Quote Originally Posted by Ntl View Post
The material is just under 24"x36" Vcarve estimated time was 3 hrs, but Centroid is always faster than the estimated times I've noticed.
Good evening Dan,

The discrepancy isn't attributable to Centroid. The same thing happens with Mach3 and Mach4.

Take another look at the VCarve time estimate screen. If it's like Aspire (what I use), it says, "Time estimates based on" "Rapid Rate" and "Scale Factor." Assuming you have your rapids set correctly, you need to play with the scale factor until you get an estimate that reflects the actual time. Hopefully, that will get you close the next time. For me, I don't care much about cutting taking less than the estimated time. Underestimating is another matter. If cutting was running long, I'd start adjusting the scale factor.

As I understand it, the scale factor is not linear, e.g., assuming the estimate was twice the actual cut time, cutting the scale factor in half won't necessarily get you there. Apparently, there are a number of things scale factor takes into consideration, like feed rate, so a simple algebraic equation doesn't work. At least that's what I've read. Fortunately, trial and error isn't that big a deal in this case. Just change the factor and rerun the estimate until you're happy with it.

Gary