Exporting parts for CNC

Okay, I've managed to design a "pirate chest" w/ a rounded lid in BlockSCAD:

https://www.blockscad3d.com/community/projects/919882

which I've been working out/documenting (sort of) at:

https://community.carbide3d.com/t/has-anyone-used-cc-to-kerf-wood-for-bending/22930

Now I need to actually prepare parts for cutting. STLs won't work since I
want V grooves cut accurately using a V endmill and I can't find a CAM tool
which will do that from an STL (if there is such a tool I'd be glad to know
of it). This is further complicated by the fact that there are V grooves at
a declared angle (15 degrees for the example linked above) and a pair of
grooves which need to be cut at a calculated angle which may not match up
with an extant V endmill.

Apparently if I exported 3 views as DXFs (top/front/side) those could be
imported into Solidworks or something similar using a "wizard" or suitable
technique so as to make a 3D model?

The only work-around I can come up with is to export a pair of files:

 - one has a surrounding rectangle to register things and includes the V
groove cuts defined as the surface outline of cutting them with a V endmill
of suitable diameter
 - the second has the same surrounding rectangle (so things will still
register) and the overall part outline (which can't be output in the above
file since it would overlap with the V groove surface outlines

Does all this make sense? Is there some better option which I'm missing? Or
should I stop procrastinating and just finish up the coding?

William




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OpenSCAD mailing list-2 wrote
To get you right:
1. You are trying to prepare some sort of gcode path for a 5-axis (??) CNC
machine?
2. You have some STL file created with BlocksCAD which you want to import to
OpenSCAD, and you want to extract two paths, one describing a groove, and
the other one some registering rect from said STL?
3. You want to use any of OpenSCAD's export formats to get a description of
the the paths and postprocess this into a gcode file?

Well, if the groove is a real 3D path with altering z coordinates, I think
you have no chance with OpenSCAD.

Given that rect and groove have constant z heights (i.e. they are parallel
to the XY plane, you might be able to use something like

translate([0,0,-z_groove])
projection(cut = true)

and export that as DXF. This lets the question open, how you would deal with
the groove's angle. E.g. you could export a slightly shifted version and
calc the angle during post processing.

translate([0,0,-z_groove-.1])
projection(cut = true)

I am just guessing because your verbal description has a lot of spaced to do
interpretations. Better show some code or STL ...






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1 - it's a 3-axis machine

2 - no, it's OpenSCAD code exported from BlockSCAD which I'm then editing to
support the Customizer and the 2D export

3 - correct.

I guess I've got it working as well as it can be:

https://community.carbide3d.com/t/has-anyone-used-cc-to-kerf-wood-for-bending/22930/45

it's a single file at least --- I just need to put some text in it to
indicate the V angle which should be used when setting up a V carving.

Thanks!

William




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