Hi Gareth

Congratulations for taking this independent route.

I am just itching to write some code probably to generate *.obj files as I anticipate simply importing *.obj parts into Vectric aspire and then letting it get on with the cutter paths.

I was pleased to note that Microsoft Studio free version includes so much of the paid version so I have installed that and anticipate thinking up some kind of a project in C++ or C# - long time since I used VB and its not my favourite language.

Other low cost programming routes include PHP if you have a website or care to run a server simulation on your PC. Its a tad strange but I often find it easier to knock up a webpage ( so quick and easy for simple interface and graphic feedback ) and then dump the output to a file on the server that I can download at leisure. PHP is not blindingly fast but its pretty close to "C" and is easy to use.

As soon as I have indentified a project where it will be easier to define the mathematical form than work in my CADCAM packages I will be doing something similar to yourself.

*.obj specifics: There are all kinds of mesh and triangulation libraries out there so it is not necessary to re-invent the wheel, the *.obj format is very straightforward as it represents a mesh of cartesian points ( optionally more ) I like this root as the OBJ format is universal. The downside of course is that you are working on the basis of a facetted rep so it will not be precise as your Gcode example where you do not suffer the small errors involved in representing a mathematically defined surface by a piecewise planar/linear approximation.

Anyway its great to hear of someone getting their head under the hood - it gets more interesting when you see how it all fits together.

Jon