Blender CAM 0.5.0

What is new:

• Exact mode is now faster by around 25-30 %
• support for text objects - they kind of worked in some situations but that was a coincidence! :) Now text is properly supported.
• default threshold for optimisation was lowered, the new algorithm works better with that
• Waterline with layers was fixed, now waterline works much more like in other CAM programs. It is however still experimental feature!
• Drill paths now support transformations of the source curve object

There are not so many changes as usual, but I'm kind of running in summer-mode ;)

Support this project by:

• sending feedback on forum
• posting images of your work on the forum
• learn python and start developing with me
• send some money

Big thanks go to:

• Bernhardo Braun and Giovanni Bianchessi for release builds Linux/Mac
• everybody who donates, reports bugs on the forum and posts feedback

Blender CAM release 0.4.0 is out

Because some things were finished, and also, some serious bugs were fixed, here comes the new version.
features:

• Background operations - this saves your precious time and enables you to use more cores. You can continue working on other operations while computing in background. You have to save your file before sending operations for background computing. status of computations is in upper info bar in blender. 
• Helix entry for pocket - experimental. 
• Retract arc for pocket - experimental too. Both aren't made if there is no space for them.
• First down option for cutout paths - this goes all layers down on one contour, then goes to the next one.  a condition for ramp down and out.
• Ramp down cutout operation - experimental - ramps down based on layer settings
• Ramp out - goes on along the outline, good if you don't want to leave a mark after the tool finishes and leaves material on same spot.
• A lot of cutter and operation presets, all made by Bernhard Brown
• improved path filtering, files are smaller now
• a lot of small tweaks and fixes in the UI

Also, a very serious bug got a fix now... it occured when more than 2 layers were used, and there were sharp jumps in the path.

also made 2 videos, background operations and doing a simple cutout operation with the new options. Sorry, without commentary, no time for that now, but there are key strokes and mouse buttons recorded, so they can serve as a simple tutorial...

Serious bug found today

today I confirmed a bug which was reported by Juan-Carlos Furest on the forum. It causes plunges deeper than a layer step down(!) when the slope of the object is high or 90 grades.

I am sorry for this bug and will try to fix it as soon as possible, hopefully today.

Also, then I will try to release new version .

helical entry

This was requested by some people, although I don't really need it for woodcarving. It's a helix entry into material, with options for angle and diameter. Only for pocket now:

Time for art.

I spent some time doing my art, which is still my priority. Behold the battle with the cars!

There are some little updates in the code, but still far from next release.

Main improvement is in contour processing, where you can now choose to ramp down continously around the contour, and set 'first down' option for cutting more contours - this enables to cut things out of sheet of material one by one even if you use layers.

ramp contour and first down option examples

release 0.3.0

Hello, tons of work have been done, besides many bugfixes there are some bigger news:

•  collision precision mode, improves greatly precision for projects where this is needed. This is a great achievment, because the collision library allows to detect collision from any angle, so it will be great for 4 or 5 axis machining(in the far far future ;) ).  Old method is still better for high poly meshes and the only one for images - not so precise, but faster. This was a lot of work. It's relatively slow by now :( , but produces very nice paths:)
•  export is now handled by the original Heeks CNC nc library, which has been converted for Python 3 and fixed in some parts. It needs probably more fixing to enable more than the post-processors which are currently available. Good news is, FreeCAD is going to use it too, so the library will get attention from more developers :). This library is BSD license, while blenderCAM is GPL, so if anybody reuses this library, please remember this is to be respected.
•  support for groups of objects, a big recode.
•  tool id,tool change, spindle on/off, spindle speed are now exported.
•  operations can be moved up and down in the list, copying is more convenient.
•  many UI tweaks 
•  UI speed should be improved a lot, because of update functions
•  warning system should have now a better 'backend', because of proper update functions 
•  recursion depth bug solved - curve parenting algorithm could run out of recursion depth if the number of path parts was >1000.
•  removed 'use all geometry' option, and instead made support for groups of objects.
•  fixed cutout operation when cutting from image source - did cut border and thanks to it offset to opposite direction!
•  fixed a bug with simulation - could be accidentaly performed in 8 bit depth
•  fixed some bugs coming from blender API changes.

As you can see, the development is going on very wildly. Do you appreciate the many working days which were put into this release? If you'd like to help, theres a lot of options. Consider helping in one of these ways: 

• making a donation
• reporting bugs, doing some testing of the new features, look into g-code generated by blenderCAM and see if everything works as it should. I have a very simple machine where I run mach3 gcode, so I can't test much in this area.
• doing more presets for cutters, machines, operations, and sending them to me
• writing documentation or tutorials and sending those to me , I will put them on the blog, or post these on your website.
• uploading your images and describing your experience in the forum, a nice gallery means more visitors->more donations and help-> a better software for you to use.

Thanks to:

• All users who tested, sent feedback, submitted images, and donated money to the project
• Bernhard Braun for linux builds, testing and feedback
• Giovanni Bianchessi for mac build

Please take into account that the release can have some bugs, so be sure to look at your paths carefully and do simulation before you use them.

Forum page

There is now a forum page, which uses an embedded nabble forum.

Anybody knows about better forum which could be embedded?

this one will have to serve now. I spent today whole evening with it, while i could have spent it coding something new into blender CAM... ;)

Until now I tried to respond to the many emails and messages I got here, which became impossible with my time which I have for development.

Since now, I'd like to ask everybody to post on this forum, and I will try to respond there, and other users can respond there too.