Nested stepped ellipses with partial overlapping problem

[BradleyRuben]

[insert newbie apology here.] My design problem is with nested and partially overlapping ellipses: imagine a central ellipse (material thickness), a deep narrow (1/16") channel surrounding it, and a partially raised ellipse around that (1/2" deep (Z), 1/4" wide (X-Y)), and that combination is adjacent with another where the channels combined at the equator. (The ellipses are about 5" by 2½".)
Attached is a close up of the structure I need

I cannot seem to get the resolution needed zooming in on Easel’s design (left pane) to assure everything is correct and to set the cutting depths (and the right pane is hard to zoom to the corners of the workpiece). (Side question: cut color of the polypropylene is very dark, so the right panel display is not easy to make out, and I’d rather not have to make/use a substitution material just for display purposes. Any suggestions?)

Also, I’ve tried doing this drawing in Inkscape and FreeCad, but the .svg never seems to import properly. I’ve read about everything I can, strokes to paths, combining nodes, plain .svg output, including trying the Inkscape g-code tools.

(Side question: can I just eliminate the g-code commands that Easel doesn’t accept? (Before I just spend time editing them out and seeing how the import goes.)

I’ve also tried saving the Inkscape (three) layers separately to import them as combined jobs.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you have.

Brad

[SethCNC]

Hi Bradley, a lot to unpack here so I’ll hit the main points up one by one…

@BradleyRuben

I cannot seem to get the resolution needed zooming in on Easel’s design (left pane) to assure everything is correct and to set the cutting depths

Can you share what you’ve got so far in Easel?
This shows how to share the project and where to copy the link from> then you can paste the link over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9gEkbX0v4

@BradleyRuben

(Side question: cut color of the polypropylene is very dark, so the right panel display is not easy to make out, and I’d rather not have to make/use a substitution material just for display purposes. Any suggestions?)

My suggestion: if you don’t like the appearance of the preview, then select a different material. I like the look of the depth color options that the 2 color acrylic / HDPE allow.

@BradleyRuben

including trying the Inkscape g-code tools.

(Side question: can I just eliminate the g-code commands that Easel doesn’t accept? (Before I just spend time editing them out and seeing how the import goes.)

Easel had some pretty specific gcode requirements that most post processors (including the one in inkscape) don’t conform to. Easel cannot support Arc commands and MOST gcode programs include Arcs by default, ONLY programs that allow the use of specific post processors and there is an EASEL specific one for will convert those ARCs into Segmented Polygons and the gcode will be Easel compliant .

HOWEVER there is nothing stopping Xcarve (or any other grbl cnc) users from using any number of other Gcode Sender software’s like UGS or OpenBuilds Control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rxnDIVrVLM

[BradleyRuben]

Many thanks for the suggestions.

I just discovered there were multiple superimposed objects somehow imported, so selecting one of the paths in Easel simultaneously selected underlying paths with an identical bounding box (which I guess were some path/stroke/fill artifacts even with the Save As plain-svg in Inkscape). Once I started pulling them apart, I discovered I no longer have the design geometry problem. So at least for now, I don’t have to delve more heavily into slicers and g-code.

And yes, I was afraid I’d have to chose a different display material, so thanks for the preferred color advice.