hello in this tutorial we're going to
show how cut 3-D can be used to slice
very thick or very large
three-dimensional models into separate
pieces that can be machined and then
assembled to make finished projects so
if we start by loading a model here, we
have a an STL mesh that's been designed
using poser
so we import or open the model the
3-dimensional view we have the character
the characters in the wrong orientation
the cutting plane is the dark green area
here so the x axis and the y axis we
really need the character to be laying
down so we're just going to
going to machine him from the front so
looking from the front we click front
and the character is now laying down in
3-dimensional view so we have the x axis
the y axis we may wish to rotate it
through 90 degrees to have the long axis
along the x axis on the machine so if we
say rotate 90 degrees and let's just say
mirror so he's looking in the right
orientation okay let's say we wish to
machine this character for size let's
say we wish to make a six foot high
three-dimensional model so we make it 72
inches long this scales the y axis
to be almost thirty inches and the
height of the model to be almost 15
inches we hit the apply button 15 inches
high is often far too high for most CNC
machines and also, we probably wouldn't
be able to get some material that was
that was thick enough to cut it all in
one go so what we're going to do we're
going to say this is a two-sided model so
we're going to machine this poser
character the top half and the bottom
half but let's say we're going to cut
him in two-inch-thick sheets of material
so apply go to the next stage see here
that we have the cut plane so the dark
green area we can move this down
slightly so move it down
see as it passes through the character
we move him down to about centrally
through the body hit the apply button
now that we've sized the character and
we've also placed the clip to cut
playing through the middle we can now
say great slices above the plane and
create slices below the plane so we sent
file/save slice model enter the material
thickness so two-inch slices we're going
to minimize the slice areas this is used
to reduce the bounding box to be the
actual limits of each slice click OK
give the file a name and save, the software is
now slicing the top and the bottom it's
calculated for the top half of the
design it's calculated five 2 inch thick
slices for the bottom half of the design
it's calculated three 2-inch slices it tells
us where the files have been saved so we
just close this for a moment so far
close open now we have sliced
one for the top of our design just Twiddle
this and you can see now you place the
cursor over the design down in the
bottom right hand corner we get the X
and the y and the z print out so we just
zoom in to see that the top surface is 0
and the bottom is minus 2 so this is the
thickness of the material and we wish
the Machine this slice so we say
next we can move the origin the moment
origins in the middle we can say we want
the origin to be in the bottom
Left-hand corner to be at 0 0 apply ok
click the next button so we're going to
do rough machining with a quarter-inch
cutter Z-level calculate
so the software is now created rough
machining around the boundary of our
design but it has noticed that it's not
machining onto the top flat areas the
next button so we're going to finish
machine with a quarter inch board house
calculate the software is now
calculating the raster passes as
calculated the finishing toolpath for
this particular slice so next
we're not going to cut the piece out so
now if we say preview the roughing tool
path see that the roughing tool path
is stepping down a machining the
unwanted material away we preview
the finishing tool path and this is now
a machine the slice to give us the
detail okay so remember that was slice
one we would now save these tool paths
so we'd say next select the machine save
the tool paths and cut the slice on the
machine and we would say probably save
this far file open look at the second
slice the second slice it's got some
detail for the face it's also got the
the main part of the body so we say next
go through exactly the same process so
we move the origin to say the bottom
left hand corner apply next we calculate
a roughing tool path or if we have a
long enough tool and we're cutting foam
for example, we could say ignore the
roughing tool path let's just do the
finishing tool path
so calculate, the software has now calculated
the finishing tool path using the
quarter-inch ball nose next next again
and again we can preview this tool path
and that would give us some more detail
would give us the next slice we can
stick on top of the first slice would
save this far
look at slice three size three we do
exactly the same calculate the toolpath
machine the block of material and stick
the pieces together so remember that
what we've done is we've sliced the
model up we've sliced the top sections
and we've also sliced the bottom
sections after machining they can all be
assembled together thank you very much