Issue with relief

Hello. I am relatively new to the CNC world. I have made several, small carves in the past few months but I am now attempting some 3D relief work. My problem on this project is this:
-I imported a 3D relief, adjusted and pasted the relief into my model.
-created the 3D toolpaths
-Saved and sent to Gsender, but when I go to carve, the Z seems to be taking the router along some invisible path that appears at about 2x the height of the stock. The Carveco relief model shows that I set the model into the stock

then to gSender:

Why does the project seem to be floating above zero-z ?

(BTW, I am a dunce with this stuff so hopefully my above description is coherent).

This is a shot in the dark because I don’t use CarveCo but I noticed that in gSender the toolpath stays above Z zero. This is what my previews look like when I set Z zero to the spoil board in VCarve. So I’m wondering if CarveCo is set to zero off the spoil board and you set the machine to zero off the top of the stock.

Like I said it’s just a guess but it would lead to the toolpath running above the stock. If that’s the problem it’s the lesser of two evils because if you mix them up the other way around the machine will cut way into your spoil board. I’ll give you two guesses as to how I know that!

EDIT: Rereading your post I see you asked why it appears to float above zero. Well my guess above covers that. But I also noticed that in the pic with material setup “Material Z Zero” is set to the top so the toolpath should be negative in Z. I missed that, not familiar with CarveCo. Is it possible that you changed that and forgot to recalculate and save the toolpath?

Your description makes sense to me and I always appreciate pictures! Hope you get this sorted.

@Mrfinz30 What post processor are you using to create your gcode from Carveco?

This has happened to me and if I’m remembering right, I corrected it by doing the following.

Look at the top and click on “model” and then “set position”
Zero out your Z at the bottom of the window that popped up under “Real Position”
Then redo your toolpaths

It seems like this happens if I create the material prior to importing the model. Or if I import the model, create the toolpaths and material. Then decide I want to start over with the model but leave the material created.

Yes Swinly, I believe you are on to something. My z was set to -.8 something or other. Thank you!

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