In error, well it was quite late last night, I appear to have sent this to jordan's personal email address, and not the list, so now you've all got it too. Hi Jordan, On 16/08/2020 01:48, Jordan Brown wrote: > I'd like to figure out how to drive my CNC machine from an OpenSCAD > model... so far, I'm not seeing how, other than some tool chains that > seem fragile, unpleasant, or both. The cad/cam software i use, and have supplied to others, is deskcnc. It can handle dxf, stl, hpgl, point cloud, gerber and image files. So it will produce g-code, and machine some of the file formats exported by openscad. If you want to use free software, then.Desk Proto will accept stl files and image files and produce useable g-code. If you need to generate g-code directly from openscad, (or any cad program), then once you've generated the shape, then you need to generate the tool paths. It is much easier to generate gcode for 3d printing, then it is for machining, working from cad, although if you wanted your machining to be slow, and only having, say 0.4mm depth of cut with a half mm diameter end mill, then machining would be very similar, and that is basically what happens when machining from stl. From dxf files, you select areas to pocket, or profile, (often referred to as 'two and a half D') and that can proceed at a faster rate since step overs are larger. It is very easy to design shapes that can not be machined, much harder to design shapes that can not be 3d printed. If you want to drive your mill direct from openscad, say, in a similar manner as octoprint/pi, curio, and other slicing programs drive 3d printers, then that is most likely never going to happen. I've referred before to the mvc paradigm I do not see openscad as the model, but a view of the model. Gcode is another view. Using openscad to produce the model, one that can be translated into other views, is not straightforward, and most likely is not the best way of getting where you want to be, but If you only have a hammer, then most things have to become nails. Suppose you start with something simple, a cube, say. If you could export the coordinates of the four top corners, then you need to be aware of the size and shape of the stock material you're cutting the cube from, the size of the tool, the tool profile, number of flutes, speeds, feeds, if coolant is needed, what type, material of cutter, material of stock, work holding method. Then, you can calculate the tool paths, bearing in mind chip removal, climb or normal or adaptive tool paths, whatever, and stuff i've not mentioned. For plastic filament 3d printing, once you've decided the material, the slicer takes care of it. Even if you by-pass the slicer stage, and write the raw g-code, it is very consistent, with few variables. It is all very interesting. Best wishes, Ray