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VCarve Pro How-To's
Creating Drilling Toolpaths
In this How-To, you’ll learn how to using the Drilling functionality in VCarve Pro.
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Overview: The Drilling feature in VCarve Pro can come in handy when you need to drill holes in a job quickly, accurately, and efficiently. It also offers the feature to “Peck” drill or to be able to have the bit retract during a drilling operation to clear the hole of debris.
The Process: In this example, you’ll see how to group vectors and set-up a drilling toolpath. You’ll also create ‘tabs’ on a profiling toolpath to hold the piece in place. On the right is a picture of what you’re going to create. |
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| Step 1: |
If you haven’t already downloaded the example file, Click Here. Once downloaded, open the file named ‘Cribbage_No_Toolpaths.crv’. |
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| Step 2: |
Now you need to group all the little circle vectors together. To do this, press CTRL-A, while in ‘Selection Mode’  ; this will select all the vectors. While holding down the shift key, click the two outer circles and the two text objects in the center to deselect them. You should now have just the little circles selected. Press CTRL-G to group these vectors.
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| Step 3: |
With the grouped circles still selected, select the ‘Create Drilling Toolpath’ icon  from the toolpaths tab. Set the ‘Cut Depth’ to 0.2 inches, use a 0.125 End Mill for the tool, and check the ‘Peck Drilling’ check box. Set the ‘Retract Gap’ to 0.1 inches. Click ‘Calculate’ and then switch back to the 2D view.
Note: The ‘Retract Gap’ is the distance the tool will pull out of the hole it’s drilling to clear out debris. In this case, after each peck (0.125 inches), the bit will lift out of the hole to 0.1 inches above the work piece, then go back down and peck again. It’ll repeat this process until it reaches the correct depth of the hole (0.2 inches).
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| Step 4: |
In ‘Selection Mode’ hold the shift key down and select both text objects in the center of the piece (‘VCarve’ and ‘Pro V3’). From the toolpaths tab, select ‘Create V-Carve/Engraving Toolpath’  . For the ‘V Tool’, use a 90 degree 0.5 inch V-Bit. Click ‘Calculate’, and then switch back to the 2D view for the next step.
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| Step 5: |
While in ‘Selection Mode’ , select the outer circle. From the toolpaths tab, select the ‘2D Profile Toolpath’ icon  . The ‘Cut Depth’ should be set to 0.375 inches, and the tool should be a 0.125 End Mill. Select to machine ‘Outside’ the vectors, and check the ‘Add Tabs To Toolpath’ and the ‘Create 3D Tabs’ check boxes. For the tab ‘Length’ enter 0.2 inches and for the ‘Thickness’ 0.1 inches.
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| Step 6: |
Click the ‘Edit Tabs’ button. This will bring you to the ‘Toolpath Tabs’ options. Select to have a ‘Constant Number’ and set the number to ‘4’. Click the ‘Add Tabs’ button. Notice how the yellow ‘T’ boxes have appeared along the selected vector. Their positions correspond to where the tabs will be. Click ‘Close’ to get back to the ‘2D Profile Toolpath’ screen and then click ‘Calculate’.
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| Step 7: |
If you haven’t already, you can preview the entire job in the 3D view by clicking ‘Preview All Toolpaths’. Notice the four tabs along the edge of the outer circle.
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To Download The VCarve Pro CRV File For This Example Click Here (150KB)
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© Copyright 2007 Vectric. All rights reserved. |
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