Is there a way to achieve a perfect offset for complex shapes? The corner style options give round bevel and corner. I am trying to cut an inlay on the laser and also offset that pattern to create the template for the router to follow. On simple shapes it works but anything even remotely complex it alters the shape and doesn’t match the original shape exactly.
How complicated and how big is the original?
In my picture there is a 1mm offset, is your project more complicated and smaller in dimension? (213x117mm)
Much more complex. If I use what I intend to be water as an example. The lines in the image are the general plan but I want a space between the trees and water. So if I select the water which is about 11.5" wide and 2.5" tall. I offset to the inside .0625" (I want to have a 1/8" between the shapes so I would offset the other inward too.) The offset makes the corners weird no matter which option I chose.
In my head (not usually how things actually work) I would think if I take something and offset .0625 inward and .0625 outward I would have two things that match just different sizes. I do have to rethink some of the detail as it gets lost going inward and outward but that’s another issue I can adjust in the plan.
Seems like I’ve been there… Dusting off my brain a bit… I think you may have some node editing to do on the original shapes. The sharp points on some of those acute angles may be tiny curves. Select node edit and zoom way in on one of the problem spots. See what it looks like. Might need to add a node at the very point (and probably change it to a corner rather than a smooth blend).
Good morning, I didn’t get to reply last night, sorry.
It is fine with that visualization of the task.
As a starting point, I would think that it should be possible to do it. The procedure will be to make closed shapes of the mountains, water and the forest/trees. You can then individually laser cut out the individual groups, with the kerf setting that suits your tool.
Should all elements be milled out of the plate or only the lake?
I’m a bit confused about the 1,587mm you write about, is your end mill that has this measurement?
If all parts are to be cut out of different materials and assembled flat on a plate, these are the easiest, otherwise you can also leave the lake alone and fill it with resin, for example, after the rest has been assembled.
… have you moved on with your project?
I have, based on your picture, peeled the groups apart, not very precis but it is in this way that I want to solve the task.
I haven’t moved on but I have started rethinking some of the detail. To make a template for simple things for a router is easy but I think I went way to far in the detail to make the templates and expect it to route. By the time you take the bit the offset of the bushing into account the finer details get lost. Odds are I would be able to make a template to route out most of the stuff but the finer details would be by hand with a chisel or maybe use the laser to remove the material. I am trying to mix laser with more traditional woodworking.
To help make what I was trying to do more understandable. I wanted the larger rectangle to be the background. One layer up is each mountain cut out of wood 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick each separate so I can play with the wood grain to give texture. This would not be a laser thing except to mark the outline or create an overlay to cut to. Then I wanted to make the trees and water out of different wood veneer inlayed into the mountains. I was trying to create a space between the different tree parts and also between the water so they were not touching letting about an 1/8 or a 1/16 of the mountain show through. The veneer and mountains would be sanded to level in the end.
This is an example of them offset to create that gap between the parts.
If they were all assembled like a puzzle on a simple level I could could just run the different parts and fit them together (for the most part if adjusting the kerf). Chris above hit on one part of the problem with the nodes. Some are actually small points with multiple nodes which magnifies when offset. However many are single points that the offset seems to turn into lines then try and arc or something. I ran into this quite a while ago in creating mandala. There is a point when the angle gets too small and it doesn’t process.
Im sure there is a way to pull this off but as usual I have an idea at like 11pm right before bed and try to throw it together as a proof of concept then at 2am when still messing with it I finally go to sleep.
It sounds very interesting, I hope you find a solution to be able to mill the intarsia. As you are aware, as a “general” puzzle it will not be such a big problem, but even the smallest end mill presents completely different challenges.
You can try to see if the Optimize tool in LightBurn helps you reduce the number of nodes.
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