What is the smarter way to mill this???

[Giulio Buccini]

Hello folks,

I have to mill all of this "holes" on a circular plate. How I do that in an efficient way?
My first attempt was miserable:

1. I have selected all of the holes (quite boring operation)
2. I clicked on the "Profile faces" buttons
3. I have obtained one global milling operation

This seems to work, unfortunately the execution time is close to one millennium. The milling bit jumps between the various holes, digging half-millimeter in one hole, then another half-millimeter in another hole, and so on. So 99% of time is spent in movements than in milling.
In other words, it doesn't mill the holes one by one, rather distribute every step-down on all holes. After one "level" is completed it starts again from the first hole to mill-down another level.

Any clue?
There is a smarter way to do this?
No other choice than selecting the holes one by one and create a milling operation for each of them? This can be a PITA if I decide to modify something in the operation options. I would have to manually update dozen of operation. Frustrating...

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OS: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS (XFCE/xfce)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.19566 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 9960b673997a926c101b8b61a65e8d3796664c01
Python version: 3.8.1
Qt version: 5.12.5
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.4.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)

[RatonLaveur]

Hi hi friend, cool little project.

PITA Hole selection: the pocket based on faces, should allow you select only the top face and process everything except the perimeter. This should allow the op to mill everything.

Too much travel: With the most recent dev version (to which I do not have access at the moment unfortunately) you should be able to perform the same operation, but once the OP is calculated and validated you can select the OP in the tree. Go to the Data tab. There you should be able to select whether to process features Individually or Collectively. Russ had coded this change a while ago. Whether it will work for you I'm not sure. But it's worth a try.

The gist of it is: each milling op will complete the hole. There is therefore only one travel per hole and your life will not have been spent in vain looking at an endless milling cycle.

Although I could also ask the question, is a life looking at an endless milling cycle really spent in vain?

Hope that helps.

Also: can you share the file for others to try and help you better?

[Giulio Buccini]

Also: can you share the file for others to try and help you better?

Sure.

[geant]

Just taking a wild guess, this might be an instance where where realthunder-Link technology needs to be integrated/utilized for Path operations!
HHHHMMMMMMMM!
Path restructuring ???????? required!

[chrisb]

I don't think a link array can help, because the gcodes should neither be linked, nor copied, they have to be different. There is already the Path Array op, but that has no with a circular option.
It may be possible to handle this on the gcode level e.g. by using relative coordinates or different workpiece coordinate systems, but I'm not sure whether all dialects in use here would support it.

Edit: The PathArray can be switched to type polar.

[sliptonic]

How about using a polar Path Array? Set up the operation for one hole, then array it around the circle.

[Giulio Buccini]

I tried to use the "polar copy" tool of the Path WB, but it doesn't work.
Even if it would work, I would have to use four concentric arraysinstead of one. More than this they would not be perfectly aligned with the holes generated by the array tool of the Draft WB... (the one I used to generate the holes).

[Giulio Buccini]

I apologize, the polar copy tool of the Path workbench seems to work.
Unfortunately I have to make 4 arrays, so if I have to change detail of the operation then I have to do it 4 times. one time for each array.

Anyway this is much better than changing any single operation. A step forward in any case.

QUESTION:
Once I have "polar-copied" one primitive operation, I have to delete that, otherwise the same hole will be milled two times.
But... after the operation is deleted I cannot change the operation parameter no more...

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[Giulio Buccini]

I have resolved my previous problem with the polar array. It is not necessary to delete the primitive path to avoid the double milling of the same hole.

If I need N copies arranged around 360 degree, than I need to:

1. leave the primitive path in his position
2. make N-1 copies
3. calculate an angle of 360 - (360/N) degree

Simple as that.

[Giulio Buccini]

If I need to make 4 arrays for my previous pattern, things get complicated with my rectangular patter on my second object. I need to create many arrays!

Here again comes out the lack of control on arrays with Freecad: one cannot selectively "tick" the generated elements to exclude them from being generated (the same happens with the array command in the Draft WB).

PITA forever! (But I'm starting to get used at it... )

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