hardmill- the dsl guy never showed maybe another day

travis, stork- too cool. thanks. It did create cutter path even w/o modifying normal but I think the modify normal is probabibly the way I was looking for. thanks again. ------------------ ------------------ Mike "stupid is as stupid does"

travis- I just tried yor suggestion. gview front/ transform/rotate/all/entities/picked midpoint of line which was at origin/rotated 180. it worked. thanks. I'll let you know if it recognizes the underside of the surfaces. Mike "stupid is as stupid does"

hardmill- thanks for the offer. I'm on dial up on the worst network on earth. repair guy coming at 1pm to set up our DSL. If they get it going I'll send you the file. gary- UC who?? Robk- its not a solid basically its a wireframe w/some surfaces I hung on it. It looks like four pup tents in a row on a rimmed plate to hold hotdogs or tacos vertically or something like that. "stupid is as stupid does"

hello all- just checking in to mooch some more knowledge. I've made a shape that is male and now want to turn it upside down to machine it as a female. Obviously I should have drawn it female to begin with but I have been trying to figure out how to turn things inside out with no success for a while anyway and I was wondering if theres an "easy way". I've tried rotate,mirror and others w/o success. can I just reorient the Cplane and if so how is that accomplished?? thanks in advance for any suggestions. "stupid is as stupid does"

Hey Murlin- I'm definitely not smart enough to think past 3axis, really I'm a 2 1/2D guy, but it was fun trying to make it work. In fact, it might not work in real life on my 3X machine, but I'll try to send the file to anyone who wants to play w/ it. Its about 1.5 x 6.5 x .5 and you'll need to set up 6-7 tools including a lollipop cutter. Chip, I'll send it to you this afternoon if I can. rgds to all, Mike Stupid is as stupid does

well folks, I figured out how to engrave on a slope but it wasn't pretty. I tried all the ways you all suggested without luck but eventually got the square peg in the round hole. heres how I did it; toolpath/multiaxis/curve5ax, on the next screen I selected output format-3 axis, curve type- 3-d curves, tool axis control- surface, tip control- on projected curve, projection- normal to surface. I selected the ramped surface as the tool axis surface and the 2d contours of the letters (not TT fonts by the way) as the drive chains. after that I watched it virtually hack away. thanks again for all your input. I believe that this also corrects murlins input about stretching the letters. any comments??? stupid is as stupid does

thanks all for your responses. I tried what robk suggested to lathe/mill's post concerning engraving. somehow it worked... but now I can't duplicate it. I must have done something without realizing it. oh well. I'll try your responses to my query- no mold work today so beat my head against a wall instead. stupid is as stupid does.

hello all- I'm a MC student trying an exercise and want to engrave letters on a surface which is angled -20 degreesish from the xy plane. I can't find an answer anywhere in my tutorial or in a search on previous forum posts. Can any of you old timers help an idiot trying to grow his resume? thanks in advance.