Quote Originally Posted by Kip View Post
I thought they had 2 files with one having the terrain and the other the building details on......I don't see a difficulty....just join the g-code and press go...... seems simple.


What programs generate the terrain and building details?
the buildings file is 2D just the plots not the complete building, therefore has no z-info. Yes you could adapt the file to extrude each building plot by a fixed amount, but what Ed needs is for each building plot to set the Z origin to the contour height at the centre of that plot and then adjust the Z cut to be a fixed depth from there into the surface. It could be done at the G-Code level but you'd need to emulate the landscape tool path and watch for the intersect with a building plot and then use that to adjust the g-code for the building plot (i.e. the pocket).

It would be better to do at the .stl level, not least because its easier to find the intersects and also because it could be reviewed/visualised before machining.