Hey y'all...
Welcome to Part 4 of my series on the Vectric software titles for the absolute beginner.
Again, before I get started, let me restate my standard disclaimer:
I'm neither sponsored nor endorsed by Vectric LTD or any other company.
I'm doing this series to help the person who has never worked with CAD or CAM software before...
...get started on a project, finish a project...
...and help them improve their skills with the CAD/CAM software.
So with that behind us, let's go ahead and get into this week's project.
We're gonna pick up where we left off in last week's project.
I'm going to go over here and load the clock file that we worked on last week...
...and I'm going to start by answering a question that I got in the comment section for last week's video...
...which, by the way, if you missed it I'll put a link up here somewhere.
The question I got was about these circles here at the twelve, nine, six, and three position...
...when I resized them.
I originally drew an array of twelve 1/4 inch circles...
...then I deleted these three...
...resized this one to 3/8 inch...
...then created another array of four copies total, in these positions.
The question I got was, why didn't I just group these four circles...
...and increase their size that way.
That's a good question.
I'll go ahead and show you right now why I didn't do that.
Let's go ahead and select the group so we have all four circles selected.
Now if I were to go over here, under Transform Objects...
...to Set Selected Object Size...
...what it would attempt to do is resize the entire group.
You see here I've got 10 3/8 inch width in X...
...and 10 3/8 inch high in Y.
It would attempt to resize the group, not the individual circles within that group.
So that's why I didn't do it that way.
Let me deselect and hit Close to get out of there.
What I could have done instead of deleting these three here...
...resizing this one, then creating a circular array...
...is I could have increased the size of each of these circles individually.
I'll show you how to do that now.
First we'll select the group.
Now, in order to resize an individual circle...
I have to ungroup them so that I'm working with just the individual circle.
We'll do that by selecting the group, coming over here to this icon under Edit Objects...
...to Ungroup Objects Back Onto Their Original Layers.
Click that icon, and you'll notice that the circles went from solid pink lines, back to these pink dashed lines.
Now I'll click off, then I can select each circle individually again.
Once ungrouped, they're no longer treated as a single object.
So let's say, for purposes of discussion, that I need to increase these to 1/2 inch diameter from 3/8...
...so I'll just select one circle...
...come over here to Set Selected Object Size, and make sure I have linked XY checked...
...go over here and highlight that, and enter .5 inch.
You'll see it changes to .5 inch down here.
I hit apply and that resizes that circle.
Now I can come over here and select this one...
...and do the same thing.
Enter .5
...click apply...
...come over here...
.5
...apply...
...here...
.5
...and apply.
Close...
...click off...
...and there I have those circles changed to 1/2 inch diameter.
I could very well have done that in the last video.
What I was attempting to do was reinforce how to use...
...the Circular Array tool by showing you how to do a couple of circular arrays...
...with different quantities and different angles.
I hope that answers that question.
So now, because I've just changed these to 1/2 inch...
I want to go back to 3/8 of an inch.
In order to do that, I could go back and select each one and resize them here...
...but instead, I'm going to undo the last changes I just made.
Now being as VCarve is a Windows program there are about a dozen ways of doing the same thing.
One way is to come up to the Edit menu, click on it, and click on Undo...
...and you'll see the last thing I did was just undone.
Another way of doing it is to come up here to the Undo icon under File Operations...
...click on that, and you see it undid the change to this circle's size.
Then there is also the keyboard shortcut...
...which is hold down the CTRL button, and tap the Z key...
...and it just undid the resize there.
I'm going to do that again... still holding down CTRL, and tap Z...
...and we undid the resize there.
VCarve keeps track of all of the changes you have made...
...and you can see here that I can go back and undo Ungrouping...
...which I just did...
...and my group is back.
VCarve will keep track of the changes you made and will allow you to undo a certain number.
I'm not quite certain what that number is. I believe it will go back 10 changes.
Anyhow, so we're back to where we were before we even started.
I hope that answered that question.
Now let's go back over here...
...to the toolpaths tab...
...and get into some of the options that we have...
...that I kept referencing as; "would be suitable for another video, later on."
Well, it's "later on," so let's go ahead and get into some of this.
In the Through-hole Pocketing toolpath...
...and when I click on and select that toolpath, over here...
...you'll notice that these turn pink.
They are selected.
We'll go ahead and get into this toolpath by double-clicking the toolpath title...
...and we can go back into the setup for that toolpath.
About the only two options I want to talk about on this toolpath...
...are the Pocket Allowance and Ramping the Plunge Moves.
I'm not going to use either one of these options, but they are something worth knowing about.
If, for example, I didn't want the bit to cut exactly on this vector...
...as we're hollowing out this hole...
...if I wanted it to cut, say, .005 undersized...
I could come up here and enter a pocket allowance of .005...
...then when I calculate the toolpath it will cut that circle...
Wait a minute - let me change that. That should be NEGATIVE .005...
...that means it would cut .005 smaller than what this vector says to cut.
If I were to leave that a positive number...
...it would cut this circle .005 oversize.
That's something to be careful of and here's why...
If I were to set it to cut this circle .005 of an inch undersized...
....because I'm using a 1/4 inch bit, and I'm trying to drill 1/4 inch holes...
...these vectors here would be ignored.
Because what I've done is, I've told the toolpath to cut that hole...
.005 inch smaller than the bit's diameter.
That wouldn't work. It would not cut these at all.
VCarve would give me a warning that it was ignoring some vectors... but it wouldn't work.
If I went out of negative, into a positive pocket allowance...
...that means it would cut these circles .005 of an inch oversize. That would work with this bit.
And that has its uses.
A pocket allowance comes in real handy further down the road when you're working on inlays...
...or if you're making through holes that need to be slightly larger...
...say for clearance for a bolt or something of that nature.
So that's a Pocket Allowance.
99 times out of 100, I don't use a pocket allowance at all...
So I leave it at 0.0, meaning it's going to cut exactly to size.
The next subject I want to get into down here, is Ramping Plunge Moves.
With certain bits, this is really a necessity.
With other bits, it's an option.
I tend to ramp my plunge moves over a distance of at least double the bit's diameter.
What ramping a plunge move will do is...
...when the bit lifts up and comes over here to cut this hole...
...rather than plunging straight down...
...it will start lowering the bit at its plunge rate...
...while moving in X&Y at the same time.
The bit lowers itself in as it starts to cut until it gets to the first pass depth...
...then once that bit slowly eases in and gets to that first pass depth...
...it will start cutting at its normal feed rate.
Now in a pocket toolpath, depending upon how many pockets you want to do...
...this can extend machining times...
...because you're slowing down to the plunge rate of the tool...
...and easing it into the work, rather than just plunging straight down.
The advantage of using ramps is it's easier on the tool...
...again, because you're easing the tool into the work rather than just diving straight down.
So, there's kind of a trade-off there.
It's worth it in the long run, but if you have something you have to get done right now...
...and you need faster machine time more than you need tool durability...
...most of the time you can go without ramping the plunge moves and it will work just fine.
Now when I said before that with some tools it's an absolute necessity...
...as an example if you're using an end mill...
...like I have a surfacing bit...
...that the cutter does not go all the way across the bottom of the tool.
The cutter is basically just on the outside edges.
I have to ramp my plunge moves over a distance of at least double that bit's diameter...
...otherwise the bit will try to lower down into the work...
...but with no cutter in the middle, it's gonna bottom out and start burning the wood.
When I say "burning," I don't mean actually catching on fire although I guess that is a possibility...
...but it will leave a lot of burn marks and could possibly break the tool...
...or mess up a mount, or mess up your spindle.
So look at your bits. If the cutter doesn't go all the way across the bottom of the bit, you will need to ramp in the plunge moves...
...a distance of at least double that tool's diameter.
Again, I'm not going to ramp the plunge moves on this one because it's just not necessary with this small of a vector.
So I will go ahead and close that toolpath unchanged.
The 3/8 Pocket toolpath would be a repeat of what we just went over.
On the Profile Cutout toolpath, there's a lot to talk about.
So we'll go ahead and double click the Profile Cutout toolpath to bring up this form.
This toolpath is our outside cut out of the final clock face here.
One thing I do want to talk about is doing a Separate Last Pass.
When it comes to cutout profiles, I always do a separate last pass...
...with an allowance of .01
...if I can.
I'll tell you what I mean by that in just a second.
What a separate last pass is...
...as it sits right now this is set up so that this 1/4 inch end mill is going to...
...cut all the way through this material in four passes.
Using this allowance, what it will do is the first three of these four passes...
It will cut 0.01 inches to the outside of this vector, because I have it set to cut to the outside of the vector.
So it'll cut 0.01 inches oversize for the first 3 passes...
Then when it gets around to the last pass...
...let's say that it started here. When it gets back around here and it's ready to do its last pass...
...it'll lift up out of the work, move in that .01 of an inch...
...plunge back in and cut the entire profile to the correct size in one pass.
The reason I do that, is if you've ever cut a profile out before especially in something like plywood...
...if you look at the edge you can sometimes see tracks and trails where the bit has cut each and every pass.
So it'll start here, plunge in for the first pass, cut all the way around...
...get back here plunge in make the second pass...
Well, you can actually see those lines on the edge where it made each of the previous passes.
Sometimes you can see a little burn mark where the bit plunges in.
Doing a separate last pass at .01 inches will eliminate that.
It will cut the entire depth in one pass, removing .010 inch from the edges...
...so it eliminates those burn marks, it eliminates those tracks...
...it gives you a nice clean cut on your edges.
That really reduces the amount of finish sanding, I'm here to tell you.
So, I almost always do a separate last pass.
The situations where I can't do a separate last pass are...
...if we'll use our example we have here.
Let's imagine that this vector came down here, then went inside to cut this out...
...then came back out here and continued cutting...
If this area this inside cut here...
...is less than .010 larger than our tool...
...it will not come in and make those first three passes.
It will wait, and on the separate last pass...
...try to make the entire cut at full depth.
So when you're setting up to run an outside profile cutout...
...make sure that this allowance plus the tool diameter is less than the gap you're trying to run that tool through.
That'll prevent it from trying to force that tool all the way through in one pass.
If you're going to do a profile cut, or cut into a gap...
...make sure that your allowance plus your tool diameter are smaller than the gap you're trying to cut.
Adding tabs to the toolpath.
I do add tabs quite often, actually.
...and I prefer to use 3D Tabs.
Let me show you the difference. You can see on this little sketch.
Up here we select the length of the tab. I usually use 1/2 inch wide tabs.
Then the thickness of the tab, on this thin material, I went with 1/8 inch thick.
If it's 3/4 inch material, I go with a 1/4 inch thick tabs.
That's how much material is left behind when that tab is cut...
...and I use 3D tabs
You can see a 3D tab here in this little sketch.
The bit will come along in its cutting direction, and when it gets to a tab location, rather than stopping...
...and your bit lifting up out of the work, moving over, then plunging back down...
...rather than doing that, the tool will come along and it'll slow down a little bit...
...but the Z will kick in and lift the tool...
...to the thickness of the tab.
When it gets to the tab thickness, it'll start plunging down and come down the other side...
...leaving kind of a pyramid-shaped tab rather than a square one.
It speeds up the machining process, in that the to the X&Y don't stop to create that tab.
They keep going. They do slow down to the bit's plunge rate...
...and then once it's lifted to the proper height, it plunges down again at the plunge rate.
So I do use 3D tabs.
Let's go ahead and edit the tabs using these settings.
We've got a check mark, here my tabs are going to be 1/2 inch long...
...they're going to be 1/8 of an inch thick I'm going to use 3D tabs. Let's edit them...
We'll click Add Tabs. Now, because there's a check mark right here...
...in First Tab at the Machining Start Point, it placed my first tab right here.
You see that square with the letter T in it? That is a tab.
You'll also notice my cursor has a plus sign...
...and it's got a little drawing up above and to the right of that...
...showing kind of a top view of a tab.
If I put it over this tab, you'll see how it turns to the greater-than and less-than sign with an X in the middle.
That's telling me that I can delete that tab, or move that tab.
I'm going to put the plus sign in my cursor right over the tab...
...click and hold down and I'm gonna drag it off that corner.
I don't like to put tabs in corners.
I prefer to put them somewhere out in the flat, where I can sand it easily.
The same is true if I'm doing a curved edge.
I try to put it as far outside as I can, where I can get to it with the sander to clean it up.
I do not put tabs on inside curves. Well... I try to avoid it.
Now on something of this size, I'll probably go with two tabs on each side, just to keep it secure...
...until I come back and cut them out.
The way I'll do that is... I moved that first tab there...
I'll come back over here, and when that plus sign gets close to the vector...
...that check mark appears, and I just left-click, and it adds the tab.
Then I'll come up over here, add a tab, add a tab...
...and we'll do these down here...
So I have two per side and they're not in any place specific...
...they're not evenly spaced.
That's really not a necessity to me.
I think I would probably move this one up in there, though, to get it away from the corner.
That's more than enough to keep this piece secure while it's being cut out...
...and after it's been cut out.
Now if I wanted to totally get rid of all of these tabs and start over...
...I could just go down here and click this button.
If I wanted to delete a specific tab, I come in here, put my cursor over it, click, and it's gone.
I need to put it back, so click and there it is.
I have my tabs spaced, so I'll click Close.
We have our tabs added, and you can see the T here.
Now I'm going to talk about ramping in plunge moves on a Profile toolpath.
I tend to do this on profiles a lot.
I'll put a checkmark in Add Ramps to Toolpath.
I prefer to use a smooth ramp over a distance of at least double the end mill's diameter.
So in this case we'll go 0.5
...and again this is simply to ease the tool into the work...
...rather than plunge straight down.
It's just easier on the tool. The tool life is extended that way.
Some folks prefer to ramp in on an angle... at, say, 45 degrees.
That means, if I were to do it this way...
...the tool will come over here and get ready to plunge in and start moving...
...the X or Y depending on which is the appropriate axis...
...and it'll move at such a rate that the tool is plunging into the work at a 45 degree angle
Some folks prefer to do that, I would really rather go with a known distance.
That way, in the case of using a tool that doesn't have a cutter all the way across the bottom...
...I'm sure that the trailing edge of that bit is going to start cutting away the material...
...before that center section with no cutter touches the top of the material.
I'm not going to get into Leads, or Order, or Start At right now.
I am going to make sure my Sharp External Corners is selected.
Then I will go ahead and calculate this toolpath.
It's warning me the tool will cut through the material. We know that. We want it to.
I'll click OK.
And it has recalculated the toolpath.
Now if we come up here...
...let me drag this down...
...if we come up here and look, we can see...
...the four passes this bit is going to take to cut through the material.
But when we get to my tab here...
...it's going to come along and again it'll lift up...
...until it gets to that 1/8 inch tab thickness...
...then come back down the other side.
The axis will not stop moving... across the X in this case...
...it'll just slow down to the plunge rate of the bit...
...then take off again at the bit's feed rate when the tab is cut.
Let me go back to a straight Z view...
...and if we come in from this angle...
...we can also see that the first three passes are to the outside of the vector...
...the last pass is cutting right on the vector.
That's that Separate Last Pass.
It'll come along and do the final pass at the full thickness of the material.
Let's go ahead and preview that toolpath...
...and we'll see that it gave us nice sharp corners, and there are my 3D tabs.
People have asked me about tabs a lot because in my videos I tend not to use tabs.
The reason I don't use tabs in my videos, is so I can double-click on my waste to remove it.
With these tabs in place...
...I can't... In fact, let me do it and show you why...
"Deleting from the selected point would delete all the material."
I can't delete the waste because I have those tabs. It's all still connected.
"To delete the waste, you will need to create a temporary simulation without tabs."
So that explains why I don't use tabs in my videos.
That is so I can delete the waste and show you the completed project.
Now that's something to remember if you are going to...
...save a preview image to send a client or customer.
Do a preview without the tabs, save those preview images...
...then come back to your profile cut out toolpath and add your tabs...
...before you save g-code, go out, and start cutting.
We'll reset the preview.
Speaking of saving g-code and cutting.
This will be the final thing we'll go over in this video.
In the last video I said we have three toolpaths here...
...they all use the same end mill...
...we are ready to generate g-code, save it to a flash drive...
...take it outside, and start cutting.
The way to do that, is through the use of this icon right here.
Save Toolpath.
Because all three of these toolpaths use the same tool...
I can put a check mark right here...
...it turns on all of the toolpaths so we can see them...
I can click on that icon and that opens up the Save Toolpaths form.
I've got a check mark here in Output All Visible Toolpaths to One File...
...meaning this is going to take all three of these tool paths and create just one g-code file...
...that I will load into my control software and run
If I had, for instance, a v-carve toolpath down here, I would not be able to do that...
...because it uses a different bit.
I would have to save separate files.
So if you're using the exact same bit, have no tool changes...
...you can select them all, click the Save Toolpath icon...
...Output All Visible Toolpaths to One File...
If that sounds a little daunting to you, and you would rather have separate toolpath files...
...one for the through-hole, one for the 3/8 pocket, and one for the profile cutout
...you can certainly uncheck one, and it will be removed from the list.
I'm going to output them all to one file.
Down here is the section...
...that confuses a lot of beginners...
...and that is the Post-Processor.
To put it simply, the post-processor is... for lack of a better term...
...the language your control software speaks.
If you're using an X-Carve...
...it's going to need to run a specific type of file that X-Carve understands.
If you're using a Shapeoko, it needs a type of file that it's going to understand.
If you're using a CNC Shark... etc etc etc...
We can click this menu right here and you can see there are a lot of post processors...
...and more being added every day.
So my advice would be...
...for instance we have here Shapeoko inch, Shapeoko millimeters, depending on whether you're using inches or millimeters...
...here they are for Shopbot.
We'll go down the list a little bit and see if there's...
...yes there's X-Carve millimeter and X-Carve inch...
You will need to use the post-processor for your CNC router.
I'm using Mach3 as my controller software.
So when I'm cutting flat material...
...not on my rotary axis...
I always use Mach 2/3 ARCS (inch)
...which creates a TXT file.
That's the file I'm going to take outside, load into Mach3, and use to run my CNC.
Now some of you have probably noticed Output Direct to Machine.
Your CNC must be set up to accept g-code directly from VCarve in order for this to work.
If it's not set up to do so, this will not work whether you put a checkmark in here or not.
I've got my tool paths selected...
I want to output them all to one file ...
...save the tool paths to file...
...i will put it in my...
...i will put it here.
When VCarve goes to save the g-code, it takes the first toolpath on the list...
...and that's what it wants to name the file.
I will change the file name 99 times out of 100...
Let's call it 1-4 End Mill Clock Face...
I always put in the tool, then the name of the toolpath.
If I were v-carving with a 90 degree v-bit...
Up here at the beginning, I would type in 90 degree...
...then the name of the tool path.
So I've got my post-processor, I've got my file name...
...and I'll click Save.
Now I can come down here to that folder...
...and here we have this TXT file.
Now I won't say all, because not all...
Most g-code files can be opened in Notepad...
...if you're using a PC.
...so I'll double-click that to open it up...
...and here we see the G code.
This is the code that Mach3 is going to send to my CNC router to physically cut out this clock.
I'm not gonna sit here and try to go through this g-code and explain to you what everything is.
What's important to know is everything here in parentheses...
...is a comment for you to be able to read out on the control software.
It is ignored by the controller.
It knows that this is a comment for us to read.
You can see here that this was created today...
...for Mach 2/3 from Vectric.
It gives me the material size...
...and then goes down a list. These are the toolpaths that are used in the file...
...the through-hole pocket, the 3/8 pocket, and the profile cutout...
The tools used in this file... 1/4 inch end mill...
Then we get into where we're gonna start and stop...
...which tool path is going to cut first, using which tool.
Then these are the instructions to the controller itself.
You can go through your entire CNC hobby "career," for lack of a better term, and never look at this again...
...never see it, never need to get into it, not even care.
Or if you're interested, and it does come in handy at times...
...you can get into learning a little bit of g-code...
...and learn what certain things do, what certain commands do.
I know it a little bit. I don't know a lot. I'm not going to attempt to teach anybody really much of anything here.
About the only thing that stands out to me right now...
...other than the few obvious things that I've already pointed out...
...right here we have F 50.
That F stands for Feed Rate...
So the feed rate is 50... whatever I have my controller set up for.
In my case it would be inches per minute.
And the same thing down here...
...the feed rate is 50...
This here is a Z move...
...you can see the Z right there...
F 20. That tells me it's a plunge rate of 20....
...the Z is moving down to 0.1262 at a rate of 20 inches per minute.
So I just did something I said I wasn't going to do...
...and we'll call that the end of that.
Anyway, that's the g-code this is the file...
...that we will save onto a flash drive, take outside...
...plug into our controller software, and machine this clock face.
Again, you may never need to open a piece of g-code.
Then again you may get a little bit comfortable with going in and modifying...
...feed rates, or plunge rates, or moving zero points, or things of that nature.
I know how to do that.
I generally don't use it.
If I need to make a modification like that...
I'll make it here in VCarve.
That way the file is changed...
...and I don't have to go back and move a zero point every time I want to cut that file
It's done here.
So with that G code saved, we can close this...
...uncheck all these...
...we're ready to go outside and cut out this project.
Mount a piece of material onto the CNC table and get machining...
I'm going to call this the end of this video.
If you got anything out of this video at all, or if you have any questions, comments, concerns...
...by all means please leave a comment in the comments section below.
If you don't want to leave a public comment, head over to my website...
marklindsaycnc.com
...and click that Contact Us link, and ask your question there.
I do look at every comment that comes to me through the Contact Us link.
I will get it, I will see it, I will read it, and I will answer you if I can be of any help at all.
And if I can't be of any help at all, I'll let you know that too.
If you got anything at all out of this video, please, I'd appreciate a thumbs up down there below...
If you'd like to continue to follow along with this beginners series...
...please consider subscribing to my channel.
If you know somebody who would benefit from this series, feel free to share it to your social media.
Whether you do that or not, whether you subscribe or not...
...as always I'd like to thank you very much for watching...
...and y'all take care.
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