Cleaning up machined sides

[DickB]

I need to get into my head that the use of "Optimize" and "Optimal" within the software and hardware, and the relationship between those two. I have some other KD hardwood that isn't as precious as the cherry and I can run the same pattern using different settings that may help me understand that part. I think the only way to really understand it is to do carve a lot, keep reading, and take copious notes.

You can generally see what the Bit Optimization setting will do in Designer, before you actually carve. The attached images are of one of the built-in patterns, Basic - Composition - Crest 01. The first is with Bit Optimization: None and the second Bit Optimization: Best. Because this pattern has some fine detail and is fairly deep, you can see a significant difference - look closely at the center of the pattern, and at the upper edge, as you toggle back and forth. With other patterns that have less detail, such as Basic - C Fillagrees - C Filagree 01, you will not see much difference.

[Ohio]

DickB, thanks for the examples. I did that on the spoon pattern I ran on the KD cherry. I saw very little stair-stepping in the software but had quite a bit on the piece. I think I may have mismatched what I told the software the bit was going to be, so I'll double-check that.

Thanks all.