Help with Tiling

[syzygytile]

Hello fellow shopbotters,

We're new to the CNC world and have run into a challenge with our first project and I'm hoping to get help from those in-the-know.

I've attached a v-carve file that is almost ready to cut. What I'm trying to do is cut into a piece of machinable wax to create a negative mold. Will pour a RTV compound into this mold to create a positive.

I've figured out how to do most of this. However I'm running into a problem when I try to tile the toolpaths. The final design is going to be almost 36", so I'd like to tile it into 4 18x18 pieces. The problem I'm running into is that I loose the effect of "Main Pocket" toolpath when tiled. I'm not sure how to recreate this effect.

Not sure if I'm explaining this well, but maybe you'd be willing to open the file link (file is too big to attache), run a preview and offer advice?

Much Thanks in advance.

Patrick

http://www.syzygytile.com/download/Santa-Clara-Test-4.crv

[Brady Watson]

I'm not sure what effect you are referencing, as "Main Pocket" is just a large pocket with 1/4" upcut using an Offset Pocket strategy. Because you chose Offset instead of Raster, tiling might not be very efficient because of all of the jogging from one end to the other. Try recalculating your pocket using Raster and see if that makes a difference. I ran the sims here, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Can you post a screenshot of the issue?

-B

[srwtlc]

Brady beat me to it whilst answering the phone, but you may have to make 4 individual 'Main pockets' to eliminate the many Z up jogs at the stepover of each pass and then tile the rest of the toolpaths. Rastering will reduce it by half and keep it from jogging to the other edge at least. If you made 4 separate 18 x 18 squares and pocket those, it would be more efficient. You could apply an allowance to overlap it a bit to make sure it clears beyond the tile perimeter.

Are you leaving the 'Tiling manager' open when previewing and posting the files? If not, nothing will be tiled.

[syzygytile]

Hello and thanks for the quick response.

I apologize if I have not done a good job of explaining what I am trying to do.

The reason for the 1/4" pocket that you see in the original file is so that we have a 'well' in which we can pour a liquid, that later hardens, to create a positive of the design. The shopbot desktop can only work up to 18" inches which is the same maximum size that we can produce anyway.

When I take the design and tile it into 4 pieces I get the following result: (Santa-Clara-Tile1.jpg)

25139

I want to create the 'well' for each of the 4 18x18 tiles.

I will try to use 4 pockets and see if I can achieve the result I am after and post the results.

Thanks everyone