It would be great if easel had a texture app like vcarve. I don’t really want to buy vcarve just for that feature…
1 Like
There are a bunch of vector SVG textures out there, but they would not be 3D (variable depth). This is a limitation of Easel at this time.
Phil that’s a cool idea but how do I get easel to allow me to change bits once it gets to the background texture? I can do rough and detailed cuts. Would I just make a separate project which is the squiggly lines?
So in your example, I would start by cutting my sign with “x-carve” at a 0 depth. I then would make a new file. In that file I would probably offset the “x-carve” a quarter inch or so to be safe and bring that to the front. The texture would then be set in the background and have it cut the sign again after I change the bit? Does that sound about right?
You could cut my example exactly as-is in a single step.
I guess I meant if I wanted to change bits for the texture… Like a ball nose or a V shaped bit
Wouldn’t F-Engrave work? Just make thin, horiztontal rectangles or thin ellipses of various thicknesses and then use a ball nose bit. If your bit is 1/8", make your ellipses random thicknesses of .1" or less, and random lengths. Stack them up. You should get something like this (brown background) (caveat - I have not used f-engrave but it is essentially a v-carving program, you are just swapping out a ball nosed bit):
I tried it in v-carve (which has a texture tool, but I did not use it here, I justd created a lot of ellipses and set it to v-carve with a ballnose bit):
2 Likes
Wow thats really cool. I guess what I am trying to say is that if I wanted to cut the sign with a flat end mill bit, then cut the texture in the background I would have to make two separate files in easel. Cut everything with the flat bit first, so that way I have a flat bottom to the sign. Then change bits, and cut the texture or ellipses in this case with a ballnose bit.
Im cool with that, I just want to make sure I have the process down correctly. The sign Im working on is 16x28 and before I hack away on a chunk of wood that big I want to make sure I have the process correct. Ive made too many pieces of kindling this week and its a blistering 100 degrees, not much use for kindling these days lol.
That’s only the way I would to it. But I can reliably zero my bit between tool changes. I set zero in the lower left corner of my work piece, away from the sign itselft a little, then jog the bit down so it makes a hole there. Then, not matter what happens during tool changes, power outages, rabid squirrels, etc., I know I can manually re-zero. So bit changes won’t be a problem.
You will, however, likely make more kindling along the way as you experiment.
1 Like
Very cool idea. I tried making some random squiggly lines in an Easel app. Gotta try carving it though. I’ll try your ellipse idea next.
Here is the random squiggly line app idea in action:
4 Likes
Here are the variables from V-Carve’s Texture Tool for reference. In case someone wants to gin up an app for Easel (copied from another post - ignore my settings and notes):
Max Cut Depth: .1"
Max Cut Length: 2"
Min Length: .5"
Max Overlap: 30%
Variation: 50%
Stepover: .1181
variation: .029
Angle: 0 (Angle is the angle of the marks. 0 is flat across left to right)
Boundary Offset Vector: .1" (This enables me to have raised letters with chamfered edges using a 60 degree v bit creating a pocket around my letters and a .25" flat end mill for large area clearing. The angled sides to the raised letters need a little room - hence the offset.)
omg nice !!! i want to try this in easel too !
I would love to have access