Outlining cutouts can be really appropriate for finishing passes with a narrow end mill after having done a roughing pass with a bigger end mill. For things like getting in to tight concave X-Y corners on a part, think the gaps between gear teeth for example.
It would take something far too close to eternity to use a narrow end mill to rough out a whole clearing of stock, and details related to narrow-flute-wide-shank (my other of the 4 points discussed on the discord which I'm noting here for adding to the long term to do list) mean sometimes a narrow end mill couldn't do all the roughing pattern anyway.
For these types of finishing passes you usually want to make, at each height (as well as at other heights necessary to match the heights of flat layers, the way Clear Faces already does for roughing passes) , a series of inward-advancing concentric circuits of the part. This can be achieved with Wide Steps (for which the value may go well above 5, but I know from earlier discussions that making this limit variable is very easy) in an Outline operation.
However a few versions back you changed the underlying logic behind the operations such that Wide Steps only now operates if "Outside Only" is ticked.
That removes its ability to perform multiple-concentric-ring finishing passes around a part, multiple concentric passes cannot finish a part when they are all the way out at the parts' shadow perimeter rather than at X-Y co-ordinates of the face appropriate to whichever Z depth that part of the toolpath is actually at.
I cannot recall whether the earlier version always did the outermost concentric circuit of the Wide Cutout first, or if it did the innermost circuit first, but for a finishing pass it would be the outermost which should always come first, advancing inwards in concentric circuits of the shape at the given depth and fully completing the circuits at that depth before making further Step Downs. This avoids slotting cuts (already somewhat avoided if one has done a Roughing pass first anyway) and ensures the very final part of the finishing pass is taking as little material off as possible, giving the best chance for a good surface finish.
Can this be re-enabled fairly easily?
Thank you
Infraviolet
Note, my Github post at #453 (which you did a great job of fixing, thank you) some months back was made at a time when Wide Cutouts could work without Outside-only. The images in that issue give an impression of what toolpaths one is able to get when having Wide Cutouts which don't follow the Outside-Only rule, although that example has far more Wide Cutouts worth of width than a typical finishing pass would involve.
Outlining cutouts can be really appropriate for finishing passes with a narrow end mill after having done a roughing pass with a bigger end mill. For things like getting in to tight concave X-Y corners on a part, think the gaps between gear teeth for example.
It would take something far too close to eternity to use a narrow end mill to rough out a whole clearing of stock, and details related to narrow-flute-wide-shank (my other of the 4 points discussed on the discord which I'm noting here for adding to the long term to do list) mean sometimes a narrow end mill couldn't do all the roughing pattern anyway.
For these types of finishing passes you usually want to make, at each height (as well as at other heights necessary to match the heights of flat layers, the way Clear Faces already does for roughing passes) , a series of inward-advancing concentric circuits of the part. This can be achieved with Wide Steps (for which the value may go well above 5, but I know from earlier discussions that making this limit variable is very easy) in an Outline operation.
However a few versions back you changed the underlying logic behind the operations such that Wide Steps only now operates if "Outside Only" is ticked.
That removes its ability to perform multiple-concentric-ring finishing passes around a part, multiple concentric passes cannot finish a part when they are all the way out at the parts' shadow perimeter rather than at X-Y co-ordinates of the face appropriate to whichever Z depth that part of the toolpath is actually at.
I cannot recall whether the earlier version always did the outermost concentric circuit of the Wide Cutout first, or if it did the innermost circuit first, but for a finishing pass it would be the outermost which should always come first, advancing inwards in concentric circuits of the shape at the given depth and fully completing the circuits at that depth before making further Step Downs. This avoids slotting cuts (already somewhat avoided if one has done a Roughing pass first anyway) and ensures the very final part of the finishing pass is taking as little material off as possible, giving the best chance for a good surface finish.
Can this be re-enabled fairly easily?
Thank you
Infraviolet
Note, my Github post at #453 (which you did a great job of fixing, thank you) some months back was made at a time when Wide Cutouts could work without Outside-only. The images in that issue give an impression of what toolpaths one is able to get when having Wide Cutouts which don't follow the Outside-Only rule, although that example has far more Wide Cutouts worth of width than a typical finishing pass would involve.