🟩 Core Essentials
Features present or expected in a basic CAM package and necessary to perform the required tasks
| Feature | Description | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Operation Grouping | Group operations into jobs or setups | COMPLETE |
| Operation Ordering | Define the order in which operations are executed | COMPLETE (Workplan) |
| Intuitive Job Creation | The job setup process should help the user set up stock, tools, models, and origin | Current functionality is confusing and weak |
| Input Geometry | The application should be able to work on input geometry that the user has 2D (imported SVG/DXF) 3D Shapes Images |
FreeCAD can work with 2D and 3D base geometry Image based CAM (height map milling) not supported at this time. |
🟨 Professional Grade
Features usually present or expected in the state-of-the art applications
| Feature | Description | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | UI should allow dragging parts within the stock. It should allow selecting planes and elements from the model as reference points. Parts should 'drop' onto the work plane much like placing parts works in a 3D slicer. |
Orienting parts within stock is clunky. No automatic bin-packing No. |
| Machine Type Selection | Choose machine type: milling, lathe, multi-axis, or laser/plasma/waterjet | NONE |
| Multi-Setup Workflow | Organize workflows with multiple parts in one job and jobs that process the same part in different setups. This item needs more work. |
Multiple parts are supported in one job. No support for multi-setup jobs. |
| Fixture Selection | Choose WCS for output based on fixture definition | COMPLETE |
| Fixture Configuration | Configure how fixtures are used across operations | COMPLETE |
| Minimize Tool Changes | Optimize across fixtures to reduce tool changes | COMPLETE |
| Stock Clearing/Reset | Allow stock clearing and reset while other fixture is active | COMPLETE |
| Inter-Op Inspection | Allow for inspection between operations | COMPLETE |
| job templates | Work spent configuring a job should be reusable on future jobs | Existing functionality is very good but is not apparent to users. The functionality is under utilized. Good examples are not shipped with FreeCAD. |
| Job Defaults | Experienced users want certain values to always default in particular ways. Example: "I always want my drilling retract depth to be 2mm above the start depth" |
opDefaults allow full customization. The functionality is very good but poorly exposed to users. The SetupSheet is confusing and the functionality overlaps with OpDefaults in Job setup. The functionality doesn't appear where users might prefer it - in CAM preferences. |
| Feature Arrays | There are numerous cases where the user wants to create the same toolpath or set of toolpaths in multiple locations. There are several different use cases that overlap. | INCOMPLETE. Some uses-cases can be achieved with Array op. Others with Array dressup and still others with fixtures. The functionality is confusing and buggy. |
🟦 Next-Level CAM
Features that would exceed industry standard
| Feature | Description | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| (placeholder) | (Add future-facing or experimental features here) |