TIJ1O_VCarve

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=V-Carve & CnC designing=

A CNC wood router is a CNC Router tool that creates objects from wood. CNC stands for computer numerical control. The CNC works on the Cartesian coordinate system (X, Y, Z) for 3D motion control. Parts of a project can be designed in the computer with a CAD/CAM program, and then cut automatically using a router or other cutters to produce a finished part.

We will be using a CAD program called V-Carve to generate designs which we will then get the CnC router to cut.

V-Carve is a fairly straight forward tool that takes a series of vectors, and when you are content with the previewed 'virtual carving' exports a series of controller numbers that let the CnC router know where to put the carving head.


 * Assignment steps:**

> Start deleting any extraneous vectors that aren't important
 * 1) Get a picture from the interwebz. The picture should be a simple as possible (e.g. the nike swoosh).
 * 2) The picture you get should be as high a quality/resolution as possible (look at the filter on the left of google images to 'large' file-size)
 * 3) Save the picture to your server account
 * 4) Start V-Carve
 * 5) Create a New File in V-carve
 * 6) Set the size of the stock to 5" wide by 5" height and 0.5" thickness
 * 7) The XY origin position should be bottom left
 * 8) Set the unit to inches then click OK
 * 9) On the Drawing menu click on the icon that says "Import bitmap for tracing"
 * 10) Point it to that picture you just saved. The picture will appear on the surface of the 'wood' on the preview
 * 11) In the "Create Vectors" section of the Drawing menu, select "Fit vectors to bitmap"
 * 12) In the Trace Bitmap window select the "Black and White" option
 * 13) Set "Corner Fit" to loose. Set "Noise Filter" to 10 pixels
 * 14) Using the threshold tool adjust it to retain as much details as you feel necessary to get the best tracing result
 * 15) Select "Fit Vectors"
 * 16) Close the menu down
 * 17) Save the v-carve document into your server account. Call it //yourname.crv// (obviously with your name, not yourname)
 * 18) In the Layers section, select the drop down menu beside Layer 1 and select "Bitmap Layer"[[image:tij1o_v-carve.gif]][[image:tij1o_v-carve.png width="648" height="387" align="right"]]
 * 19) Uncheck the Toggle Visibility of Layer box below the "Bitmap Layer". That turns off the bitmap (picture) layer to see what the tracing looks like.
 * 20) Select Layer 1 in the list to make it current. V-Carve will be using the vectors to cut, not the picture so you want to work on the layer with the vectors on it.
 * 21) Select all of your vectors (they're pink when they're selected). The best way of doing so is to press Control+A
 * 22) Resize the picture with the dragging handles on the corner. Make sure the vectors are all brought to about 1/2" close to the edge of the wood. Make sure you don't distort your vectors by stretching them wide or tall (keep the proportions).
 * 23) Center the materials in the middle of the wood (by pressing the center in materials button near the bottom in the middle).
 * 1) From the 2D View Control choose "Switch to Toolpaths Tab" (the tab on the right side of the screen alternately)
 * 2) From the Toolpath Operations section select "Setup Material" and change settings to Rapid clearance gap = 0.02" and Home position to X=0.0,Y=6,z=0.5 and press OK
 * 3) From the Toolpath Operations" select "V-Carve Engraving Toolpath"
 * 4) Set the start depth to 0.
 * 5) Set the Flat Depth to 0.125" (that's 1/8")
 * 6) From the V-tool section click on Select.
 * 7) Choose the V-bit 90degrees 1/2" tool
 * 8) Change the feed rate to 60 inches-per-minute
 * 9) Click OK
 * 10) Make sure all the vectors are selected by CTRL+A
 * 11) Click on Calculate at the bottom of the Toolbar section
 * 12) Choose the type of material you want in your preview and the toolpath colour. Press "Preview Toolpath"
 * 13) Save an image of the file you are previewing
 * 14) Once you're done, choose the Larken Inch from the dropdown menu in the Post Processor box.
 * 15) Select "Save the Toolpath to File" (bottom middle)
 * 16) Call it by the same name as you saved your CRV file.
 * 17) Submit ALL 4 files (the CRV, the preview of the cutting picture, the original picture and the Larken *.NC file) into your handin folder.


 * **CATEGORY** || **4** || **3** || **2** || **1** ||
 * **VCarve File** || Logical steps are followed and resulting design is exemplary. || Generally all steps are followed, there are small errors in lines. || Generally the product is as it should be, though there are enough errors in replication that final product is flawed. || Large errors in generation of the design. ||
 * **Finished Object** || Logical steps are followed and resulting design is exemplary. || Generally all steps are followed, there are small errors in orientation/alignment. || Generally the product is similar, but either the angle, or material/colour choices are poor. || There are large discrepancies in either shape or textures. ||
 * **Use of Time** || Used time well during each class period (as shown by observation by teacher, and documentation of progress in journal) with no reminders. || Used time well during most class periods (as shown by observation by teacher, and documentation of progress in journal) with no reminders. || Used time well (as shown by observation by teacher and documentation of progress in journal), but required reminders on one or more occasions to do so. || Used time poorly (as shown by observation by teacher and/or documentation of progress in journal) in spite of several reminders to do so. ||
 * **Product** || Final product is exemplary || Final product is superior, with some minor flaws || Final product is presentable, but contains some flaws || Final product is inferior ||