Andrew:
Awesome job. Its been discussed many times here how difficult it is to
make a bevel. Your the first to figure out a sliced bevel has the data required to mill
one that way. Very nice!
Im working on a related method here as well , youll notice a cylindica
l slicer in Vexx
as of last update,. The data in that file basically shows what sections to remove or cut at what
radius for any 3d object when considere
d as a cylidrica
lly sliced object. ( A cylidrica
lly sliced
object is basically a 4th axis toopath at various depths. if you think of it.)
I plan to cut a material using this data and wrap it onto an arbor, but used different
ly
it basically is data to be used to do kinda as you did. It occured to me that when one slices a file
as a cylidrica
l object, the resultant slices are actual tooltip locations of a fine tool
that would end up cutting that object. I had never seen the capabilit
y to slice an object as a 4th axis slice, so I added it to see what I could make of it. Im in the build phase of a 3d printer
that wraps any material into a 3d object cutting the material using the new slice data. Having slice data in this format seems to allow for 4th axis capabilit
ies I hadnt considere
d before now.
Your experienc
e shows me how perhaps I could use it for 4th axis toolpaths for beveling and such, Ill have to give it more though as I go. Try using a bevel imported with "top" orientati
on
into Vexx so the axis of the shaft is in the Y direction and the X,Z plane is the tooth cone, slice it
as a cylinder using Vexx's slicing tool button and look at the slices, I think youll find they are pretty much what your formattin
g yours as but already tuned to a 4th axis setup. This similarit
y to what you accomplis
hed making your bevel is interesti
ng. When view as unwrapped data, you'll
see the slices are actually a pyramid of ever longer toolpaths from the short bottom paths for a small diameter close to Z zero, to longer toolpaths as the diameter increases
. (Sorry if this
is actually just confusing, I have a strong mental image of it as Im currently coding it, but
the match with what you did is amazingly close)
Thanks for the notice, I like seeing data such as this, makes the mind work.

Art