Toolpaths and Machining: Machining Reliefs

Carveco Tutorial: Machining Reliefs

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the Machine Relief toolpath in Carveco Maker to accurately machine 3D reliefs. This toolpath gives you control over material setup, tool strategies, stepovers, and clearance strategies to balance quality with efficiency.

🔹 Setting Up the Material

• Open Create Machine Relief Toolpath under the 3D Toolpaths section.
• Click Set Material and enter your material thickness (e.g., 0.75 inches).
• Adjust the Model Position in Material to determine how the relief sits within your stock.
• Top position ensures the relief starts at the top; bottom position machines excess off first.

🔹 Adding Finishing and Roughing Tools

• Select a Ball Nose tool for finishing — ideal for smooth results on 3D surfaces.
• Use a larger roughing tool (like a 1/2" end mill) to remove bulk material before the finishing pass.
• Reduce tool wear by combining roughing and finishing passes.

🔹 Optimising Tool Diameter and Stepover

• Use a smaller tool (e.g. 1/8") to remove leftover material in tighter spots.
• Adjust the stepover to reduce visible cusps — smaller stepovers increase quality but add machining time.
• Experiment with stepovers like 0.3, 0.1, or even 0.01 for high-quality finishes.

🔹 Roughing Step Down Control

• Control how deeply each roughing pass cuts by adjusting Step Down.
• Smaller step downs (e.g. 0.2") reduce strain on finishing tools in tight areas.

🔹 Toolpath Clearance Strategies

• Raster: Traditional back-and-forth pattern.
• Raster X/Y: Dual direction for better finishes but longer time.
• Spiral: Ideal for circular designs, spirals out from the center.
• Spiral in a Box: Full coverage including corners; more rapid moves.

🔹 Selecting Machining Areas

• Choose Automatic Boundary to machine based on relief shape.
• Use Selected Vectors to isolate machining to specific regions.
• Create a vector boundary manually or with the Create Boundary from Relief tool.