While working on an acrylic project where i was milling a 5x5 grid of holes i came to realize if i create individual jobs for each circle there is substantially less travel than if I created a single job of gcode for all the circles as a group. Like 9x more travel in my case where i plunged in 1.51mm per cut to 14 mm deep across 25 circles with 0.5" gap using a 1/4" 0 flute circling out to 0.7" with 40% stepover which amounts to three outward steps and 9 down. Had each one of these circle pockets been completed before moving to the next it would save a substantial amount of time for not having to perform all that extra travel. Adding 25 jobs manually would get under my skin fast if I ran into this situation more often.
Yes, a 'do depth first' or 'do layers first' option is a good one to have. If you foresee a lot of this kind of job then you should be using Fusion360, which has an option for everything and you could do those holes as spiral bores, or pockets, or 3D raster or???? There are other options, I just cant think of the names (-: Sketchup with the SketchUcam plugin is also an option, it will do those holes one at a time for sure, with the option of depth first or diameter first.
Openbuilds CAM is a entry level, free, CAM to get you started. But our hope is as you progress up the skill ladder you also graduate to learning more advanced CAMs too. Allows us to keep OpenBuilds CAM beginner friendly, and then people move up to bigger more advanced CAMs as they grow into the hobby
I paid for Sketchup Pro or whatever its called and have it installed on my desktop but using the openbuilds cam is more convenient for whatever reason. Ill check into it the plugins.
The link is in my signature (-: and some videos to get you going https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm728rLHCWOw-vRvTJwS_5MmKG1fs4sZ0
I dont see signatures on mobile i guess. Ill check from desktop later. Thanks! ETA: jumped on desktop, found signature link and checked it out. Looks like you may be the sole contributor on that project ;-p. I'll review the videos later. Thanks for your direction! -d