[777funk]

I have a file where cut that starts and finishes the contour at the neck pocket area (the weirdness with an arrow pointing at it) and it's leaving a ridge for some reason. Any ideas what could be causing this problem?

I'm actually loosing around 1/16" of material at the neck pocket edge ending where the arrow is pointing. I believe it's missing the material up to where the contour ends. Not sure what's happening here. Any ideas? It's the main outline contour toolpath in the file.

Here's a picture:


The file is zip attached

By the way here's a closeup screenshot of the contour path start/finish in Bobcad:

[woffler]

It looks like that is were your tool is plunging in to the material to start cutting each path.The way to correct for this is put in a finish allowance the part will cut slightly larger than needed and then do a finish pass or passes to cut out the tool mark.

[moldmker]

One possible cause that I see:

Looks like you translated the contour after creating it.
This is apparent because I exploded it and it jumped to another position.
(when a contour is created, the source geometry is blanked out)

Not sure if it's the root cause of your problem, but that has given me unpredictable results in the past.
If I need to move a contour, I explode it first...move the entities...recreate the contour.

Again not sure if that's the problem (don't have my dongle with me to fully run BC).

moldmker

EDIT: Seeing woffler's reply.....is that mark a divot in the path or is it a mismatch of the start of path to the end of path?
His reply would address a divot...my reply would address a mismatch.

[777funk]

One possible cause that I see:

Looks like you translated the contour after creating it.
This is apparent because I exploded it and it jumped to another position.
(when a contour is created, the source geometry is blanked out)

Not sure if it's the root cause of your problem, but that has given me unpredictable results in the past.
If I need to move a contour, I explode it first...move the entities...recreate the contour.

Again not sure if that's the problem (don't have my dongle with me to fully run BC).

moldmker

EDIT: Seeing woffler's reply.....is that mark a divot in the path or is it a mismatch of the start of path to the end of path?
His reply would address a divot...my reply would address a mismatch.

It is definitely a mismatch. There's about a 16th or more of material in a straight line gone where the path connects. You can see it pretty good in real life. Sorry for the unclear picture as far as the details there. I should have thought of a way to put a straight edge into the photo. But yes mis-match is the problem at hand.

Also, I had everything done and ended up having to move the whole design 3/4" down to fit on my machine's table so the contour was moved after the fact. So I think you're onto something there. I don't have a problem with anything else just that one spot.

[777funk]

I moved the contour start point (deleted the contour) and it's following the contour start point. Something weird is happening. Also it's leaving ridges on other points of the outline. Pretty weird. I'm not sure what's going on with the program.

[jrmach]

in your file labled neck pocket etch,the tool defined is a .150 em.The tool number is 1,which is all ready used for a .500 em in many other tool paths.Some times that can do unexpected things.Worth a try changing it.

[moldmker]

FWIW...I did take the code generated from your profile feature,
backplotted it in v21,
and it looked OK.

If you want to post your code from the problem path, someone here can do the same.

[777funk]

Got it resolved. Seems like it must have been something with the move after the contour or the tool discrepancy (not sure which) but I cleaned everything up a bit and tested it today and it's working.

Thanks for the ideas guys!