[Pcb2gcode-devel] Too much small segments in generated paths

[Reinis V. <rei...@wo...>]

Hello,
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone involved in this project! pcb2gcode
gives the best results of all open-source PCB-toolpath-generating applications.
I have modified pcb2gcode to output G-code in mm, as my machine did not
support imperial units- that was relatively easy task.


There are two more changes to pcb2gcode I would like to implement:

1) At the moment, pcb2gcode breaks slopes in many small segments. I'm not sure
   if there are machine controllers which buffer such motions into a continous
   line, but the one I have looks at each segment separately, and cannot
   sustain a full feedrate when there are too much small segments. 
   On the other hand, if a single motion command is sent to machine, it can sustain 
   such feedrates without a problem.

   So, the feature I would like to add is to export as few motions as possible.

   I have no experience with libgerbv and cairo, so I'd first like to ask here- 
   is such a feature feasible at all? If pcb2gcode is processing rasterized
   gerber, then I probably won't be able to do much.

2) Second problem is a lot simpler. I recall seeing that drilling was done in
   arbitrary order- am I right, and there is no path-optimization implemented
   for drilling operations? 


Regards, Reinis