[charper]

Which font makes the best closed path bubble/block type letters for pocket milling. I am importing into Mastercam and want my students to do most if not all of their work in Rhino.

[turmite]

charper I'm kinda simple so you are gonna have to explain to me about bubble letters. Are you talking of block letters that are raised above the surface and the rest of the area is machined away?

Mike

[turmite]

Something like this?

Mike

[charper]

Yes, I tried out some things and thought I had to make a 2D drawing to get rid of the inner lines between the letters? I was playing around just now and saw that I can select just the outlines of the letters. The problem I think I had bringing into mastercam was that my "virtual" bit was too large and it wouldn't pocket anything. Should I set the depths of my letters in Rhino so I don't have to do it in Mastercam? What is the purpose of chamfering the letters? Anything else I should try to do to make toolpaths with letters from Rhino?

[turmite]

Hi Charper,

Well, since I use Madcam as a Rhino plugin for my cam I don't know that I can help much with your Mastercam questions.......but I'll try. I for sure do everything in Rhino I could so as to make the cam process as simple as possible. After all, your first post said you were trying to get this going for your students and the quickest way to keep them excited is to have success as soon as possible.

Depending on the letter style and material used for the part chamfering could have more than one reason. Mostly though, I think it's for looks!

Post something you want gcode for and I will try it with Madcam then can give you a better idea of the steps I used, and I bet MasterCam will be fairly close. I am just now learning the 2d part of Madcam so this will give me somethig to practice on. Can you believe it........I started with the 3d stuff first!

Mike

[charper]

How should I post it? I am looking to do an engraving of a pirate head, mirrored on a block of 3 1/2 by 4" wood about .375" thick. I want to vacuum form into a mold for soap. Now, I could do a bitmap and trace in Rhino which would take a little time OR mastercam has this great function which I still don't use yet called Raster to cector, where I import the image, no tracing, directly to engraving toolpath. Functions like these graphics conversions makes MAstecam more appealing..but I am loyal to Rhino.

[turmite]

charper if Mastercam will do the job quicker and easier.........use it! I know I would.

You intend to use the wood to pull another material now on to form the mold, or is the wood going to be the mold? If you intend to use the wood as the mold, cut it about .030" too deep the first time and then coat your block with epoxy. Let it cure and then re- machine to the proper depth and you will have a much better material for the mold.

Mike

[charper]

I intended on using the wood to pull vacuum forming plastic onto in the vacum former. Then pour the glycerin into the plastic. I need to mill the wood then with a reversed image. I just wish I could stick with Rhino for the whole thing. It would be easier for my students...but I might have to cheat on this one.

[chmillman]

If you often have bitmap (raster) graphics you want to engrave, and you like working in Rhino, you might want to try RhinoArt, which is a Rhino plug-in from MecSoft which allows you to do 3D engraving/milling from flat art (like ArtCam). Of course, it's not free... :-) --ch

[charper]

Rhino Art plugin?
I will check on price..
might be worth it, for at least one of the comptuters if not a lab license. The kids could always run through one station as they make their designs.