Any tips on how to accomplish something similar to this photo?
Would it take a thousand hours for a full 4x8 panel?
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Not quite a thousand hours, but not a short amount of time. (I mean, using conventional grid milling, you could use a stepover of basically nothing and it up to a thousand hours, but yeah.)
As far as the pattern, it almost looks like a stretched and common noise texture: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/shader_nodes/textures/voronoi.html
An interesting way to make this might be just to use a large ball endmill or bull nose mill (Flat with rounded corners), and vary the height. You won’t get corner pockets in the same way, but if it dipped down for part of the path, you could potentially do it without needing the rather time consuming grid passes. The pockets wouldn’t matter if you went off the edges, though.
It would take quite a while. The issues you’ll have is 1.) If you use a mesh rather than solid model you’ll need a program that will convert mesh to gcode. I can get the name of the software I used for a project like this once. It wasn’t free but had a free trial. And you’ll need to modify the gcode a little. 2. The worst problem you’ll have is the z axis on the shopbot will drop lower and lower with every pass. I don’t think it effects simple line art jobs that most people use the shop bot for, but it makes the shopbot unusable for 2.5D carving. (That was why I originally joined makeict).
The z axis dropping effects it mostly on the fine detail pass. When the gcode calls for a lot of movement. It only takes 20 minutes and it’ll be an inch deeper into the material than it should be.
This picture was the rough pass on a 2.5d job on the shopbot. I think it was a 1/4" amana bull nose bit. The total area was about 18" by 24" and took about 2.5 to 3 hours.
This picture was the fine detail pass. (I can check the bit I used). This was about 20 minutes in. That wall of material isn’t supposed to be there. It’s only supposed to be taking off a tiny amount. It’s not an inch deep like I said, it’s actually about a half inch.
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Interesting.
I was thinking I’ll design my geometric shapes (probably hexagons of some sort) in illustrator as a vector then import into fusion 360 and let the special rounded bit take care of the smoothing and layering at different depths.
Ideally I’d be able to use 1/2 in plywood so I don’t need it to be super sunk, I just want enough depth to show some layering. Then again I might want to cut completely through to have in some places.
I’d imagine this is pretty advanced for my shopbot skills so I plan on doing some smaller things to ramp up my learning for this. So far I’ve only made a ring lol.
I might end up doing more of a crisp edge like this photo for simplicity and the sake of time. I will need probably need 6 panels when its all said and done so I don’t want it to be a nightmare.
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I think that 2D one would be very doable. And likely wouldn’t even need fusion. Just the vector and easel.
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Cool, thanks for your input Erik, you too James!
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I think it was MeshCAM? (The shopbot Z axis has supposedly been fixed, and I haven’t been able to repeat it with the regularity it had. However, I remain skeptical, especially for huge awesome jobs like the one that didn’t work for you.)
If it was a large bit swooping in, I think it could probably handle that without much issue. https://smile.amazon.com/B2460-Solid-Carbide-Router-Shank/dp/B07PGXSZHB/ (Or a larger router bit, this one I chose because it’s clear on the shape, there are cheaper and more expensive ones.)
Might not have the same dimensions running in/out, but the general idea would be doable and probably pretty quickly too.
That straight one would be very easy to setup and do.
I remember crashing the head at one point and running out to find you! Lol! I stopped the job after it had dug deeper than expected and without raising the head out of the material I tried to home it. 
oops!