CNC'd Elbows

[aebstract]

Got to do some custom bump map work on these aluminum elbows today, everything didn't turn out perfect but I am happy with the way the material came out. These elbows are cut on a CNC milling machine. I plan on setting up some sort of basic ground/wall scene for showing off performance parts when I get the time to do it.

[guest84672]

Great - tessellation could be higher. Can see some facetting.

[Speedster]

Neat!  What I see are the tool path marks from CNC machining with a ball end mill, rather than tessellation.  Very effective, and spot on for this type of finish!
Bill G

[guest84672]

Look at the right one ... the circular opening.

[aebstract]

If you're talking about the roundness of the opening? I believe I got screwed with that because I'm pulling this part from solidworks.. there's probably a setting in solidworks I need to set to get smoother edges on curves.

[PhilippeV8]

If you're talking about the roundness of the opening? I believe I got screwed with that because I'm pulling this part from solidworks.. there's probably a setting in solidworks I need to set to get smoother edges on curves.

tessellation my friend ! ... 

[guest84672]

Yes - in SW under Options - image quality you can set the tessellation value. Do that, save the file, import into KeyShot using retain materials, reposition, done.

[Speedster]

Ah, I was so impressed with the CNC texture I missed the tessellation on the hole.  There was a thread sometime back about this and why it's a hassle in SolidWorks.  Even cranking up the settings (I go just to the edge of red, and optimize curves) does not necessarily resolve into a clean circle.

Look at the boiler bands of the attached rendering- tessellation is obvious, but not on other similiar features with a tiny fillet.

Oddly enough, for some mysterious reason even a tiny fillet usually resolves it!

Bill G

[m2tts]

In SW I usually check on image tessellation while in the assembly. When you do this you check the "apply tessellation to all parts" and then save the assembly. You will now increase the tessellation for all parts in one fell swoop. Also, in SW, if you have a large difference between your part envelope size and your smallest features, you can get some very rough circles on larger openings unless you slide that image quality slider over into the red zone. Your file sizes will increase substantially, but then, storage is cheap these days right?