I have an application where I draw letters and symbols in AutoCAD and machine them from a flat board approximately 1" thick. The letters have uniform face thickness and tapered sides. I get .the taper on the side (7 degrees) by using a tapered cutting tool. It's a simple application. I use vcarve software to cut the profiles simply to get the tapered cutter to move up in Z at the corners and to move up in Z to get the cutter tip to fit through areas where the whole cutter won't fit.
What I want to achieve to do some prototyping is to machine these letters from pre-cut sections that are like the tip top of a sphere. I need the toolpath to follow the contour of the pre-cut sphere section with respect to Z.
I've seen 3d tool-path generation from 3d models where a ball nose cutter passes back an forth over the part with tiny offsets and achieves a near smooth surface. I don't want to do that. Too much machine time and tool wear.
I want my cuters to follow the profile of the letters and shapes with respect to X and Y and follow the pre-cut sphere section with respect to Z.
Just like if you were to take a v-carve toolpath that was intended for a flat board and project it down onto the top of a basket ball.
Ideas?
I'm familiar with -- and have access to -- AutoCAD, BobCAD, ArtCAM.