When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Friday 25 March 2011

Cross section part 2




 Here's the second part to the cross section pseudo lesson I started yesterday.


 I then saved this new component and re-opened the original trough model. I then imported the sliver model we just made and oriented it in the direction I needed it, as in the picture below.











So now I have 2 models in our project. I selected the sliver piece and clicked the "create vector" boundary tool. This gives me an outline vector of the sliver. I then lined up the newly created vector shape with our end cap vector in the 2d window.


Then I used the scissor tool to trim out all the unwanted lines, making the final shape.




Now we just need to add texture to the end cap! I brought in the original wood image again and deselected the trough component so I wouldn't do any damage to it. I then converted the image to a component, selected the end cap, then cleared the area outside the selected vector. This gets rid of all the texture except for on the end cap. I also used the "create shape from vector" and added 1/2 to the base of the end cap to give it the thickness I need. There you go, I now have a profile on the end cap that will line up with the end of the trough board with less work than trying to shape it after it's all glued up in the real world.
 JO

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