HELP, unable to get Easel do do what I want

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1

HELP, unable to get Easel do do what I want

I am not sure what I am doing wrong.I am trying to do an inlay of a butterfly within a circle.

I have an outline of a butterfly within a circle prepared in Inkscape. I import it into Easel as a svg file, and it imports as a circle, all black, and the “cut shape” widget shows “fill”. If I change this to “outline” it shows my butterfly in the circle and on the rifgt screen it shows my circle cut out from my piece of Bubings (with tabs). It also shows my buterfly outline.
If I press toolpaths I get a rectangular toolpath which doesn’t make sense to me.

I want the circle to be cut from a piece of bubinga 1/4" thick and the butterfly within the circle needs to be cut to pocket with a depth of 1/8" to accept the inlay piece.

I am trying to cut this using Easel. But, it doesnt want to do what I want.

Should I not be able to select the butterfly and specify that it be cut as using “fill”?

Am I doing something wrong?

My second stage in the inlay process will be to import a copy of the buterfly only to Easel and cut it from a piece of maple 0.25" thick. This I have not done yet.

I have saved th Easel file as Easel - Butterfly - disc and pocket

Any suggestions would be apreciated.

Bob

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Part of your problem is the SVG file you are importing.
There is a extra square and about 6 butterflies on top of each other.
Also the butterfly is actual 2 curves combined a inner and outer so that only the space between them is being carved.

Be sure to ungroup all the curves - that causes weirdness on import.
Post your SVG so we can take a look at it in the raw form.

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Not sure what you mean by ungrop all the curves.

Guess the best bet is to restart by redoing the butterfly from start in Inkscape.

Bob

4

When importing from inkscape if curves are grouped it can cause problems.
Go To Edit: Select All
Go to Object: Un-Group

To fix the butterfly
Select the butterfly
Got to Path: Break Apart

This will separate the two curves that make up the inside and outside edge of the butterfly outline.
You can then delete one to get a solid butterfly shape that will carve as a “fill” properly.

Also look around. Again maybe select all. Somewhere you have a extra square in your svg file, it probably has no fill and no line so you don’t see it.

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Hi Aaron,

OK, I cleaned this up in Inkscape and now see the problem, how I caused it, and then I started over.

I rebuilt my project from scratch, and believe I have it clean now, but still unable to get Easel to indicate the buterfly as a 0.125" pocket within the circle.

I can see doing this as a 3 step project. 1st, cut the circle of bubinga using tabs to hold it in place. 2nd, create the buterfly pocket to be cut within the circle. 3rd, cut an outline butterfly from a piece of 0.125" maple. While this is workable, it requires an extra step over what I thought Easel capable of.

Am I still missing something?

New file is http://easel.inventables.com/projects/xn5qZFowQQsXQbNN3sdztQ

Thanks for your help.

6

You have the butterfly defined as a single thin outline. To have it cut as a complete pocket, it will have to be filled first. The line defining the butterfly would need a 0.1mm bit to cut it, that’s why you aren’t seeing anything happening. The issue I see is the small detail of the butterfly being cut as you want it, unless you have a very small bit.

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There is something wonky with the butterfly curve. I am pretty sure it is still 2 curves combined that just /look/ like a single line. Then need to be split before importing for easel to process it properly
Can you upload your SVG file? Let me take a look and see what is going on.
@BillArnold is right, this is a very small carve. You might want to bump up the size a bit.

Here I made a test SVG, look at this to see what I am talking about

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Hi Aaron,

I thought the upload process for a file was straight forward, but apparently not. I’ve made several attempts toupload the Inkscape svg file without success using the “Ctl G” command in the edit.

Have edited the message several times trying to upload file.

Bob

9

Hi Bill,

Thanks for info. I have some very small bits, but too early in my learning curve to use them since I understand they are really fragile.

I will increase my project size and once successful will then start to shrink project.

Perhaps I’m trying to run before I run…

10

Perhaps visual will help. To make Easel do what you want you need a butterfly like this one. It is totally filled, not an outline. The issue will still be the antennae, since they will require a very small bit.

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OK Bill, I see what you mean by filled, it is in the original image as used in Inkscape. I have used a new “filled” image and will give it a try since all looks well in Easel and is performing more like I expected.

I will report on my result.

Bob

OK, success as far as technique went but I snapped the piece to be inserted (very dry thin 1/8" cherry.
I also need to start with some basic inlays before getting too do complex shapes as there are some techniques
that are not as easy as they seem when reading about them.

Have to walk before I run…

Bob

(Edited to add result)