slightly...
...we can see that there is a vector around our model now.
I can select that vector by clicking on it, and we can see by the pink dotted lines it's now selected.
Our model is deselected, but the vector around it is selected.
So with that completed...
...with our vector around our model, we can go back over here into the drawing tab...
...to our drawing toolbox...
...and we can customize this a little bit.
I want to personalize this by v-carving my nephew's name into this football.
So I'm going to create a piece of text to put right here on the football.
So I'll select the vector - not the model.
I'll select the vector that we put around the football...
...and I'll come over here to Draw Text Within a Vector Box.
I'll click on that icon...
...and our text is going to be automatically sized to fit within that vector box...
...with some modifications.
We will still have to modify the text after we've got it typed in, and I'll show you how to do that.
No, I'm not going to use my favorite Times New Roman font as I am so wont to do.
I'm going to select a different font, because I'd like it to be a little bit bolder.
I don't want it to be too bold...
...but I want it to be something that kind of stands out...
...and lets everybody know that this is my nephew's bedroom.
This is to go on his door.
I kind of like this one here. It's nice and bold but it's not obnoxious...
...so I'll go ahead and select this. It's Swiss 721...
I'll select that font...
I'm not going to select bold or italic...
I want it aligned to the center...
...and I'll come up here and type in his name.
VCarve put that into our text box in real time...
...and I think that size is going to work out okay.
I can always change it later on if I need to.
We'll go ahead and accept it as it is, and we'll close that form.
Now I want to rotate this text so it kind of fits within the football here...
...and maybe resize it a little bit if it appears to be too big or too obnoxious.
It's already selected, so I'll click it again...
...and we go into the Move and Transform mode.
I'll choose one of these black corner boxes here, and it doesn't matter which one I choose...
...and I'll rotate the text around its center...
...until I see it kind of following the same direction as the football itself.
That looks pretty good. I can always nudge it just a little bit more if I think it needs it.
I'll come up here and grab a hold of the center box, right here in the center of my text...
...click and drag it down just a little bit...
...so that we can still see the laces and it won't interfere with any carving there.
I think that text might be just a little bit big...
No, I'm gonna leave it the way it is.
I'll just nudge it around a little bit here...
...till I get it to where it just looks nice. There is sometimes no real rhyme or reason.
There's no set path or hard and fast rules for this.
Just simply nudge it around until it looks good to you.
I think I have that placed where I want it.
So now I'll click off over here to the side...
...and we're ready to go ahead and start calculating toolpaths.
Right now what I want to do, however, before I calculate my toolpaths...
...I'll want to save this project.
So I'll come over here to FILE...
...click Save As...
...and we'll navigate to the folder that I want to put this in...
We'll put it in here with one I've already created.
I'll select a name...
...and save that file.
Now if something happens; power goes out...
...laptop decides to crash - I haven't lost what I've already done.
Now I'm ready to calculate toolpaths, so we'll switch over to the Toolpath tab.
Now we're going to get into toolpathing strategies.
With a file that's a little bit more complex, such as this...
...where we've got a 3D model, we have a profile vector, and we have v-carving...
...we need to think about the order of operations.
We need to think about what we need to do first.
What, if anything, are any of these other tool paths relying on.
The first thing that I'll want to do, is I'll want to carve this football...
...so that I have the shape to apply the v-carving and the profile cut out to.
The profile cut out should always be the last operation I perform.
So we'll select the football...
...and we'll come up over here...
...and select either the 3D Roughing toolpath or the 3D Finishing toolpath.
With this shallow of a model...
...it's 1/2 inch thick, so it's not going to be cutting that deeply into the material to carve this model...
I'm not gonna bother with a 3D Roughing toolpath.
If I had to make some extremely deep cuts...
I would do a 3D Roughing toolpath just to make life easier...
...on the bit I'm gonna use for the 3D Finishing toolpath.
Much more on this in another video.
So from the start I'll do a 3D Finishing toolpath.
And this automatically brings us into Material Setup.
It's telling me the thickness of my material is 3/4 inch.
My X Y datum is in the center of the material.
I want to make sure that I have Show Detailed Summary on the Toolpath Tab checked...
...because this gives us options we wouldn't have without it.
My Z zero, again, is on the material surface.
The Model Position in Material - there is no gap above the model.
I want the model to start carving from the surface of the material.
My Rapid Z gaps above the material are 1/2 inch. That's fine for me.
My Rapid Plunge is 1/4 inch. That's fine for me.
I explained these further in a previous video that I will put a link to up here.
My Home Start Position; all of this is explained further in this video I'm linking up here.
We'll click OK, and now we get into the Finish Machining toolpath itself.
Starting from the top, I'm going to cut this with a 1/8 inch ball nose end mill.
That will give me the detail around of the stitching...
...and the detail of this seam here in the football without it taking forever to carve this away.
The Machining Limit Boundary.
This creates some confusion at times.
If you look at this little diagram, here, we have the sample piece of material and the eagle.
There is a blue line around the eagle.
That is the Model Boundary.
Selecting the Model Boundary will cut the model only.
If I were to select the Material Boundary, you see how it moved that blue line out here
Machining the Material Boundary will also carve away all of this material out here...
...leaving just the football model in the center.
Fair warning: this makes for long machining times - especially with this small bit.
It would carve away all of this material here...
...until it got to the football, then start carving the contours of the football...
I don't want to do that on this particular project.
Going to a Selected Vector and a Selected Level are topics for another video, further down the road.
I'm going to just carve to the Model Boundary, and that's all.
My Area Machining Strategy...
I'm going to use Raster.
I could use Offset, but I'm going to use Raster simply because...
I don't want any patterns carved into the material...
...that I'm going to have to come back in here and sand, like around these laces.
I'm going to use a Raster Angle of 0.0
...meaning the bit's going to move back and forth from side to side in X.
My safe Z is 1/2 inch. I'm going to leave all of this alone.
I'm going to call it the Football 3D Finish...
...and Calculate.
Calculating a 3D toolpath takes a little bit of time.
There we see the toolpath illustrated in our 3D view.
Let me go ahead and change the material to maple, so we have something that we can see.
You can see this is basically solid blue.
If we zoom in a little bit...
...we can get a better idea of exactly what this bit's going to do, in order to carve this football.
I'll zoom back out and go to a straight down Plan View.
I'm not going to put in a tool path color; I'm going to leave it the material color.
I will animate the preview.
We'll preview this toolpath...
...and there we have our football carved into the material.
We've got some nice details here along the seam...
...and around the stitching.
We'll probably need to do a little bit of cleanup sanding.
It's very rare to have a piece come off of the CNC without needing a little bit of sanding.
It's very rare to get a piece that's ready for finish.
It happens, but that's generally the exception; not the rule - in my experience.
Okay, we can close our Preview window...
...we see in our 3D view that we have the football selected.
I'm going to go back over to the 2D view...
...and click off to deselect the football.
I want to V carve the text into the football.
With my text selected, I'll come up here and select the V-Carve Engraving toolpath.
My start depth will be 0.0
I'm not going to use a flat depth.
Because this text is pretty large; I've got some pretty wide areas here...
...I'm going to use a 90-degree v-bit with a cutting diameter of 1/2 inch.
I'm not going to change any of this just yet.
...and I'll click OK.
Because I'm not cutting to a flat depth, I'm not going to use a flat area clearance tool.
I'll accept all of this as it is...
I'll change the name of this toolpath to VCarve Text...
...and we'll Calculate.
There's our toolpath.
Some of you more experienced users have already spotted a mistake I'm making on purpose...
...to demonstrate this toolpath...
We'll give this tool path a color.
I'll select black so we can see it contrasted against this maple.
...and we'll preview that toolpath.
There we see the problem that happens when attempting to v-carve onto a 3D model.
This 3D model has contour. It has a shape.
And our v-carving didn't follow that shape.
There is one step I neglected to do.
I'll go back to a straight z view.
I'll come over here into my Preview Window and I'll click Undo Last.
That undoes that v-carving.
I'll come down here to my VCarve Text toolpath and double-click it.
I'm not going to change anything up here. All of this is fine.
What I need to do down here, is put a checkmark right here.
Project the Toolpath onto the 3D Model.
What that means is...
...when VCarve calculates this toolpath it's going to project where the text is...
...in relationship to the model...
...and calculate where to start cutting the text...
...how deep to cut the text...
...and where to stop cutting...
...when it gets down in here into these contours.
So with the check mark in the Project Toolpath onto 3D Model box...
...I'll calculate the toolpath again.
Again we have our toolpath illustrated here.
Because I've recalculated, I'll need to go back and set a color...
I'll select black...
Now we can preview that toolpath.
And our text is projected down onto the model...
It's cutting to the correct depth, no matter where in the model it's actually positioned.
We can zoom in here, and we got a nice even cut throughout the entire text object.
I'll go back to a plan view and we have one final toolpath to calculate.
I'll close our preview...
...go back over to the 2D view, and click off.
Now I want to select that vector we created around the perimeter of the model.
I want to cut this out of the material...
...so I'll come over here and do a standard profile toolpath.
I want my start depth to be 0.0, because I want it to cut through the material around the boundary of our model.
I want it to cut that away before it starts cutting into the model.
I'm going to use a 1/4 inch end mill.
I got ahead of myself. My cutting depth; as I always do, I'm going to enter z+ .005
...then tap the equals button so that I cut .005 of an inch...
...through the thickness of the material I entered over here in Job Setup.
Again, I have my end mill selected. My 1/4 inch end mill is going to make this cut in 6 passes.
I'm going to cut to the outside of the vector.
I'll use a climb cut.
I am going to do a Separate Last Pass with an allowance of 0.01
I explained the Separate Last Pass in a previous video...
...and I'll link that video up here.
For this demonstration, I'm not going to add tabs.
If I were actually going to go outside and cut this, I would add tabs here at this point.
I am gonna ramp in my plunges...
I'm going to use a Smooth ramp over a distance of about an inch.
I'm going to go ahead and change the name to Profile Cutout...
...and we'll Calculate this toolpath.
Again I get the warning that the tool is going to cut through the material.
That's okay. I want it to.
And there's our toolpath, illustrated right there.
I'll go ahead and preview this.
Because I didn't add tabs, I can double-click my waste material to get rid of it.
And there is our 3D model...
...machined out...
...with our text that I could paint, or fill with epoxy... whichever...
...then sand and finish and we're ready to hang this up on my nephew's bedroom door.
It's sometimes the simplest steps that will make or break the project.
And when it comes to our v-carve toolpath...
...selecting that box right there: Project Toolpath onto the 3D Model...
...can save a lot of aggravation if you're trying to customize or personalize...
...a project, after you've already invested the time it took to cut this 3D model.
I'm going to go ahead and wrap up this video right here.
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