The Disappearing Centerline Mystery

[twinpeaksenterprises, LLC]

I had created a project in designer consisting of alot of centerline text, which was Microsoft himalayan. The text was 0.75 high on a 16 x 8.75 board, 0.75 thick. The project looked great in the designer program, so I uploaded it and started the project. The cut out and borders no problem. Inserted the 60degree v groove and walked away, came back about 20 minutes later and no text. The machine was going through the motions of making the text but not touching the board. Aborted the project. Okay with much frustration, its troubleshooting time once again. I remembered when designing the project, I checked the centerline depth and it measured 0.03. So I checked the thickness of the board with a digital caliper and it measured 0.72. The difference between the designer board thickness settings of 0.75 and the actual board being 0.72 was the same as the 0.03 depth of the centerline text. I went back to designer and changed the board thickness to 0.72. I reinstalled the "same board" and started the project again. Mystery Solved!! The text carved perfectly! After this experience and giving this much thought I see ways of varying centerline depth by tweaking the board thickness setting in designer versus the actual board thickness. Another fine project.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Now that is a tip worth playing with.

Thanks,

AL

[DocWheeler]

Are you saying that when the machine goes through the motions of finding the "surface" with each bit that it really doesn't? That it uses the thickness that we tell it the board is rather than the top-surface it detects?

I for one could use all the explanation here that can be given since most of my centerline text comes out at a different depth than I expected. I have not done that much with Centerline, but what I have done had enough variance to make me leery.

[Ken Massingale]

"I remembered when designing the project, I checked the centerline depth and it measured 0.03"

Please, where/how in Designer is centerline depth seen/checked?
Thanks, I've been looking and scratching both ends since you posted this.

[twinpeaksenterprises, LLC]

Doc Wheeler, In answer to your question, I was sharing information about an experiment. It seems that is the case in centerline. Now it was my first thought as you stated that the machine checks the height when going through the start motions. I am not convinced that is the case with implementing centerline text. When starting the project the first time the machine did the same as it always did and found the surface with the bit, but when it came time to carve the text the bit just hovered over the surface of the board as if it was using the 0.75 measurement when the board was actually 0.72 so upon changing the height in board settings to 0.72 the machine went back through the same motions but this time carving the text into the board at a depth of approximately 0.03. Now i'm still experimenting with centerline but other variances can be found by applying either 60 degree or 90 degree, size of the letters, and whether or not you use bold. Thats all my opinion.

Ken, I found the depth of my centerline in designer by zooming in on the letters and by moving the pointer over the text in different places, the depth of that cut will appear in the bottom left of my screen next to the length and width of the board. Now like I told Doc different variances can be found in applying the 60 or 90 degree bit or the size of letters and whether or not you used bold. I am using v1.125 but i assume it would be the same in all versions.

Comment: If carvewright technical staff wants to jump in here and provide some clarification please do so the information would be appreciated.