There is also a bundled option to bundle a MC4SW seat onto an existing up-to-date Mill 3 seat at a significant discount. As John mentioned, feel free to talk to your dealer as they can provide you with more info. Thanks!

The MC4SW software will identify toolpaths that are affected by a design change and will mark them dirty. They do not rebuild automatically (because that could prove to be time-consuming for the end user if they make many design changes and the toolpaths automatically try to update every time) however a simple click of the rebuild button in the operations manager will rebuild them. Thanks.

I also use MDF. Home Depot and Lowes will sell 4x8 ft sheet, 0.750 thick for about $20-$25. If you need thicker, cut and glue. You may want to watch out because if you're cutting a lot of MDF, the dust can get hazardous. It's also pretty rough on your cutters.

I cut it on a Shopbot PRT 96.

Thanks Dennis, Very interesting. Any pictures you can provide when you get a chance? I was thinking of making 6-10 various interlocking stepping stones for my patio. -Keith

Machtek, What kind of molds do you make with MDF?

Hi John, You can also back out the process by creating your unwrapped surfaces based on the dimensions of a wrapped surfaces. Art - New Art Base Surface - Unwrapped cylinder. If you give it a diameter of your desired end result, it will give you the length of a rectangle to start with. Once you have that, create the organic surfaces, textures, etc and then wrap it up. Good luck! -Keith

No problem, For the lettering, I used the engraving toolpath and a 120 degree cutter from Amana Tool and cut at a speed of 90 ipm and a SS of 13,000 rpm (I think). Max Z depth was -0.239, I just did a finish pass, no roughing. For the textures on the dog, I used a “Parallel – Contained” Art toolpath. I roughed with a 0.50 in straight cutter, 200 IPM, 2 depth cuts at .187 each, 35% stepover, 0.05 stock to leave in Z. Finished it with a 0.250 ball, 10% stepover at a speed of 150 ipm. Shortly after I started this finishing pass I upped the speed because it was too slow. I forget what I changed it to. I'd have to check what the tool coatings were, but nothing special. Hope this helps! I'll post more projects as they come along. -Keith

Yeah no problem! Let me know!

I was given the task of cutting a sign for a friend of mine. Thankfully...I didn't have to paint it. I figured I'd share some pictures of the finished job. This was a result of Engraving, Mastercam Art, your standard 2D pocketing toolpaths and a little remachining. The material is MDF, unpainted. The engraved letters were cut with a 120 degree cutter, and the dog shape was roughed with a 1/2 endmill and finished with a 1/4 ball. I used the "Art Based Surface from Image" to create the surfaces to machine. -Keith

Hi Trevor, The wrap feature might work. I tried it on a simple example and got some good results. (It was a cimple circle puffed up but when I wrapped it it was normal to the cylinder art surface.) I'll try it on a more complex file I have and will let you know what I get. -Keith

I see the same issue when printing Art surfaces. I'll see what I can did up.

Trevor, I've used Mastercam Art to create lithopanes. My experience says that a higher quality picture doesn't necessarily create a better lithopane. I typically dumb-down the picture because too much detail is not necessary. Then once it's in Art, I smooth it down a lot. Also, when it comes in it's the negative of what you want....so you'll want to reverse the Z. A rought set of steps to create a lithopane in Art: 1. Crop the picture in any photo-editing software to the size you want. 2. Bring it into Art. Go to Art - New Art Based Surface - From Image. For a typical 4x6 picture cut into 0.250 thick stock, I'll make the z value (Height range) about 0.12-0.15 in. Note - this greatly depends on how much black and how much white is in the picture. A wedding picture of just a bride is a good example. Typically there a lot of lighter colors....not much dark colors. Remember...the darkets part of the picture will be the thickest and the lightest part of the picture will be the thinnest. So if the picture is mostly dark colors....the lithopane will not be that impressive without some extra work. When you're done with the settings...click the check mark to bring it in to Art. 3. Flip the Z values. Go to Art - Xform Art Base Surface - Mirror/Rotate. Select Mirror Z and click OK. 4. Smooth the picture. Go to Art - Edit Art Base Surface - Smooth. It'll ask for a chain. If you don't have geometry around the suface you want to smooth, you'll need to create it. (Note: When initially importing the picture there is an option to create a boundry at the same time. I do this because I always use the boundry for smoothing.) Choose your smoothing values and click the check. The defaults are typically a good place to start. 5. Cut it. Art - Toolpath Art Base Surface. If you are cutting a picture where there is an area that has high detail I often create spline containment boundaries and create an additional toolpath with a tighter stepover in that area. General rule of thumb that I follow: If I'm cutting a 0.250 thick piece I'll use a 1/16 ball with no roughting. Watch your entry moves though...you will want to play with that in Art. I do a stepover of about 8%. Hopefully this helps. I have learned that every picture takes a little bit of thought a head of time because every picture is different. My opinion...the best pictures to work with are close ups of faces. Good luck!

CH - take a look at X2 MR2. Multi-pass with ramping works fine. Is this what you need?