[TR MFG]

18 Things that Onecnc is missing or I figure out how to do.
After using OneCNC for just over a week now I have a list of things that I think it is missing, or I can’t find how to do, or are bad habits that I’ve had for the last ten or so years and am having a hard time of breaking. I have been a long time user of another cam package so a lot of what is in this list is based on that fact and that way of thinking.
Please if there is a way to do any of the things listed here chime in and help me out. Don’t get me wrong I love it so far, it is the easiest Cad/CAM package to use that I have seen, that ease of use maybe the very reason that some of these things in my list are not in it!
Right now we only have the Mill Express XR2 version if some of these things become options in the other levels of the software let me know.

1. Delete duplicate entities function
2. Automatic sequential tool numbering
3. Copy and past in the nc manager
4. Path options for facing operations, parallel path with lead on, off part
5. Path options for pocketing, zigzag
6. "EDIT"
7. Stock to leave in the Z direction for profiling and pocketing
8. Can not translate in EPS, Solidworks, DWG file formats
9. Extend an entity by a specified distance
10. Extract all edges of one surface or solid face
11. Threadmilling cycles.
12. Creating a box that is the size of the part, refer to it as a bounding box, also prompts if you want it larger in any direction. This function creates a wire frame cube that is the xyz extents of the model. This is useful for quickly finding the needed stock size for odd shaped parts, or moving the zero to the square corner of stock you are starting with.
13. Analyze dynamic. You select a surface (or solid) that surface is then highlighted and you then have an arrow that you slide around on the surface and it gives you the xyz and the radius of that point on the surface. If you used it in the past you miss it when it’s gone!
14. Selecting an endpoint for a z value when writing a tool path. When prompted for the z value you could right click and get a selection menu that would allow you to chose points on the geometry and have that value be inserted in the selection box.
15. Chaining options. If wire frame share an endpoint and it is attempted to be chained for a tool path the chain may branch in an undesired direction. The chain should stop at the branch point and force the user to select the next piece of the chain then continuing to the next branch point or to the close of the chain.
16. Pocketing entry style ramp-zigzag should have a min-max length parameter along with the angle parameter.
17. Option for multiple tool libraries. Example, one tool library that you set up with your most used cutters for aluminum and another for say graphite electrode work.
18. The option to have the tool plane the same as the current construction plane. So if I have a cube with work to do on two sides say the top and right side. I set my plane on the top surface program as needed. Then set the plane on the right side surface and program as needed. No need to copy the model to another level, rotate it and then program. Along with comes a movable UCS. I’m sure that this is not in OneCNC for the ease-of use factor.

[HuFlungDung]

TR,
Lots of good suggestions there. You might be interested to know that the list of improvements/modifications is something like 700 ideas long The development is a long ways from stagnant, and many of the things which you addressed are in the works.

Part of the concern is the KISS principle. It is relatively easy to throw in hundreds of additional settings, but this could cause incidental increases in complexity for all users, some who struggle with what is there now. Perhaps an "Ultra-expert" version will have to eventually be made, who knows?

Re: #9 You can place a "point along entity" to extend a line. Use a negative value to make the point move off the end of the line.

Like I said, I have no argument with your other ideas, and I know that addressing some of them is in the works. Some involve a lot of complex programming to accomplish, and have likely not been done yet just because of priority.

[TR MFG]

Hu,
Thanks for the reply. I have to admit I relise some of the things on my list may not be in line with the KISS idea that the software is based on, exspecialy #18! and would not be useful to every user. But they saved me a lot of time in the past and we miss having the option to use them now that we've made the switch to OneCNC.

[HuFlungDung]

Couple of observations on your list, TR:

Re #5: why would you want a zigzag operation for pocketing? How many little bits are you going to see as leftovers from that style of machining? Why would you want your tool switching from climb to conventional every other pass?

Re #6: Don't you already have this negative leave for finish working in your Mill Express? It should be, just enter the negative amount.

Re #11: I think this is pretty self explanatory right now. A lot depends on the cutter diameter which you are going to threadmill with. It takes very little input to draw the helix to whatever spec you desire, and then variable chain Z takes care of it. I'm not sure what more you would be expecting for a general purpose (not machine specific) thread milling process? It is also your option to set up a thread milling operation as a cycle in your post. I have done this, so I know it is possible.

Re #12: I forgot that you don't see the size of the extents box in Mill express, because this comes up in the final process setup for the SMT processes. So it is in there already, but only in the higher versions with SMT. This is logical, because SMT is model aware, whereas simple wireframe profiles could easily be only a fraction of the part, so there would be no basis for an overall examination of the 2d geometry, to determine the size. However, if you are clever about it, you can observe the size of the extents that you use in the simulation, and deduce whether your stock size was adequate. It would probably be about 10 times faster to just slip into CAD view, and draw a rectangle around the geometry. Then you'd have a hard copy, which you could also call a boundary.

[TR MFG]

Hu,
Thanks for the input. Here is some of the reasoning behind my list.
#5 I find using a zigzag pattern when pocketing can be useful when working on very thin flimsy parts. I find myself making parts that are thin in one area. Using zigzag I can work from this thin edge toward the more solid area of the part. This seams to be especially true in graphite and plastics were cut or climb milling isn’t as important.

#6 Your right it works! I know it didn’t the other day when I tried it. Was this a change in the update yesterday?

#11 I agree drawing the needed geometry for threadmilling isn’t very difficult. But in the last Cam package you didn’t need any geometry at all, so drawing anything seems like extra work. Any circular type tool path could be created with out any geometry if you wanted to.
#12 That makes since that the levels with SMT have this in them. Is this extents box actual wire frame geometry then?