Question about relief creation differences in the different past versions of ArtCam
I viewed an ArtCam Jewelsmith video on YouTube where the guy was making a Koi fish ring...he went through this whole process of merging the original relief (texture) layer with the Shape Editor created underlying body shape....then he merged those two layers and the copied the underlying body shape layer and moved it to the top....then he renamed the original body shape layer to "Blender"...scaled it to the desired height, put it in merge high mode and moved it to the top...then moved the merged layer up to second place and changed the Blender layer to multiply...he then added a base platform under the resulting relief....i tried following along with Carveco and didn't really see the results that he showed....am i missing something, or have the more recent versions of ArtCam/Carveco allowed you to skip those steps without even realizing it? I seem to be getting the desired relief results by just using the texture layer merged with the shape edited bulk layer and fine tuning with the scale tool... I am trying to learn the best ways to improve my reliefs, so if anyone has some input on this video process, I would be most grateful for your advice.
Thanks much,
Gary
Comments
Gary,
what's the link to this youtube video?
mike
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x70yCmR9hvo
Holy cow, I got dizzy watching that video, my head is still spinning.
First from what I have done and seen in artcam/carveco the layers thing hasn't really changed since the introduction, though the icons have, the function is still the same. Sometimes I have been frustrated when I changed something and didn't realize it, or deleted some layer that I didn't want to (that gray stuff needs to be changed to just a highlighted area where the words are prominent nothing else, I believe in the KISS principle, keep it simple ....,).
There are so many different ways to do things in artcam it's almost mind boggling, The video techniques are a study in them selves, I'll have to watch it a few more times.
By the way thanks for pasting it here Gary.
mike
Yeah, I had to go take a nap after trying to follow that process!
I am going to have to get a handle on the "multiply" combine tool... I'm not sure what exactly that does, and have not found a description of it's use in the contents search...
I finally found the description of the "multiply" combine mode in 2015 R2..."Multiply to multiply the height of the relief layer's points by the coincident points on the visible layers below in the stack."
Gary, I have been using ArtCAM since version 7 and I find most of the combine modes to be of no value to me. I use merge high and add and very occasionally, subtract, but that's it. Everybody uses ArtCAM/Carveco in their own way and the best (only way in my opinion) way to find out what works for you is to use the program. ArtCAM/Carveco is a relatively simple but powerful program. It can be complicated because there are many ways to accomplish more or less the same thing. I suggest that you play with the tools and see what they do to the model. This applies especially to the layers. Try this, make a rectangular bar oriented from left to right (x-axis), make it 2 mm (or inches if you work in inches) in Z. Now, on another layer make a similar bar that goes from top to bottom (y axis) and is 3 mm/inches in Z. These bars need to intersect. Now play with the layer settings. Merge high will give you a combined Z of 3 mm (or inches), add will give you a combined Z of 5, multiply will give you a Z of 6, etc, etc. Note how the model changes at its intersection area with each change to the top layers setting. (Be aware that the top layer is the one you want to change the setting for. Changing the lower layer will do nothing.)
That being said I will take a look at the video you pointed to above and will see if I can shed some light for you.
********PS: just took a look at the video and saw it was 50 + min long so I did not watch it all (maybe 5 min). One of the problems with the instructional videos is they do not tell you why they are doing what they are doing. I found this very frustrating when I first got the program. From what I watched I could see that the video was making use of multiple steps to accomplish the end result when fewer steps would have been adequate.
For example there is no need to use 2 layers to dome the fish at the beginning. Doing so means a number of extra steps,,,,,,,create a 2nd layer, create a dome using the fish vector, add the 2 layers together by making the top layer + (add layer), merge the two layers together to create a domed fish on one layer, delete the 2 base layers (the flat fish and the dome), etc, etc.
There is no need to do all this, simply select the fish vector and create a dome using the shape editor. If its too much dome (too high) hit undo and try a different degree of dome. (Again playing with the tools is critical. Play with the shape editor, it is very powerful and very straight forward once you play with it for a while but it seems complex in video or print tutorials).
Once you get satisfactory results you only have the 1 layer to worry about and you have eliminated a whole bunch of unnecessary steps.
Now there are times when you will want to work with multiple layers and keep them all. For example in the case of the fish ring I would have the various elements of the ring on different layers. This way if I need an element for some other project I can quickly and easily grab it. Or, in the case of the ring, if I needed to change the size of the ring I could change the length of the band (band on base layer), reposition the fish on the 2nd layer, so they are equidistant on the new band, reposition the other elements so they are properly positioned, have the element layers set to add, and you are done. Once you have all you parts properly positioned and sized then you can do a merge visible and use that merged layer as your machining layer (add tabs for machining etc).
ArtCAM/Carveco is much easier to use than it seems and will ultimately be much simpler than the video makes out. Just play with the tools for now, enjoy what you are doing (after all that is what play is all about). Before long you will wonder what all the fuss was about.
If any of this is confusing let me know and I will try to clarify further. Just be patient and play.
Thanks very much for the pointers... I'll try the exercise you recommended!
Gary, I did some significant editing to my post above, you may want to re-read it as you posted while I was editing.
Ok...excellent...thanks very much!
You are most welcome. I hope the above has helped.
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