No response from Carveco Support
Hi all I am having an issue with distortion on a dome to pave set stones. On June 17 Dillon asked me to send the project file and I did that same day. I am guessing he did not see it so I sent it again on June 20 it is now June 26. Feel like I am being ignored or they don't want to admit there is no solution to the issue. I don't know why I am not getting some kind of response. It a low dome I need to do pave settings on. Pave wizard is useless on a non flat surface. If there is something in the help section I cant find it I have searched about every youtube on Artcam and Carveco I can find. I can get the prongs some what Thanks to Mike but seats are still distorted. If its not fixable just tell me so I can stop burning brain cells trying to fix it.
Evonne
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Hi Evonne why not try the support again you know in the lower rt hand corner. Dillon might be on vacation, or you might have used an old e-mail address (I don't know just speculating)
mike
Mike not an old email. I replied to his email to me. On the 20 I sent a new request to carveco support I posted the reply above. Vacation is a possibility. However there is such a thing as automated reply saying on vacation.
Ev give it a few hours then try the live chat option on here.
Hi Evonne,
Our Support team have had a number of support requests and are working through them; we have responded to you today.
Please accept our apologies for any delay in responding.
Support team if I got some kind of message telling me you received the file and would get to it in a few days it would have been very different than leaving me hanging. At least now I know you did receive and have seen the file and I am not wondering if it was missed.
Thank you
Evonne
Thanks Brady, I guess that's what I should be saying the chat by hitting support.... That live chat is rather cool, I just point everyone to the support in the lower rt.
mike
Hi all Dillon sent me a bunch of info I will be studying for time a lot of text with my dyslexia I am sure it will be exhausting lol.
Evonne
Hi everyone I sent Support an email on June 30 after spending days going through the training manuals Dillon sent me. There is nothing in the manuals that deals with distortion on a dome/non flat surface. The closest thing I could find was in JS 2015 page 257 a heart pendent but it only had a 16 degree dome. Almost no distortion in a 16 degree dome. However in the 30 degree dome there is nothing in the manual that works. I was lead to believe there is a solution so I am (my brain is) not going to stop until I have the solution or Carveco says there is no solution.
Oh and if there is no solution I will be most upset because Carveco sent me searching for life on the moon for nothing. Wasting days of my time, not to mention the frustration.
Evonne
Ev,
In all fairness, it isn't possible to get away from radial distortion in CarveCo or any number of other programs that are primarily directed at users running 3-axis machines. Since the cutting tool is always 'normal' (meaning perpendicular) to ONLY the apex of a dome, it isn't possible to articulate the spindle/tool so that it remains normal to the surface of the dome as it begins to descend towards the proverbial equator.
The following 2 images show a 3D relief and the affect of a 30° dome pasted up from the bottom (added via F12) -
You can see that the very ends of the arms sort of smear/melt over as the dome curves downward. This is called polar distortion & it is very similar to how reliefs get deformed when unwrapping/wrapping a model to be machined on a rotary axis - which causes rotary distortion - on anything but the flattest of reliefs.
I certainly don't think support is snubbing you...this is more of a case of 'that's just the way it is...same as it ever was' in terms of polar distortion in a program that uses voxels to represent 3D and the fact that it is meant for 3-axis (plus rotary) machining & not 5-axis work.
As you may know, there cannot be any undercuts in the model, so if the dome is a significant portion of a sphere, whatever is on top of the dome will eventually distort to the point where details begin to move towards the equator and as such, create an undercut situation. Any time there is an undercut, CC will automatically cause the edge to go vertical. There is no way around this...and all the other similar programs out there do it...so we aren't special in this regard.
Here's another example. A cheesy 3D balluster, first shown in Rhino, then CC. Notice how we can see the leaves as they go around the central axis of the balluster.
Now let's import this model into CC.
Notice that we can still see the side leaf indentations BEFORE the 3D model is pasted in.
Here's what it looks like when the same model is pasted in:
Notice how any undercuts immediately get converted to straight walls. This is because CC cannot represent undercuts AND even if it did, your 3-axis CNC could not cut them.
So...in a nutshell, no help file or manual will give you a solution or path to take to mitigate the inevitable reality of undercuts as it relates to 2.5D CAD/CAM...they ALL do this.
Now...as someone who has pushed the limits of 3-axis CNC over the years, I won't say that there is NO SOLUTION...because there almost always is some kind of out of the box scenario that can ultimately give you what you want. As with everything in life..."Everything has a price" - so that means, the amount of work and fancy footwork you have to do to arrive at the solution may or may not ultimately be worth it...
For instance, if you absolutely had to eliminate that distortion as the dome approached 30°, you could export the relief that was to go on top of the dome as an STL. Then import it back in, but kick it on say a -15° angle before you pasted it in. Then generate toolpaths for a 1/3 of the model - the part that is the most extreme towards the equator....then, on another layer or in another model, do the center part as it would be towards the top of the dome...then the 3rd part, at +15° (essentially a mirror of the first section) and you could do it...of course, this would not account for polar distortion in the front to back direction...but it could still be done.
The biggest hurdle would be creating a datum point on the model and matching that to your CNC and material...It is not impossible (this technique is call N-sided machining, BTW) - but you need to be very precise and deliberate - plan the work and work the plan.
I hope this long-winded dissertation was at the very least helpful...Maybe if you post a few pics of what you are doing we can see if there is another way to handle what you want to do.
Hi Brady and thank you so much I will study what you sent on the weekend. However yes I use a CNC I know z is vertical. but I also create STLs for others that use 3d printers. I posted photos in the jewellery section. On the dome, 1 mm round vectors to subtract 45 degree sq .1 start height.
Evonne
Ev,
You're welcome. There are other software tools out there that can add to CC's capabilities for 3D printing applications. Send me an email if you want to discuss off list.
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