Joneb wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 9:56 am
Should I do a bug report
No!
It seems likely from your descriptions that you are a fairly new user to Path Workbench, so there are some things for you to learn.
Firstly as Herbk mentioned, the auto calculate of expressions {edit: usually do not occur} until you "after recalculate the path, not directly after changing the value". This can be triggered by the refresh, or OK to the operation, or even by tabbing out of that field. You should also be aware that there is other builtin functionality that automaticaly calculates, for example the final depth. This is be triggered changes to other fields, such as changes to step down as you have observed. However it is NOT pre-calculated when you first open the operation dialog, so it can appear wrong, and if you are not aware of when it is calculated, you may miss the calculated value appear in the field. If you search or browse the forum, you find other posts describing how these changes work and how they are triggered.
In your last file test2t.FCstd, the stock top surface has height z=0, and the operation has final cut depth of z=0. So the operation is cutting as per the parameters that have been set. That file also does not have rapids speeds set in setup sheet.
Additionaly, be aware that FreeCAD does not know the current position of your CNC, and so the first rapid move in the job, will often appear to start inside your stock. But reality is that you position your CNC/tool somewhere safe (ie not inside your stock) and then the CNC mill move from position you set to the end of the read path you seen in FreeCAD. Tool changes will add other moves if present in the job. Again FC cannot know how your machine is setup for toolchanges, so it can't display those moves in the path. These are thing you need to visualise in your CNC control software.
Your earlier posts also some some errors and warnings in the report window. For example, if those "Please select features from a single solid" errors are from the path WB, then these need to be looked at, or yes your path job is likely not to do what you desire!
Please keep in mind that FreeCAD is very powerful and has been around for many years, so it is very capable. Also it is undergoing a lot of changes, so yes sometimes there are bugs, other times the documentation has not been updated, but from my own stumblings, I would say mostly I have not understood the good documentation and often it is me as a user who has not taken enough time to learn the basics. So it is much better to ask for help in understanding a situation. If there is a bug, it will get confirmed in the discussion and you will get prompted to post a report.
Do have faith in FreeCAD, it is a (many!) great tool, but like any powerful tool, it takes a serious learning investment to get up to speed. Again look at the forum, you will find amazing models and real world things people have done with FreeCAD.
