double sided carves

[karossii]

If I import a DXF model which is thin enough to be carved on a single board as a double sided carve, or if I have a DXF model with undercuts that could be sliced to carve in multiple double sided carves before assembling, can the importer handle this?

What I mean, I would slice it as, say, 1" thick, and place it on the board as a double sided carve, so as to not lose any of the details on either side from 'healing' any undercuts...

[bergerud]

Do you mean STL? DXF just imports 2d curves.

[karossii]

Lol, yes. Stl.

[karossii]

Guess I need to move this to the other subforum.

[fwharris]

Guess I need to move this to the other subforum.

Moved to STL

[mtylerfl]

If I import a STL (corrected) model which is thin enough to be carved on a single board as a double sided carve, or if I have a STL (corrected) model with undercuts that could be sliced to carve in multiple double sided carves before assembling, can the importer handle this?

What I mean, I would slice it as, say, 1" thick, and place it on the board as a double sided carve, so as to not lose any of the details on either side from 'healing' any undercuts...

Yes, you can do this. That's how I did the Autumn Leaf Dishes (http://carvebuddy.com/product/autumn-leaf-dishes/) project. One STL, sliced into top and bottom, made them into CarveWright patterns, then carved as two-sided from one 0.75"-thick board.

[karossii]

I mean a single slice which is carved double-sided.

As an example, I had someone approach me about carving a walking stick / staff. She decided not to have me do it, because of the price (she wanted CHEAP), but it was what sparked this chain of thoughts.

For the most part, the staff as a whole could have been two single-sided carves in 1.5" material. But she wanted a winged caduceus integrated into the top/side of the staff - so that the wings extended out from the side about 4" or so. The wings would have been double sided carves, for the detail; but the front and back of the wings would have been less than half the thickness of the staff, and offset to one half. So I would either have to slice it into 3 sections instead of two, and manually align just that one section for double sided carving...

Or, if it would work as I had hoped (but not expected), created a double-sided slice in the importer.

I have since come up with more than a few dozen examples of where creating a double-sided slice would be beneficial; mainly based on having under-cuts or only part of a piece needing to be double-sided.

But I have experimented with the demo version of the importer, and found it does not seem possible.

I mean, I can manually split a slice into two smaller slices and then manually position those as double-sided. So it is possible in that manner. But that doesn't cover all possibilities - in some instances what could have been a single double-sided slice would have to be 8 or more smaller slices, because of the variations in depth of both sides. And then aligning all of that becomes a fun challenge, I would assume both in the software and in the final assembly process.

I am sure it is not something that has come up much, if at all, before - or I would probably have been able to find someone else asking about it here. But it would add a lot of functionality to the software if it were possible.

[mtylerfl]

Hi Ken,

Without being able to play with the actual STL's you are trying to work with, it's impossible for us to know if your problems can be solved with some creative slicing and joining techniques. I recall Joe Lovchik at CarveWright overcame numerous "obstacles" when slicing up his complex starship model. It took effort, creative thinking, experimentation and re-slicing strategies, but he got the job done.

I'll wager you can too, with whatever models you are testing, but the solutions may not be completely obvious in the beginning. Perhaps reviewing some of the CarveWright STL slicing videos may trigger some helpful ideas. Best of luck to you and I hope you can get it figured out.

[bergerud]

You can carve both sides of a slice. (If that is what you are talking about.) I have sliced up STLs into slices which I carved from both sides. You have to check the double sided boxes before you save the slices. Alignment is another story.

[mtylerfl]

You can carve both sides of a slice. (If that is what you are talking about.) I have sliced up STLs into slices which I carved from both sides. You have to check the double sided boxes before you save the slices. Alignment is another story.

Exactly. That's what I did for the Autumn Leaf Dishes.

For the dishes, each individual STL was "sliced" (one Oak Leaf and one Maple Leaf). But, becasue the models were exactly 0.75" thick (same as my material thickness), it looks like nothing happens. Then, where Dan showed the screenshot double-side arrows, I just selected it and proceeded with creating the PTN's. Even though it appears only one PTN will be created, it actually does create TWO PTN's ...one for the convex side and another for the concave side. It's magic!

[karossii]

Ah, that double sided checkbox is what was eluding me! I didn't see that covered in any of the video tutorials I watched, and hadn't found it on my own while playing with the demo. Perfect!

[mtylerfl]

I believe you are right. I don't recall seeing that feature covered in the tutorial videos.

[cestout]

I will have to look for that check box.
Clint