I am trying to cut out several shapes and Easel seems to cut around some shapes twice then move on to another piece, cut around the shape twice then move again.
This seems like a huge waste of time.
How do I stop this happening?
Joined-Bandsaw bearing block-12.3mm.nc (119.2 KB)
There is nothing wrong with using easel but the problem is it sets up your toolpath for you which is in my opinion not the best. I sometimes draw in easel and export the file to Vetrics and set up my own tool paths which saves a lot of cut time. Then use another program to run the files from Vetrics. On a lot of things i can save 40 to 50% of the cut time because the bit is not moving all over and cutting a little here and there. Just my thoughts.
Its cutting twice because the shape is a thick outline, you can resolve this by either clicking the design and pressing E and deleting the inner or outer layer of nodes, leaving only one shape.
OR an even faster way is to select the item, go to the tools (lego button) and use the Shape Exploder OR Xploder (these are 2 different apps, try them both out) and split the design into seperate elements and delete the element you don’t want, then using outside the path to cut out your shape 
On the X-carve, is there a way to shut down the machine (and computer) after the first bit and continue at another time with the detail bit? Was an 8 hour run first, and rough bit is done, but need my laptop for work tomorrow and need to shut it down. Leaving the project still attached to the board. Want to see if it is possible to pick it up again tomorrow for the detail bit.
I may have not explained the problem properly.
What I meant by cutting twice is Easel will do one pass around a shape and then drop down the set cut depth of 0.7mm and cut the same path a second time.
Then it will move on to another piece and do the same.
When all pieces are at that depth of 1.4mm, it will then finish a part, then move on and finish another part.
What I don’t understand is why doesn’t it just cut one part out completely and then move on to another.
Just solved my own problem.
It seems if you have the parts too close the program thinks they are the same part and cuts the outline of all 2 layers first. Why 2 layers is any ones guess…
I separated all parts by a few mm and it now cuts each part out one at a time.
My only problem is now to work out how to only cut the remaining material when a cut has already been made. I have included the file to demonstrate my problem.
The half depth rectangle cuts ok but then the oval starts the cut at the original level of the part and not the remaining material.Bandsaw bearing cut test.nc (19.1 KB)
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Can you share the project link, its a lot easier to work with than the gcode file…
Go to project>share and change it to unlisted and copy that link. Thanks!
Yeah, you just need go to machine inspector (ctrl+shift+D) to record what the x,y work location was for the first carve (record the machine location when work zero is 0)
Then the next day you’ll home and then move it back to that exact same machine location to set x,y zeros.
This only works with a cnc using homing of course and it might be a tiny bit off from temp changes and belt stretch… like 0.5mm so YMMV
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