How to make radius corners w/ Moulding Toolpath
Have you ever tried to use the moulding toolpath make a carving with round corners and it not work out? This video will show you the secret on how to fix that! This lesson applies to Vectric VCarve and Aspire.
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Video Transcript:
If you ever tried to use the molding toolpath in Vectric software with round corners, you may notice it can be difficult to make the toolpath work with those round corners. Now I'll show you what I mean. In the 2D view you can see. This external rectangle has a radius corners and when you use the molding toolpath, sometimes you're going to have this issue here where the molding toolpath does not match that radius corner.
And what you're after is something like this where it does match that corner. So in this video, I'm going to show you a trick that I developed to fix this issue. And then also at the end, I'm going to show you a bonus tip if you need to switch which side the molding profile goes on.
So, for instance, if you wanted this bead on the outside instead of the inside, I'll show you how to switch that as well. All right.
So let's take a look at this technique, and I'm going to reset the preview and I will show you what normally it looks like when you try to make that toolpath. So first, you're probably going to try to use the molding toolpath and you're probably going to select this rectangle
with the radius corners. And then your going to hold shift and select your side profile. But as you may notice, the molding toolpath wants to go on the outside of the rectangle, and you can even right click on that line and reverse the direction. And it still stays on the outside.
It just reverses which direction it cuts. So that is the issue with the molding toolpath is it only goes on the outside of a closed vector.
So to fix that, you have to offset this line inwards, which will give you this line here. And this offset distance has to be the same width as your side profile if you want it to match. So now if you offset this line inwards and then it's like that and then the shape here, you can see it is now cutting in the correct area.
But the problem is this corner here does not reach all the way to that radius corner. And that's because we have a sharp corner here, because this offset distance was greater than the radius of this corner. So that's why it comes up with a sharp corner. You could radius this corner, but the radius is not going to match when you try to get it into this corner. No matter what you do there, you'll still have this big gap right here.
So there is a trick to fix this, and I will show you how I do that. And that is by splitting this closed vector into two open vectors. And to do that, you first need your rectangle, all created with the radius corners.
And then you have to go to the node edit mode.
So you could just click the letter N on your keyboard and then anywhere you want to, you can split this and to split it off to use right click somewhere on the line and click cut vector. That will cut it wherever you right click. However, I recommend putting it somewhere in the center of one of these straight spans.
You don't want to split it in the corners because you may have
some overlap issues there. So if you right click on one of these lines here, you can click insert midpoint and that will insert a point directly
in the center of that line. Now you can right click on that midpoint and click cut vector. Now that just cut it right there so you could see if I move that node. There is an opening there and that means that this is now an open vector.
But in order for this technique to work properly, we have to split it into two parts. So I'm going to undo that move real quick just to move it back to where it was. And we're going to do the same technique on the opposite side. So down here at the bottom, we're going to right click and click insert midpoint, and then right click on this and click cut vector.
Now, you can see if we exit our node editing, just click the letter N again, we have an open vector on this side and an open vector on the side.
So we have two open vectors and undo that move to bring it back. If you don't want a seam in your toolpath, you have to overlap these lines just a little bit. Otherwise, the toolpaths will end at this intersection here and you may be left with a seam there. So instead what we're going to do is go back to the node edit mode just on one half of the shape and you can just take this node and drag it, overlapping the line underneath it. And you can do that both areas here.
You don't go too much, just a little bit there, just enough to overlap the line a little bit. And now you can see if I move that up just with my arrow key, you can see we have a little bit of an overlap there now. So I'm going to undo that to move it back. So there we go. Now we are ready to create our toolpath So now we have two open vectors with a slight overlap there. Now we can go back to the molding toolpath and for this you're going to select the two outer shapes. Because now they're open vectors and they're going to hold shift and then select your cross-section there.
And you may notice some of these may be on the wrong side. So if the molding toolpath it is created on the wrong side, just right click on that line and click reverse direction. Now, you can see it's going on the inside and it is also matching the radius of these corners. And that could be any radius you create there. So that is the secret to get this to work properly. So now you can edit your toolpath you can place the tool path position wherever you need it to. And then you can also select your tools, create any large area clearance tools if you want to.
I'm just going to leave the settings as is for this example. We don't need to click create sharp corners because we don't have sharp corners,
we have round corners and then we can calculate and you'll see. Now if you preview this now, you could see we have matching corners to match the radius that we created and it still creates that sharp internal corner, which is good. Now if we reset, you can see what it looks like originally
with the original tool path we made and you can see that does not match those radius corners.
So that is the fix for that to match your corners. And then like I said, I will show you the bonus tip is how to reverse the direction of where the molding to apply the cuts. So if you wanted this bead that's on the inside, on the outside, all you have to do is double click on that to about to go back to edit it, go to the 2D view, and then where you have
your cross-section selected, you're going to right click on that and click reverse direction.
And wherever that Green Point is, is going to be the point that attaches to your rails. So that means this Green Point will attach to the rails and now the bead will be on the outside instead of the inside. So now we can click calculate and you can see before the bead is on the inside.
Now, if we reset this and preview our new tool path, now the bead is on the outside. So those are just a couple little tips for you to fix that. And as you can see in our 2D view. You can also check your toolpaths on the top here. You can click toggle to the solid view, and this will show you the solid areas where it's being carved. We do have a flat area in the tool path, so that's why it's not showing it there, but it is actually carving there. If you look at the wireframe view, which is this view here, and then you can see our new toolpath matches, those radius corners.
That's all for this video. Make sure you like and subscribe for more. And if you want to master your Vectric software, make sure you check out my Vectric training classes linked right here, where we go much more in depth. How to use the Vectric software step by step and included with my training courses is weekly Q&A calls where I can answer your questions
one on one and get the support you need. And if you want to watch another great Vectric tip, check out this video posted right here.
And what you're after is something like this where it does match that corner. So in this video, I'm going to show you a trick that I developed to fix this issue. And then also at the end, I'm going to show you a bonus tip if you need to switch which side the molding profile goes on.
So, for instance, if you wanted this bead on the outside instead of the inside, I'll show you how to switch that as well. All right.
So let's take a look at this technique, and I'm going to reset the preview and I will show you what normally it looks like when you try to make that toolpath. So first, you're probably going to try to use the molding toolpath and you're probably going to select this rectangle
with the radius corners. And then your going to hold shift and select your side profile. But as you may notice, the molding toolpath wants to go on the outside of the rectangle, and you can even right click on that line and reverse the direction. And it still stays on the outside.
It just reverses which direction it cuts. So that is the issue with the molding toolpath is it only goes on the outside of a closed vector.
So to fix that, you have to offset this line inwards, which will give you this line here. And this offset distance has to be the same width as your side profile if you want it to match. So now if you offset this line inwards and then it's like that and then the shape here, you can see it is now cutting in the correct area.
But the problem is this corner here does not reach all the way to that radius corner. And that's because we have a sharp corner here, because this offset distance was greater than the radius of this corner. So that's why it comes up with a sharp corner. You could radius this corner, but the radius is not going to match when you try to get it into this corner. No matter what you do there, you'll still have this big gap right here.
So there is a trick to fix this, and I will show you how I do that. And that is by splitting this closed vector into two open vectors. And to do that, you first need your rectangle, all created with the radius corners.
And then you have to go to the node edit mode.
So you could just click the letter N on your keyboard and then anywhere you want to, you can split this and to split it off to use right click somewhere on the line and click cut vector. That will cut it wherever you right click. However, I recommend putting it somewhere in the center of one of these straight spans.
You don't want to split it in the corners because you may have
some overlap issues there. So if you right click on one of these lines here, you can click insert midpoint and that will insert a point directly
in the center of that line. Now you can right click on that midpoint and click cut vector. Now that just cut it right there so you could see if I move that node. There is an opening there and that means that this is now an open vector.
But in order for this technique to work properly, we have to split it into two parts. So I'm going to undo that move real quick just to move it back to where it was. And we're going to do the same technique on the opposite side. So down here at the bottom, we're going to right click and click insert midpoint, and then right click on this and click cut vector.
Now, you can see if we exit our node editing, just click the letter N again, we have an open vector on this side and an open vector on the side.
So we have two open vectors and undo that move to bring it back. If you don't want a seam in your toolpath, you have to overlap these lines just a little bit. Otherwise, the toolpaths will end at this intersection here and you may be left with a seam there. So instead what we're going to do is go back to the node edit mode just on one half of the shape and you can just take this node and drag it, overlapping the line underneath it. And you can do that both areas here.
You don't go too much, just a little bit there, just enough to overlap the line a little bit. And now you can see if I move that up just with my arrow key, you can see we have a little bit of an overlap there now. So I'm going to undo that to move it back. So there we go. Now we are ready to create our toolpath So now we have two open vectors with a slight overlap there. Now we can go back to the molding toolpath and for this you're going to select the two outer shapes. Because now they're open vectors and they're going to hold shift and then select your cross-section there.
And you may notice some of these may be on the wrong side. So if the molding toolpath it is created on the wrong side, just right click on that line and click reverse direction. Now, you can see it's going on the inside and it is also matching the radius of these corners. And that could be any radius you create there. So that is the secret to get this to work properly. So now you can edit your toolpath you can place the tool path position wherever you need it to. And then you can also select your tools, create any large area clearance tools if you want to.
I'm just going to leave the settings as is for this example. We don't need to click create sharp corners because we don't have sharp corners,
we have round corners and then we can calculate and you'll see. Now if you preview this now, you could see we have matching corners to match the radius that we created and it still creates that sharp internal corner, which is good. Now if we reset, you can see what it looks like originally
with the original tool path we made and you can see that does not match those radius corners.
So that is the fix for that to match your corners. And then like I said, I will show you the bonus tip is how to reverse the direction of where the molding to apply the cuts. So if you wanted this bead that's on the inside, on the outside, all you have to do is double click on that to about to go back to edit it, go to the 2D view, and then where you have
your cross-section selected, you're going to right click on that and click reverse direction.
And wherever that Green Point is, is going to be the point that attaches to your rails. So that means this Green Point will attach to the rails and now the bead will be on the outside instead of the inside. So now we can click calculate and you can see before the bead is on the inside.
Now, if we reset this and preview our new tool path, now the bead is on the outside. So those are just a couple little tips for you to fix that. And as you can see in our 2D view. You can also check your toolpaths on the top here. You can click toggle to the solid view, and this will show you the solid areas where it's being carved. We do have a flat area in the tool path, so that's why it's not showing it there, but it is actually carving there. If you look at the wireframe view, which is this view here, and then you can see our new toolpath matches, those radius corners.
That's all for this video. Make sure you like and subscribe for more. And if you want to master your Vectric software, make sure you check out my Vectric training classes linked right here, where we go much more in depth. How to use the Vectric software step by step and included with my training courses is weekly Q&A calls where I can answer your questions
one on one and get the support you need. And if you want to watch another great Vectric tip, check out this video posted right here.
