Please Help Me Understand Height Setting

[5twenty]

I'm carving lithopanes and I've read in the Tips and Tricks to set the height at 450 when doing so. So that got me to wondering exactly what that means.

The HELP section in the software says: The height parameter is unitless, meaning it does not have a unit of measure associated with it. A height setting of 100 means that the pattern will be carved at the maximum possible amount of its default height without going above the board. A height setting of 200 means that the pattern will be carved at the maximum possible amount of twice its default height. Height setting can be set to anything.

WHAT? Can anyone translate that to English?

[DocWheeler]

5twenty,

Here is a link that should help,

[5twenty]

Thanks, Doc.

[TIMCOSBY]

jpegs it need to be a low number because of the noise.

[TerryT]

Here is my understanding of the height versus depth issue. Using it in this manner works well for me even if not technically correct.

When a pattern is designed it will have a height and depth built in. In other words, when you place a pattern on your board it will automatically be set at a depth. That depth may be 0.250 or 0.381 or whatever the designer felt made it work best. The height will always be 100 when you put a pattern on the board.

Depth is the distance that the bottom of the pattern is set into the board from the surface. If it is 0.25 then the bottom of the pattern is set a quarter inch down from the top of the board. At 0.500, the bottom of the pattern will be set at half an inch from the top of the board.

Height is the designed thickness of the pattern. It is the distance from the top of the pattern (not top of board) to the bottom of the pattern. Think of this as a percentage. If the height is set to 100, that is 100% of the designed thickness of the pattern. If the height is set to 200, that is like 200% or twice the normal thickness from the top of the pattern to the bottom. Visualize drawing a picture on a balloon. As you blow the balloon up the picture will grow to 200 or 300 percent of its original size. Unfortunately it may also distort somewhat due to stretching it. The more you stretch something the thinner and more delicate it becomes. Stretching a pattern may result in increased chipping and rough surfaces.

Varying the height of a pattern is especially handy when combining two or more patterns and when layering your patterns. Reducing the height below 100 can be used to place one pattern behind another or move a pattern further into the background but will also flatten or reduce detail.

[TerryT]

Be careful not to icrease the height too much with some patterns. Over all quality can decrease and chipping can increase. Look at the thin ring at the center of the picture and you can see how it may be more likely to chip away.

Check the attached mpc. the same pattern is placed on the board twice. Once at the normal depth of 0.25 and height of 100 and the other is depth 0.7 with height at 300 to bring the top of the pattern even with the top of the board. If you were to carve this mpc, I think you would see a big difference in quality between the two.

[DocWheeler]

Terry,

That was a nice graphic description, thanks, I was too lazy to do something like that!

Need to flag this thread for the next person that asks that question.

[TerryT]

Funny you should say that Ken. I have started to do this the last two or three times that question was asked and.... was too lazy.

[kevspearl]

Hi Terry,
Your point on depth is well taken. I am working on a large shell applique that I want to place on a door. I would like to have a deep carving but the design program seems to limit me to the depth for the project. When I shallow the depth I loose detail in the program. I am cruiour to know if the sections you are carving are less that 12 inches wide? Do you know if I can make a large carving by increasing the size of the design and maqintaining the size of the work area? My thought is to carve sections of the total design and join them together on completion.

[TerryT]

Hi kevspearl,
The answer is yes. Do a search for "large signs" also check the tips and trips for explainations on how. This will give a better explaination than I would be able to do.

http://www.carvewright.com/2010CWweb...icks_Jul09.pdf