Initial demonstration code to integrate "Feed and Speed Calculator FreeCAD addon" into FreeCAD.
Before the details, I need to particularly{spelling edit} acknowledge the following users for their code and encouragement.
onekk, sliptonic, russ4262 {edit: sorry Russ had your username wrong} and of course dubstar-04 for the "Feed and Speed Calculator FreeCAD addon".
Two example scripts are provided:
- Create sets (ranges) of ToolControllers with feeds and speed that are defined by the "Feed and Speed Calculator FreeCAD addon" and optionally limited to your predefined machine limits. Script also shows how to create ToolControllers without using the "Feed and Speed Calculator FreeCAD addon"
- Script to use the "Feed and Speed Calculator FreeCAD addon", with/out the CNC limit overrides.
- a Path Job (optional)
- Add a range of ToolControllers with incremented Tool diameters to the specified Job
- Either use your maths to change feed/speed changes for each TC added
- or use the FS calculater addon to calculate based on stock material
- FS calculator can also be used to override default calculations so that the feed, speed and power are limited to those suited to your machine
In addition, there are a lot of parameters that need to be set.
A host of defaults are provided to make this task easier.
However all of this is script based, no gui support in FreeCAD, nor in the FS calc addon.
The output is ToolControllers and Tools added to your Job, with the parameters you required already set.
The parameters can be adjusted as required via FreeCAD Path Tools
Intended use scenarios:
- In every design, create ToolControllers & related tools for every path Operation
- Ditto, but then save in job templates, for reuse
- Updated "Feed and Speed Calculator FreeCAD addon" has had basic testing. But changes are only available via scripting and have NOT been added to the GUI at this time.
- Scripts are a bit rough, and have not yet got to details of things like getting Tool icons correct, or trapping incorrect paths to ToolBit shapes etc.
- Contributions and suggestions are encouraged, especially as my 'coding skills' are limited.
EDIT: 2021-11 Status update & link to primary addon/source:
The addon is not yet "built into" FreeCAD, nor is it in the Addon Manager as yet.
You can find install instructions and download it from here
While this addon currently works well, there are some currently minor bugs and it is felt that there needs to be some further enhancements, such as material based ChipLoad.
Experimental version referred in initial post inldued scripted use to calculate Feeds and speeds, as well as auto-creating Toolcontrollers in a Path Job that have Feeds and Speeds auto calculated. Example scripts are in examples directory.