The Machines Are Getting Cheap. The Toolpaths Are Not(sliptonic.com) |
The Machines Are Getting Cheap. The Toolpaths Are Not(sliptonic.com) |
The other thing is the same problem that has held back CAM development until now - domain expertise. Knowing the correct thing to build means having real-world experience as a machinist. Workholding, feeds and speeds, order of operations, tool properties, gcode quirks, postprocessing, etc, etc, etc. Modern CAM systems aren't just fancy toolpath algorithms. They manage the whole process of articulating the steps to manufacture the part. Unfortunately, the people that really understand that seldom know enough about software development to even vibe code it effectively. Maybe a team of those people could do it collectively but then you're back to building a community.
A community is what FreeCAD has now. We have about a dozen people working on CAM. That's why my post calls on the manufacturers to get involved.