STL discrepancy

[rpdieringer]

When I import an stl into carvewright such as a pyramid sliced in three 3/4" thick pieces, the machine carves 1/16" off the top of each slice thereby making the slices less than 3/4".
Is this normal or do I need to make adjustments elsewhere?
Thanks

[mtylerfl]

When I import an stl into carvewright such as a pyramid sliced in three 3/4" thick pieces, the machine carves 1/16" off the top of each slice thereby making the slices less than 3/4".
Is this normal or do I need to make adjustments elsewhere?
Thanks

Hello,

To completely investigate what is going on there, I would need to have the STL, slice it up at this end and carve it myself (but I'm not sure that you'll be able to upload it here, nor do I have the time to run it anyhow). I'll assume that the original height of the STL is 2.25" before dividing it into the three 0.75" slices...is it? I've not personally had the problem you describe and I've done quite a lot of sliced STL carves.

The way the STL is sliced and then used in Designer as a PTN is that each slice will be placed at the absolute bottom of the board, provided you have the "Carve To Full Depth" icon engaged before saving the slices as PTN's from the final screen of the STL Importer (it IS engaged by default, so unless you changed that, it should already be on).

If your board is slightly thicker than 3/4", then it is completely normal for the machine to carve away that excess when the slices are tooled. This is so the slices will end up at the intended 3/4" thickness, regardless if the board is actually thicker than that.

One thing you might watch out for that is often missed...do NOT have the "Scale to Fit Board" checked (in the Pattern Library) when dragging the pattern slices onto your layout board. There is the real possibility that the slices' size can be altered. To prevent that from happening, just be sure to UN-check that before dragging the patterns onto the board. It's possible the height was altered if you didn't uncheck that.

That's all that occurs to me at the moment to check for. Hope that helps!

[rpdieringer]

Thanks for the advice. Using your suggestions I carved a 3/4" slice as a test but the machine still carved 1/20" off of the top of the board. The stl I'm using has been imported from SketchUp.

[mtylerfl]

Thanks for the advice. Using your suggestions I carved a 3/4" slice as a test but the machine still carved 1/20" off of the top of the board. The stl I'm using has been imported from SketchUp.

Howdy,

I don't use Sketchup and so am not aware whether it has any particular quirks or not. However, when you import it into the CarveWright STL Importer, the exact dimensions will be shown. Does it show the Z dimension at exactly 2.25" before slicing?

EDIT: Just thought of another thing for you to try...after your slices (PTN's) are on the board layout, select them all and change their Height setting to "999" ...that might force them to extend from the board bottom as well as all the way to the board top surface. The potential "danger" is if your board is thicker than the 3/4", they can come out too thick. Worth a shot!