Pierced not fully piercing - in Designer 3.102

[Mike58]

Well, one good reason is that it would leave tabs so the carved area would not detach from the stock. That's what the cutout function is for. Carve the area or part you want carved then apply the cutout and the software adds tabs. You could do it manually later if you wish to do it your way. It really does not take much time to change a bit. Much more standardized way of cutting parts out. If you don't use the cutout or add the tabs to your project then when the part detaches from the stock there is nothing from keeping it from flopping around in the cutout area and damaging your machine. JMHO

Steve I understand you points and that was EXACTLY what I did. I added 4 lines - 2 at each end and used the place tabs button to make 4 tabs to hold the plaque in place. The outer sides (edges) are tapered and get wider at the bottom or back side edge than the top rounded over edge. The carving bit is already working the complete side of the edge so once the carving is done the part is pretty much already cut thru except for the tabs.

I did use the cutout on the first one that I did and changed the bit from the carving bit to the cutting bit as you as saying. I didn't have the edge profile sloped as much the first time and didn't have any feather on the edge that I did add to the file uploaded.

[Mike58]

Why doesn't the pierced path fully cut out completely in the design software? The pierced path is SUPPOSE to fully cut thru the thickness of the board as setup to my understanding. Therefore the thing that is stumping me is if the board thickness is 0.75" and the pierced path is actually suppose to pierce fully through the thickness of the board as setup it should do that around the full path not just in places. Again, I can understand if the actual board thickness varies from side to side or whatever from the design thickness entered into the design software and the real world carving didn't fully pierce everywhere, but for it to be occurring within the software itself seems to be wrong. I don't see where I could cause this to happen. It should fully pierce the predetermined thickness - right?

[fwharris]

From what I have seen the pierced carve will only show in the software "like yours" to give you some what of a visual effect that it does carve through the board. If you could increase the outer path area It then would show the carving going through the board.

[bergerud]

Is this what you want? The sweep edge needed to be lowered. (I lowered it a little too much. There is something strange here with the sweep.)

[bergerud]

It is a bug with rail sweep. Piercing does not work. You should make it into a pattern and then piercing will work.

(The bug is that the pierced check box is active when I think it should not be. No other 3D tools have the check box enabled.)

[Mike58]

Is this what you want? The sweep edge needed to be lowered. (I lowered it a little too much. There is something strange here with the sweep.)

Yes, That is what I was expecting. I guess the bug is that it doesn't work consistently. It carves and cuts about like it showed on the design software. I will look at the file more tomorrow. I appreciate your taking time to look at it and respond to my cry for help.

[bergerud]

Pierced does not work at all for rail sweeps. You need to take your rail sweep and make a pattern out of it. Piercing will work for the pattern.

[zan29]

Don't know it this will help but I never use the "pierce" option to do a pierce carve because the edges come out cleaner for some reason. I always set my pattern depth and outline at .758" with a feather. I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do but make sure your outline is set a the proper depth.

This seems like it should be idiot proof but apparently not. I have attempted to use the pierce feature to cutout around a plaque but in the designer software the plaque is not fully cut out. Board thickness @ 0.75" and the outer most region selected and the pierced box checked. Flip the board over to the rear side and it cuts out fully down one side and partially down the rounded corner then fades away completely. The other end shows a imprint of a line as if the cutout is almost thru the board but not enough to completely cut out until it reaches the rounded corner which does show to cut fully through the board. The remaining side has no indication of cutting at all. When the file was ran on the machine, the results are basically as shown on the software screen.

When pierced is unchecked the depth shows as 0.758", but it is blanked out when pierced is checked. Attached is a screen snapshot to better explain what I am talking about. The bottom object is selected showing that it is fact a pierced carving, then the board was flipped to the rear to show what is happening. Real world results with carving machine is the same.

Please advise what to do, or what I maybe doing wrong.
Attachment 74619