noob question

[ratter]

Contemplating purchasing the CW, and I've downloaded and have been checking out Designer and the tutorials and help. I can't seem to find what I would think is a very simple function....

I would like to draw a straight line (make a cut) from point A to point B and have the depth of the cut in a smooth curved radius along that line. So for example the depth at each end might be .025 and the depth in the middle at .6 with a smooth curve in between. I don't want to do this via importing a grayscale image - I want to draw it within Designer.

Is this possible?

Thanks!

[blantz]

ratter,

Is this what you want to do? I made a rectangle assigned a carve region, selected a surface (horizontal dome), adjusted the depth to .6”, inverted the pattern and changed the height until the ends looked like they were ¼” deep. (Attached is a mpc of the curved slot)

[ratter]

ratter,

Is this what you want to do? I made a rectangle assigned a carve region, selected a surface (horizontal dome), adjusted the depth to .6”, inverted the pattern and changed the height until the ends looked like they were ¼” deep. (Attached is a mpc of the curved slot)

That's definitely in the right direction - thanks! But I guess I'm out of luck if I wanted to assign an actual radius dimension to it, or a compound radius? Or make sure it was *exactly* 1/4" at the ends?

[blantz]

That's definitely in the right direction - thanks! But I guess I'm out of luck if I wanted to assign an actual radius dimension to it, or a compound radius? Or make sure it was *exactly* 1/4" at the ends?

I’m unaware of a way to assign a radius to a depth or how to get an exact depth on the ends. Using a carve region will also give the walls of the carve a taper due to the taper in the carving bit.

[jpitz31]

Hello ratter

There is no way to cut a vector line with any kind of radius.

But there are a few ways around this.

I have used a cad package to draw up such slope lines and then you can export them to .stl file.

You can then import these one of two ways into the designer.

You can purchase a cheap package that will take an stl file and generate a height map of that file than then create a pattern in the designer.

CarvePic is one such program. (around $50.00)

Or you can purchase the new .stl import add on application ($299.00)

Then import the .stl file into the designer and layout the pattern on the work surface.

I do not have the .stl application yet. But I have performed the height map example. See below.

I took your .25 slope to .6 slope and then back to .25 and created a 3D model in MOI 3D cad package. You could then perform either conversion on this file.

It would be really nice to be able to have complex capabilities in the designer.

Here are some examples I have created.

1st .jpg is your example in a cad package.

2nd .jpg is a designer file of an stl file ran through CarvePic and then
I created a pattern and imported into the designer.

3rd .jpg is another example of importing an complex slope into the designer.


Thanks

Joe