We have both Pro/Engineer and SolidWorks here and use AlphaCAM from Licom to program our Hass 5 axis mill. We recently lost our programming expert and I am trying to get an understanding of what this system should be capable of. I am told that they (the workshop) can only work from 2D dxf file input and that seems to me to be a very limited and error prone way of inputting the CAD models. I expected that I would be able to send them a 3D model in an appropriate format (iges,step,parasolid,etc) and the ALphaCAM software would enable the CAM programmer to apply the appropriate cutters to the shapes to generate the machining code. Our workshop tells me that they can only work from 3D data when machining conplex shapes using a ball nosed cutter but I feel sure that this is really that they just don't know how to use the model. I am not a CNC programmer but am an experienced user of CAD software. I need to gain enough knowledge to work with our workshop to make the machining of designs like the one in the attached picture achievable from a 3D model and thus avoiding the errors that are happening when working from 2D data.