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Not round edges?

Discussion in 'Sketchup Help' started by Trulsen, Jan 3, 2013.

  1. Trulsen

    Trulsen New Member

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    Hi guys!

    I bought a CNC6040 router from carving-cnc in october 2012 and in the Xmas times I finally got time to get it up and running. I actually missed some parts so it was grounded a little bit because of that as well. Long story short, the router is now up and running and I can finally make my own G-codes thanks to this forum! I am using sketchup and SketchUcam and that works like a charm for me as a newbie! :)


    But I have a small issue. I drew a square part 100x100mm with a 60mm hole in the middle just to test the router and all the measurements where quite OK. Have only just tried finished g-codes i got with the Mach3. The square and the hole looks very good!

    But then I tried to draw a heart (just for fun of course ;) ) but the edges on top of the heart, the two round halfes did not get perfectly round. They are miled like the picture. I know, I suck explaining!!



    Any tips to get this right? Attached files [​IMG] Hjerte test.skp (79.3 KB)Â
     
    Trulsen, Jan 3, 2013
    #1
  2. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    That is how Sketchup does the arcs and circles by default. If you do not flatten the part Mach3 will recognize it as an arc and make it smooth anyway. Another thing to do when drawing the arc or circle is just increase the sides of the circle or arc before drawing it and it will look a lot smoother. I usually do 50-75 sides and it looks nice and smooth.
     
    3DMON, Jan 3, 2013
    #2
  3. Trulsen

    Trulsen New Member

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    Hmm, thanks.

    The problem is that the heart where like that when it was cut ut. Only round on the inside cuts.

    How do you increase the sides of the circle?
     
    Trulsen, Jan 4, 2013
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  4. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    If you import it into Sketchup it will not see it as a true arc anymore maybe that is why.
    When you select the circle or arc just type the number of sides you want and hit enter. The number shows on the bottom right hand corner box. Also you need to do this before you actually use the tool otherwise you need to re-select the tool to change the side count again.
     
    3DMON, Jan 4, 2013
    #4
  5. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    You can also right click on the arc (if its not be exploded to line segments) a true arc and select Entity Info and add Segments to the arc or circle there.
    Hope this helps
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 4, 2013
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  6. Trulsen

    Trulsen New Member

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    That seems to do the trick :D


    Thanks kram242.. Cant wait to mill som more stuff!
     
    Trulsen, Jan 4, 2013
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  7. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Glad to hear you got it working Trulsen :doubleup:
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 5, 2013
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  8. Trulsen

    Trulsen New Member

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    Yeah - as a newbie I can not get enough help! Next thing to do is to do some text engraving with sketchup/sketchucam.. Is that easy to do? Will google and see if I can find some tutorials on that...
     
    Trulsen, Jan 5, 2013
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  9. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    We were all new to this at some point so there is no shame in that, the fact that you are working toward learning more says you wont be a noob for long. :good:
    Well there is a little problem with that as even if you can find a single line engraving font like the simplex font Sketchup will always look at the 'single' line as a connected group of lines with a face. Which means that if you had for instance a single line font and you were using the letter l, it would look at the l like it was a rectangle with for sides as lines and a face for the center. So the bit would follow the 4 lines that make up the l and not the center line. Now that being said (if you do not have a lot of text to carve) you could use the line tool to draw out single lines of the letters you want to make and then use SketchUcam to assign a center line depth cut to them.
    There are some tricks you can do like, install a single line font and make it small enough so that that the bit won't move over too much to notice.
    You could always us the built in text to cnc feature of the CNCUSB software/board, if you are using that. As well as the feature to import DXFs to Gcode. You should be able to use single line fonts converted to to DXFs and imported to CNCUSB.
    There is also the option of using a text to cnc software like DeskEngrave
    http://yertiz.com/cnc/text2.htm
    These are just a few ideas I could think up. I hope it helps. I am sure there are a lot more options out there just waiting to be discovered.
    If you find one that you like please post.
    Thanks
    Mark and Trish
     
    kram242, Jan 5, 2013
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