InteriorXS question re Contour 3D tool

[Tom W.]

I am trying out the demo version of InteriorXS. In this example of the Contour 3D tool is there a way to remove the material in the middle?

 

 

The path is a 100x100mm rectangle with 20mm radius corners. The depth of the cutter is 10mm. The width of the cutter is 20mm. I can go larger + remove the material from the centre but then I increase the radii of the corners. Here I have increased the width to 50mm but now my corners are obviously r=25:

 

 

Just interested to know.

 

Also, in order to correct the texture mapping is the only way to Ungroup the object? This is how it should look:

 

 

@Stephan Moenninghoff @Blinkglitter ?

 

Thank you!

 

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

Have you enabled "3D Detail" in the OIP?

[Tom W.]

Additionally, what do the 'Approach' + 'Departure' parameters do?

 

 

I am just interested because there's no discernible difference whatever I set them to. The Interiorcad Manual tells me nothing.

[Tom W.]

Just now, Stephan Moenninghoff said:

Have you enabled "3D Detail" in the OIP?

 

Yes. Always

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

This is the approach and departure path of the router. interiorcad created data for CNC milling from your 3D geometry. A bit like you can get lighting data from devices.

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

1 minute ago, Tom W. said:

 

Yes. Always

Can you send me the file?

[Tom W.]

Just now, Stephan Moenninghoff said:

This is the approach and departure path of the router. interiorcad created data for CNC milling from your 3D geometry. A bit like you can get lighting data from devices.

 

Ok fine thank you so it is only relevant in terms of generating data rather than affecting the geometry. This isn't data I need. Good to know these things!

 

1 minute ago, Stephan Moenninghoff said:

Can you send me the file?

 

Absolutely, thanks for looking

 

Test file for SM.vwx

 

 

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

1 hour ago, Tom W. said:

 

Ok fine thank you so it is only relevant in terms of generating data rather than affecting the geometry. This isn't data I need. Good to know these things!

 

 

Absolutely, thanks for looking

 

Test file for SM.vwx

 

 

Ok, I see. You want this:

 

That's pocket. You need the full version of interiorcad for this to work. interior xs does not support it. But your workaround with a humungous router bit works, of course.

[Tom W.]

3 minutes ago, Stephan Moenninghoff said:

Ok, I see. You want this:

 

That's pocket. You need the full version of interiorcad for this to work. interior xs does not support it. But your workaround with a humungous router bit works, of course.

 

Thanks for confirming. That's fine. Just want to get a sense of what you can do + what you can't. Of course if I disable 'Display Router Radius' + have square corners there is no issue. The only issue is if I want to maintain a smaller corner radius than that of the router cutter.

 

It's a great piece of software I am enjoying exploring it! More questions to follow no doubt (sorry!)

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

10 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

Thanks for confirming. That's fine. Just want to get a sense of what you can do + what you can't. Of course if I disable 'Display Router Radius' + have square corners there is no issue. The only issue is if I want to maintain a smaller corner radius than that of the router cutter.

 

It's a great piece of software I am enjoying exploring it! More questions to follow no doubt (sorry!)

You can use an NC Macro and add a Symbol to it to use as a boolean geometry. That will allow you to do pretty much any shape.

[Tom W.]

13 minutes ago, Stephan Moenninghoff said:

You can use an NC Macro and add a Symbol to it to use as a boolean geometry. That will allow you to do pretty much any shape.

 

 

Have you got time to run off 'Interiorcad Basic Workflow Part 12'? 🙂

 

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

11 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

 

Have you got time to run off 'Interiorcad Basic Workflow Part 12'? 🙂

 

Actually, there is a Youtube video that covers it. 🙂 

 

[Tom W.]

15 minutes ago, Stephan Moenninghoff said:

Actually, there is a Youtube video that covers it. 🙂 

 

 

Aha perfect! Thank you! I will check it out 

[Tom W.]

Great video @Stephan Moenninghoff thanks for the info. Very useful feature. 

[Tom W.]

Hi @Stephan Moenninghoff would you be able to explain in your handle symbol how the walnut element clips the plywood door?

 

 

I can see that you have the NC Macro 3D object in the symbol + understand how this is clipping the door + have repeated this myself. But I'm not entirely sure how the walnut back part of the symbol is clipping the door. As far as I can tell the walnut part is just a 3D solid so how come it is clipping the plywood on insertion? Hope that makes sense. Thanks

[Tom W.]

On 6/3/2023 at 9:37 AM, Tom W. said:

Hi @Stephan Moenninghoff would you be able to explain in your handle symbol how the walnut element clips the plywood door?

 

 

I can see that you have the NC Macro 3D object in the symbol + understand how this is clipping the door + have repeated this myself. But I'm not entirely sure how the walnut back part of the symbol is clipping the door. As far as I can tell the walnut part is just a 3D solid so how come it is clipping the plywood on insertion? Hope that makes sense. Thanks

 

@Stephan Moenninghoff any insight into this would be much appreciated if you have a second to explain... Many thanks!

[Blinkglitter]

On 6/6/2023 at 2:05 PM, Tom W. said:

 

@Stephan Moenninghoff any insight into this would be much appreciated if you have a second to explain... Many thanks!

Hi Tom,

 

I only just saw this post, obviously it's been a few days now...

 

He is using the symbol he has created as a handle. It's not shown on the video but it might work if there was a pocket contour within the handle object group (I don't use handles really no limited expertise). If that doesn't work then a pocket coutour as a box object would work in combination with the handle.

 

Hope that helps? 

 

[Tom W.]

22 minutes ago, Blinkglitter said:

Hi Tom,

 

I only just saw this post, obviously it's been a few days now...

 

He is using the symbol he has created as a handle. It's not shown on the video but it might work if there was a pocket contour within the handle object group (I don't use handles really no limited expertise). If that doesn't work then a pocket coutour as a box object would work in combination with the handle.

 

Hope that helps? 

 

 

Yes if I was creating such a handle from scratch I would expect to include a Contour in the symbol in order to clip the hole for the walnut. But there doesn't seem to be a Contour present in the video so I'm wondering how it's working for Stephan...

[Blinkglitter]

2 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

Yes if I was creating such a handle from scratch I would expect to include a Contour in the symbol in order to clip the hole for the walnut. But there doesn't seem to be a Contour present in the video so I'm wondering how it's working for Stephan...

in the cabinet settings preview box you can see a red rectangle outline the same shape as the handle. This is how a contour box object appears.

 

 I’m guessing he has a contour box object set up for each handle

[Tom W.]

11 minutes ago, Blinkglitter said:

in the cabinet settings preview box you can see a red rectangle outline the same shape as the handle. This is how a contour box object appears.

 

 I’m guessing he has a contour box object set up for each handle

 

Hmm I've checked again to make sure + I can see the red outline for the NC Macro object (the routed volume) but can't see a red rectangle for the piece of walnut... To me the piece of walnut looks like a Grouped Solid Subtraction + nothing else... Am I being really thick + missing something? Can you show me a screen shot of what you mean?

[Blinkglitter]

4 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

Hmm I've checked again to make sure + I can see the red outline for the NC Macro object (the routed volume) but can't see a red rectangle for the piece of walnut... To me the piece of walnut looks like a Grouped Solid Subtraction + nothing else... Am I being really thick + missing something? Can you show me a screen shot of what you mean?

 

I believe box objects will only show in red line when in the box objects dialog box so I was incorrect to say it looked like there was a contour box object as well – sorry!

 

I'm not sure of the answer to this one unfortunately. Perhaps the handle symbol is positioned so that the walnut is 0.1mm beyond the edge, which would make it look like it there was a pocket (or clipped as you called it).

 

 

 

 

 

[Tom W.]

8 hours ago, Blinkglitter said:

Perhaps the handle symbol is positioned so that the walnut is 0.1mm beyond the edge, which would make it look like it there was a pocket (or clipped as you called it).

 

That would certainly explain the mystery. But presumably then the part layout would be incorrect in that it wouldn't show the cut-out in the ply for the walnut? And I can't believe Stephan would tolerate that! Incidentally, how does the NC Macro show up in the part layout? I'm pretty sure I saw in a video how a Contour shows up in the part layout but I wonder how Stephan's routed finger pull is represented... I guess I need to try it out + see...

 

Thanks for your responses it helps me understand the software

[Blinkglitter]

8 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

That would certainly explain the mystery. But presumably then the part layout would be incorrect in that it wouldn't show the cut-out in the ply for the walnut?

Yes it would need a contour to show up in the part layout. I don't know if there is a way of layering up macros within a symbol, e.g. the walnut solid could have a macro within the group in the form of a rectangular pocket?

 

10 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

Incidentally, how does the NC Macro show up in the part layout? I'm pretty sure I saw in a video how a Contour shows up in the part layout but I wonder how Stephan's routed finger pull is represented... I guess I need to try it out + see...

 

Contours show up in part layout but as I don't currently use macros I don't know how they show up in part layout. However I would like to see whether it does or not so please post screenshots of how you get on.

 

If I can figure out how to integrate the macro feature with Alphacam (for cnc processing) then it is potentially very useful for me. If any other users have experience of how to incorporate macros into an NC Export workflow I'd be interested to hear!

 

15 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

Thanks for your responses it helps me understand the software

 

Happy to help. When I first started Stephan was very helpful in answering any queries / questions so I know it helps to have someone around to ask questions.

 

[Tom W.]

1 minute ago, Blinkglitter said:

Yes it would need a contour to show up in the part layout. I don't know if there is a way of layering up macros within a symbol, e.g. the walnut solid could have a macro within the group in the form of a rectangular pocket?

 

Or presumably the NC Macro geometry could include the cut-out for the walnut as well. So a single solid that includes the curved routing for the finger pull plus the rectangle for the walnut. Rather than a macro for the routing then a separate contour for the walnut. To me the NC Macro is a bit like the Wall Hole Component in VW symbols in that it allows you to define geometry - any geometry - that you want to subtract from the door/custom part. By placing it in a handle symbol you can combine it with seen geometry such as the piece of walnut.

 

3 minutes ago, Blinkglitter said:

Happy to help. When I first started Stephan was very helpful in answering any queries / questions so I know it helps to have someone around to ask questions.

 

Good thank you! People complain about VW Help but it is really very comprehensive + you can generally search for anything + find it in there. The IC manual is an entirely different beast. Very rudimentary. Which is a shame because the software is clearly very sophisticated + well put together! But Stephan's videos are very good.

[Blinkglitter]

27 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

Or presumably the NC Macro geometry could include the cut-out for the walnut as well. So a single solid that includes the curved routing for the finger pull plus the rectangle for the walnut. Rather than a macro for the routing then a separate contour for the walnut. To me the NC Macro is a bit like the Wall Hole Component in VW symbols in that it allows you to define geometry - any geometry - that you want to subtract from the door/custom part. By placing it in a handle symbol you can combine it with seen geometry such as the piece of walnut.

 

 

Good thank you! People complain about VW Help but it is really very comprehensive + you can generally search for anything + find it in there. The IC manual is an entirely different beast. Very rudimentary. Which is a shame because the software is clearly very sophisticated + well put together! But Stephan's videos are very good.

 

Yes I know. If you speak German there is a lot of content on their youtube. I watch this sometimes but I could do with learning German.

 

I have thought about making some youtube content so maybe I will get around to that in the future.