Okay, I've managed to design a "pirate chest" w/ a rounded lid in BlockSCAD: https://www.blockscad3d.com/community/projects/919882 which I've been working out/documenting (sort of) at: https://community.carbide3d.com/t/has-anyone-used-cc-to-kerf-wood-for-bending/22930 Now I need to actually prepare parts for cutting. STLs won't work since I want V grooves cut accurately using a V endmill and I can't find a CAM tool which will do that from an STL (if there is such a tool I'd be glad to know of it). This is further complicated by the fact that there are V grooves at a declared angle (15 degrees for the example linked above) and a pair of grooves which need to be cut at a calculated angle which may not match up with an extant V endmill. Apparently if I exported 3 views as DXFs (top/front/side) those could be imported into Solidworks or something similar using a "wizard" or suitable technique so as to make a 3D model? The only work-around I can come up with is to export a pair of files: - one has a surrounding rectangle to register things and includes the V groove cuts defined as the surface outline of cutting them with a V endmill of suitable diameter - the second has the same surrounding rectangle (so things will still register) and the overall part outline (which can't be output in the above file since it would overlap with the V groove surface outlines Does all this make sense? Is there some better option which I'm missing? Or should I stop procrastinating and just finish up the coding? William -- Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/

OpenSCAD mailing list-2 wrote > The only work-around I can come up with is to export a pair of files: > > - one has a surrounding rectangle to register things and includes the V > groove cuts defined as the surface outline of cutting them with a V > endmill > of suitable diameter > - the second has the same surrounding rectangle (so things will still > register) and the overall part outline (which can't be output in the above > file since it would overlap with the V groove surface outlines > > Does all this make sense? Is there some better option which I'm missing? > Or > should I stop procrastinating and just finish up the coding? To get you right: 1. You are trying to prepare some sort of gcode path for a 5-axis (??) CNC machine? 2. You have some STL file created with BlocksCAD which you want to import to OpenSCAD, and you want to extract two paths, one describing a groove, and the other one some registering rect from said STL? 3. You want to use any of OpenSCAD's export formats to get a description of the the paths and postprocess this into a gcode file? Well, if the groove is a real 3D path with altering z coordinates, I think you have no chance with OpenSCAD. Given that rect and groove have constant z heights (i.e. they are parallel to the XY plane, you might be able to use something like translate([0,0,-z_groove]) projection(cut = true) and export that as DXF. This lets the question open, how you would deal with the groove's angle. E.g. you could export a slightly shifted version and calc the angle during post processing. translate([0,0,-z_groove-.1]) projection(cut = true) I am just guessing because your verbal description has a lot of spaced to do interpretations. Better show some code or STL ... -- Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/ _______________________________________________ OpenSCAD mailing list Discuss@.openscad http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org -- Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/

1 - it's a 3-axis machine 2 - no, it's OpenSCAD code exported from BlockSCAD which I'm then editing to support the Customizer and the 2D export 3 - correct. I guess I've got it working as well as it can be: https://community.carbide3d.com/t/has-anyone-used-cc-to-kerf-wood-for-bending/22930/45 it's a single file at least --- I just need to put some text in it to indicate the V angle which should be used when setting up a V carving. Thanks! William -- Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/