Deskproto 5 manual

In addition an Angle with X-axis can be entered to create toolpaths that are not parallel to X and Y, but still parallel to one another. Crosswise This is the same as creating two operations where one of them uses parallel to X, and the other one uses parallel to Y. This option is useful in case the model you want to produce must have a very good surface quality: the staircase effect resulting from the parallel X toolpath will be removed by the parallel Y toolpath and vice-versa.

The default Block strategy is optimal for most geometry, as it will minimize the number of positioning moves during the lower layers. When Roughing if the cutter moves in from the outside, at some point the remaining material in the center will be cut loose. That loose chunk of material may damage your model. The Block strategy combines toolpaths parallel to X and Y to a sort of rectangular spiral. These are probably the most efficient toolpaths, very suited for roughing.

This strategy can very well be used for round geometries, like rings or cups. The radial toolpath cuts radial spokes out from a centerpoint. The spokes are arrayed every fixed number of degrees. As a result, the stepover and scallop height increase toward the outside. Although this is not a widely used toolpath, it can lead to some very interesting textures worthy of experiment. Waterline machining produces toolpaths on a constant Z-level. They have a fixed Z-distance in-between each two toolpaths.

Such strategy is also called contour machining or Z-plane machining. The last strategy Contour is the only who does not machine the complete part: only the outline of the geometry outer contour at ambient level is machined. The contour toolpath can be used to have the tool cut along a curve. The curve can be planar or 3D. The contour toolpath can be used as a clean-up pass to remove scalloping from a previous surface milling operation, to smoothen the model.

Layer Height: instead of trying to remove all material at once, it will be done layer by layer. The default layer height equals the whole cutting length of the cutter.

In most cases it is preferable to use a smaller custom-defined layer height, as with a tough material you do not want the cutter to use its total cutting length. For light materials like foam the height can be equal or less than the cut length of the bit or cutter. For medium materials like mdf, plywood or solid wood it should be equal or less than the diameter of the bit. For strong materials like perspex or metal you will need to use smaller values.

The first layer starts at the top of the segment. Skin thickness defines the depth of material to let and be removed during finishing. For example, a 6 mm ballnose cutter and a soft wood you could use say 5 mm Layer and 0. Finally The Ramping angle is used when starting to machine.

Normally the cutter enters the material in a vertical downward movement. With this parameter you can cmooth how the cutters enters, to protect it from breaking. After an roughing operation you always need a second operation which machines the same area more accurately: the finishing operation.

In this tab you can edit how the cutter will work the contour of the part. You can start the milling calculations by pressing the button Calculate Toolpaths. If the distance and stepsize are very small the milling calculations will take a more time. So while editing and testing different parameters, you can sometimes use momentarily bigger distance and stepsize values to go try things quicker in deskproto.

The resulting toolpaths will be drawn in red lines. Now you can see the cutting movements that will be done by the cnc, the sequence of actions, the depth of the cutting … and above all, the resulting object that will be milled. You must edit all parameters until you see that the toolpaths will create the desired form.

Once you have the desired form resulting from the toolpaths, you can export a. You can best see the 2D toolpath as a pen-plotter operation: the pen so here the cutter will operate on two Z-levels.

The pen will draw lines at pen-down level, and in-between it will make positioning moves at pen-up level. The same happens while 2D machining: the Machining level Z-value defines the pen-down level, and the Free Movement height on the third tab defines the pen-up level.

DeskProto has the ability to machine 3D reliefs based on Bitmap data. DeskProto converts the 2D bitmap information to a 3D geometry a relief , and then calculates toolpaths over this geometry. The conversion is in fact very simple: each pixel has a gray value, which can be black, white or some in-between shade of gray.

This gray value will be converted to a Z-value. You need to define Z-levels for black and for white; all in-between Z-levels will be calculated automatically. This is called Gray-value to Z-height conversion. This document is an attempt to make a quick introduction to the basics of cnc milling using deskproto. It has information from different sources; the main ones are the official reference manual and tutorial from deskproto.

Finally you will import this file. Basic Steps for 3D machining: 1. Some parameters you can edit to make the right cutting operations. A part can be an entire object to be milled, or a part of an object to be milled … When editing these parameters, in the general tab, you can check that the milling machine corresponds to the one you are using.

Roughing, Finishing and Contouring are the typical operations when milling an object. Edit window of a cutter Equally important are the Precision parameters. Same basic concepts to define the right precision are the Distance and Stepsize Distance between toolpaths and Stepsize along toolpath : The first value is the distance between each toolpath.

Also, the 3D milling of a bitmap file is supported. Design your drawing or CAD data, e. Business Hours: Monday to Friday 8. Mail: [email protected]. German VAT. Inquire now. Only for a short time: The High-Z series beginner milling machines are currently available! Automatic, dynamic feed adjustment with large removal.