Residual Material cutting
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 10:48 pm
Hello everyone!
We use SheetCam at work and are 99% happy with it--having a "cutting residual material" option would make it a full 100%.
To explain:
We use SheetCam for engraving a lot (we are not an engraving shop, but more often than not a client job needs it), as it has the "sharp corner" function our other CAM programs lack. When roughing a text with a bigger engraving bit, material is left behind, either in a corner or in the tight transition within letters or in serifs. So far my mode of action has been to either make a separate contour in that area with CAD software, if it's just a few objects. (Mostly the engraving I do on client jobs is always unique, so there's no way to go through the hassle of editing every job like this for a unique sign that will not be ordered again.) Or, if it's a lot of text, to just let a smaller bit go at the sign completely in a few seperate goes, even if it's then cutting "through the air" a lot of the time.
Unfortunately, as I'm mostly engraving stainless steel with bits that have a whopping 0.2mm cutting edge but engravings that need to be roughly 0.4 - 0.5 mm deep for getting paint into it, that takes the machine a lot longer to work--especiallly compared to just having the machine work on those areas that have been left behind in the first place.
Is there a feature like this already in the software and I haven't seen it yet?
If not, are there any thoughts in implementing this? (Absolutely no idea how difficult that is to do, but for me personally I'd be worth it to pay double to triple the current asking price for SheetCam, and my boss wholeheartedly agrees
)
We use SheetCam at work and are 99% happy with it--having a "cutting residual material" option would make it a full 100%.
To explain:
We use SheetCam for engraving a lot (we are not an engraving shop, but more often than not a client job needs it), as it has the "sharp corner" function our other CAM programs lack. When roughing a text with a bigger engraving bit, material is left behind, either in a corner or in the tight transition within letters or in serifs. So far my mode of action has been to either make a separate contour in that area with CAD software, if it's just a few objects. (Mostly the engraving I do on client jobs is always unique, so there's no way to go through the hassle of editing every job like this for a unique sign that will not be ordered again.) Or, if it's a lot of text, to just let a smaller bit go at the sign completely in a few seperate goes, even if it's then cutting "through the air" a lot of the time.
Unfortunately, as I'm mostly engraving stainless steel with bits that have a whopping 0.2mm cutting edge but engravings that need to be roughly 0.4 - 0.5 mm deep for getting paint into it, that takes the machine a lot longer to work--especiallly compared to just having the machine work on those areas that have been left behind in the first place.
Is there a feature like this already in the software and I haven't seen it yet?
If not, are there any thoughts in implementing this? (Absolutely no idea how difficult that is to do, but for me personally I'd be worth it to pay double to triple the current asking price for SheetCam, and my boss wholeheartedly agrees
)