I tend to work in a strange mix of metric and inches. I almost always define the stock dimension in inches because that’s usually what I use when selecting and sizing stock but then I tend to design in mm because that’s what I’m used to from 3d modelling.
It would be awesome for me to set my design to be in mm and then enter stock sizes as
width: 12in
height: 10in
thickness: 1in
and have those formulas preserved. Aka, when I return to the design dialog box, I would still see a height of 12in instead of 254mm. It seems like this functionality might even already be there because I can enter the expression “t-2” and for a stock depth and that formula is preserved and I can change it at will.
Would it be possible to globally enable saving the entered expression as typed instead of resolving it in most cases? You could still use = at the end of the expression for immediate evaluation which would allow people to control which expressions are preserved and which are immediately evaluated and replaced.
When you start to head down that path, you basically need to create a parametric design program. As much as I would love for CC to become that, it’s really not something we’d be able to support.
Regarding a more simplified idea of keeping the units of a number, without keeping a full expression, I did that in MeshCAM because I thought it seemed logical. Nothing created more support trouble that that. Coming from mechanical CAD programs, it seemed totally logical to me but it’s completely non-intuitive to the rest of the population.
Well, it sounds to me like it too late to completely avoid being a parametric design program… To quote the V7 release: “toolpath depths, both the start depth and the max depth, can hold an expression and update anytime the project thickness changes. For instance: * “t” will use the project thickness and update anytime it changes.” Sounds like a mini parametric design program!
But, honestly, I agree it would be insane to make CC into even a general parametric design program. Simply keeping the units would satisfy my request. I do however think that keeping the expression would also be nice for other expression. For example, if I enter “3in/8 / 2” as a radius this ends up being stored as 4.762mm. If I went back to the design at a later time, I’d have no idea where I got that crazy number from!
In terms of people not liking the expressions being saved (or just the units if you wanted to only do that), you’ve already got the immediate evaluation vs. stored notion with “t/2” and “t/2=” . If people find storing the units to be confusing, they can simply enter the formula as “3in/8 / 2=” and they would get their number and not the expression.
As a feature request, I think it would be awesome to show where the clamps would be on the design and simulation. I have run into an issue where I have to pause the job to move a clamp before it gets taken out.
This would mean that you don’t have to spend time when setting up the workpiece to figure out where the best places for clamps are… think oval shape…
Just set up as per the design and cut.
Jeremy
Because most of my parts are different each time, I have to set the piece where I am going to place it, getting a visual where I am going to clamp it. Doing this I see where the cut might impact the clamp.
That being said, a rectangle placed on your drawing to indicate clamps might be an easy work around.