Hey guys, haven’t been here for awhile and just got back into an old hobby that I’m trying to replicate a part for. I’ve mocked up the .SVG file and I have about 16 holes to drill (3mm). I did the basic work on Inkscape. It’s the easiest for me to learn over the much more complicated programs. I’ve made parts before on my XCarve but the holes were NEVER great with a 1/16 milling bit. It was always ovalish type. So I just found out there’s this drilling function that would save me a lot of time. Is there ANY way I can just highlight the hole(s) that I had already designed and simply do a drill operation on the center of that hole? I can’t seem to do that via Easel. I even tried writing down the X,Y coordinates of the original hole but the drill hole target doesn’t seem to be in the right position! I’m lost as I have very limited pieces to work with. If i can get this up and running that would be so awesome! Happy cutting guys and thanks for any help in advance! You guys are the best!
You can use the “Convert Circles to Drill Holes” app to replace circle objects originating from Easel. You can try it with vector objects originating outside of Easel, but I am unsure what the results will be.
When you say, “I even tried writing down the X,Y coordinates of the original hole but the drill hole target doesn’t seem to be in the right position!” Are you saying that where the drill holes are on an actual carve are not where they are shown on the design? This, coupled with your statement about pocket holes being “ovalish,” would point to your machine requiring a steps/mm calibration unless you are getting the work-zero location off at the start of the carve. I would highly recommend you calibrate your machine before proceeding. Since drill holes are straight down at the coordinates specified, they should be right where the design shows them.
Here is a video from Paw Paw’s Workshop that will assist with calibration
Calibrate your machine and run a test carve. Let us know how it turns out!
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Brandon R. Parker
Brandon yes I just found out about that app library and did help a bit! I had limited amount of material so tried it just now. The drilling function works! Went slowly using cheap 3mm Drill Pro bit. Perfect circles since I’m no longer using the milling of holes when I got those ovalish holes. Now I have a problem with aligning some of my 18-20 holes from the factory piece. I must have moved some of my work when I was dragging and dropping alot of things and moved some of those groups! Everything cut out fine and I just need to tidy up everything! Sometimes I’m so pissed at the Easel app. I can’t even lock some of my objects when I select it and must have moved a couple of mm(s) here and there. I just read somewhere today that I can hold down SHIFT and it will NOT move at all which is good to know. So much to learn! Thanks Brandon!