How to set up tool paths with irregular shaped workpiece

Trying to set up aspire to carve a board with both ends raised up, one through lamination, the other an angled scarf joint. Problem is I don't see a way to tell aspire the shape of the work piece, so instead I have it set up as one big block, where the cnc will end up making a lot of useless passes cutting air. Take a look at the attached image for a better description. I'm using aspire 3--is there any way to do this that won't take 90 hours? I can carve one by hand in a whole lot less time than that!

http://i.imgur.com/uXtK4K4.jpg

Hi Matt,

Since Aspire assumes that you are going to mill a 3D object out of a block of wood referenced from a flat plane, I am not sure how you would accomplish what you want to do with a single tool path. Caveat here: there may be a way, I just do not know how to do it. That is the bad news. The good news is that it is fairly easy to do. Break your tool paths into three sections. The logical choice is the left block with curve, the center ramp and the left up ramp. Create two rail sweeps for all three. Select the left section and create tp's for it. Now select the center section and when creating the tp reset you start cut depth to reflect the height difference from the top of the left to to top of the center. Do the same for the last piece. If you are using the same area clearance tool and the same finishing tool you can save out all three area clearance paths to one file and the finishing tp's to another. Run the first swap tools and run the second. The would be a fair amount of air cutting on the last part but this would speed it up tremendously.

Dan

I am not familiar with Aspire, but in general I would divide the geometry for the roughing operation into several parts, each one having its own stock height.

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Originally Posted by CitizenOfDreams

I am not familiar with Aspire, but in general I would divide the geometry for the roughing operation into several parts, each one having its own stock height.

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To do this in Aspire, Draw 3 vectors to contain the 3 roughing toolpaths to the different areas. Change the stock height, generate toolpath, export g-code. Repeat for the 3 sections.
Set the stock height back to the max, and then create your finishing passes.

If you bought Aspire to build guitars, then imo, you bought the wrong CAM software.

What software should I get for this kind of work?

What are you using for CAD?

Rhino 3D

Probably RhinoCAM or MadCAM

Even more intimidating than the price is the prospect of the learning curve. Honestly, I thought Aspire could handle everything--it's cost alone would lead one to believe that!

Aspire's CAM functions are very basic. What you're paying for is it's modeling capabilities.
V Carve Pro has the same machining capabilities as Aspire for much less than half the price.

You might want to look at importing your models into Fusion 360, which you can get for free.