Previewing before you cut

Why preview at all

A toolpath drawn as lines over the design tells you where the bit goes. It does not show you what is left afterwards. The simulation does: it carves a block of the job's material, pass by pass, with the real shape of each bit, and what you see at the end is the part the machine will make. A profile on the wrong side of the line, a pocket too deep, a V-carve that runs out through the back of the board, tabs that are not where you wanted them: all of these are obvious in a preview and expensive at the machine.

Previewing works on the trial too.

Toolpaths as lines

Every toolpath is drawn over the design as soon as it is made. In the 2D view you see the path from above. In the 3D view the lines sit at their real depths, which is the quickest way to check that a cut goes as deep as you meant. Hide toolpaths you are not interested in with the eye in the Toolpaths list.

Running the simulation

The commands are under Manufacture ▸ Simulate, in the Toolpaths menu, and as buttons under the Toolpaths list.

Simulate All Toolpaths

Carve the whole job, operation by operation.

Simulate Visible Toolpaths

Carve only the operations whose eye is on. Quicker when you want to check one pass.

Simulate Selected Toolpath

Carve only the operation selected in the list.

Show Final Result (no playback)

Carve everything at once and show the finished shape, without the animation. The fastest way to check the result.

Back to 3D View

Clear the carved block and show the model, vectors and toolpaths again.

The view switches to 3D and the Carving Simulation panel appears under the Toolpaths list. It shows "Preparing…" for a moment while the block is set up.

The playback controls

↺ Reset

Rewind to the uncut block.

✕ Exit simulation

Stop and go back to the ordinary 3D view.

Scrub bar

Drag to any point in the job.

⏮ and ⏭

Jump to the start, or straight to the finished part.

◁ Op and Op ▷

Jump back or forward one operation.

▶ Play

Play or pause.

Speed

From 0.1× to 8×. At 1× the whole job plays in about 18 seconds, however long it would take on the machine.

Loop

Replay continuously.

Show toolpath

Draw the toolpath lines over the carving.

Show vectors

Draw the design over the carving. Turn it off to see the bare cut.

Show rapids

Draw the moves through the air between cuts: retract, traverse and plunge.

Draw tool

Show the bit moving as it cuts.

The Cut by legend lists each operation with its colour in the carving, and the one being cut is shown in bold. A plate at the top-left of the 3D view gives the operation, the tool, the tool's position, the feed and the spindle speed as the job plays.

If you change a toolpath while a simulation is loaded, the panel says "Toolpaths changed — press Play to rebuild".

Dropping the waste

When the job cuts right through the board, the simulation knows which pieces have come free. Double-click a piece of waste in the 3D view to lift it off and see the finished part on its own. Tabs are treated as already snapped, so a part cut out on tabs drops free of its surround.

Undo drop puts back the last piece and Restore waste puts back all of them. Replaying the simulation restores them too. If nothing has been cut free yet, you are told so; double-click on the waste itself and not on the part.

Saving a picture

Photo saves a picture of the carving as it stands, as a PNG or JPEG. It is handy for showing a customer what they will get before any material is cut.

Estimate Time

Manufacture ▸ Simulate ▸ Estimate Time adds up how long the job will take: time spent cutting, in rapid moves, dwelling and changing tools, and the total. It works from the feed rates in the toolpaths, and assumes rapid moves at 3000 mm/min and 15 seconds for each tool change.

Treat it as a guide. A path full of short moves takes longer on a real machine than the arithmetic says, because the machine never reaches full speed between corners.

Check Gouges

Check Gouges looks at every cutting move in the job.

• With nothing selected, it checks that every cut stays within the stock.
• With a shape selected, it also checks that nothing cuts outside that shape, allowing for the radius of the bit (an outside profile is meant to run wide of its line by that much).

"Nothing cuts where it should not" means the job passed. Otherwise each operation that strays is listed with what it does wrong.

The job sheet

Job Sheet / Report… makes a summary of the job to take to the machine or hand to whoever runs it: the job and its material, every toolpath in the order it runs with its tool and depths, the tools used with their tool numbers, and the estimated time. Save HTML… saves it as a file you can open in any browser and print.

Out-of-date toolpaths

When you edit a shape that a toolpath was made from, or change the job setup, the toolpath is flagged ⚠ recalc in the list and keeps its old moves until you rebuild it. The simulation and export both use what the toolpath holds, so recalculate before you preview for the last time. Recalculate All does every one at once.