Controlling subtractive CNC from Cura, at all possible?

[r111122223333 0]

I've been investigating CNC mill/router design (so I'd be free to have it work with GRBL or perhas even use Marlin or other common gcode interepreters) for a possible project. But all attempts to find good gcode path generators for woking from initially mesh modelled parts (stl/dae/obj files) have been failures. But I've used Cura on lots of additive 3D printers and it works really very well indeed.

 

Is it at all feasible to get Cura to work with settings where it would run "backwards" around an outline of a part, the same way it does perimeters but following the outside of the perimter rather than the inside? It would give 2.5D milling as it would mill a 2D cut at any height, then move down to make the next cut and so on, not true 3D, but it could be really useful.

 

Are there ways to get Cura to only ever move the "print" head such that it stays outside the boundaries of a model (or inside the boundaries of a negative mould object), and ways to get Cura to make rather large raises of the "print" head, a sort of z-hop, this may infact take a negative direction, during moves between say separately cut holes where one would need the cutting bit to be lifted out of the material block to translate on x and y before lowering down on Z again.

 

Has anyone tried this at any point?

 

Thank you

Edited April 2, 2023 by r111122223333

[ahoeben 1,968]

Provided the meat is very tender, you can use a spoon to divide a steak into bite-size chunks. But a knife will always work better.

 

You could write all kinds of hacks to get Cura to make toolpaths for subtractive CNC. But Cura is really made for 3d printing (and actually specifically for FDM 3d printing). There are other tool far more suitable for subtractive CNC.

[nallath 1,124]

Yeah, I really wouldn't use Cura for this. You would spent more time fighting it than anything else. Any subtractive C&C tool will likely be a much better option.