V4: 2D DXF Support
When I was asking my resellers for requests for V4, one of the guys in Japan asked for the ability to load 2D DXF files and machine them. In the past I have always stayed away from 2D stuff because MeshCAM was never made to do it. In the past couple of years the waterline and pencil have gotten good enough that I think the feature would be useful. If you try to load a 2D dxf file you will get the following dialog: If you click yes, a new 2D dxf loader will try to interpret the file and extrude the curves to a full 3d...
read moreV4- Estimate Machining Time
After having it half-done for 2 years, I finally completed the Estimate Machining Time function. I was debating some type of correction factor that would multiply the estimated time by some amount to try to give a more accurate estimate but that seems like a lot of extra UI and confusion when a disclaimer can do the...
read moreMinor V4 Refinnement
It isn’t often that I get a really strong statement from Gerry but he made a really good point about my new units dialog- he doesn’t ever want to see it and the more I thought about it, most people never need it since they don’t change units very often. For Gerry: It will change to “Always use MM” if you select “MM”. Hope this helps streamline the process for most...
read moreV4 Work-in-Progress Update
I’ve spent some time working through the todo list for V4 in the past few days. One change, that may only be important to me, is to have the units dialog show the size of the geometry to be loaded. I thought this would be important because I regularly get files in both mm and in and I usually do not know what units were used until I open this file. By looking at the magnitude of the units, it’s pretty easy to tell which it is. The bigger change is the new adaptive stepover code for parallel finishing. This...
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