Laser Sketch Engraving
Note
The Laser Module is available as a paid-for add-on to the software. The features are not included in your software by default. To find out more about the Laser Module, please go to https://vectric.com/laser-module
The Laser Sketch Engraving toolpath will apply the Sketchcarve technique to generate a Laser toolpath.
Select Tool
This button opens your database of previously stored laser settings for different jobs and materials. When a setting is selected from the database it will be used to populate the key fields in this section. You can subsequently modify these values when calculating the laser toolpath. Modifying the settings on this form will not alter the original stored settings within your database.
Selection
This allows the User to indicate if the selecting image is either:
Bitmap
An image file imported in the following format .BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .TIF, .TIFF, .PNG, .JPEG
3D Model
A 3D file imported in the following format .STL, .V3M, .3DM, .SKP, .RLF, .3DS, .ASC, .PRJ, .X, .DXF, .LWO, .WRL, .OBJ
Power
This value sets the proportion of the maximum laser power from your machines that will be used for this tool path.
Overscan
Overscan allows the user to have the laser pass beyond the edge of the lasered area, to account for deceleration of the machine which would otherwise result in a darker edge to the laser burn. This will turn the laser off at the edge of the toolpath but allow the machine to continue moving beyond the edge.
Overscan is machine dependant and the user will need to run some test images to identify how much overscan to use on their machine at a given feedrate to eliminate overburn at the edges of the lasered area.
Machine Limit Boundary
Choose what to use as the outer boundary for the Laser Sketch Carving toolpath
Bitmap/Model Boundary
Using the external edge of the bitmap or 3D file as the boundary for the tools operation.
Selected Vector
Allows a vector to be used as a boundary to limit the extent of the toolpath creation.
Hold SHIFT and select the desired Vector to use as the boundary after selecting the Bitmap or 3D model you are Laser Sketch Carving.
Selected Level
Allows a Component Level to be selected to use the components on that level for a boundary to limit the extent of the toolpath creation.
Boundary Offset
Increase the Machining limit outside of the boundary selected above but the distance used here. The Default value is 0.
Tracing Parameters
The Line Thickness slider will allow you to adjust the weighting of your sketch lines created from your 3D model or Bitmap image.
This can slide between 0 and 100.
The higher the value the thicker the Laser sketch carve lines will be but the less detail will be picked out.
You can see here the green hightlighted area shows the area which will be cut in this toolpath, with the lower Line Thickness picking out more areas of the finer details, while the Thicker Line Thickness will apply more heavily to the largest areas while not cutting the finer details.
By reviewing the Laser Sketch Carves Green Highlights you can get a good idea how the toolpath will cut before calculating it.
Stepover
When creating hatch fills, this option determines the spacing between the hatch lines. It is only available when the Hatch Fill strategy is selected.
Hatch Angle
When the Hatch Fill strategy is selected, this option determines the angle of the hatching lines used.
Fill Together / Fill Regionally
These options will change how areas separated by spaces are treated.
- Fill Together will raster the entire bounding box, switching the laser power to Zero for the negative space. For text objects this would be the spaces between characters for example.
- Fill regionally will instead retract and move between the separate machined areas, over the negative space.
- Fill regionally between vectors Will behave like Fill regionally but also limits rapid moves to just the closed vector boundaries. A use case for this would be a toroid or donut shape where you need to prevent rapid or feed moves over the area of the internal vector.
Cross Hatch
Checking this option will create a cross hatch fill instead of a single set of lines.
Position and Selection Properties
Safe Z
The height above the job at which it is safe to move the cutter at rapid / max feed rate. This dimension can be changed by opening the Material Setup form.
Home Position
Position from and to that the tool will travel before and after machining. This dimension can be changed by opening the Material Setup form.
Project toolpath onto 3D Model
This option is only available if a 3D model has been defined. If this option is checked, ✓ after the toolpath has been calculated, it will be projected (or 'dropped') down in Z onto the surface of the 3D model. The depth of the original toolpath below the surface of the material will be used as the projected depth below the surface of the model.
Note:
When a toolpath is projected onto the 3D model, its depth is limited so that it does not exceed the bottom of the material.
Vector Selection
This area of the toolpath page allows you to automatically select vectors to machine using the vector's properties or position. It is also the method by which you can create Toolpath Templates to re-use your toolpath settings on similar projects in the future. For more information, see the sections Vector Selector and Advanced Toolpath Templates.
Name
The name of the toolpath can be entered or the default name can be used.