This happened to anyone?.....not cutting all the way down on an STL....

[smarder]

Ok,......I hope this isn't something blatantly obvious. I imported a STL model, which I sliced into 3/4" pieces, model happens to be wide and flat, 1 1/2" thickness. I built my pattern files, everything looks great. I entered 3/4" as my board thickness in the software. I upload the cutting file to the card then to the machine and start going through the menu. After measuring, and doing it's little dance as usual, the display asks me to "ENTER BOARD THICKNESS">>, which it has never asked me to do. So I enter ".75" and hit enter. Then it says "BOARD MAY BE TOO THIN", 1)ABORT 2)CONTINUE. I select continue. In an attempt to shorten this story, I don't seem to be able to get the machine to cut the entire depth on the pattern. Leaves approx. 1/4" un-cut in areas that should be pierced, or through cuts, almost like the bit bottoms out at 1/4" thickness. I been on the phone with the CW folks, 3 times today. They don't seem to understand it either. I've sent them the file I was trying to cut, and I think they're going to trouble shoot it on their end. Machine cuts fine on projects unrelated to STL imports so far. All the numbers seem to match up, I don't see the problem. Is it possible the machine wants a thicker board to machine the flat top face on the model slices? Repeated procedure many times, can't find variable.

[dbfletcher]

Ok,......I hope this isn't something blatantly obvious. I imported a STL model, which I sliced into 3/4" pieces, model happens to be wide and flat, 1 1/2" thickness. I built my pattern files, everything looks great. I entered 3/4" as my board thickness in the software. I upload the cutting file to the card then to the machine and start going through the menu. After measuring, and doing it's little dance as usual, the display asks me to "ENTER BOARD THICKNESS">>, which it has never asked me to do. So I enter ".75" and hit enter. The it says "BOARD MAY BE TOO THIN", 1)ABORT 2)CONTINUE. I select continue. In an attempt to shorten this story, I don't seem to be able to get the machine to cut the entire depth on the pattern. Leaves approx. 1/4" un-cut in areas that should be pierced, or through cuts, almost like the bit bottoms out at 1/4" thickness. I been on the phone with the CW folks, 3 times today. They don't seem to understand it either. I've sent them the file I was trying to cut, and I think they're going to trouble shoot it on their end. Machine cuts fine on projects unrelated to STL imports so far. All the numbers seem to match up, I don't see the problem. Is it possible the machine wants a thicker board to machine the flat top face on the model slices? Repeated procedure many times, can't find variable.

Not a solution to your problem, but the only time i get the "enter board thickness" is when i load a 14.5" wide board in the machine. The bit isnt able to drop down in the board guide so it cant measure the board thickness and causes the machine to ask for user input for board thickness. How wide was your board?

Doug Fletcher

BtW.. that isnt a problem in itself... just a limitation of how the machine measures board thickness.

[smarder]

! That's it, the board is 14 1/2" wide.

[smarder]

Oh I see, answers the question of why it'd ask. The answers part of it. Maybe I'd be wise slice the models down smaller to avoid all that? Many thanks for your insight Doug

[smarder]

Not a solution to your problem, but the only time i get the "enter board thickness" is when i load a 14.5" wide board in the machine. The bit isnt able to drop down in the board guide so it cant measure the board thickness and causes the machine to ask for user input for board thickness. How wide was your board?

Doug Fletcher

BtW.. that isnt a problem in itself... just a limitation of how the machine measures board thickness.

Guess what???....The issue with the machine not wanting to cut the last 1/4" in the STL model, and what Doug mentioned, are related. I made a test piece of the very same STL import model, and only used a segment of it on a smaller piece of wood, maintaining the scale, machine cut it out perfectly. The only variable that changed is exactly what Doug referred to. When you use a 14 1/2" wide board, the machine can't auto-detect board thickness. Evidently, regardless if you enter the correct dimension when prompted, the machine has trouble accurately determining board thickness and/or location of the "bottom" of the model. Reducing the width of the board, less than 14 1/2" (perhaps I'll change my project width to 12 1/2 - 13") enables the machine to auto-detect board thickness, eliminating the cutting problem. I have no idea if this issue was specific to my STL model, or the sequence I pursued things, but reducing the width of the board without changing scale fixed the problem. I changed nothing about the modeling, I only changed the width of the project.

[earlyrider]

Could the depth of cut also be related to a calibration problem?
Ron

[smarder]

Could the depth of cut also be related to a calibration problem?
Ron

Yes, it very well could be. The machine not understanding where 'bottom' is even after entering the dimensions manually may mean there is a calibration issue, seems plausible. Once I decreased the width of my project board the machine could automatically detect board thickness, which may be side-stepping calibration issues. Either way, after I re-configured my projects on 12" wide boards and everything's working smooth so far. After I finish my project I may investigate calibration issues.