Troubleshooting

The job failed

A failed job always returns its credit — you do not need to ask. The Generate tab says why it failed. (A job with a problem in its settings never starts: the Generate tab lists what to fix first, and nothing is spent.) The common reasons:

• The simulation found a gouge — the toolpath would cut into the relief by more than the tolerance. That is a fault in ReliefCAM, not in your settings, and it is reported to us automatically. Tell us about it too, and we will look at your job.
• It ran past the preparation time limit — large pieces with a fine finishing stepover take the longest. Raise the finishing operation's stepover on the Operations tab and generate again.

The carving is the wrong size or depth

• Check the finished size and depth on the Setup tab, and the units of the machine profile's output. A file written in inches run as millimetres is 25.4 times too small.
• Check where you set the Z zero. ReliefCAM puts Z zero at the top of the stock, and every cut is below it.

The relief is inside out

White is the top of the relief. If your image is dark where it should be high, turn on Invert on the Image tab.

Steps or ridges on the finish

• Steps on slopes come from a flat end mill; finish with a ball nose.
• Even ridges between passes are the scallop: reduce the stepover.
• A grain like terracing can come from an 8-bit image with a lot of depth. A 16-bit PNG or TIFF has 256 times as many levels; smoothing on the Image tab also helps.

My controller stops on a line

Check that the profile's controller is the one you run, and that your sender is not adding its own line numbers or comments. The Start and End G-code are copied into the file exactly as written and are the most common cause. Every other line is under 80 characters and uses only the G-codes in the guide for your controller.

Still stuck

Email hello@reliefcam.com with the job's name. We can see the job's settings, so you do not need to attach the file.