Been playing around with this for a while, now trying to get better. Does anyone know why Easel’s toolpaths jump around so much and won’t finish one area at a time? Is there a way to fix this without a ton of manual editing?
You may find FreeCad or Fusion more to your way of thinking.
If you want more control to your quests’ solution and if you really want to go down that rabbit hole, there are solutions out there.
I am quite sure that Easel and GRBL would like hear from you if your method is better. Easel is a very nice “FREE” 2-1/2 D CNC program and it is a very easy program to make objects. When I am that very fussy, I make separate drawings making sure of component positioning, depth, direction, home setting, and cutting order. I make am very sure of my homing settings, spindle positions and make more than one “air” cut before I sacrifice a good piece of material.
Most of my programs run for under 15 minutes, the vast majority are under 5 minutes. How fast is your spindle?
Good luck!
Ron
From what I can see, Easel cuts to the same Z depth of cut until it has completed the total area of the work, then starts over and drops to the next depth increment, etc. This is based on what I see on my projects, which aren’t that complicated. As Ron mentioned, you can chunk your work by using multiple gcode files for smaller areas. I think of this a modular approach where you have sub files within the overall file. Since the gcode is text based, you can copy, paste, and move things around in a text editor like Notepad. A good command of gcode syntax is handy.
I believe that to be true if cut settings is SWITCHED to to automatic rather than manual. Manual allows the use to set DOC.
Ron
Happy Easter!
