Three tools which approach this problem are:
- Fusion 360 — apparently there’s a machine simulation option in it which almost no one uses
- GrblGru — this includes a full 3D machine simulation option: https://www.grblgru.com/
- bCNC — this has an option for probing a surface and will then warp a file so as to match the surface — known as auto-leveling this is common for for PCB manufacture: bCNC · PyPI
c.f., Duplicating physical items (story of 2020 Christmas break)
Thanks for the kind words on the box generation! I’m pretty much satisfied w/ the current implementation, and just need to fix the 3D preview one more time, and then cut one last sample box to photograph and then I’ll be writing it up and wrapping up the book before I move on to the next project.