Concave Oval?

[joewino]

I'm still trying to get the hang of my ArtCAM Pro 9 software. I've posted this on the ArtCam Forum but thought I would do the same here to see if anyone can help me.

What I want to do is to produce a dish shaped (concave) oval with another shape inside that oval that remains flat and the same height as the original surrounding material.

I am routing in HDU and want to cut this dished out oval with a shape of Texas in the center. I can easily figure out how to cut the oval with a flat bottom, but not the uniform dish shape. I can even do a circle, but not an oval.

Does that make sense? If so, how do I do it?

[garyb]

Is this what you mean Ray?

4696

just use the shape editor (F12) select your center vector and create as flat with the height you want.
select outside vector, use the concave shape and merge high.

[garyb]

and here's your recessed version

4697

[jsfrost]

Gary obviously has it mastered.

The Artcam documentation often shows how to do a specific task, but fails to detail how the function works. I have achieved an oval dish, by spinning a cross section vector 360 degrees to make a circular dish, then saving the circular relief, load relief selecting the paste option, stretch to match the desired oval, select paste and you are there. One could achieve the oval by drawing start and end vectors and spinnning 4 quadrants, but this seems more work.

One issue in spinning I don't see mentioned in the documentation, logic, or at least my logic, would envision the vector rotated about a point as the vector is drawn. AC will tilt the vector so that the end point is at zero height. If the vector does not end at the start height and the spun shape should have a flat bottom add a vertical vector element from the vector rotation point.

So now you have a novice method, how do you experts do it easier?

[Brady Watson]

2 Ovals, a cross section vector & the 2-rail Sweep.

-B

[garyb]

Jim, in the top example I drew 2 elipses from the vector editing tool bar.
selected the center elipses, f12 to bring up the shape editor gave it a height of .75 and click add.
select out side elipse, f12 for shape editor,select concave line type and set angle (about 40 in this case) set start height to .75 and click merge high and your finished.

The second one is done in the reverse method with no start height and starting with the concave dish shape first.

[joewino]

Thanks Gary...it worked perfectly. It was just knowing what buttons to push and you walked me through it with no problems.

Your second post was a lot more helpful, because it described the steps in order.

The job is cutting right now. There's nothing like having a Forum that responds so quickly. Thanks to all.

[garyb]

Your welcome Ray. glad it worked out for you.