@Rick McConney, I spent some more time testing the new implementation and there are a couple of things I really liked.
One improvement I noticed immediately is the nesting accuracy. Previously, because the nest was raster-based, asking for a specific gap did not necessarily leave the parts at exactly that distance — for example, 4 mm could end up noticeably larger depending on the raster resolution. With Shared Lines enabled, the post-nesting snap now locks compatible edges at exactly the cutter-width gap. That is a very nice improvement, and it also makes common-line cutting reliable.
I also tested the current STL 3D Profile implementation. The geometric side already works quite well: roughing in multiple depth levels, stock allowance, ball-nose/taper finishing and collision compensation against the STL surface all seem solid.
The part I was wondering about is whether you plan to expand the 3D toolpath strategies further. Right now the 3D raster retracts to safe Z between scanlines and enters the material with a vertical plunge. Do you think it would be technically viable to add things such as:
- ramp or helical entry instead of a straight plunge;
- continuous bidirectional/zig-zag finishing, staying on the surface whenever it is safe instead of retracting every line;
- offset/contour or spiral-style 3D finishing strategies;
- smarter linking between 3D passes, similar to what you just implemented for the optimized 2D paths.
In the WoodCam project I shared, we already experimented with some of this directly on the 3D heightfield/mesh: ramped roughing entry, Z-level/raster roughing, continuous linked raster finishing and an offset finishing strategy. We deliberately work from the mesh/heightfield instead of converting a complex STL into a CAD solid, because that conversion can become extremely heavy.
If any of that approach or code is technically useful for FreazyKam, feel free to use it as well. I think developing the 3D side further could make the workflow much closer to what we normally expect from programs such as Aspire, while still keeping FreazyKam simple.
@Terry_O_Sullivan I’ll keep sharing the progress. The main goal is still to make the FreeCAD workflow faster and more practical for furniture/CNC work, especially for the kind of jobs where we do not need a highly detailed engineering model — we just need to draw, adjust parts, nest them and get to CNC quickly.
The project is still evolving, but the workflow is already getting much closer to what I wanted when I moved from Windows to Linux.