Can anyone help me with this texas topo carve

Projects
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Link above :slight_smile:

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BTW - after searching and asking a little around I have a different approach to offer, entirely within F360 without the need to convert into solids.

  • Download or generate the STL-file for what you want to do
  • Fusion360 ā†’ Insert Mesh
  • Scale mesh to desired size
  • Go directly into CAM envirmoent and under Setup select Mesh as Model

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01616Ɨ652 39.5 KB

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well i get it into Meshmixer get to edit> reduce and there is no place to enter a value

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help 1
help 11551Ɨ863 284 KB

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Yes it is, you need to pull down the meny in ā€œReduce Targetā€ where your screenshot say ā€œPercentageā€. Choose ā€œTriangle Budgetā€ and go down to the slider that says Tri Count and type in the target, say 9500.
Click Accept.

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BTW - with the recent discovery that one can use Mesh directly in F360 CAM omit the purpose of the mesh reduction steps.

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I wonder if thatā€™s a recent updateā€¦ Iā€™ve been playing with topo maps for a couple of months, and when I first started I tried to go straight off the mesh for CAM as well, but it didnā€™t work (canā€™t remember if it didnā€™t want to select or wouldnā€™t actually generate paths properly or what, but thatā€™s what started me down the rabbit hole of having to convert to a model).

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I think you may be right, I have walked the exact same mile trying to get Mesh to work direct :wink:
I havent taken the time to do topo carves yet but have several projects I would love to do :slight_smile:

As a pilot (recreational glider pilot) I would love to do a large scale topographic 3D map of the terrain we use to fly in. Due to size I consider tiling it which can easily be done with sketch rectangles as CAM boundaries.

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Direct Mesh ā†’ CAM work just fine now, also with high facet count models. (but F360 do slow down with high facet countā€¦specifically during tool path generation)

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still working on it. also building my x carve at the same time. but thank you for all your help.
hopefully i can get this to work

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Softwarewise weā€™ll get you there, good luck on the Xcarve building :slight_smile:

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thank you

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yep i give up I was able to reduce target and it looks nothing like yalls do, not even close. i guess ill just let this idea go to the trash as im at the point im done trying

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Take a break from it then and focus on the building of your machine :slight_smile:

F360 do have a learning curve, but as posted here you may omit the reduce face count as you can go straight to CAM after importing the mesh as-is.

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Hey @EricLavoie, hereā€™s an extremely simple model for you to work with. I started with the mesh from the Thingiverse site, scaled a little in Fusion360, and converted to BRep. I also put together a very simple CAM operation just for demonstration - if you take a look at the end result of the CAM preview, youā€™ll see the stepped topo effect that youā€™re after. Youā€™ll have to tweak the model scaling and CAM operation stepdown to get exactly what you want.

TX Topo v0.f3d (6.2 MB)

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I do agree about the levels of grey. I have not used it for maps but for pictures.
So i do edit a collar pict to grey-scale ( with inkscape or Gimp). You can then play with the levels of grey and or if needed blur it a little here and there. when done i do use this online converter http://3dp.rocks/lithophane/ the make a stl file. with the online https://www.viewstl.com/ you can also check what it looks like, If you donā€™t like it you edit the grey collars again.

Also important is the type of bit you use. I do use V carve or ball nose bit.
I hope this help.
regards Henri