Depth & Height

[Bob K]

Can someone explain the difference between "Depth" and "Height" in the software and how they relate to each other?
Thanks

[Old Salt]

the depth refers to how deep the pattern or object will be carved the height is how high this pattern or caving is in comparison to top of board. hope this helps

[applik]

Removed

[Charles M]

the depth refers to how deep the pattern or object will be carved the height is how high this pattern or caving is in comparison to top of board. hope this helps

I don't know if this is helpful to anyone but me, but I think I have figured out the depth and height in a way that I can better make use of. The default depth for patterns is 0.250" (that's for the totally black parts) and the height is 100 (it's an arbitrary unit but for patterns it seems to be 100% of the 0.250 depth. (This is for patterns that have 100% black and white. One that is 100% black and the lightest parts are 50% the actual depth of the black will be 0.150" and the gray will be coplanar with the surface.) If you make the depth 0.500" and want the top to be in plane with the surface the height needs to be 200. Take the example of the pattern with 100% white and black at 0.250 depth and 100 height and the 100% black and 50% gray at 0.500" depth and 200 height and they are the same except that the gray/black one has 1/2 the depth resolution.

Also, for the surfaces that are built-in, at 0.250" depth and 100 height it seems that the actual depth of the deepest areas is 0.250" and the tallest areas is 0.100".

Can anybody else confirm these findings?

[Jeff_Birt]

I think of it this way. 'Depth' is how low the bottom of the carving will be from the top of the board (the floor). 'Height' is like a gain control, it lets you change the height (or stretch the carving in the Z-axis, if you will) of the carving from the floor. Think of when you are using a photo editing software, you can grab the edges (called a Handle) of a picture and stretch it out in the X and Y directions. The 'Height' control is a 'Handle' for the Z-axis of your carving. It lets you stretch it out in the Z direction.

Hope that helps.....

[Charles M]

Jeff,

That's a good way to think of it. I was concerned about making a pattern coplanar with the board's surface and still having the depth that I wanted so I need an idea of how much height it requires to get there and how the shades of gray affect this.