Freecad

[routerdriver]

I found this video very helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4JUnB1AHdY .The more recent series on Path topics from sliptonic was also very useful.It also helps that there is a post processor for my controller bundled with Freecad.I am increasingly impressed by the most recent developments in 3D surfacing and pocketing and hope to try using them in the next few days.There are some clever people donating their work to the project and I am thankful that they do so.

[A_Camera]

I found this video very helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4JUnB1AHdY .The more recent series on Path topics from sliptonic was also very useful.It also helps that there is a post processor for my controller bundled with Freecad.I am increasingly impressed by the most recent developments in 3D surfacing and pocketing and hope to try using them in the next few days.There are some clever people donating their work to the project and I am thankful that they do so.

Thanks for the link. It seems that my version is crashing for circular pockets. Tried to find some solution, but nothing seems to work. There also seems to be quite a few "dialects", even if 0.17 is the latest version. Mine is still 0.16 and I will see if updating to the last version helps, but a some googling says that there is still a bug.

Edit:
0.17 seems to work well at least on the computer I have tested.

[A_Camera]

Unfortunately, even FreeCAD 0.17 has some serious limitations regarding the use for CNC designs.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62431594

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=34953

Those are just a few bugs or shortcomings I have detected during the one day I tested it. Unfortunately, those render FreeCAD useless for milling, except for some simple work. It is however excellent (in my opinion) for 3D modelling items which are 3D printed.

[routerdriver]

The post on the Freecad forum was a clue.The windows version is a bit behind the latest Linux release.I added the daily update ppa for version 0.18 and by enabling the experimental features,I quickly approximated your sloping surface and generated the toolpath that hopefully shows in the attached screenshot.

[magicniner]

It's like the 1990s with apple updating Mac versions first :D

[A_Camera]

The post on the Freecad forum was a clue.The windows version is a bit behind the latest Linux release.I added the daily update ppa for version 0.18 and by enabling the experimental features,I quickly approximated your sloping surface and generated the toolpath that hopefully shows in the attached screenshot.

Thank you. So you mean that it works under Linux and/or 0.18 plus the experimental features enabled?

Anyway, my opinion on the 0.17 is that it is made far too complicated compared to 0.16. Simple objects are suddenly complicated to create because the "new thinking". In 0.16 I could basically do everything simply from the Part design, with the 0.17 that is not possible. So personally, I don't like the 0.17 at all.

[routerdriver]

I'm using 0.18 Daily build under Linux and with the experimental feature enabled.I do agree that the whole program is in need of tidying,but it is so useful for generating toolpaths that I forgive that minor matter.If you have your object saved it doesn't seem to matter which version you use as the backward compatability seems to be very good.

[Voicecoil]

I found this video very helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4JUnB1AHdY .The more recent series on Path topics from sliptonic was also very useful.It also helps that there is a post processor for my controller bundled with Freecad.

Which controller is that may I ask please?

[routerdriver]

Which controller is that may I ask please?

LinuxCNC in my case.There are also post processors for a number of others including GRBL and smoothie.