Wierd engraving issue

[Ollie78]

Hi guys not sure if this is the right section but here goes.

(I have asked this on mycncuk also but thought I would widen the net, as it were)

I have been testing out my machine this week and doing some engraving using Fusion 360 and UCCNC. I started off with a 90 degree v bit and made a few name plaques for the kids and a couple of vector drawings. This all went fine and I was pleased with the results.
Today I tried some tiny 1/8th inch 30 degree cutters, the flat single edge ones. So first I just did a test just trying different sizes of font I went from 15mm high letters down to 1.5mm high. The cuts were very sharp indeed ( in american black walnut) and I could read down to the 2mm ones.

So I designed a sort of business card for some little off cuts. I did the toolpath 20000 rpm at 2000 mm/min posted it and ran it.
It looked fantastic, with super crisp lettering, then I noticed it had missed out 2 letters from my email address and one digit from my phone number. When I looked closely in UCCNC I could see it was missing in the toolpath there so checked 360 and sure enough it was not going into those missing letters.

I tried re-doing the toolpath but it was the same, missing two letter r`s and the number one. I can`t select the letters individually just the whole word or line so can`t correct this at the moment.
I changed the design a bit and the font and did another one, this time it missed out the letter h from the word telephone, nothing else.

Not sure what to do here, it can`t really be the font as the rest of the line in the same font and size is carving perfectly. Is there another way to select the engraving.

Another Fusion 360 question is why sometimes in preview mode it shows me the 3d result of the cutting path and sometimes it doesn`t, it just shows the bit travelling but not the resulting cut, I don`t think it matters much but it is wierd. (probably one simple option to tick somewhere) .

Thanks

Ollie

[MattTheNoob]

Yep, the kids' names were my first engraving projects too.
Check the F360 forums. The last time I was messing with it (a year ago?) it had some known bugs with text. Even when trying to move text you couldn't reliably select it all. It mostly made anything involving text impossible.

I THINK I got around it by doing my text in autocad, exploding it into lines and curves and importing it into F360. It isn't EXPLODE, but there is a way to do it.

Maybe they've fixed that bug and you are running into something completely different.

Let us know what you find.

[Battwell]

probably better uploading your project to lars christianson - the chap that makes the fusion tutorials.
ask his advice- see if its a bug or user error.
this is obviously a fusion issue- not uccnc.

i ran my first engrave from fusion last weekend and it went ok. - using a 90 deg bit.

[Ollie78]

Hi

Thanks for your replies.
I have searched the fusion 360 forum to find an answer. However I can`t find anything particularly satisfactory. Quite a few similar problems though, it seems a lot of people just don`t write the text in fusion but import it as an svg from something else and use that method instead similar to what MattTheNoob has said.
I think this shouldn`t be required though as it has the function built in.

I agree that this is not a UCCNC problem definitely a Fusion thing. I might try to contact Lars, I have watched many of his videos (including the one about engraving) . The wierd thing is it has done several engravings perfectly and now it won`t.
I will try some more experiments.

Thanks

[ger21]

I think this shouldn`t be required though as it has the function built in.

I don't read the Fusion forum that often, but V carve engraving has had issues since it was introduced a few years ago. It's obviously very low on their priority list.

You might want to try F Engrave, which is another free option.

[spumco]

If you're simulating the engraving in F360 but it doesn't look like anything is cutting, try turning the model off (hiding) so only the stock is visible.

Reason yo're missing it - the tool bit is going in to the stock and the groove is there, but the model surface is hiding it.

In normal pocketing or holes, the stock is removed and you can see the model feature/surfaces being revealed. If you don't model the engravings as grooves ("explode text" & extrude down) but are just pasting text on a surface then the engravings aren't part of the model - hence they're hiding the cut stock surfaces.

And sometimes it's really tricky to select all the leters. That's why turning off the model and then running the simulation will show if you forgot to select a particular letter - it'll show up in the stock if the model is turned off.

[Ollie78]

Thanks everyone
The problem is fixed.

Spumco, you are right about the model getting in the way of the view when running simulation.
I went on to the Autodesk forum and they told me the same.

After putting my question on the Autodesk forum I received a reply from Julia in the support team. I sent her my file and she swiftly got to the reason for the problem.
It turns out that it was a setting in the engrave set up box. In the passes section is an option for tolerance. Mine was set to 0.01mm and Julia advised me to change it to 0.05mm which has solved the issue.
I think it was because the spacing between the letters was so small.
Now I know to check this setting If I have problems.

Thanks

Ollie

[MattTheNoob]

Thanks for posting the follow-up. Too many times folks get their problems resolved and never come back to the post.
Good luck with your project.