I’m new to CNC routers and have a 1F due hopefully in January, although i have experience with CNC plasma cutting. Using VCarve i have imported an AutoCAD drawing of a club badge i would like to make. However, when i import it and try to run the toolpath i keep getting a message saying “The selected vectors may contain overlaps or intersections” it gives me the option to go to the vector validator and shows me that i have 29 intersections (was at 100+ when i started).
I have redrawn most of the badge drawing in Autocad,but I’m unable to find a way of removing these last intersections, any advice out there on how to do that, as having spent 3-4 hours re-drawing and testing in VCarve is becoming very frustrating.
Did you try the join vectors command or the select all duplicate vectors? Those are under the edit tab, between file and model. I’m guessing its something very very small. You could also check for a layer that is hidden in autocad but comes along if you save as a dxf. Good Luck.
I would suggest you watch the Mark Lindsay CNC for beginners on YouTube. He talks about The Vector Validator and how to resolve the issues.
You might also want to just disregard the error message when setting up the tool path and see what is missing. If that doesn’t work you will have to learn node editing…
Just looking at the pictures, it looks like you have selected “V Carving Mode” in the Vector Validator. This will show the intersect and overlapping because of the multiple “open vectors” you have in your drawing. VCarving Mode will flag those as those are not closed vectors. V Carve will only carve closed vectors. For open vectors you will have to use the “Profile” toolpath.
Additionally, the Vectric site has a TON of super-helpful videos available to you. In particular, their section on vector drawing is extremely informative. I can’t remember which tutorial it was, but I do remember at least one covering this exact issue. There are shortcut commands (which I am still learning) for this and many other operations built in to the software. Happy editing!
I’ve not fully resolved it yet, I’ve had some success in taking groups of lines and cutting them in separate toolpaths using a profile tool path with a V-bit which appears to ignore the open vectors
My 1F arrives at the start of Feb, so its all theory at the moment!
I looked at the original pictures again. To use the v carve tool path option there has to be a closed path so using the profile path with a v-bit is what I would do also.You could shorten the single lines just a little bit so they don’t touch anything else. You may have to make a double circle around your date. If I draw a single circle and v-carve it, it v-carve the entire center of the circle. Only by offsetting the circle by some amount and selecting both does v-carve do just an outline. Try it your self or if you want, I can send/post pictures of what I’m talking about. I can’t figure out what’s wrong with the bottom of the deer or the letters. Hope you find this useful.
