Proposal: 5-Axis machining in STLWork, Millwizard and Deskproto

I think there is a relatively easy way to implement 4 or 5 (or X)
axis machining in point and shoot CAM programs such as STLWork,
Millwizard and Deskproto without complex re-writes or post
processors.

Consider the case of machining a rolling pin lying on a cutting
board. The rolling pin is aligned with the x-axis and the cutting
board is square and several times the width of the rolling pin. A
reasonable manual machining strategy would be to set up the blank
with the rotary head aligned on the centerline of the rolling pin.
You would use the X and Y axis to surface the cutting board and the
rotary axis to surface the rolling pin and to do the undercuts on the
cutting board that are not visible from above.

STLWork (and BobCad's) apporach of simply replacing the Y-axis with a
rotary or wrapping my geometry around an axis won't let me do this.

An alternative to this using STLWork's current features is to
generate three separate sets of G-code. One each, top, left and
right. Mount the blank as described above and do three separate runs
manually rotating the table 90 degrees left and right. The only
problem with this approach is that the operator needs to reposition
the work's origins to compensate for the axis rotation offest and I
don't think STLWork can be convinced not to re-machine surfaces that
were cut in the prior orientation.

Suppose you were able to tell STLWork where the rotary axis in the
blank was located. You could then generate G-Code to machine from the
top, ask the program to rotate the object 90 degrees around your
defined axis, machine just the material that was not removed in the
prior pass, rotate back 180 degrees and remove the rest of the
material. The operator would then not have to manually reset the
origin.

If the rotation feature was implemented with three rotation options
the functionality would be extended to most everyones machines: A)
Automatically generate G-Code to do the rotation; B) Allow the manual
entry of G-code to do the rotation assuming that the program left the
cutter above the axis in a retracted position; C) Generate a G-Code
operator prompt to tell the operator to do the rotation manually.
This should address about everyone's needs.

The 5th (and Xth) axis is a variation on the theme. If you could
define a second axis in the blank you could ask the program to rotate
around this axis and generate G-code based on the new view
considering what had already been cut. The problem is that
automatically generating G-code offset moves after rotation is way
outside of what any program could do automatically as there are too
many 5 axis configurations. It could still be handled A) if the
program allowed the manual entry of G-code to re-position the table
to compensate for the 5th axis move; B) If the program could be
directed to reposition the cutter to a specified location after the
move, before cutting and prompt the operator to manually re-align the
machine to the expected point. The operator could then manually
reposition the table to the expected place before continuing.

This approach avoids a lot of complexity and eliminates any chance of
gouging or interference. Just a thought... I would buy it.

Roger