Denford Software & Machines

We have been Engraving (Routing) name plaques using VRMilling v5

Each time we try to produce words which are small with a 1mm bit the words come out ok but the tool seems to keep taking small shortcuts where the letters are close together which ruins the effect.

I saw a setting "\auto Join Entities" but that didn't help

We have used various versions up to the latest


Has anyone seen this or have some tips on how to avoid the problem

What Cad package are you using?

If you are using a 1mm tool and the inside and outside of a letter are less than 1mm apart then the tool thinks it does not need to retract.

If you are using a ball cutter and engraving shallow (so the line width is only say .5mm tell the tool library you have a .5mm cutter and this may help.

If using QuickCAM 2D there are also other settings you can change.

I have done a simple design of a letter O and a short line using a o.5mm engraving cutter and a 3.2mm ball cutter.

The engraving cutter retracts as the gap from the inner to the outer lines of the letter o are more than 0.5mm (screen1) apart but the two lines are linked when using the 3.2mm cutter (Screen 2).

To cure this change to tool width to match the line width you are trying to cut.

Thanks for the reply

im using Denfords VR Milling v5.63

I see what you mean, but wont setting the tool diameter affect the cutting depth eg 1/2 diameter depth ?

You are correct. To get round that go into the material library in VR Milling and add a new material called engraving. Allow the tool to step down 100 %.

When engraving you only want to go max 0.2mm deep so using a 0.5 mm cutter can still do that at 50%

Many thanks
Will give it a go

D