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I am prototyping kit boats on my maker made m2. I’m using easel pro to generate the g- code for my design.
I have to say that the easel software is user friendly, however, the tool paths it generates are exceedingly inefficient with major replicated travel time per pass. Instead of doing multiple passes cutting out the same pocket at stages of depth (0.0625 in per pass with my 1/8" milling bit, it travels across the 4x8 sheet 4 times back and forth. It’s so inefficient I’m considering dropping the software. Simple parts are taking an hour to cut.
What can I do with this? Is this an easel problem or a me problem?
Hey Larry, as a user who’s experienced the same issue at times I totally understand what you’re talking about, Easel although it’ browser based it actually uses the user’s PC to compute the toolpaths and I think this rather rudimentary method of calculating them and using the first solution rather than re-computing to try to find a more efficient path is a downfall of the system but somewhat necessary for users with weaker computers.
One work around is to split the carve into separate sections thus reducing those excessive travel moves.
OR like you suggested, using a different software, however those other software’s usually require significantly more computing power than Easel does so I suggest checking out any available trials for those programs before investing too much $$
Thank you for the reply. I’m thinking that this is a software developer issue. They should be able to recognize that multiple passes on the same shape should be conducted within that smaller space incrementing the Z axis on each pass, then move onto the next shape. I’m really not very happy with this software but maybe I’ll learn to overcome it’s shortcomings.
