Engraving width?

postalgbv · Post by **postalgbv** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 11:03 pm

Is there a way to have an open curve and do an engrave toolpath and set the engrave path width? For instance, you have a dado or groove that will accept a .25 thick material, but when you get the material it is .275, so you could have a control on engrave that allows you to set path width to .275 even though you are using a .25 bit.

Is this available, or can it be added? Thanks

Mitch Heynick · Post by **Mitch Heynick** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:45 am

This sounds like it might be an interesting option... The workaround for now in RhinoCAM will be to Offset (bothsides option) the curve by half the extra width, connect the ends of the offsets with straight lines and join, and use that as your engraving path instead. --Mitch

postalgbv · Post by **postalgbv** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:34 am

The thought came from woodworking, where often a project will have many slots and/or dados. If you design and toolpath then have a batch of material that is slightly different (or even if you scale the project down so that instead of using .75 material, you decide to use .375), you could still use the original curves as they are and just change a setting in the Toolpath.. rather than edit hundreds of curves, or remake them all as pockets or profiles (if the slot doesn't correspond to the exact size of an available cutter, as is currently needed for engrave).

Post by **MecSoft Support** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:47 am

This can be done. But as a comment to Mitch's comment, we would really just copy the curves to the left/right depending on the users setting rather than offsetting the curves to the left/right. Correct me if I am wrong.

postalgbv · Post by **postalgbv** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:56 am

I think it would need to be offset. For instance, to make a straight or curved line cut with a .25 bit look like it was cut with a .5 bit, you'd need to offset both sides by .125 with 'round corners'... and to make it identical to the .5 bit, it would need the 2 new offset lines to have an arc between their respective ends. Not sure if that's necessary or not for people, but it's doable. You can also 'square up' all corners by offsetting with straight corners and drawing a straight line to connect the ends.

Not sure how it takes into account bit diameter if the bit isn't a straight bit... unless you have a box that allows you type in a discreet diameter so it knows how much to offset. The ability to offset multiple times in both directions to equal the desired engrave width. The ability to turn on/off 'round corners' on the offset as well as arched or straight line connections at the ends of the curves.

Not sure if anyone would find it useful, but I thought for simple, multiple grooves/dados it could save someone time.